[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #1828: Improve Screenshots section

[Making WordPress.org]

#1828: Improve Screenshots section
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 Reporter:  samuelsidler      |       Owner:  mapk
     Type:  task              |      Status:  assigned
 Priority:  high              |   Milestone:  Plugin Directory v3 - M7
Component:  Plugin Directory  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                    |
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Comment (by FolioVision):

 Replying to [comment:42 jb510]:
 > I've heard this tired horse get trotted out a lot over the years.
 Sometimes it's valid, often not, but here it seems more like a red herring
 than usual, especially considering the people advocating for these changes
 are also _all developers_.  However, none of the developers giving
 feedback here (or advocating) are doing so from the standpoint of being
 developers.
 >
 > The comments being made here not by authors about how their plugins
 appear, it's about how they as users go about finding plugins. We (the
 collective users of the repo providing feedback here) have a lot of
 experience in finding plugins both for ourselves as well as helping our
 friends and clients find plugins for themselves. Certainly, the feedback
 is from a group of relatively advanced users, but none of it is
 "developer" feedback.

 Very well said jb.

 Samuel, like jb, I feel like we're hearing a broken record about the
 broken plugin directory which doesn't serve users. The plugin directory is
 a tremendous success. It doesn't give users trouble. It only needs some
 slight design tweaks. A better implementation and presentation of search
 filters would do no harm. There is no reason to perform open heart surgery
 and cut its out heart out. The free and relatively democratic plugin
 directory is **one of WordPress's great success stories**.

 Like the EU's unpopular Lisbon Treaty are we just supposed to keep voting
 until we say yes? I'm not sure we'll go along with it. It would be great
 if you, Konstantin and Mark Mullenweg would start listening to us, the
 people who have built WordPress over the last ten or twelve years. In
 particular, it seems strange to hear from you what WordPress users want.
 While those at whom you lecture built the most popular CMS in the world,
 you were working on Camino (great browser, btw - pity it's no longer with
 us).

 The ramifications of the Lisbon Treaty planted the seeds of the EU's
 potential self-destruction. It would be a pity if this plugin directory
 makeover into an insiders only, hidden and rigged search, advertising
 style sham did the same thing to WordPress's user and developer community.
 When you lose the developers, you'll lose WordPress.

 Users buy whatever they are told by the experts they know. Those experts
 have been recommending WordPress and building WordPress because we believe
 in free software and a level playing field.

 There are very serious issues with where the plugin directory is going.
 Slapping a new paint job on the plugin directory won't fix those problems.
 In short, a world of **endless freemium and serviceware and crippleware**
 is not what the active WordPress community want to build. The plugin
 directory is very far off mission right now, at risk of become primarily a
 promotional vehicle for businesses of very dubious ethics (no names this
 time). Let's fix those issues first, set some ethical standards, put the
 emphasis back on true freeware plugins (paid support options or not:
 support was explicitly excluded from the free clause of GNU).

 Privatizing plugin search to promote the businesses of our employers and
 his close buddies and partners would be a mistake of Marie-Antoinette
 proportions.

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/1828#comment:45>
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