[wp-trac] [WordPress Trac] #16838: Excluding Akismet from Future WordPress Releases (was: Excluding Akismet from Future WordPress Releases / Plugin Directory)

[WordPress Trac]

#16838: Excluding Akismet from Future WordPress Releases
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 Reporter:  sc0ttkclark  |       Owner:
     Type:  enhancement  |      Status:  closed
 Priority:  normal       |   Milestone:
Component:  Plugins      |     Version:  3.1
 Severity:  normal       |  Resolution:  maybelater
 Keywords:               |
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Comment (by sc0ttkclark):

 Okay great, we've got a discussion going that is leading to some answers.
 Why is it not time (now, as in the upcoming 3.2 schedule) and why is it
 not on Trac? What is Trac for? To discuss bugs, features, and
 enhancements, right? What am I missing in the process to getting a change
 to go through into WP core, being on the core team?

 @westi - I was not aware of the non-free aspect of Akismet prior to the
 change, but it's certainly a different situation with the new signup
 process. By the way, the plugin itself wasn't always non-free, it appears
 prior to 2005 at some point an API key wasn't even required, which changed
 when the Automattic Spam Stopper plugin was renamed to Automattic Kismet /
 Akismet.

 @nacin - There's a better way that's out there for handling the user's
 inherent need for a plugin to make up for issues that Spam can bring up.
 But how does someone outside the WP core team get this ball rolling the
 right way?

 I wanted to clarify that the removal of Akismet from the plugin directory
 was stipulated if it was itself breaking the undocumented rule for plugins
 with a Paywall.

 @nacin said: ''There is a line, and it's perfectly on the proper side of
 it. (There have been some recent questions with regards to other plugins,
 so perhaps we can work on enumerating more detailed guidelines.)''

 Great to know there's some leeway here, sad to know it's going to take a
 bit to have it fully documented in the Plugin 'About' page guidelines.
 There's been so many discussions about this I'm not sure why someone with
 WP.org access hasn't copy / pasted together the additional points
 necessary for the guidelines amendment.

 The bundling of Akismet within WP Core may bring many features, but it
 could be argued that other plugins, one of which is maintained by Mark
 Jaquith, offer similarly important features for preventing spam without a
 Paywall. '''The bottom line is''' that WP has clearly headed in the
 direction that isn't explicitly tied to Automattic, like the Trademark
 transfer itself pointed out. I understand Automattic funds quite a bit of
 WP development, but it's inclusion of it's own Paywalled plugin
 (especially the signup process as is) seems to put itself in an unfair
 advantage within the eco system. It would be a different case if this
 plugin wasn't behind a paywall OR offered minimum functionality on it's
 own outside of the API that helped reduce spam. Since neither is currently
 the case, either Akismet should change or WP should.

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Ticket URL: <http://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/16838#comment:7>
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