Blog Tipz

Weathervane created a list (republished at Weblog Tools Collection) of suggestions for improvements to the ways WordPress plugins are distributed, named and documented. Some of the biggest suggestions were in the ways developers listed the plugins on their personal blog, naming conventions when downloading and installing themes – such as the location (Options, Plugins, or the parent menu), and the content in the read-me file. 

What we need to see is a central location where all users – developers and everyday users can find, update, and keep track of changes to the plugins. The current plugin database does a fairly decent job of this, but many developers haven’t chosen to list their plugins on here primarily due to the fact it brings them traffic to their site (where they can make money indirectly from ads).

Each page listed should have a better area for responding, rating, and leaving comments/problems/suggestions for the author to review, reducing the need to scroll through hundreds of comments. If the author chooses to continue listing the plugin on his/her personal blog, they should include all information in the official directory. WordPress trac, which serves to help developers keep track of changes, should be integrated into the improved repository.

In order to meet these requirements, the more strict set of standards should be put into place (with some modification, of course), and more pages should be set up within the main plugin page, and include a paid/premium plugin directory (which is a possible plan) to help plugin authors create a small revenue stream.