[wp-docs] Combating Comment Spam Updates

[Owen Winkler]

James Huff wrote:

> Ok, so I missed getting to the Codex yesterday, but NM did a nice job 
> of moving the plugins and captcha for me, thanks Moose!  Anywho, the 
> page is still cluttered, IMO, and the problem would be the hacks.  So, 
> my question is, what would be the group's opinion on removing all 
> hacks (and plugins) that are obsolete or no longer compatible with WP 
> v1.5?  Let the voting begin.

My personal opinion would be to remove *all* hack/plugin listings 
entirely from the Codex. 

It's too much work to maintain.  There are official outlets/listings for 
these things that we can link to that will do a better job of 
maintaining the list.  There's no easy way to tell whether a plugin is 
still supported or is still compatible with WordPress, nor is there a 
way in Codex of contacting the plugin developer for support.  The 
possible implication from listing the plugins is that all plugins are 
endorsed by WordPress, especially if a plugin is *not* listed within a 
genre that it should be.  Some plugins cross over the lines defined by 
the sections that have been constructed.  Listing plugins encourages 
developers to create support pages for their plugins inside the Codex, 
which may confuse users who are looking for support info for other 
plugins in the Codex that are not and will not be documented there.

I'm not as vehemently opposed to this as I seem from the above.  I 
really don't care.  But I've written more than ten plugins, and I have 
no idea how many if any of them are in Codex, nor will I ever provide 
documentation for them there.  Better to direct users to wp-plugins.org, 
which has its own wiki and contains the actual plugin source, should a 
developer decide to drop off the planet someone else can take up the 
support.

Note that most of the above is countrary to what would be good for me 
since only one of my plugins is listed at wp-plugins.org, and only 
because I'm not the only maintainer of that one (Geo).

And those are my thoughts on that, since you asked.  Otherwise, I'd have 
kept my mouth shut.

Owen