[wp-forums] The "No Bumping" Rule - A Plea For Consistency

[Gary Gale]

I'm probably a bad person. From time to time I deliberately violate the "no bumping" rule on the forums (http://codex.wordpress.org/Forum_Welcome#No_Bumping).

Let me explain why ...

In the time I've been developing plugins for WordPress I've had one relatively reasonable successful plugin (coming up on 20,000 download and a 4.6 out of 5 star rating) and several others whose reception could best be categorised as "meh". So this is based on my experience supporting that single, relatively successful, at least by my standards, plugin.

When I'm looking for a new plugin, I make my decision on the star rating, on when the plugin was last updated, how much activity there is on the forums for that plugin and how many support threads have been resolved, or not been resolved. Then and only then do I actually download, install and tinker with the plugin on a local private install. I think a lot of people probably do this, consciously or unconsciously.

As an author I try my very hardest to make sure I get back to people who take the time and effort to open a new support thread. Sometimes, the original poster gets back to me immediately. This is great. While a lot of the support threads really boil down to "RTFM and a bit of hand holding", there's also a critical mass of threads which either uncover bugs or make good and valid new feature requests, either explicitly or accidentally.

But then there's the threads which get opened with a heartfelt plea for help. I reply and then .... nothing. Radio silence.

I can assume one of two things. Either they're solved the problem. Or they've decided it really wasn't that important and they've moved on.

Either way, I get an unresolved thread sitting there, making it look like I'm being unresponsive on the forums. Which isn't the case and maybe I'm being overly sensitive on this.

So when this happens I bump. Politely. Saying words to the effect of "has this been sorted out?" or "I asked for some more information but haven't heard back from you?".

Sometimes this reminds the original poster and they reply. But mostly nothing happens. So after another few days I put up a comment to the effect that I've heard nothing back and I set the thread to resolved.

Sometimes this bump is ignored by you, the moderators. But sometimes it gets moderated and normally with a reprimand along the lines of "don't bump, it's not allowed".

I know the moderators are volunteers and I know we're only human. I also know that bumping is not allowed and I know I'm deliberately breaking the rules, but hopefully you can see that there is, I think, a valid and good reason for this bumping violation.

I can totally understand not allowing bumping for people who post in the forums and then bump a short while later, getting increasingly more and more shrill, sometimes without waiting a while to see if someone replies.

But where a plugin author tries their best to keep their eye on their own plugin's forum posts, it seems counter productive at times.

So I throw this out for discussion. Is there grounds for more consistency in the application of the "no bumping" rule? Is there maybe grounds for revisiting this rule and saying that there's bumping from an original poster or people saying "me too" but then there's also bumping from a plugin or theme author who wants to hear back from the original poster?

What do you, the moderators, think? Should I just deal with it ... or am I maybe onto something here?

-Gary

PS: It goes without saying, but I'll say it anyway, that the moderators are wonderful people and WordPress.org and the forums would be in a much sadder state without you all. And that's not flattery. Well, it is, but only slightly.

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gary at vicchi.org | twitter.com/vicchi | www.linkedin.com/in/garygale | www.garygale.com