[wp-hackers] Less than Core, More than Plugins/Themes: Proposing Optional Modules.

[DD32]

I'm going to put my one, and only comment on this thread now.

The way i see it, Is that Your (mike) looking at it in the wrong way.

"Modules" would mearly be plugins, Why call them something else?

We have Akismet, Thats a Plugin, It adds functionality which the core
does not have.

The Plugin installer lets people choose what they want, The popular
plugins section lists what most people use.

Plugins are created by people who care. Core features are created by
people who care, Aside from the small number of people who are payed
to do code whatever, The majority of Core submitters and plugin
developers make their patches/plugins based on what they care about.

I do not give a .. about spam plugins, So i do not touch that code. I
do not care about Email posting, So i do not touch that code. I do not
care about this, or that, so i dont touch it. However,  Person ABC
might really care about something, so they write a plugin, THEY keep
it up to date.

The idea of having a optional plugin(Or module as you're calling it,
Obviously coming from a non-WordPress background) is pointless, IF
someone cares about a idea enough, they'll write it. Automattic
employee's have created a selection of plugins, and they generally
keep them up to date if they're useful, But the list is very limited.
(Infact,It looks like its had a trim too..
http://automattic.com/projects/ ).

Having a plugin in core makes no difference to having a Plugin created
by someone else, Hosted on wordpress.org & marked as a Featured
plugin. If its wanted in core, Add it to core & keep it updated, Else,
Leave it to plugins to people who are going to be willing to take care
of it, and nurture it.

Yes. Having people who were loving of their plugin work & kept it up
to date in years to come, updating it every time WordPress made a
release would be wonderful, But it simply takes up time, Core
developers have a life, They'll work on one function at a time,
They'll get the job done, But I dont see the point in them working on
a plugin which they dont care about, They care about the WordPress
core, and allowing others to build it to where they want, They dont
want to be rewriting functionality in a plugin they dont care about..
(And that goes for submitters of patches, not just core devs, And yes,
I realise i've repeated myself a few times in this post)