[wp-hackers] plugin compatability

[Ken Newman]

On 11/5/2009 4:31 AM, elflop at googlemail.com wrote:
> Sorry for sending this to the list, not sure where it should go.
>
> The new plugin compatibility section on a plugin page. As suspected I 
> have recently had someone mark mine as 'broken' with the latest 
> version of WP. Luckily others have marked it as 'Works'. I knew that 
> at some point this would happen, and feel that it isn't good for 
> plugins authors.
>
> There appears to be no way for a plugin author to see why someone 
> marked it as broken, it could be for any reason - possibly not even 
> connected with the plugin itself! A lot of queries I get are from 
> people that don't understand WP let alone the use of plugins... I 
> therefore feel the usefulness to be reduced and may even be harmful 
> for some developers.
>
> So I suggest it is either removed, or people are required to enter in 
> a reason why it is broken and that the plugin author is given a chance 
> to respond. As it stands a plugin could be marked as broken simply 
> because someone doesn't like it!
The truth is, this compatibility thing will only work if developers and 
users see this as a valuable resource and participate. If we all go and 
mark plugins that work for us as working, then it will mitigate 
(outnumber) those with ulterior motives. No, you won't have a perfect 
score, but that's not the point. If most people choose not to 
participate, then it doesn't matter that someone tries to game the 
system: only people with issues vote and everything appears broken 
anyway. I feel that "cheating" is mute.

We have to convince people that this resource is worth the effort of 
maintaining it. An optional comment box for developer messages is about 
the only useful thing suggested so far. Either crowd sourcing works here 
or it doesn't.