[wp-hackers] Canonical "one time" plugins?

[Stephen Rider]

Hi all --

A discussion recently came up regarding whether or not the Hello Dolly  
plugin should remain part of the default download.  Arguments against  
were generally that they had to delete the thing again every time they  
updated the site.

This reminds me of a separate discussion a while back as to whether  
the Import functions should be moved to a plugin, as that is something  
that is generally used once and then never needed again.

It occurs to me:  Would it be possible to set the downloads up so that  
if a person goes to wordpress.org and downloads the zip file, (usually  
a new user), they get certain plugins, but that those plugins are  
*not* included in automatic updates?  (Or perhaps included in  
automatic updates *only* if they are still installed on the site?)

That way, Hello Dolly/Akismet/Import/whatever could be included, but  
if a user deletes it, it isn't recreated on every update.  The same  
for the Import plugin.  There could be a lot of things that would be  
useful to include as "canonical" plugins for new setups that are  
handled this way.

Thoughts?

Stephen