[wp-hackers] Code reviews for plugins?

[Mike Schinkel]

On Aug 23, 2010, at 12:09 AM, Mark E wrote:
> Scenario:
> 
> Tomorrow someone uploads a new plugin, or maybe there are 5000 plugins already upload and in use but that don't get reviewed because they're either new or not in the top 15% yet. By the time a plugin becomes popular enough for review it's too late, countless sites already use it.
> 
> So what is the value of of the review process if it can't be reasonably used to communicate something to end users? What's the message that will be sent? Would it be "we have 6872 plugins available for Wordpress! But you shouldn't use any of them except the 245 that we have reviewed" ?

Yes, you can find holes in anything we can propose or try.  However given the scenario you describe, how will having a review process that targets the top 15% make things *worse*? Currently it is "We have 6872 plugins available for Wordpress! But you shouldn't use ANY of them at all because NONE of them have been reviewed!"  How is that *worse* than your scenario?

The same could have been said of WordPress 2.0's usability. Compared to v3.0, WordPress 2.0 sucked rotten eggs. But it got better (much better.)  In order to get to to great you have to first journey through fair and then through good; perfection never occurs from the start.

-Mike
P.S. The "top 15%" was a guideline to focus people on the important ones, not a rule. Although I'm not sure if this would cause a disincentive but a bounty system could be set up to get people to review the ones that few are using yet.  If the bounty system is only a bounty of reputation then it might work. Maybe companies that want their plugins reviewed ASAP could even pay the WordPress Foundation a fee and then the WordPress Foundation could offer up reputation bounties for this plugins to review. Just an idea.