[wp-hackers] AWE update

[Braydon]

Thanks everyone who gave feedback on my first post about AWE. I've 
revised the project plan based on that feedback, and have continued 
development to the point of having a front-end built to demonstrate ( 
video screencast: http://braydon.com/2011/11/awe-0-1-2/ ) .

Summary of previous discussion and problems raised with solutions 
implemented for each of them:

 > Problem #1. Search engines and Google not taking to it kindly because 
it would spam their indexes.

I've made a post type now called "update" for all external posts that 
are being read into the blog. These posts when viewed have 
"noindex,nofollow" in the header of the their html to not be indexed at 
Google and others. In addition these posts do not have yet another 
permalink, the permalink remains the same as the original. In feeds it 
will link to the original, and on archive and pages on a website they 
will link to the original. They are copied to be a convenience, and made 
more accessible.

 > Problem #2: There were concerns about "cross-posts" and how it could 
be abused from exact duplicates of sites with a different theme.

There could be malicious copies made, this currently has not been 
addressed with current development but is part of the next. If a problem 
were to be discovered, the malicious IP could be blocked. For more 
security, a move towards fully encrypted and authenticated feed 
connections could be made so that only those who you intent to share 
with get the information. Currently read posts are the status "pending", 
as a partial solution to this issue.

 > Problem #3. Auto-generated posts leading to drop of participation.

I've address this by making all read posts default to status "pending", 
and you can go through your reader and "approve" posts and then those 
are shared and made available for others to view. They go back into a 
feed, they permalink and guid remains the same, to make a feed that is a 
mix of other feeds. These approved posts then are also made available to 
view on your site, and can be searched (though search isn't implemented 
yet).

 > Problem #4. Issue with comments getting lost between the two separate 
copies.

Commenting on a "update" post is disabled, to comment on the post it's 
necessary to return to the original.

 > Problem #5: Copies taking attention away from the original.

There isn't a "single" view of "update" posts, and the permalink remains 
and goes to the original.

 > Problem #6: JavaScript front-end would create more work, and would be 
easier by doing plain old html first.

I've written the front-end as plain old html, with only a small part of 
JavaScript that is necessary for approving posts.

 > Problem #7. Potential problem with planning on bundling with 
WordPress, as the core team plans to unbundle Akismet and move towards a 
featured plugin model.

Plans of bundling along side WordPress, as a separate WordPress 
distribution, "package" or as part of the core have been taken out. 
Continuing work under the impression of being a plugin standalone.


More AWE Project Information

Download and project page: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/awe/

Discussion mailing-list: Send an email with the subject "subscribe" to 
awe-request at freelists.org / http://www.freelists.org/list/awe

Project/Git:http://code.braydon.com/p/awe/

SVN: http://plugins.svn.wordpress.org/awe/trunk/


And here is the revised plan for AWE:

1. URLS, Templates, Reader:

  * COMPLETED / Editing URLS
  * COMPLETED / Managing Menus
  * COMPLETED / Editing Templates
  * COMPLETED / Feed reader

2. Accessibility & Search Engines:

  * COMPLETED / Dealing with having two types of posts "remote" and
    "local". "Remote" posts should not be indexed by search engines, and
    should only account as a referrer link, and emphasizing returning to
    the original source. There should be options for full display, or
    excerpt only.
  * Sitemap and site indexes, robots.txt to emphasis what is to be
    indexed by search engines.
  * COMPLETED / Participation upon reposting, each imported post will
    need to be published, so that there is a level of human
    participation necessary and isn't totally automated, and easily abused.
  * Make it easy to annotate the post with a personalized note.
  * Posts as reply to another post, to supplement loss of comments
    between mirrored posts, emphasis trackbacks in a clean format to
    follow discussion.

3. Extensibility, Security, Authentication, Privacy:

  * Front-end interface is extensible with an API.
  * To introduce private posting via confirmed subscriptions.
  * OpenID for network to network authentication and privacy.

4. Plugins:

  * Write extensions for AWE to add new post types including:
    advertising, video, sound, gallery, events, and shop.

5. Web Service:

  * Dedicated web host for users that don't want to run it on their own
    hardware.
  * Sign-up and payment settings.

Best,
Braydon Fuller
http://braydon.com/