Discussion:
Discontinuing a plugin on WordPress.org
Nikola Nikolov
2014-08-08 11:36:07 UTC
Permalink
Hi everyone,

I was working with a client that was using the Fundify WordPress theme,
which was powered by a combination of Fundify Crowdfunding(
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ ) and EDD.

I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my computer to easily
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've added "(Moved)"
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an empty .php file and
a readme.txt file.

My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't that a terrible way
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the plugin and their
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and nothing happens...

Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do about it?

Best regards,
Nikola
Martin Lazarov
2014-08-08 11:56:37 UTC
Permalink
Hi Nikola,

you can aways download previews versions:

http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/appthemer-crowdfunding.1.8.1.zip
insteat of http://downloads.wordpress.org/plugin/appthemer-crowdfunding.1.8.[2].zip

Martin
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Hi everyone,
I was working with a client that was using the Fundify WordPress theme,
which was powered by a combination of Fundify Crowdfunding(
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ ) and EDD.
I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my computer to easily
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've added "(Moved)"
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an empty .php file and
a readme.txt file.
My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't that a terrible way
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the plugin and their
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and nothing happens...
Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do about it?
Best regards,
Nikola
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wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
Otto
2014-08-08 12:23:13 UTC
Permalink
Yes, that is a terrible way to discontinue a plugin, but people do it
anyway. When we find them, we close them so that listing is removed.


-Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Hi everyone,
I was working with a client that was using the Fundify WordPress theme,
which was powered by a combination of Fundify Crowdfunding(
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ ) and EDD.
I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my computer to easily
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've added "(Moved)"
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an empty .php file and
a readme.txt file.
My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't that a terrible way
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the plugin and their
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and nothing happens...
Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do about it?
Best regards,
Nikola
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
Nikola Nikolov
2014-08-08 12:50:53 UTC
Permalink
I'm aware that I can download the previous versions of the plugin(well most
users are probably not though), but the thing is that you shouldn't have to
do that.

Otto - I guess it's probably more headaches than it's worth, but what about
reverting the last commit(or just moving the code back to /trunk or the
stable tag) and changing the readme to state that the plugin is no longer
going to be supported.
You then revoke access to the plugin's repository(so that the authors can
no longer do the same thing).

Ultimately I think that if there's a list of plugins that are no longer
supported by their authors and are put up "for adoption" by other
developers everyone could benefit(not sure if that's fair/possible?). Yes,
you can just fork the plugin and upload it as a new one, but the users of
the old plugin probably won't be aware that there's a new version of the
plugin.

Anyway, just some thoughts.
Post by Otto
Yes, that is a terrible way to discontinue a plugin, but people do it
anyway. When we find them, we close them so that listing is removed.
-Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Hi everyone,
I was working with a client that was using the Fundify WordPress theme,
which was powered by a combination of Fundify Crowdfunding(
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ ) and EDD.
I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my computer to easily
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've added "(Moved)"
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an empty .php file
and
Post by Nikola Nikolov
a readme.txt file.
My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't that a terrible
way
Post by Nikola Nikolov
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the plugin and their
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and nothing happens...
Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do about it?
Best regards,
Nikola
_______________________________________________
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http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
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Otto
2014-08-08 12:55:43 UTC
Permalink
Well, it is their plugin. If they don't want to support it or have people
download it anymore, then I have no real problem with that. So removing the
listing is the best way to do that, as I see it. I don't think we should
revert it and force it to be available if they don't want it available
anymore.

If somebody wants to remove their own plugin from the listings, then we can
do that. Simply nulling it out and putting "moved" on it is a bad idea, but
just getting rid of the URL entirely is fine with me.

-Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
I'm aware that I can download the previous versions of the plugin(well most
users are probably not though), but the thing is that you shouldn't have to
do that.
Otto - I guess it's probably more headaches than it's worth, but what about
reverting the last commit(or just moving the code back to /trunk or the
stable tag) and changing the readme to state that the plugin is no longer
going to be supported.
You then revoke access to the plugin's repository(so that the authors can
no longer do the same thing).
Ultimately I think that if there's a list of plugins that are no longer
supported by their authors and are put up "for adoption" by other
developers everyone could benefit(not sure if that's fair/possible?). Yes,
you can just fork the plugin and upload it as a new one, but the users of
the old plugin probably won't be aware that there's a new version of the
plugin.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Post by Otto
Yes, that is a terrible way to discontinue a plugin, but people do it
anyway. When we find them, we close them so that listing is removed.
-Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Hi everyone,
I was working with a client that was using the Fundify WordPress theme,
which was powered by a combination of Fundify Crowdfunding(
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ ) and EDD.
I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my computer to easily
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've added
"(Moved)"
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an empty .php file
and
Post by Nikola Nikolov
a readme.txt file.
My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't that a terrible
way
Post by Nikola Nikolov
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the plugin and their
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and nothing
happens...
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do about it?
Best regards,
Nikola
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
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Nikola Nikolov
2014-08-08 12:57:36 UTC
Permalink
That makes sense.
Post by Otto
Well, it is their plugin. If they don't want to support it or have people
download it anymore, then I have no real problem with that. So removing the
listing is the best way to do that, as I see it. I don't think we should
revert it and force it to be available if they don't want it available
anymore.
If somebody wants to remove their own plugin from the listings, then we can
do that. Simply nulling it out and putting "moved" on it is a bad idea, but
just getting rid of the URL entirely is fine with me.
-Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
I'm aware that I can download the previous versions of the plugin(well
most
Post by Nikola Nikolov
users are probably not though), but the thing is that you shouldn't have
to
Post by Nikola Nikolov
do that.
Otto - I guess it's probably more headaches than it's worth, but what
about
Post by Nikola Nikolov
reverting the last commit(or just moving the code back to /trunk or the
stable tag) and changing the readme to state that the plugin is no longer
going to be supported.
You then revoke access to the plugin's repository(so that the authors can
no longer do the same thing).
Ultimately I think that if there's a list of plugins that are no longer
supported by their authors and are put up "for adoption" by other
developers everyone could benefit(not sure if that's fair/possible?).
Yes,
Post by Nikola Nikolov
you can just fork the plugin and upload it as a new one, but the users of
the old plugin probably won't be aware that there's a new version of the
plugin.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Post by Otto
Yes, that is a terrible way to discontinue a plugin, but people do it
anyway. When we find them, we close them so that listing is removed.
-Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Hi everyone,
I was working with a client that was using the Fundify WordPress
theme,
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
which was powered by a combination of Fundify Crowdfunding(
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ ) and EDD.
I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my computer to
easily
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've added
"(Moved)"
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an empty .php
file
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
and
Post by Nikola Nikolov
a readme.txt file.
My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't that a
terrible
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
way
Post by Nikola Nikolov
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the plugin and
their
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and nothing
happens...
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do about it?
Best regards,
Nikola
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
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Half-Elf on Tech
2014-08-08 15:01:10 UTC
Permalink
Among the reasons we don’t keep an official list of ‘plugins ready for adoption’ is that the plugin team doesn’t have the time, and any attempt to use a wiki would be easy to mess up by people listing plugins that are not ready to be taken over.

I say this a lot. If YOU have a plugin you want to stop working on, push an update that makes it clear on the plugin settings page, the plugin listing on the plugins.php page, AND in your readme for the wporg repo. Tell people “I’m not working on this anymore.” and if you’re inclined, give them a way to contact you to take it over.

Because y’know :) We’re cool with that!

Also remember we generally aren’t going to hand over your plugin to random people.

https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2014/02/06/clarification-on-taking-over-plugins/

So keep your email address on WPORG valid and up to date, and do please whitelist plugins AT wordpress.org :D

--
Mika A Epstein (aka Ipstenu)
http://ipstenu.org | http://halfelf.org
Post by Nikola Nikolov
That makes sense.
Post by Otto
Well, it is their plugin. If they don't want to support it or have people
download it anymore, then I have no real problem with that. So removing the
listing is the best way to do that, as I see it. I don't think we should
revert it and force it to be available if they don't want it available
anymore.
If somebody wants to remove their own plugin from the listings, then we can
do that. Simply nulling it out and putting "moved" on it is a bad idea, but
just getting rid of the URL entirely is fine with me.
-Otto
On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 7:50 AM, Nikola Nikolov
Post by Nikola Nikolov
I'm aware that I can download the previous versions of the plugin(well
most
Post by Nikola Nikolov
users are probably not though), but the thing is that you shouldn't have
to
Post by Nikola Nikolov
do that.
Otto - I guess it's probably more headaches than it's worth, but what
about
Post by Nikola Nikolov
reverting the last commit(or just moving the code back to /trunk or the
stable tag) and changing the readme to state that the plugin is no longer
going to be supported.
You then revoke access to the plugin's repository(so that the authors can
no longer do the same thing).
Ultimately I think that if there's a list of plugins that are no longer
supported by their authors and are put up "for adoption" by other
developers everyone could benefit(not sure if that's fair/possible?).
Yes,
Post by Nikola Nikolov
you can just fork the plugin and upload it as a new one, but the users of
the old plugin probably won't be aware that there's a new version of the
plugin.
Anyway, just some thoughts.
Post by Otto
Yes, that is a terrible way to discontinue a plugin, but people do it
anyway. When we find them, we close them so that listing is removed.
-Otto
On Fri, Aug 8, 2014 at 6:36 AM, Nikola Nikolov
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Hi everyone,
I was working with a client that was using the Fundify WordPress
theme,
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
which was powered by a combination of Fundify Crowdfunding(
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ ) and EDD.
I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my computer to
easily
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've added
"(Moved)"
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an empty .php
file
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
and
Post by Nikola Nikolov
a readme.txt file.
My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't that a
terrible
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
way
Post by Nikola Nikolov
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the plugin and
their
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and nothing
happens...
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do about it?
Best regards,
Nikola
_______________________________________________
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http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
_______________________________________________
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Chris Christoff
2014-08-08 15:16:11 UTC
Permalink
-- Please reply above this line --

-----------------------------------------------------------
## Chris replied, on Aug 8 @ 11:15am (AMT):

the issue is that there are a lot, probably thousands of users running
that plugin and by pushing an update that nulls it those site owners
are losing real money in a very big way. If they didn't want to
support it use the adopt me tag or something. The problem with
removing it from the listings IMO is that those users who we're
running it live need to have a way of getting the previous version
zip, and for most users the easiest way (other than reverting the
update) would e to grab the last version zip off the dev tab on the
listing.
--
Chris Christoff
***@chriscct7.com
http://www.chriscct7.com [1]
@chriscct7
If you feel the need to donate, as a college student, I appreciate
donations of any amount. The easiest way to donate to my college fund
is via the donation button at the bottom of my
homepage: http://chriscct7.com/ [2]

Links:
------
[1] http://www.chriscct7.com
[2] http://chriscct7.com/


-----------------------------------------------------------
## wp-***@lists.automattic.com replied, on Aug 8 @ 11:01am (AMT):

Among the reasons we don’t keep an official list of ‘plugins ready
for adoption’ is that the plugin team doesn’t have the time, and
any attempt to use a wiki would be easy to mess up by people listing
plugins that are not ready to be taken over.

I say this a lot. If YOU have a plugin you want to stop working on,
push an update that makes it clear on the plugin settings page, the
plugin listing on the plugins.php page, AND in your readme for the
wporg repo. Tell people “I’m not working on this anymore.” and
if you’re inclined, give them a way to contact you to take it over.

Because y’know :) We’re cool with that!

Also remember we generally aren’t going to hand over your plugin to
random people.

https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2014/02/06/clarification-on-taking-over-plugins/
[1]

So keep your email address on WPORG valid and up to date, and do
please whitelist plugins AT wordpress.org :D

--
Mika A Epstein (aka Ipstenu)
http://ipstenu.org [2] | http://halfelf.org [3]

_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
wp-***@lists.automattic.com [4]
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers [5]

Links:
------
[1]
https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2014/02/06/clarification-on-taking-over-plugins/
[2] http://ipstenu.org
[3] http://halfelf.org
[4] mailto:wp-***@lists.automattic.com
[5] http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers


-----------------------------------------------------------
## wp-***@lists.automattic.com replied, on Aug 8 @ 8:57am (AMT):

That makes sense.

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-----------------------------------------------------------
## wp-***@lists.automattic.com replied, on Aug 8 @ 8:56am (AMT):

Well, it is their plugin. If they don't want to support it or have
people
download it anymore, then I have no real problem with that. So
removing the
listing is the best way to do that, as I see it. I don't think we
should
revert it and force it to be available if they don't want it
available
anymore.

If somebody wants to remove their own plugin from the listings, then
we can
do that. Simply nulling it out and putting "moved" on it is a bad
idea, but
just getting rid of the URL entirely is fine with me.

-Otto

wrote:

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wp-hackers mailing list
wp-***@lists.automattic.com [1]
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Links:
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[2] http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers


-----------------------------------------------------------
## wp-***@lists.automattic.com replied, on Aug 8 @ 8:51am (AMT):

I'm aware that I can download the previous versions of the plugin(well
most
users are probably not though), but the thing is that you shouldn't
have to
do that.

Otto - I guess it's probably more headaches than it's worth, but what
about
reverting the last commit(or just moving the code back to /trunk or
the
stable tag) and changing the readme to state that the plugin is no
longer
going to be supported.
You then revoke access to the plugin's repository(so that the authors
can
no longer do the same thing).

Ultimately I think that if there's a list of plugins that are no
longer
supported by their authors and are put up "for adoption" by other
developers everyone could benefit(not sure if that's fair/possible?).
Yes,
you can just fork the plugin and upload it as a new one, but the
users of
the old plugin probably won't be aware that there's a new version of
the
plugin.

Anyway, just some thoughts.
Post by Otto
Yes, that is a terrible way to discontinue a plugin, but people do it
anyway. When we find them, we close them so that listing is
removed.
Post by Otto
-Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Hi everyone,
I was working with a client that was using the Fundify
WordPress theme,
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
which was powered by a combination of Fundify
Crowdfunding(
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ [1]
) and EDD.
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my
computer to easily
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've
added "(Moved)"
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an
empty .php file
Post by Otto
and
Post by Nikola Nikolov
a readme.txt file.
My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't
that a terrible
Post by Otto
way
Post by Nikola Nikolov
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the
plugin and their
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and
nothing happens...
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do
about it?
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Best regards,
Nikola
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
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[3]
Post by Otto
_______________________________________________
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Links:
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[2] mailto:wp-***@lists.automattic.com
[3] http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
[4] mailto:wp-***@lists.automattic.com
[5] http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
[6] mailto:wp-***@lists.automattic.com
[7] http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers


-----------------------------------------------------------
## wp-***@lists.automattic.com replied, on Aug 8 @ 8:24am (AMT):

Yes, that is a terrible way to discontinue a plugin, but people do it
anyway. When we find them, we close them so that listing is removed.

-Otto
Post by Otto
Hi everyone,
I was working with a client that was using the Fundify
WordPress theme,
Post by Otto
which was powered by a combination of Fundify Crowdfunding(
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ [1] ) and
EDD.
Post by Otto
I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my computer to
easily
Post by Otto
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've added
"(Moved)"
Post by Otto
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an empty
.php file and
Post by Otto
a readme.txt file.
My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't that a
terrible way
Post by Otto
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the plugin
and their
Post by Otto
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and nothing
happens...
Post by Otto
Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do about
it?
Post by Otto
Best regards,
Nikola
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers [3]
_______________________________________________
wp-hackers mailing list
wp-***@lists.automattic.com [4]
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Links:
------
[1] https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/
[2] mailto:wp-***@lists.automattic.com
[3] http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers
[4] mailto:wp-***@lists.automattic.com
[5] http://lists.automattic.com/mailman/listinfo/wp-hackers


-----------------------------------------------------------
Otto
2014-08-08 15:18:54 UTC
Permalink
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Ultimately I think that if there's a list of plugins that are no longer
supported by their authors and are put up "for adoption" by other
developers everyone could benefit(not sure if that's fair/possible?). Yes,
you can just fork the plugin and upload it as a new one, but the users of
the old plugin probably won't be aware that there's a new version of the
plugin.
LOL. Honestly, every time the issue of adoption comes up for plugins, I
can't help but laugh a bit. :)

Plugin adoption is not a real issue, because there is nobody out there
actually wanting to adopt other people's code.

Seriously, nobody wants to do it. People keep asking why there is no
"for-adoption" list, and the answer is simply because it is not necessary.
There's no shortage of abandoned plugins, but there's a serious shortage of
caring wanna-be-parents for those plugins.

I can think of maybe 10 times that a plugin has been adopted. Total. Ever.
It just doesn't come up that often. The whole thing is a total non-issue
because the truth of the matter is that no coder really wants to take over
somebody else's code. It's a lot more fun to write your own code instead.
And when you're doing things for free, "fun" is your primary purpose.

If anybody wants to adopt a plugin and cannot get in touch with the author,
you can email the plugins team and they will facilitate the process or make
contact or whatever. But this virtually never happens. There's no need for
a list because it's not like we're swamped with requests or anything.

-Otto
Chris Christoff
2014-08-08 15:24:01 UTC
Permalink
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## Chris replied, on Aug 8 @ 11:23am (AMT):

It depends on the plugin. Given the one in question was used by a lot
of people and is a mandatory plugin for several themes not written by
that developer there would probably be a very high chance this one
would be adopted if allowed
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Post by Nikola Nikolov
Ultimately I think that if there's a list of plugins that are
no longer
Post by Nikola Nikolov
supported by their authors and are put up "for adoption" by
other
Post by Nikola Nikolov
developers everyone could benefit(not sure if that's
fair/possible?). Yes,
Post by Nikola Nikolov
you can just fork the plugin and upload it as a new one, but
the users of
Post by Nikola Nikolov
the old plugin probably won't be aware that there's a new
version of the
Post by Nikola Nikolov
plugin.
LOL. Honestly, every time the issue of adoption comes up for plugins,
I
can't help but laugh a bit. :)

Plugin adoption is not a real issue, because there is nobody out
there
actually wanting to adopt other people's code.

Seriously, nobody wants to do it. People keep asking why there is no
"for-adoption" list, and the answer is simply because it is not
necessary.
There's no shortage of abandoned plugins, but there's a serious
shortage of
caring wanna-be-parents for those plugins.

I can think of maybe 10 times that a plugin has been adopted. Total.
Ever.
It just doesn't come up that often. The whole thing is a total
non-issue
because the truth of the matter is that no coder really wants to take
over
somebody else's code. It's a lot more fun to write your own code
instead.
And when you're doing things for free, "fun" is your primary purpose.

If anybody wants to adopt a plugin and cannot get in touch with the
author,
you can email the plugins team and they will facilitate the process
or make
contact or whatever. But this virtually never happens. There's no
need for
a list because it's not like we're swamped with requests or anything.

-Otto
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## Chris replied, on Aug 8 @ 11:15am (AMT):

the issue is that there are a lot, probably thousands of users running
that plugin and by pushing an update that nulls it those site owners
are losing real money in a very big way. If they didn't want to
support it use the adopt me tag or something. The problem with
removing it from the listings IMO is that those users who we're
running it live need to have a way of getting the previous version
zip, and for most users the easiest way (other than reverting the
update) would e to grab the last version zip off the dev tab on the
listing.
--
Chris Christoff
***@chriscct7.com
http://www.chriscct7.com [1]
@chriscct7
If you feel the need to donate, as a college student, I appreciate
donations of any amount. The easiest way to donate to my college fund
is via the donation button at the bottom of my
homepage: http://chriscct7.com/ [2]

Links:
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[2] http://chriscct7.com/


-----------------------------------------------------------
## wp-***@lists.automattic.com replied, on Aug 8 @ 11:01am (AMT):

Among the reasons we don’t keep an official list of ‘plugins ready
for adoption’ is that the plugin team doesn’t have the time, and
any attempt to use a wiki would be easy to mess up by people listing
plugins that are not ready to be taken over.

I say this a lot. If YOU have a plugin you want to stop working on,
push an update that makes it clear on the plugin settings page, the
plugin listing on the plugins.php page, AND in your readme for the
wporg repo. Tell people “I’m not working on this anymore.” and
if you’re inclined, give them a way to contact you to take it over.

Because y’know :) We’re cool with that!

Also remember we generally aren’t going to hand over your plugin to
random people.

https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/2014/02/06/clarification-on-taking-over-plugins/
[1]

So keep your email address on WPORG valid and up to date, and do
please whitelist plugins AT wordpress.org :D

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## wp-***@lists.automattic.com replied, on Aug 8 @ 8:57am (AMT):

That makes sense.

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## wp-***@lists.automattic.com replied, on Aug 8 @ 8:56am (AMT):

Well, it is their plugin. If they don't want to support it or have
people
download it anymore, then I have no real problem with that. So
removing the
listing is the best way to do that, as I see it. I don't think we
should
revert it and force it to be available if they don't want it
available
anymore.

If somebody wants to remove their own plugin from the listings, then
we can
do that. Simply nulling it out and putting "moved" on it is a bad
idea, but
just getting rid of the URL entirely is fine with me.

-Otto

wrote:

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Chip Bennett
2014-08-08 16:09:01 UTC
Permalink
I have "adopted" three Plugins (one of which - thankfully - the primary
development was taken back over by the original developer). But what Otto
said is entirely correct: if someone wants to adopt a Plugin, just contact
the developer. From there, it's a simple matter of the developer entering
your WPORG username in the correct field on the Plugin's Admin page in the
Plugin Directory.

On a related note: I forked a Plugin a long time ago, and eventually, that
Plugin's functionality was entirely superseded by core functionality. The
Plugin had tens of thousands of downloads, so I couldn't simply stop
maintaining it, or blanking out the latest version in SVN. Instead, I added
information to the readme.txt explaining why the Plugin's functionality was
no longer necessary, then in a later version, I gracefully backed out the
Plugin's hooks, then in a much later version, removed the no-longer-hooked
Plugin functions:

http://wordpress.org/plugins/cbnet-ping-optimizer/

I had thought about asking the Plugin team to remove it, but since I still
see quite a bit of misinformation about the Plugin's necessity from time to
time, it seems to be more beneficial to leave it as-is.

So, that might be an approach worth taking for the OP's Plugin.
Post by Otto
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Ultimately I think that if there's a list of plugins that are no longer
supported by their authors and are put up "for adoption" by other
developers everyone could benefit(not sure if that's fair/possible?).
Yes,
Post by Nikola Nikolov
you can just fork the plugin and upload it as a new one, but the users of
the old plugin probably won't be aware that there's a new version of the
plugin.
LOL. Honestly, every time the issue of adoption comes up for plugins, I
can't help but laugh a bit. :)
Plugin adoption is not a real issue, because there is nobody out there
actually wanting to adopt other people's code.
Seriously, nobody wants to do it. People keep asking why there is no
"for-adoption" list, and the answer is simply because it is not necessary.
There's no shortage of abandoned plugins, but there's a serious shortage of
caring wanna-be-parents for those plugins.
I can think of maybe 10 times that a plugin has been adopted. Total. Ever.
It just doesn't come up that often. The whole thing is a total non-issue
because the truth of the matter is that no coder really wants to take over
somebody else's code. It's a lot more fun to write your own code instead.
And when you're doing things for free, "fun" is your primary purpose.
If anybody wants to adopt a plugin and cannot get in touch with the author,
you can email the plugins team and they will facilitate the process or make
contact or whatever. But this virtually never happens. There's no need for
a list because it's not like we're swamped with requests or anything.
-Otto
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Half-Elf on Tech
2014-08-08 16:35:59 UTC
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As a reminder, if we ‘remove’ your plugin, it just means not’s not going to be listed in WPORG anymore. You can still check in SVN code and all that. So in this case, Chip, closing the plugin would prevent anyone new from using it, while leaving your support forum intact. I’d probably do that since it’s not needed anymore.

Just ping us at plugins AT wordpress.org and let us know :)

(There’s also a way to disable the plugin, so you can push updates while not allowing new people to download, which is also a good idea to do WHILE you’re backing it out)

--
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http://ipstenu.org | http://halfelf.org
Post by Chip Bennett
http://wordpress.org/plugins/cbnet-ping-optimizer/
I had thought about asking the Plugin team to remove it, but since I still
see quite a bit of misinformation about the Plugin's necessity from time to
time, it seems to be more beneficial to leave it as-is.
So, that might be an approach worth taking for the OP's Plugin.
Nikola Nikolov
2014-08-08 17:23:43 UTC
Permalink
Tons of great information on the subject - thanks everyone!

Otto - it's true that usually no one likes working on other people's
code(yuk!), but Chris is right I think - this is a pretty popular plugin
and I'm assuming there would have been someone interested in adopting the
plugin.
Post by Half-Elf on Tech
As a reminder, if we ‘remove’ your plugin, it just means not’s not going
to be listed in WPORG anymore. You can still check in SVN code and all
that. So in this case, Chip, closing the plugin would prevent anyone new
from using it, while leaving your support forum intact. I’d probably do
that since it’s not needed anymore.
Just ping us at plugins AT wordpress.org and let us know :)
(There’s also a way to disable the plugin, so you can push updates while
not allowing new people to download, which is also a good idea to do WHILE
you’re backing it out)
--
Mika A Epstein (aka Ipstenu)
http://ipstenu.org | http://halfelf.org
Post by Chip Bennett
http://wordpress.org/plugins/cbnet-ping-optimizer/
I had thought about asking the Plugin team to remove it, but since I
still
Post by Chip Bennett
see quite a bit of misinformation about the Plugin's necessity from time
to
Post by Chip Bennett
time, it seems to be more beneficial to leave it as-is.
So, that might be an approach worth taking for the OP's Plugin.
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BjornW
2014-08-12 11:38:58 UTC
Permalink
Hi,

For those of you looking for the Crowdfunding plugin sourcecode. I added
this to my Github repos a few months back. The last commit from the
original repo was from 23rd april. If anyone has a newer version, let me
know, but for now you'll at least have access to the sourcecode.

https://github.com/BjornW/crowdfunding

ps: I'm not planning to maintain this plugin, just sharing it as a
courtesy to fellow developers.
Post by Nikola Nikolov
Hi everyone,
I was working with a client that was using the Fundify WordPress theme,
which was powered by a combination of Fundify Crowdfunding(
https://wordpress.org/plugins/appthemer-crowdfunding/ ) and EDD.
I wanted to download the source of the plugin to my computer to easily
navigate through the codebase. On the plugin page they've added "(Moved)"
to the name of the plugin.
Once I extracted the archive, there was nothing but an empty .php file and
a readme.txt file.
My question in this case is - is this allowed and isn't that a terrible way
of discontinuing a plugin? What if someone updates the plugin and their
site stops working? Or someone installs the plugin and nothing happens...
Is there anything the WordPress.org plugins team can do about it?
Best regards,
Nikola
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