I agree. Plugin developers should offer their plugins as a ZIP archive including the plugin file and the documentation. In addition, plugins shouldn’t require any change of the source code or the manual creation of DB tables; the plugin should just work after activation and installation.
Thread Starter
weimer
(@weimer)
What makes it even worse is the poor quality of the plugins. I tried every available image gallery plugin, but none worked for me. Maybe there should be a central repository -like the one at http://www.unknowngenius.com/wp-plugins/. But the author of this one is the author of one disfunctional gallery scripts as well 😉
A ‘central repository’ or similar is in the pipeline.
With plugins, it may be fairer to the authors of these to say they did not suit your purpose. After all, satisfied customers are generally quieter than the not satisfied, and it’s not like any of the plugins require any payment.
As for not requiring any changes to source code, index.php is source code too. Plugins are added features and while it can be daunting to open and edit a file you’ve not used before, if you want it, then it has to be done.
Regarding presentation, yes people sometimes post here with errors due to copying a .phps file incorrectly, but again don’t forget that the plugin developer has given their time and skills freely. To then package a file and write docs takes even more of their time. If you go here – http://wordlog.com/archives/2004/09/24/link-click-counter/ – you will see that Ozh states it took nearly as long to write about the plugin that it took to create.
While I don’t think we should blindly accept without criticism, I do think that we ought to be constructive when talking about anything where people give their own time for the benefit of others.
