I personally think the author was kind enough to share the script/hack with the rest of us. Think of it as something he developed for his own use, and then shared so that someone can start from where he stopped. It is not a core WordPress feature, and he’s not bound to provide support. These forums are helpful though, and you might find the support you need here.
IMnotsoHO –
Don’t make it a burden on someone who was kind enough to submit something they did for themselves. I have installed WP-PHOTOS on every version since its release, including the alpha ones and the last thing I want is for people to stop submitting their hacks. If I can’t get it to work then I won’t use it, that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be made available to those who can (and then, like me, will help those who can’t on this forum).
As for approval status, I don’t know what the standard is, but WP-PHOTOS (and others) should meet it whatever it is because it works and it is useful. The only thing I might add is for which version the hack was originally written.
erogers: Not all hacks will be able to run as plugins.
Hi Ya Beel
I agree that hacks are very cool and I thank everyone that submittes them.
If you read the title of this post”WP Approved Hacks”
That is what I was talking about.
I found WP-PHOTOS in the in the forum buy the same name
http://wordpress.org/support/10/4695
following thru the links (because I trust this site and the dev team) I came to this page
http://www.alexking.org/index.php?content=software/photos/content.php
now no place up to this point have I seen that it NOT supported.
I was having a bit of troubble installing it.
Doing a search of this site
http://wordpress.org/support/?action=search&searchFor=WP-PHOTOS
I see that few otheres have too. And no real fix for the problem.
Now back to the point.
To be approved the the developer should have some sort of support system in place.
“Don’t make it a burden on someone who was kind enough to submit something they did for themselves”
What about the burden on the simple guys ( like me ) that are tring to get something to work. I spent over a week messing around with this.
I can appreciate your frustration, however it was your choice to spend over a week on it. After I make an initial unsuccessful attempt at installing a hack, I ask myself “Do I want to spend time trying to get this to work?” If the answer is “yes”, from that point on I can only blame myself for time “wasted” (but then I also like a challenge).
Getting support for a hack is no different than getting support for WP – you ask here. If you have a specific question about the hack, choose a great post title and ask.
Again, I respectfully disagree with your support issue. The hacks are free, you are welcome to use them at your pleasure or not. “Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth” certainly applies here.
P.S. When it comes to PHP and MySQL, there is no more “simple” guy than me.
My “Photos” photo database:
http://www.alexking.org/software/photos/
is very much supported, as is my Tasks software, etc. This is one of the main reasons I can’t also support the hacks like WP Photos.
The b2 and WP hacks that are unsupported are all here:
http://www.alexking.org/software/wordpress/
A hack is very difficult to support because code has to be added/altered in WordPress, and many people have already modified their WordPress code. It makes writing instructions extremely hard when there is no consistent reference point.
WP Photos works fine for a lot of people, however it does require that a lot of moving parts be configured properly so not everyone will be able to successfully install it.
Hi Again Beel
Again, I respectfully disagree with your support issue.
I am glad we can get along!
“Getting support for a hack is no different than getting support for WP”
that is so very true that is why I post on HIS board.
I did read everthing on this board and only found people with my same frustration.
There was no answer to be found. This is not a WP problem so why waste time posting here for answers.
Yes I wanted to get this to work it looks like just what I needed so I spent the time.
( yes I like a challenge too, I own 21 donains have 3 message boards, 2 traffic trading scripts, 3 blogs, 2 banner scripts, 2 gallery scrips, 4 differnt stats packages ect…)
TO alexkingorg
If you would have read what I posted (and not just delete it) on your fourm the fix would have take
ohooo 5 min to update the README file
“WP Photos works fine for a lot of people”
yepper you are correct but it DOES NOT work for just as many.
The core stuff is standerd its just the readme file that need to be fixed.
Love Ya’All
Sometimes, after a hack has been released, the author moves on to other things and no longer has the time to support hacks written. I’m almost to this point with the hack that I worte for “static” pages in WP. As luck had it, life happened to me while I wasn’t looking and my spare time has gone from a little to nearly none. There will be a point at which I am going to have to post the dreaded “…no longer supported…. blah, blah, blah” note at the top of the page where it resides. I just simply cannot keep up with it. Maybe when 1.2 goes gold and is finally released, I’ll update things one last time, but then it’ll be time to lock it up, and people are going to have to fend for themselves. It seems harsh, but what can you do?
TG
I agree with thewolf’s premise: it would be good to have a list of plugins that meet a set of criteria. Then, users coming to WordPress, will be able to add a set of plugins that should work as advertised.
The very nature of a hack was stated above – the author hacks something together and then may indeed move on. These bits of software should be listed as “use at your own risk.” Many people will see this and simply not bother with them, as is probably good.
Many users of weblog software don’t want, have time to, have skills to tweek PHP code. Many users simply want a good quality weblog package they can use to manage their weblog.
A quality piece of weblog software shouldn’t require coding, other than modifying templates and CSS, if the user wants. This is why a listing of plugins which have met a set of criteria is a good idea.
If this discourages hacks which may be buggy or will not work with future versions, that’s OK, IMO. This forum, and others like it, are full of messages from people trying to get support for poorly written hacks of some sort – look at the number of messages here that have no replies…
Meeting a set of quality standards-based criteria will not discourage those who truly want to add value to WordPress.
<rb>
I don’t think nightly builds fit into the idea of providing a list of plugins which are documented and tested to perform as designed. This list should be release version specific, IMO.
Who tests? Give the job to a small group of WP users. I’m sure there will be takers.
Drupal does a pretty good job at this and couldbe used as a model for how this could work.
<rb>
i nominate randybrown to head the the wp approved hacks/plugins effort.
ok lets try and uncross them
on this page
http://wordpress.org/support/10/2259
4th post down is a link to your site
I would also nominate WP Blacklist, WP WAP and WP Mobile Edition. And possibly WP Photos, since so many people seems to ask for such a function and it works like a charm.
that link goes to http://www.alexking.org/index.php?content=software/wordpress/wp-photos.php
That is the page I downloaded from.
That page is all I knew about your script
From there I went to the forum and saw
Photos>Installation Support>
I had no idea that you had other scripts of the same name
Photos <\=>WP Photos
that is on me
Hope is helps uncross the wires
