MaxBlogPress Ping Optimizer and other MBP plugins should be banned from the plugin repository for the following reasons:
Well, let's analyze all these reasons.
1) MBP plugins are using the WordPress repository as an advertising vehicle and to gain legitimacy for users and search engines. Links to plugin FAQs, installation instructions, etc. point to the developer's site instead of providing useful information on the WordPress plugin site.
It seems you are new to wordpress development. You may not be aware that this wordpress directory has been created recently. In the past there was not any formal wordpress directory.
The developer used to develop and host the plugins in their own website and create other pages for it in their own website as well. I'm also one such developer. When wordpress introduced its new wordpress directory it doesn't make sense to redo everything when there's already established pages for FAQs, installation instructions etc... That's the reason those links point back to old pages of the plugin.
2) The developer uses the repository's reflected legitimacy to gather email addresses for the primary purpose of spamming users with internet marketing missives. I know this because I receive spam from him regularly.
First of all you can't say our newsletter spam. If you don't like it then you are free to unsubscribe from it. We include unsubscribe link at the bottom of each and every email we send. The unsubscription is automatic and instant.
3) WordPress already provides an update mechanism that does not require email registration so his assertion that he is using emails for support is a red herring (BS). Blatant BS should not be rewarded.
As, I said above the email registration is there to support the plugin development. We send notification to users when we release our new plugin and we also send major update notification to user. Beside that we also send blogging tips and promo emails for the recommended softwares/courses.
If you don't like our newsletter then you can unsubscribe anytime by following the unsubscribe link. No obligation. You can continue to use the plugin even after unsubscrbing.
I chosed to make the plugin free by asking for the registering to our free newsletter. It also includes free support, free bug fixes and free new updates. If I ask money for all these then most people can't pay the price. That's the reason I chose to support the plugin by free option instead of making user pay the money.
4) Unless WordPress.org and Automattic endorse his spammy emails, they should remove his plugins from the repository. Failure to do so, suggests they are endorsing his spamvertizing.
WordPress don't have to endorse anything to put anything in their repsitory. It's about freedom and as long as we obey their rules there shouldn't be any objection by wordpress for our plugins.
5) I suspect the developer (an internet marketer) uses registrations to keep track of user blogs and run data analytics on competing internet marketers. This means that, if you run multiple blogs, even if you give the MBP developer a throw-away email address, he can and probably does, track plugin installs by IP and/or domain name via his plugin registration callback mechanism.
No, we don't keep track of blogs or run analytics on them. We simply let the user subscribe our newsletter. That's it.
So, unless you enjoy being spammed, lied to, or spied on, you should probably push to have this plugin removed from the repository.
Please explain how we are spamming, what we are lying and what we are spying? Please don't post anything without any proof.
- Pawan Agrawal
