plugin etiquette

  • yoav.aner

    (@yoavaner)


    14 years, 10 months ago

    I tried to search the forums, but didn’t find many topics that covered this directly. Apologies if it’s been discussed and clarified already.

    I’m wondering about (at least some) etiquette rules for plugins. I came across a plugin the other day that turned out to:
    * create an account for me automatically on their website
    * Sent a bunch of emails to my admin email address (which I did not actively provide it, I’m guessing it picked it up from the settings)
    * After I uninstalled it, and never activated this account, they sent a follow-up email to check why I’m not using it.

    None of those emails had an unsubscribe link. The plugin page did not mention anything about this or the fact that actually the plugin doesn’t really do anything, but its their web-based service that (supposedly) does all the things they mention on the plugin page…

    Am I being overly sensitive? or should this kind of behaviour be banned or at least heavily discouraged? The wordpress.org plugin developer page seems to have only one etiquette rule – not placing links to an external site. Should there be a few more rules or guidelines? (again, apologies, but I couldn’t find any)

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)
  • Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    14 years, 10 months ago

    You are not being too sensitive: a plugin like that falls under the category of Just Plain STUPID.

    That sort of behavior is unethical on the plugin author’s side (at a minimun) and sending unsolicited bulk emails may get you in trouble with your host provider. Something like that should be highlighted, meaning you have to select “Yes, I want to do this” explicitly. Hiding it in a readme.txt is the pits.

    If the plugin is hosted on WordPress.ORG repository, can you notify plugins@wordpress.org and let them know which one it is? If you retrieved it from somewhere else then chalk it up to a learning experience.

    Thread Starter yoav.aner

    (@yoavaner)

    14 years, 10 months ago

    Thanks Jan

    The plugin is hosted on wordpress.org repo. Not sure I should directly mention it here, as I also want to keep the discussion about this issue in general, rather than specific to one plugin or another.

    I didn’t even know there was a ‘complaint’ route available, but I’ll drop plugins@wordpress.org a note and see what they say.

    I think it would be useful for plugin users to have a more-or-less clear idea what to expect when they pick up a plugin from the repository (wordpress.org in particular). As a plugin developer I think it would also be useful and important to have some ground-rules that are expected from the plugin too.

    Moderator Jan Dembowski

    (@jdembowski)

    Forum Moderator and Brute Squad

    14 years, 10 months ago

    I think the closest guidelines for hosting plugins are these:

    http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/about/

    They’re vague behavior-wise but intentionally so. Strict ground-rules that aren’t guidelines causes people to do the “But it’s not explicitly forbidden, so I can do that” and don’t necessarily solve tangible problems.

    Thread Starter yoav.aner

    (@yoavaner)

    14 years, 10 months ago

    Yeah, this is the only thing I found which is coming close to plugin rules / etiquette. It’s very vague though. I know it’s virtually impossible to define exact rules, and if someone wants to get away with it, they can always bend the rules. Nevertheless, for plugin developers who do want to do the right thing, and for users who should want to feel safe in installing plugins – I think it would be useful to try to put together at least some ‘ground rules’ (DOs and DON’Ts, whatever you want to call it), which can serve as a base for what is and what isn’t ‘morally offensive’…

Viewing 4 replies - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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