Title: Plugin Manager displaying plugins that don’t work
Last modified: August 18, 2016

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# Plugin Manager displaying plugins that don’t work

 *  [ongakukaku](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ongakukaku/)
 * (@ongakukaku)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/)
 * I’d like to see the plugin manager prior to displaying plugins to test them first
   to see if they work, there are some plugins that do not work so why list them.
 * I also believe there are way too many amateurs trying to build plugins, if you
   can’t make one that works that don’t do it, let the experts build the plugins
   this isn’t “who wants to be a plugin idol if you don’t have the knowledge your
   do more people more harm than good 🙂

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

 *  [skippy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/skippy/)
 * (@skippy)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221311)
 * Testing a plugin for functionality is a remarkably difficult thing to automate.
   Some (many?) plugins don’t do anything on their own: they require the user to
   edit their template tags, for example. How can the plugin manager verify that
   those work?
 * Yes, a lot of amateurs are writing plugins. I think that’s absolutely wonderful:
   WordPress is a _great_ project with which to begin coding. I cut my coding teeth
   on WordPress plugins; and I’m delighted to see so many other people trying their
   hand. No, they (myself included) won’t always produce the best plugins. Sometimes
   they’ll break. Even professional programmers make mistakes that slip through 
   some times.
 * Just remember to keep regular backups of your database and template files. If
   you do, there’s very little risk of long-term trouble from any particular plugin.
 *  Thread Starter [ongakukaku](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ongakukaku/)
 * (@ongakukaku)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221320)
 * sure thing, that’s all good and ticklish that so many people are making attempts
   to build plugins however, it’s not good on the other end when you activate one
   of the plugins and it destroys your entire wordpress. I agree you should make
   backups but it’s the princple of the thing. Not everyone is cut out to do coding
   and to think so is foolish. I’m all for people trying new things but not at the
   expense of others 🙂
 * I wouldn’t make a plugin and take the chance of messing someones stuff up not
   unless i really knew how to make it properly.
 *  [Cypher](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cypher/)
 * (@cypher)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221325)
 * Keep in mind that the majority of plugins out there were created by the author
   for their personal use. It was first and foremost meant to work with their blog.
   It is usually then beautified and shipped to the world to use with the caveat
   that it release “as-is”.
 * It is unreasonable to expect very plugin author to know how his/her plugin is
   going to be used. Best practices in coding apart, sometimes thing will break,
   that’s inevitable.
 * To blame “amateur” coders for this is wholy unfair. And frankly, if you have 
   such distrust of plugins that are out there, you have two options. 1) Write your
   own, 2) Verify every plugin you download to ensure that it is going to work and
   not break anything.
 * Regards
 *  Thread Starter [ongakukaku](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ongakukaku/)
 * (@ongakukaku)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221336)
 * which leaves us back to this one question that has plaqued humanity since the
   beginning of time, WHEN WILL ALL THE MADNESS OF DIVERSITY GO AWAY lol
 *  [Cypher](https://wordpress.org/support/users/cypher/)
 * (@cypher)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221349)
 * Ok troll..leave now…shoo!
 *  Moderator [James Huff](https://wordpress.org/support/users/macmanx/)
 * (@macmanx)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221353)
 * Ongakukaku, clearly WordPress is not the platform [nor the community] for you.
   Use Blogger.
 *  Thread Starter [ongakukaku](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ongakukaku/)
 * (@ongakukaku)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221634)
 * my recommendation is if someone is going to create a plugin, make sure all it
   is a folder that you insert into the plugin folder and activate (period). And
   also make sure it can be revised with each wordpress update, this should be a
   given
 * as for wordpress not being the platform for me, you obviouslyl wasn’t understanding
   my post, it wasn’t saying wordpress is bad, it was refering to those who make
   plugins that don’t work or require wp file editing. Perhaps WP is not the platform
   for you if you can’t take alittle feedback spanky.
 * oh and i’m no troll 🙂 perhaps you are the troll or an idiot lol
 *  [skippy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/skippy/)
 * (@skippy)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221635)
 * There’s no need for name calling. It doesn’t matter who said what first: it’s
   simply not needed here.
 * ongakukaku: as a plugin author, I can tell you that I do try to test my plugins;
   but as Cypher mentioned, many of my plugins were written to solve my own itch(
   or written upon request from others with specific itches to scratch). My testing
   may not include the scenario(s) in which you might use my plugins, and as such
   it might break. Them’s the breaks.
 * Tracking WordPress updates can be a challenge, as the internals change subtly
   across revisions — sometimes without proper notification to the larger development
   community. If you discover that a plugin doesn’t work with a new(er) WordPress
   release, politely notify the plugin author. Chances are that the author will 
   be receptive to feedback.
 * And as I said in my original reply, some plugins _require_ modifications to template
   and theme files. These changes should be preserved through WordPress upgrades,
   though, so the real burden is actually quite small.
 *  [mydejamail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mydejamail/)
 * (@mydejamail)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221637)
 * This plugin business is going to get out of hand if some standards are not applied
   to plugin design and submission.
 * Free, voluntary and hobbyist should not mean questionable implementation and 
   bad design.
 * At the very least there should be some coding, documentation and compatibility
   guidelines plugins must meet to be considered ‘official’ or ‘approved’ WordPress
   plugins. If some plugin designers will not meet them, their plugins can be put
   in a different category.
 * I can illustrate my point here clearly. The WordPress Plugins Repository is built
   around trac and subversion, a fine system for source code and project management
   but I am yet to see any submission in which the authors use the diff system to
   display the changes to be made to the stock WordPress files.
 * Coupled with some design notes and caveats this would simply eliminate the need
   for most of the installation instructions.
 * It is nice to see enthusiasts and hobbyists submitting their changes to the community,
   but without more formality it is only going to frustrate those who want to go
   beyond the basic installation.
 *  [skippy](https://wordpress.org/support/users/skippy/)
 * (@skippy)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221638)
 * “Formality” in the way of diffs is a very very bad idea. Most plugin authors 
   specifically cater to the “lowest common denominator” because it’s easy for the
   folks at the other end to parse through the newbie-friendly instructions to find
   out what needs to be done. It is nearly impossible for a new user to figure out
   what to do with a diff.
 * There do exists [guidelines and documentation](http://codex.wordpress.org/Writing_a_Plugin)
   for writing plugins. Whether these are adhered to is strictly up to the plugin
   author.
 * Last I checked, the only “WordPress Approved” plugins are those bundled with 
   the download package. All other plugins — whether hosted at [wp-plugins.org](http://dev.wp-plugins.org/),
   listed in the [Codex list of plugins](http://codex.wordpress.org/Plugins), or
   pasted into threads here — are made available solely “as is”. Caveat emptor.
 *  [mydejamail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mydejamail/)
 * (@mydejamail)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221641)
 * I am quite sure that most people can the understand colored diff output displayed
   in trac. They are much clearer than their written text instructions which say–
   Look for the line starting ‘so so so’ around ‘here here here’ and replace it 
   with ‘this this this’.
 * All it requires are tags off a trunk consisting off a fixed standard release.
   Trac can display them quite nicely. If one of the lead developers can release
   a sample plugin and display them in trac that should go on a long way in showcasing
   the benefits.
 * If every up to date plugin can be treated as a tag in Subversion and displayed
   in Trac that will go a long way in making them transparent and easier to update
   when changes are made to the main WordPress files.
    The contents of the plugins
   themselves shouldn’t be that important, just the changes to the base WordPress
   files.
 *  Thread Starter [ongakukaku](https://wordpress.org/support/users/ongakukaku/)
 * (@ongakukaku)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221645)
 * Respecting the individuals who make plugins who know what they are doing is a
   given and much appreciated of course, and I understand that most plugins were
   created for the author primarily but shouldn’t wordpress set up a wordpress only
   plugin team ? Seems to make sense.
 * No doubt eventually, there will come a time where there is a price tag attached
   to wordpress, its free now but they always start out free and eventually charge
   which isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We always get what we pay for lol. My thought
   is to keep WordPress not only evolving but improving it and fixing any bugs along
   the way, etc.
 * So far it has great potential but as it is now what makes it less great is there
   isn’t enough plugin functionality that will allow us to do what we want to do
   with it. You know the feeling you get when its 85% fantastic and its the other
   few % that isn’t that just knock the greatness out of it. I sometimes feel WP
   is only partially complete or perhaps it’s not WP just the scarcity of useful
   plugins.
 * I often notice in the forums, there are many of the same items being requested
   over and over again. Usually all someone will do is recomend editing some code
   to WP files. Personally, I’d like to see less code changing advice and more dependable
   and fully functionaly plugins.
 * Adding a plugin inside the plugin folder and make it active is quite impressive
   to say the least and very easy to do. I realize that people make plugins for 
   their own itch but seriously, if you are using wordpress for your site or blog,
   then why not go the extra distance and make your plugins spark like magic in 
   wordpress for the rest of us 🙂
 * perhaps there should be a plugin shop where you can purchase dependable plugins
   that work with WP ? ? who’s buying? he he
 *  [mydejamail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mydejamail/)
 * (@mydejamail)
 * [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221652)
 * Is there a reason why some posts display the originating IP and some don’t?

Viewing 13 replies - 1 through 13 (of 13 total)

The topic ‘Plugin Manager displaying plugins that don’t work’ is closed to new replies.

 * 13 replies
 * 5 participants
 * Last reply from: [mydejamail](https://wordpress.org/support/users/mydejamail/)
 * Last activity: [20 years, 11 months ago](https://wordpress.org/support/topic/plugin-manager-displaying-plugins-that-dont-work/#post-221652)
 * Status: not resolved

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