orphan plugins

colak · 2009-04-22 05:50:52

I’m wondering if it will be a good idea if we moved all orphan plugin topics from the plugin author support forum to a new forum which could be called “orphan plugins”. This will possibly help in

Finding plugin developers who might want to adopt the plugin
Indicate to new users that the plugin they wish to download or know more about is currently unsupported.

Last edited by colak (2009-04-22 05:54:14)

the_ghost · 2009-04-22 13:22:39

Or you should add mark [archive] to such plugins

jm · 2009-04-22 13:28:52

I think moving them to a new subforum and adding h1. ORPHANED to the original post would be a good idea.

Bloke · 2009-04-22 13:42:05

Not a bad idea, but when/if someone does adopt it, can thread control on the forum and article authorship of the textpattern.org entry be given to that person?

e.g. I’m the adopter of ied_plugin_composer but the head post is still owned by Yura so I can’t update it, and I can’t edit the textpattern.org article to point to the latest version either.

It seems to be a kind of accepted tradition by most plugin authors to update the head post when new versions come out. The exception is Ruud who opens a new topic; I don’t know which method is ‘better’ as they both have their pluses and minuses. Perhaps jm’s on the right track; move it to a subforum, mark it as orphaned, and when a new adopter swings by, open a fresh topic in Plugin Author Support for the new version and close the original thread.

Does that work or is it too much admin overhead? (I don’t know much about administering a forum)

EDIT: the other thing to consider of course is whether orphaned plugins remain under their original xxx_ prefix. Perhaps it’s easier to close the topic when a new adopter becomes available and simply release the plugin with the new prefix?

Last edited by Bloke (2009-04-22 13:44:52)

colak · 2009-04-22 14:11:32

Perhaps jm’s on the right track; move it to a subforum, mark it as orphaned, and when a new adopter swings by, open a fresh topic in Plugin Author Support for the new version and close the original thread.

Agree

Does that work or is it too much admin overhead? (I don’t know much about administering a forum)

Just a couple of clicks for those who have sufficient privileges.

els · 2009-04-22 17:03:37

Perhaps jm’s on the right track; move it to a subforum, mark it as orphaned, and when a new adopter swings by, open a fresh topic in Plugin Author Support for the new version and close the original thread.

Agree

So do I.

… those who have sufficient privileges.

That may be the only problem I guess. At the moment that’s only Ruud and Robert; and can we ask from them to dive into the Plugin Author Support forum to collect all orphaned plugins to move them to the new forum? When this is done I don’t think it will be much work to occasionally close an ‘orphan’ thread when a plugin is adopted, but first someone will need to invest some amount of time to put everything in place.
I don’t mind doing that, but first we’ll need to convince Robert to give (some of) us more privileges :)

colak · 2009-04-22 17:09:13

Els wrote:

I don’t mind doing that, …

ditto

wet · 2009-04-22 19:04:07

I’ve tied a few more fora like “Plugins” and its descendants onto Els’ and colak’s moderator’s accountability. Would this suffice?

els · 2009-04-22 20:23:59

Thank you!! But… couple more questions:

a few more fora like “Plugins” and its descendants

~~Does that mean any other beside ‘Plugins’ and it’s descendants? Or just those?~~
Edit: figured it out by trial and error ;)
Is there really no place where a moderator can see which forums are assigned to him/her?

Would this suffice?

Almost :) Can we have a new subforum ‘Orphaned plugins’ or do you object to this idea?
If you do, at least we can add [Orphan] to the topic subject where necessary, and maybe add a line to the first post, that would already improve things.

Last edited by els (2009-04-22 21:36:45)

els · 2009-04-22 20:28:14

Bloke wrote:

I’m the adopter of ied_plugin_composer but the head post is still owned by Yura so I can’t update it,

Stef, I have The Power now :) Let me know what you want to have ~~changed~~ added.

Last edited by els (2009-04-22 22:23:25)

wet · 2009-04-23 04:38:05

Els wrote:

Is there really no place where a moderator can see which forums are assigned to him/her?

I haven’t yet found one…

Almost :) Can we have a new subforum ‘Orphaned plugins’ or do you object to this idea?

Well, as the larger fraction of plugins is properly parented, I’m a bit reluctant to open yet another forum to serve the adoption process.

Tagging a plugin’s thread with [ORPHAN] plus eventually opening a plugin request thread if a plugin turns orphaned and has an interested user base would hopefully provide enough exposure.

colak · 2009-04-23 05:45:25

So now we have to decide which plugins are orphaned

here is the beginning of a list of the authors with a largish menagerie who do not seem to be supporting their work any longer.

Rob Sable
Steve Dickinson (confirmed)
Alex Sheilds
Johan Nilsson (confirmed)
Nikolaos Genimakis
Sencer Yurdaguel

Bloke wrote:

I’m the adopter of ied_plugin_composer but the head post is still owned by Yura so I can’t update it,

Els wrote:

Stef, I have The Power now :) Let me know what you want to have ~~changed~~ added.

Unfortunately treads cannot change hands except in the database via phpmyadmin or an sql query.

For this reason I think that a new topic should be opened for ied_plugin_composer and after that, a last post to the new topic should be added before closing that thread.

Maybe we can have a link pointing to the new topic in the title called “Adopted”?

Last edited by colak (2009-04-23 06:29:15)

mrdale · 2009-04-23 06:41:38

Oh for heavens sake, alex is working for wordpress… I think we can officially count on his non-compliance.

els · 2009-04-23 07:02:15

wet wrote:

Well, as the larger fraction of plugins is properly parented, I’m a bit reluctant to open yet another forum to serve the adoption process.

Tagging a plugin’s thread with [ORPHAN] plus eventually opening a plugin request thread if a plugin turns orphaned and has an interested user base would hopefully provide enough exposure.

I see your point, no problem.

colak wrote:

So now we have to decide which plugins are orphaned

I don’t think we need to restrict our actions to the officially confirmed abandoned plugins. If we mark a plugin as orphaned and the author notices this he can always let us know, if he doesn’t notice it, our assumption was right ;)

For this reason I think that a new topic should be opened for ied_plugin_composer and after that, a last post to the new topic should be added before closing that thread.

I agree. Add a last post and a line at the top of the first post, linking to the new thread. Stef, as soon as you’ve opened your new thread we will do this.

I suggest we just start marking the orphans – add [ORPHAN] in the subject, and add a notice at the top of the first post that says that the plugin is not maintained anymore. When in doubt, we can always consult together here(?).
I can probably start digging later today or tomorrow.

Bloke · 2009-04-23 08:18:46

Els wrote:

If we mark a plugin as orphaned and the author notices this he can always let us know, if he doesn’t notice it, our assumption was right ;)

Hehe, nice! BTW, some of the hard work may have been done for us. Someone has trawled the plugin list and marked a lot of ‘old’ or unnecessary (because of new features in the core) plugins as [archived]. Perhaps those should be reviewed initially as well to see if they really are ‘orphaned’ or simply ‘unnecessary’. I guess there is a subtle distinction?

I wonder if these forum posts could also be tagged as such during this exercise? anc_hide is a good example where a link to Textbook’s <txp:hide /> in the first line of the thread would probably be appropriate?

colak wrote:

a new topic should be opened for ied_plugin_composer and after that, a last post to the new topic should be added before closing that thread.

Fine by me as well. I’ll open one later and do my usual “revision list” to point to each release in the old thread so people can find out how things have progressed.

As you suggest, Else, if someone could add the link to the new thread in the first post of the old thread then people coming there from its link at textpattern.org (which nobody except wet/ruud or Yura can alter) can immediately find the latest version. Thanks for offering to sort this out for me, and thanks wet for allowing Els and colak to administer this.

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Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2009-04-22 05:50:52

orphan plugins

#2 2009-04-22 13:22:39

Re: orphan plugins

#3 2009-04-22 13:28:52

Re: orphan plugins

#4 2009-04-22 13:42:05

Re: orphan plugins

#5 2009-04-22 14:11:32

Re: orphan plugins

#6 2009-04-22 17:03:37

Re: orphan plugins

#7 2009-04-22 17:09:13

Re: orphan plugins

#8 2009-04-22 19:04:07

Re: orphan plugins

#9 2009-04-22 20:23:59

Re: orphan plugins

#10 2009-04-22 20:28:14

Re: orphan plugins

#11 2009-04-23 04:38:05

Re: orphan plugins

#12 2009-04-23 05:45:25

Re: orphan plugins

#13 2009-04-23 06:41:38

Re: orphan plugins

#14 2009-04-23 07:02:15

Re: orphan plugins

#15 2009-04-23 08:18:46

Re: orphan plugins

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