Topic: Call to arms – Abandoned Buddypress Plugins

Call to arms – Abandoned Buddypress Plugins

Austin Nichols
Member

@fiq

12 years, 11 months ago

There seems to be a growing list of great plugins that have been abandoned. With the upcoming BP 1.3 I’m sure that list will grow much larger.

I don’t know about the rest of you, but I always fear using plugins because I don’t want to add features for my members only to take them away a few months later.

With WordPress an abandoned plugin (in many cases) can continue to function well into future versions. If something does stop working the user base is so large that in many cases fixes are created by others. Even if there is no fix to be found you can easily find WP developers that you can hire. With BP (comparatively) you have a small user base and very few developers that have a solid understanding of the coding.

What I would like to see is a repository for developers to submit their plugins to that they no longer wish to maintain. Once a plugin is submitted BP.org can setup a trac for each one which is open to anyone that wants to help keep them going.

That’s just an idea. Maybe others have a better idea, but one thing is for sure, large numbers of broken plugins can take down BP just like it took down bbPress (Yes, I know bbPess is still around, but users from 2 years ago know what I’m talking about.).

A few great plugins that have been abandoned:

BuddyPress Links
http://buddypress.org/community/groups/buddypress-links/

BuddyPress Group Forum Extras
http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/buddypress-group-forum-extras/

I guess all etiviti plugins:
http://profiles.wordpress.org/users/nuprn1/

BuddyPress Privacy Component
http://jeffsayre.com/2011/01/19/bp-privacy-history-and-lessons-learned-from-developing-a-major-buddypress-component/

I’m sure members can fill these pages up with other examples.

Viewing 3 replies - 1 through 3 (of 3 total)

LPH2005
Participant

@lph2005

12 years, 11 months ago

BuddyPress is a typical open source project. First it relies on the community. Second, there is the typical wax and wane.

If I recall, there was a push to go through plugins and put notes regarding the status. Maybe it could be done with the release of BP 1.3.

dennissmolek
Participant

@dennissmolek

12 years, 10 months ago

I think the reality will be a simple search filter like on WP. It either will work with 1.3 or it wont, and I think as long as your plugin falls out of working with 1.3 and the dev hasnt updated I would consider it abandoned. The issue I have is when they wont admit it or have taken money in offer of support but disappear.
I’m going to be doing work on group docs here soon, the older developer has been super busy and he graciously let me work on the code with him to get it to 1.3 So Id say contact the Dev and see what their status is. I’m actually writing up stuff for Group Docs right now.

Some plugins are going to break with 1.3 Most should be rewritten for it. I think 1.3 will be the stable ground for plugins beyond this point as the biggest difference is a solid framework from 1.2

Austin Nichols
Member

@fiq

12 years, 10 months ago

It would be nice if there was a update guide for plugin developers/users. I don’t know if it is possible, but it would be nice.