BuddyPress.org

@hnla You raise an interesting point about plugin development vs core development. Speaking from the point of view of someone who makes a living off of WP and BP-related development, I can note that it’s often quite easy to justify the development of plugin-type functionality for a client. The client’s job needs a specific type of functionality not available in, or appropriate for, the core of BP, so it makes sense for them to pay to have it developed as an add-on. From there it generally takes just a bit of extrapolation and cleanup to turn that add-on into something that can be released as a plugin in the WP repo. (If you’re really lucky, like I am, you have paying clients who actually *encourage* these cleanup and extrapolating steps in plugin development.)

It’s a bit harder to bill for core-type development, since so much of core development involves extensive bug testing on a wide variety of different server and software configurations – something that isn’t really required for a specific client project.

Still, this all makes me think about Andy’s awesome post from last year, “Give a Little”: http://apeatling.wordpress.com/2009/09/25/give-a-little/. Now that I’m starting to catch up from my month-long break from BP (honeymoon ftw), I personally am going to start devoting more time to the core project, which I understand broadly as this buddypress.org community as well as the ongoing core development on trac.buddypress.org.