Moves, Plugins and StayPress updates

Posted June 9, 2008 // Tagged as development, wordpress // 5 Comments ↓

Yet again I am in the process of moving (whilst my last place was nice, it was a bit too remote. It turns out I’m more of a city boy than I thought), so am currently without telephone or internet connectivity. Hopefully it should all be transferred from my old place very soon, but if it is anything like last time then I’m not going to be holding my breath. So updates to this blog will be in batches I’m afraid.

Plugin competition - one month remaining

For all you plugin authors out there, there is only one month remaining in the Weblog tools collection competition. Last year the myDashboard plugin came a very respectable second. Unfortunately I won’t be entering this year due to my excessive workload (and general lack of ideas).

StayPress updates

Work is still progressing on the StayPress system, I have a few willing testers hammering away at the completed parts - so the bug reports are coming in thick and fast - I will post updates and some more screen shots as soon as I am able. In the meantime I have created a Mailing list for support questions and inquisitive minds.

5 Responses

  1. WordSkill

    June 10th, 2008 at 3:45 am

    Lack of ideas?

    StayPress alone is one of the best ever ideas for WordPress!

    Seriously, you should try to pull together a bare-bones, beta version for the competition - you might be surprised by how well it does and, at the very least, you’ll generate a lot more interest.

  2. bw

    June 13th, 2008 at 1:12 am

    cant wait for this plugin to come out. Depending on how complex it is, you should maybe charge a small fee for it. That way you will be able to fund further development and everybody wins.

    I have paid $10-$20 for wordpress plugins in the past which added substantial features and from the looks of what i have seen and heard so far theres no reason why this plugin should have to be free.

  3. WordSkill

    June 13th, 2008 at 4:38 pm

    @bw - Welcome to the world of Free and Open-Source Software - most WordPress plugins are distributed under a GPL license, which allows developers to use each other’s code, as long as the resulting plugins are free and their source, too, is made available under the GPL for other developers to use. In theory, commercial plugins have to start from scratch, re-writing their own versions of all that code.

    By not charging for the actual plugin, the developer is freed from legal liabilities, the obligation to provide support, the cost of marketing, the headache of license enforcement (how do you stop a Web developer from using the plugin on dozens of his sites), mass piracy, the hassle of payment processing, refunds etc. Being free also ensure the widest possible adoption of his code and there are benefits to that in terms of reputation, goodwill and selling related services.

    All that is a very different proposition from simply releasing some code you’ve been working on and saying to the world “Here, you’re free to use this but you may not sell or distribute any part of it as your own work”.

    Personally, I have nothing against paying for things but my expectations, as a consumer, would be radically different.

  4. Boris

    June 17th, 2008 at 7:48 pm

    I totally agree with WordSkill. If you really want to pay for it, then you should donate some money to the author.

    I’ve written a couple plugins for WP so far and wouldn’t dream of charging money for them. Not when you get everything else for free. Wouldn’t feel right. It’s a way of giving something back to the community. I always appreciate a donation, though :)

  5. Tdude

    June 25th, 2008 at 10:07 pm

    Donate a few bucks? Are you nuts?
    I would be happy to pay anything up to $1000 to skip all the work and go out and play while I enjoy the plugin! Just bring it on!
    /T

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