Even though the release was promised a few days back it looks like it will be worth the wait.

I’ve been reading up on a few of the new features and it sounds like a mixed bag.

Pros:

Less clutter
Blogroll now named ‘Links’ (WP moving towards a cms app)
Media Manager
Easier to see how many comments in moderation waiting to be approved

Cons:

New navigation will take some getting used to
Widgets no longer drag and drop
Lots of scrolling required in page and post editing to change options
User management a bit more cumbersome

Hogwash.

I do not like the new WordPress plugin directory because it reduces options for plugin authors and plugin users.

Specifically, the new WordPress.org plugin directory requires authors to license plugins with a GPL compatible license in order to be included in the directory.

Here’s why this is bad:

• Some very nice commercial plugins are now missing from the directory (especially ones that made it easier to monetize a WordPress blog)
• There’s no reason to favor GPL licensing over other free licensing options like MIT or Creative Commons
• What’s the purpose of narrowing user choices?

Are all the best plugins free? No.

Are all the best free plugins GPL licensed? No.

If the new WordPress directory is so fantastic, with its tagging and voting, is there any reason to remove links to other plugin directories? Again, no.

Suggestions

Instead of just bitching about Matt Mullenweg’s decision to limit choices through the marketing muscle of the WordPress brand, I’m going to put forward some ideas of how it could have been done better.

As a WordPress user, and plugin author, here’s what I want:

1) the ability to quickly find any WordPress plugin, not just the GPL ones.

2) the ability to list my plugins where they can be found with only one option for licensing.

Let’s face it, the plugin authors that provide high quality plugins and want to charge for them aren’t going to suddenly license their plugins GPL just because Matt wants them to. Instead, they’ll just take longer to find.

Why not create a section of the database that has non-GPL licenses? Or combine the two categories and list the GPL licenses first?

I’d love an advanced search option where I could search for ‘other’ licenses or even ‘commercial’ plugins that I have to pay a bit for.

Or, why not charge a listing for for commercial plugins? Make it a HotScripts directory for WordPress plugins. I know Matt’s not hurting for money, so give it to Habitat for Humanity.

Matt Mullenweg is free to create any plugin directory he and his team wants. It’s his baby.

I just think this recent move dramatically limits options for both the plugin users and plugin authors, I see no advantage for Matt, and it’s a bad idea.

Rant over.

For example, you could upload a PHP file with the following code:


<?php
echo 'Hello World';
?>


Call it ‘hello-world.php’, and upload it to a directory on your server.

Using my plugin, you would be able to call up www.yoursite.com/hello-world/ and see the content beautifully nested within your theme (layout, template, whatever you want to call it).

Based on some feedback, and some of my own observations, I’ve updated the plugin. I just need to re-test it a bit, and then I’ll upload for all to enjoy.

I figured it’s about time I posted about a something that fell in line with the title of the site: “Website tutorials and tools.”