Why Can’t All WordPress Plugin Developers KISS?

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This is my RANT on WordPress Plugin Developers and consistent programming development. Now I know that most plugin developers are not making much money from their efforts, but I say, “If you’re going through the effort of creating a plugin, why not do it right?”

My rant is not against all Developers, just the lazy and inexperienced ones. You know, the ones who develop a plugin that when installed doesn’t work correctly or causes problems with your blog because of plugin coding clashes or doesn’t work as advertised (they modified it for a new release of WordPress, but it doesn’t quite work).

I have looked at and used a lot of plugins because, as Vince says, I am a “plugin junkie”. If there is a plugin tool out there that will make my life easier … I am going to try it. My experience in all of this is that I have seen some great, consistent, and reliable work by some very good programmers.

For the rest, I say, KISS - keep it simple stupid! Here is my number 1 pet peeve - plugin directory structure. Nothing irks me more than to have a plugin that is installed into the wp-content/plugins directory rather than the developer using a subdirectory within the plugins directory (wp-content/plugins/subdirectory/). Why you ask? For starters, if the developer has included a Readme text file; as required by WordPress for plugins hosted there; and they do not use a subdirectory then their Readme file overwrites the previously installed {lazy developer’s} plugin’s Readme file. Also, it just makes for clean plugin management.

If you are not using a plugin manager and want to delete a plugin, then you have to do it the old-fashioned way, manually, and if there is poor documentation then you’re never really sure that you are deleting all the related files for that particular plugin. It gets worse if you are a newbie and afraid of messing things up. So again, I say, KISS - if the plugin is contained in its’ own subdirectory then the only thing that has to be done is to delete that subdirectory. No muss, no fuss, no guessing.

Another reason I say, KISS? Plugin developers need to remember that a lot of WordPress users are newbies without a lot of experience. So why force them to change the plugin’s options by manually changing the source code? Provide an Option’s page for the plugin making it easier to use. This one is not a big peeve on my part since I’ve been programming since the early 80’s, but when I put myself in a newbie’s shoes I can see their look of horror as they read, “Just add the following code to the .php file”.

And finally, my last KISS - Plugin Developers should have someone review their plugin’s homepage and the instructions delivered there. Content should always be written with the audience in mind and though developers know what they are writing, it isn’t always clear to the audience. A second set of eyes by someone without relation to what is being written about will help … tremendously.

My suggestions to our readers … review the plugin’s homepage, read the install instructions for clarity, and review all the posts left by previous users. If the instructions aren’t clear, ask questions. If there are a lot of posts by users saying the plugin bombed out, you probably don’t want to waste your time with it, especially if the developer either does not support the plugin or they aren’t responding to their users’ posts.

As we do reviews on various plugins, we will look at their usefulness, their adherence to my pet-peeves and WordPress’ requirements. This will make your decision to use a plugin easier.

Blog on,

–Craig