MyBB Community Forums

Hi,

There are some great plugins on the mod site which due to a few little bugs don't work on the newest releases of MyBB. Unfortunately some authors seemed to have abandoned their plugins (or left MyBB). It would be a pity that those resources go to waste.

Maybe the MyBB team can send an automated e-mail to authors whom's plugins are not yet marked to be compatible with the latest MyBB version or has been inactive for, lets say 6 months, asking to either test and update the compatibility, confirm that he is still supporting the plugin or confirm that he is willing to put the plugin up for adoption. If the author didn't confirm after 3 months (for example) the plugin will be automatically be put up for adoption. Other authors can then request to adopt those plugins. If the authors himself gave his plugin up for adoption, he should have the option to accept or decline this request depending on that he thinks the requester can keep up the quality of the plugin or not. Otherwise, or if the original author hasn't replied after 3 months, the MyBB team would accept or decline the request. If the request is accepted, the requester will become the new maintainer and will have access to the edit form of the plugin and the original author will be mentioned as "Original author".

On the mod site there could also be a notice that a plugin is abandoned so people can see that the plugin is not under active development anymore and will possibly not work on the latest MyBB version.

In addition to this, I also have a suggestion to add multiple maintainers to one plugin which all have access to the edit page of that plugin. That way authors can join up and work on the same plugin.

Giving plugin their own svn/git repository is probably too much to ask?

I think it would be cool problem is not all will want their plugins picked up.

Sounds like a good idea.

As for your last point about git/svn, I'd rather see a method whereby you can enter a URL to your chosen git/svn service which takes people directly to the project's page. That way, people can collab if they want to and everybody can use the services they're used to.

@euantor: You made a major fail on the last line of your post XD

@Aries: Great idea, it'd also prevent people from taking some of the plugins without permission and updating them.

Darn it. I really can't get used to this new laptop's keyboard haha. Fixed.

I have adopted a plugin myself (Overview), it's possible if you talk to the original author and to the staff here.

(2011-05-16, 08:57 AM)Aries-Belgium Wrote: [ -> ]If the author didn't confirm after 3 months (for example) the plugin will be automatically be put up for adoption.

If the plugin is not released with an Open Source license, you can't do that without permission from the author. You have to make a new plugin from scratch. And if it's an Open Source license, you can just fork it and release your own version of it without asking anyone (although it's still polite to ask first).

(2011-05-16, 08:57 AM)Aries-Belgium Wrote: [ -> ]Giving plugin their own svn/git repository is probably too much to ask?

For git there's always GitHub and others.

Plugins should have a checkbox for "adoptable" during submission, which would add a clause/term to the license that they can be relicensed/reassigned if not actively supported. For those not interested, just make a new plugin.

(2011-05-16, 10:47 AM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]If the plugin is not released with an Open Source license, you can't do that without permission from the author. You have to make a new plugin from scratch. And if it's an Open Source license, you can just fork it and release your own version of it without asking anyone (although it's still polite to ask first).

Then there are multiple plugins doing the same thing while the other plugin is good enough but just isn't maintained anymore by the original author. The plugin already has name and a userbase which are more likely to keep using the old plugin and also keep using an old MyBB version than moving to an unknown plugin possibly losing all their data from the plugin.

(2011-05-16, 10:47 AM)frostschutz Wrote: [ -> ]For git there's always GitHub and others.

Yes, but then you still have to manually submit it to the mod site. It would be great if authors can collaborate on plugins directly on the mod site and if they reach a stable version they can package and it would be automatically released to the mod site.

I've suggested a method like OSCommerce for plugins where only those with Open Source license like GPL v3 can be uploaded here but once they are then anyone can update the original package to either bug fix or improve it. It can work.

Here is an example:

http://addons.oscommerce.com/info/1237

Click the "History" tab and you'll see this was released in 2003 but updated a few dozen times by other authors to improve it.

(2011-05-26, 04:52 PM)labrocca Wrote: [ -> ]I've suggested a method like OSCommerce for plugins where only those with Open Source license like GPL v3 can be uploaded here but once they are then anyone can update the original package to either bug fix or improve it. It can work.

Yes, that's also the way Drupal does it. Anyone with a SVN account can make changes to any Drupal module on the website. Although, only the main maintainer(s) can create a packaged version of the plugin.