Need an idea

[greenshady]

I'm OK with not being able to post links in the WP support forums to my support forums. I have no issue with that. There just isn't a clear-cut policy on it (that I could find), and users have no consistent way of knowing where to find support. That's why I'm in favor of Ryan's original suggestion on a support link on the plugin page.

[chipbennett]

Yeah, I think adding a "Support URI" header entry, for both Themes and Plugins, is a great idea!

[Otto]

Okay, need some rather specific suggestions now about design and layout...

1. The "See what others are saying..." bit on a plugin page, in the right sidebar. I'm thinking to move it to the bottom of the page and spread it across all three columns. Make it somewhat more visible this way. I would make a tab for it, but there's not a lot of room left on the tabs. The "Admin" link already moves to another line sometimes. This whole thing should be visually easier for the user to find the support topics and add their own.

2. Regarding "Let plugin authors see topics for all their plugins on one screen." I need suggestions on where to put this. Separate screen with a link in the Plugin admin area? User Profiles?

3. Stats sorted out per plugin version. How to best display this information?


Other stuff:

Support URI entry: Not yet. You already have two links there, Author and Plugin Homepages. How many links back to your stuff do you really need? And if you don't want to provide support on .org, then don't. But this is the thing I'm working on now, so let's assume that you do. I want to make providing support on .org better and easier, so suggestions about how to not do that seem out of place for the moment.

Feeds for stuff: Right now they show all posts, which can be weird. I'll try to think of a way to make them only show topics (or to have a separate feed for topics-only).

Email subscriptions: Will be there eventually. For lots of stuff.

Works/doesn't work: Yeah, I know this blows. Idea: how about if you hit doesn't work, it gives a form to post a support topic?

Plugin beta testing: Use this: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/plugin-beta-tester/

I know I didn't cover everything. It's hard enough working on 4 things at once. :)

[chipbennett]

Okay, need some rather specific suggestions now about design and layout...

1. The "See what others are saying..." bit on a plugin page, in the right sidebar. I'm thinking to move it to the bottom of the page and spread it across all three columns. Make it somewhat more visible this way. I would make a tab for it, but there's not a lot of room left on the tabs. The "Admin" link already moves to another line sometimes. This whole thing should be visually easier for the user to find the support topics and add their own.

I think making them more visible - whatever form such visibility takes, will be a good thing. I like the idea of spreading them out across the bottom (although I think a "Support" tab is still better, even if it causes the tabs to break into two rows).

2. Regarding "Let plugin authors see topics for all their plugins on one screen." I need suggestions on where to put this. Separate screen with a link in the Plugin admin area? User Profiles?

I would incorporate it into the Grand Universal Profile (profiles.wordpress.org/users/<username>)

(p.s. the rewrite rules for the profiles is adding an extra "/" into the url: profiles.wordpress.org//users/<username>)

3. Stats sorted out per plugin version. How to best display this information?

1) History: Aggregate stats (that currently exist)
2) History: Per-release stats
3) History: Current-release stats
4) Graph: all-time (current graph)
5) Graph: downloads per release
6) Graph: release history (releases by date)

The History (tabular) stats can probably just be presented side-by-side. Maybe the graph could have tabs for each different graph?

Other stuff:

Support URI entry: Not yet. You already have two links there, Author and Plugin Homepages. How many links back to your stuff do you really need? And if you don't want to provide support on .org, then don't. But this is the thing I'm working on now, so let's assume that you do. I want to make providing support on .org better and easier, so suggestions about how to not do that seem out of place for the moment.

Fair argument. I'd rather see "Support URI" replace "Author URI", since the Author can be linked in myriad other ways (author profile, etc.)

(And I just thought: if the plugin author is linked with a wordpress.org user profile, couldn't the Author gravatar be displayed somewhere on the plugin page, also? Maybe that's overkill.)

Anyway, is the plugin page template flexible enough to allow a use-the-first-two-URIs option: that is, if the plugin header lists Author URI, Plugin URI, and Support URI, then the first two show up on the plugin page; but if it lists just Plugin URI and Support URI, those get listed?

In the end, I'm not terribly concerned about this one, since a support link can just be added to the Plugin Description, anyway.

Feeds for stuff: Right now they show all posts, which can be weird. I'll try to think of a way to make them only show topics (or to have a separate feed for topics-only).

As long as one of the options will be one, single feed that will pull in all topics and responses for all of my plugin support forums, I'll be happy.

Email subscriptions: Will be there eventually. For lots of stuff.

Works/doesn't work: Yeah, I know this blows. Idea: how about if you hit doesn't work, it gives a form to post a support topic?

Yes, please. Also, please consider making the reports non-anonymous. (Does any legitimate reason exist for such a report to be anonymous? Perhaps make the reporter information visible to the Plugin author, if necessary.

Plugin beta testing: Use this: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/plugin-beta-tester/

I know I didn't cover everything. It's hard enough working on 4 things at once. :)

It's a good start!

[chipbennett]

Oh, also: I just noticed that on the plugin Extend page, the Plugin Author is no longer linked to the user profile. Any reason why it shouldn't be?

[greenshady]

Works/doesn't work: Yeah, I know this blows. Idea: how about if you hit doesn't work, it gives a form to post a support topic?

If you say something doesn't work, then you should have to create a forum topic with an explanation. Detailed information on possible bugs might be the only way those bugs get fixed. Without this, the works/doesn't work buttons seem pretty useless.

[Otto]

Oh, also: I just noticed that on the plugin Extend page, the Plugin Author is no longer linked to the user profile. Any reason why it shouldn't be?

Huh? Looks fine to me.
Example: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...itter-connect/

[chipbennett]

Huh? Looks fine to me.
Example: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...itter-connect/

See here: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...tcha-comments/

Is it something I've done wrong?

[mfields]

Maybe if you try Contributors: chipbennett instead of Contributors: Chip Bennett in your readme.txt?

[chipbennett]

Maybe if you try Contributors: chipbennett instead of Contributors: Chip Bennett in your readme.txt?

Well now don't I feel dumb!