Need an idea

[Elpie]

I'm chiming in to give some feedback from some of the folk I work with - when a plugin is updated it would be invaluable if the previous versions showed which versions of WordPress they were developed for. When people don't upgrade immediately (and I have some who don't ever upgrade until the full version after a major change) they can get lost trying to work out which plugins work with their version. This is evident now with some plugins requiring a minimum of 3.0 and their changelogs not giving enough information to decide which previous versions work with 2.9.2 for example.

Can an extra field be added to the other versions page to give this information please?

[Ryan]

I don't think that's a good solution to that.

The best solution would be for them to upgrade WordPress.

[chipbennett]

I don't think that's a good solution to that.

The best solution would be for them to upgrade WordPress.

I agree; shouldn't be facilitating a failure to upgrade WordPress.

Besides, that information is available in the plugin and readme.txt file header info.

[dgwyer]

I think that a lot of theme and Plugin developers (including myself) always develop with the latest version of WordPress in mind, and don't bend over backwards to make sure their Plugin/theme works with multiple legacy WordPress versions.

Speaking as a developer I resent the time wasted in having to make sure that I would have to test for the version of WordPress and then conditionally use the latest new recommended functions and classes. It is always in the best interests for users to upgrade to the latest version of WordPress even though they may be reluctant.

However, I understand where you are coming from, even though it is a snip to auto-upgrade WordPress these days there will always be people who only want to upgrade if there is a critical reason to do so. The "it isn't broke, so don't change it" mentally shines through every time.. :)

The one obvious caveat of course if someone commissioned me to develop a Plugin/theme that supported legacy WordPress versions. In that case I would happily code their requirements. But I guess it comes down to the fact that all FREE Plugin and theme authors have a right to develop for the latest version only seeing as it is their own free-time they are putting into development and maintenance.

[andrea_r]

The only thing I could suggest if you wanted to use a plugin that was just updated for the latest but you can't upgrade yet* would be to look at the trac info for the plugin itself.

* as much as we woudl like everyone to upgrade ASAP, the sinple fact is WordPress is used in a *lot* of beurocratic situations with hundreds or even thousands of users (before you start counting hits) and upgrading is not a simple 15 minute job. I hold IE 6 and Win XP up as an example there. ;)

So while it's not a usage I would encourage, I do realize some people are stuck. And for those people, being able to access an older version is useful.

[Ryan]

Hmmm, it seems Otto removed the authors page from the repository. That makes it really awkward to find their site ... sending email to Otto in case it doesn't see this here.

[Otto]

Not really my call: http://wpdevel.wordpress.com/2010/08.../#comment-9984

[Ryan]

Hmmm, interesting. I find that kinda annoying though as a lot of plugins in the repo. now have no links from the plugin page to the author's website. I guess that would change in time as plugin developers realise their links have been removed and add them into the main description though.

Matt possibly has some secret traffic information to judge this stuff on though so hard to judge whether it is a good or bad idea from here.

[Otto]

This will get better when we start improving the profiles stuff.

[chipbennett]

This will get better when we start improving the profiles stuff.

I figure it's best to let the dust settle before getting too worried about what is/isn't showing up. Things are just potentially going to be broken for a while, as you make improvements. :)