WordPress Plugin Model

The spirit of the wordpress plugin model for developers is obviously not centered around money. I had two main motivations for releasing my plugins to the public. First off, I wanted to use the plugins as a vehicle to help promote our small business. Secondly I enjoy creating things and watching other people benefit and use them.

Now creating is fun, but support is another story. The support process can be times time consuming and sometimes thankless. I initially kept up with the support requests, but now turn people away due to time constraints and other priorities.

So today I was thinking about ways the wordpress community could continue to encourage development and support of existing plugins.

I think the Top 1000 WordPress Plugin Authors list by W-Shadow is a step in the right direction. Recognition is a powerful motivator and I think the WordPress community would benefit if we continued to recognize the contributions of plugin authors in meaningful ways…

For example, how about rewarding the top 10 plugin authors with some prize? Even something like a wordpress t-shirt would probably go a long way to helping encourage more plugin development and support.

Just my thoughts…