Although I’ve thought about this issue endlessly, including most of the issues raised here, there are some things brought up in the comments that I haven’t thought about before. More importantly, you could be right.
That’s why we’re doing this whole thing as an experiment; not the Large Hadron Collider type that could potentially destroy the universe, but more incrementally with just three initial plugins.
Now if in the course of working on these three plugins it looks like we’re going to cause the end of WordPress as we know it, we’ll change course. It’s not that big a deal, and we’ll figure something else out. The only dangerous course of action is doing nothing at all.
Source – Comment by Matt Mullenweg on shackling a free market
That Matt guy. Always showing up in interesting conversations related to something dealing with WordPress with a calm, cool head. How does he do that? It must help when you know for sure what is going on. His comment is the first I’ve heard of Core Plugins being an experiment. It’s also the first time I’ve heard someone clearly spell out three different types of core plugins that will be part of the experiment. An abandoned plugin, a newly created plugin, and functionality taken out of WordPress and put into a plugin.
So far, the discussions surrounding core plugins have been as if everything is set in stone. We now know that is not the case. There is no guarantee that core plugins are going last or if they will prosper. The way Matt presents how core plugins are going to be used brings me back to a calmer state and I think we should watch the experiment take place and see what happens.
If Matt is the only one who knows then it doesn’t give a good impression on the whole WP organization.
The way Jane, Aaron, Peter (westi), Otto, Mark Jaqtuith speaks of it it looks like its set in stone. No more input they have a group and thats it (Well there is this http://wpdevel.wordpress.com/2010/01/11/core-plugin-infrastructure/) . At least from my perspective.
The lack of understanding to other ideas are also concerning. There also seem to be some hybris going on regarding coding capabilities of core devs and those who are not core devs.
When checking wp-hackers list the only two really delving into the matter is Mike Schinkell and Jeremy Clarkson I think. And that was months ago. Not easy to find and follow discussions in wp-hackers I think.
From what I can gather it was all discussed and decided on WordCamp NYC in November.
Aaron says hes followed the discussion on various lists and places. I have had a hard trouble finding these discussions. I’ve posted what I’ve found in the wp tavern forum https://www.wptavern.com/forum/plugins-hacks/1192-proposal-core-compnents-plugins-4.html#post10998
If the discussion took place and the decision was made on a wordcamp then it aint exactly public and easily accessible to the rest of us.
Discussions and decisions seems to take place in A LOT of different places.
Why not figure out a way to tag stuff so everything regardless of source is shown on the same place? So we mere mortals and none core devs can follow whats going on and how the conclusions are made. And perhaps contribute in a more timely manner.