News is spreading around the community that the plugins created by MaxBlogPress have been removed from the plugin repository. Apparently, his plugins contained a forced opt-in mechanism that is, once you installed the plugin, you had to provide a name and email address in order to activate the plugin. Based on numerous complaints over the span of the last three months on the WordPress.org support forums, the plugins were finally removed. After getting the end users email address, the marketer would send email marketing messages sometimes daily without an easy way to unsubscribe.
Not only is the forced opt-in a terrible way to do anything, but it acts as a usage restriction of the plugin which violates the terms of being hosted on the plugin repository. I think Bobby Ning sums up the reasons for removal quite well as does Otto in the WPTavern forum.
If you take away the marketing and phone home aspects of his plugins, it looks like they provide good functionality. Since the plugins have been taken off of the repository, I wonder how long it will be before someone who really valued the plugin ends up creating a fork, minus the marketing stuff and submits that to the repository as a replacement. So far, it looks like Chip Bennett has done that to at least two of the plugins.
Over the years I have used several of MaxBlogPress’s WP plugins (especially in the early days whilst I was getting a grip on functions, php and hooks) and found them to be reliable, well maintained and fulfilled a clear and useful function. It’s a shame that the author never acknowledged the complaints that surfaced as a result of the persistent and sly marketing style by removing the forced opt-in mechanism.
I think it’s paramount that WP enforce the “rules of engagement” and would welcome a much stricter policy as to what gets accepted into the repository.
I totally agree with the removal of such plugins from the repository – but I can’t help feel a tinge sad that a great contributor to WP (via his plugins) has been ostracised from the community.
R