In reply to Miroslav Glavic.

IMO, the whole unpaid volunteer thing doesn't work (at least not totally on it's own).

I'm trained in Christian apologetics. I spent nearly a $half-million (in lost wages and tuition) getting there too. I haven't made a dime back (partly my own failing... but the point is that the discipline is - at this point in time - mostly a volunteer 'job' which is vastly under appreciated by the church.)

I bring this up, as I think it's somewhat parallel. I *love* Christian apologetics. I spend a LOT of time studying and writing in the field, for which I've earned nothing (maybe a bit of respect, among the criticism?).

I think that's a lot like coders. They love the craft. They believe in WordPress as a platform. But, while I'll do it for free, I didn't go into it with the expectation that I'd never make any income from it... probably like many plugin developers out there. I'm a teacher, and I had hoped I'd be paid something for those skills and knowledge. (And, naively didn't expect to have to become so much of an 'entrepreneur' for that to happen!)

But, there are some things *in and about the system itself* which will lead to success for either. Christian apologists (let's just say 'teachers' for the sake of ease of understanding) aren't going to be properly valued or supported by the 'organization' without some buy-in and support FROM the organization. Grass-roots only goes so far!

For example, while as a teacher, I have a degree, there are a lot of people working in the field who don't. At some point, some level of quality-control needs to be roughly enforced by the 'organization' whether that be degree or expectations being set.

While all work is appreciated, this vetting has to be there so the end 'users' *recognize* they are getting value. The same, IMO, goes for the WordPress plugin community. The repository *should* be that kind of gate-keeper.

And, there should be some proper level of support from the 'organization' to help increase pay or opportunity for pay (set a recognition for value at least) within the larger community.

And, there should be some level of leadership and 'systems' being put in place by the 'organization' to help both quality control and value recognition.

In observing the WordPress community, it seems that those are somewhat lacking from the parent organization. And, if that's the case (as it is in Christian apologetics), it's going to be a struggle, without much 'payoff', and a lot of effort being wasted in overall impact... not for the lack of trying, but with a lack of impact.

Is my parallel a faulty one? Is Automattic giving a proper level of leadership, value opportunity, support, and systems? It doesn't seem so, from my admittedly outsider vantage point, especially with our 'systems' discussion here.

The repository shouldn't be something the developer community has to figure out how to improve and implement. And core WordPress functionality (like the comment system I keep harping about) should be driven (and funded) by the parent organization when necessary.

Maybe I'm just not enough in the know... so sorry if I've overstepped my bounds. But, this is the impression I've gotten as I've started to pay more attention to the WordPress community.