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Jeff Chandler

Thank a Plugin Author Day 2015

Created by Matt Mullenweg in 2009, when the plugin directory hosted only 4K plugins, Thank a Plugin Author Day (January 28th) motivates users to thank plugin authors.

There are several ways to celebrate the event, such as visiting the plugin author’s website. The link is usually available via the plugin’s page on WordPress.org. You can also find a link to the author’s website by searching for the plugin in the backend of WordPress. Also, most plugins in the directory have a link to give a monetary donation.

Plugin Donation Link
Plugin Donation Link

Another way to thank plugin authors is to rate and review their plugins. Ratings and reviews are an easy way to send feedback directly to an author. Make sure to provide actionable feedback instead of one or two-word reviews. A side effect of rating and reviewing plugins, is that it’s one of many ways to contribute back to the WordPress project.

Billion Thanks Featured Image
photo credit: opensourceway – cc

Since the holiday’s creation, over 31K plugins have been added to the directory which results in nearly 36K reasons to use WordPress! Thank you to anyone who has ever published a WordPress plugin whether it’s on the official directory or on GitHub. Without so many plugins, I wouldn’t be able to customize WordPress to make it my own.

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19 responses to “Thank a Plugin Author Day 2015”

  1. Well, this was the reason of your tweet. Love the ways you mentioned to pay gratitude to the plugin authors. And yes, you are absolutely right. Without these awesome plugins, I wouldn’t be able to customize WordPress to make it my own.

    Thank you all who published the plugins to WordPress.org either free or premium!

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  2. Thanks to all plugin authors who have helped make WordPress so awesome. What about themes though? They are as indispensable to the success of WordPress as plugins. Maybe the day should be combined to give recognition to both? Either way,thanks to all theme authors too for their fabulous contributions!

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    • Yes, the two holidays are related but different. I made that one up but it’s focused on rating and reviewing plugins which from time to time, people need to be reminded to do. I’m not sure if that holiday and this holiday along with Thanking theme developers will all be merged into one day or keep them separate.

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      • Jeff, I think a good option would be to roll everything into one day and call it WordPress Appreciation Day. There so many different roles that come together to make WordPress so valuable, Plugin Authors, Theme Authors, Core Contributors, Theme and Plugin Reviewers, Bug fixers, (Donaters/Sponsors ?) then there are the reporters like yourself who offer valuable opinion on all things WP, not to mention the many people who also offer training to make WordPress even easier to use and understand… The community spirit behind WordPress is so key to keeping the momentum going…

        Maybe a good way to get everyone in on the action, is a site where on that day we all stop by and share how WordPress has helped make our lives better and shout out specific people and resources that have really helped us. Maybe a little banner could come up in WP that reminds us on that Da and ask us to drop by and leave a thank you note…. WordPress Appreciation Day I say!

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          • That is a very good question. You can probably replace the present Thank a Plugin Author Day, since it may have gained a bit of momentum or those with better knowledge of WordPress history could suggest a notable day in it’s history, like the millionth download, or when the 100th contributor joined something like that to help point out the significance of WP to it’s users.

            Maybe you can write a post or run a poll asking for more feedback on it and also ask other well known community members or some of the founders for their feedback on the best way to make it happen and have an impact.

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  7. Thank you so much to all plugin authors. And to the author of the 2014 theme, which I use. Building on a shoestring for now, you have made it possible for me to create a professional website without having to learn code.

    Yes, I know. I should probably trade the header for a more serious one, but I love nature and live near the waterfront, so the images stay. They go with my territory.

    More donations will be forthcoming.

    Have a great day.

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  8. May I suggest that in the future you mention WHEN the “Thank a Plugin Author Day 2015”. I read through the post twice and didn’t find it out. Then I clicked on the first link (Matt’s) and found that it was yesterday, January 28. That kind of important information should be part of topical article such as this. (Even a “today” somewhere in the text would have been helpful)

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  9. For what it’s worth Jeff, I really like more days that are more specific as opposed to a single day. It is difficult to express and adequately emphasize exactly how starved for feedback many developers who donate their works are and how under appreciated many feel. And often more results come from more specific requests so “review a plugin today” (I think) will generate more activity than “somehow do something nice for a plugin dev”.

    I think keeping the request simple and to the point is beneficial and encouraging people to do more, more often also has a great impact. And when you think about it, there’s really lots of great WP holidays you could push for. Stuff like:
    – Review a plugin day
    – Review a theme day
    – Donate to a plugin author day
    – Donate to a theme author day
    – Tweet your favorite WP blog day
    – Blog about your favorite plugin day
    – Rate a WordPress.tv video day
    – Help out on the forums day
    – Beta test something day
    – Thank your local meetup organizers day
    – Review a podcast day
    – Thank your hosting provider day
    – Get involved day
    – Troll Jeffr0 day…
    Ok, maybe some are ridiculous but still. I think we are all in this together in a way and encouraging everyone to show appreciation as often as possible seems a nice idea to me.

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