Thread:Project:WikiProject Extensions/Ideas/Link within Extension to allow developers to solicit donations/reply (19)

I'm a big fan of starting small. That sounds both small, and widely beneficial for all extensions, and their users. It allows WMF to fulfill an leadership role, while doing only the minimum necessary to be effective. Great idea!

I test extensions pretty regularly, and find problems all the time. One angle we could come at this problem is by requiring some sort of connection between the extension page and the bugzilla page for its list of bugs. A few extension developers are annoyed by that, but I don't think its too much to ask them to tolerate if they want a cooperative relationship with WMF.

As an example, Extension:StringFunctions has some prominent notices that could be templatized to warn of any bugs that cause a schism between the promise of the extension, and what it actually delivers. Potential users should be aware of those things to minimize their time wasted trying extensions that won't work for them. That will have the effect of congealing the "community" around well-maintained extensions in a focused manner, while also helping the more adventurous people find interesting extensions that are worthy of consideration for their attention to bring it back up to some level of acceptable quality, in relation to its promises.

In dealing with the personal interests of the developer, there are 2 things that the WMF needs to take sides on:


 * 1) Deleting extension documentation on public WMF sites, in favor of links to private sites, is contrary to the goals of the WMF in cultivating the extension community for public benefit, and should be rejected as a matter of policy.
 * 2) Deleting information about flaws of the extension, especially when they cause the extension to not meet the proclaimed promise, should be rejected as a matter of policy.

Both of those are required in order to align an extension with the cooperative interests of the WMF community. In particular, they are required to make it possible to BEGIN the process of developing a community around the extensions that are interested and ALLOWED to find ways to ensure they're meeting the needs of WMF stakeholders, according to the WMF's public charity mission.