Supporting Plugins

How to Support TheMasses

Without losing your mindTips and tricks to keeping itall in perspective, while still giving people the bestexperience possible when it comes to support.

Who Am I? Mika A. Epstein (a.k.a. Ipstenu) Over a decade of supporting technologists, programmers ... and grandmothers

I have theBEST IDEA!It starts with you and your dream (or desire).

I assemble my code

And it’s awesome!

YAY! Version 1.0.0!!!!!

Wow! People areusing my plugin!!!

Not everyone likes it...

http://wordpress.org/support/view/plugin-committer/YOURHANDLE

Do I want tohelp them?Do I want to spend my time doing support? You don’t have to! But....

What’s in your README? • Are there alternate support methods? • Email, other forums, UserVoice? • Is there no support? • Is there only paid support?

Unless you clearly stateotherwise on your plugin page, users have a reasonable expectationthat you will provide free support in the WordPress.org Forums.

Is it reallymy problem? Valid complaints? Reasonable requests? Not RTFMing?

Okay, I’m going to help! • Can I reproduce it? • Have they tried turning off other plugins? • Have they tried using the default theme?

Oh! It’s a conﬂict!

Should I ﬁx it?• Is it a security hole?• Is it in the scope of your plugin?• Is the other plugin/ theme behaving badly?

If you can’t ﬁx it...•Be honest•Be direct•Consider patches from users•Ask for help

What about requests?My users want special features. Well ... Okay.

It totally needs a unicorn! Yeah, I know it’s anRSS plugin, man, but think about it! UNICORNS!

JUSTSAYNO!

Keep sight of your scope • What problem did I want to solve with this plugin? • What logical extensions can be added? • What can be easily added? • What can I add and still support?

But I want the unicorn!

You can still say no.

It’s okay to ...• walk away• say no• get mad• give up• ask for help

It’s not okay to... • blame them (even if it’s their fault) • be mean • accept abuse • ignore them*

TipsSo what should I do?

Document It What it does What it doesn’t How it works Support optionsKnown/common errors

REMEMBER!If you make aBIG change ...DOCUMENT IT!!

Take TimeThink before you answer Study the error reports Test possibilities Take time for yourself

Be this guy!Walk away from thecomputer once in a while

I have a life! It’s ...

Don’t Attack!They’re not attacking you Don’t bite the usersPassion makes people seem aggressive Strong opinions can be misread easily in text!

Don’t be this guyWhat do you want meto do? LEAVE? Thentheyll keep beingwrong! http://xkcd.com/386/

EOLWhat if I’m just done with this plugin?

Warn them! “This is no longer supported.” Push a ﬁnal version to notify users.Alerts in the admin screen

Hand off?Give it to someone else.Ask someone to take it over. Email wp-hackers. Post in the forums.

The End

Supporting Plugins

by Mika Epstein on Aug 19, 2012

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Supporting Plugins Presentation Transcript