Podpress meltdown illustrates problems with Wordpress management

July 29, 2008 – 4:37 pm | by Dan

Podpress is a plugin (or add-on) for Wordpress that allows users to turn their blog into a podcast. For a while now it has been one of the the most popular ways to create a podcast–and Dan Kuykendall, the plugin’s author, was even invited to speak at Wordcamp 2007.

But now that thousands of podcasters rely on it, Podpress has been broken by the latest version of Wordpress.

A new feature of Wordpress 2.6 called “post revisioning,” which is basically a wiki feature, appears to conflict with the Podpress plugin’s function. This problem can be overcome by disabling post revisioning, but many people simply upgraded and expected it to work, and have had a lot of problems in keeping their podcasts online.

This episode is a good illustration of a few problems with Wordpress and the relationship between the CMS and its plugins. First, Automattic, the company that manages Wordpress development, the core Wordpress.org developers (who overlap to some extent with the employees of Automattic), is are extremely overzealous in pushing new versions on users at the expense of previous features working. Second, the lack of professionalism of plugin developers is a serious danger to the continued functioning of blogs for a wide range of Wordpress users, from casual podcasters to large enterprises.

The problem with pushing new versions and features on users is a fairly nuanced one. Let me explain: I do not mean to say that new versions and new features, even at the pace at which they come out, is a problem. Rather, the problem is the assumption by Automattic and the core Wordpress developers that all users are ready for major upgrades every three months and have the time to install new versions and find updated plugins. Because the last few new major releases (Wordpress 2.5 and 2.6) have included some fairly major changes, they broke the functionality of many plugins that were designed for older versions. That really is okay–I don’t want to stand in the way of progress here–but what I don’t understand is why they can’t maintain the older versions for a little longer while people scramble for new plugins. (And by maintain, I just mean come out with an occasional new version with security fixes, like 2.5.1.) Instead, Wordpress users read draconian announcements like this:

“2.6 is pretty much identical to 2.5 from a plugin and theme compatibility point of view, so upgrades from 2.5 should be pretty painless. The 2.5 branch will no longer be maintain so everyone is encouraged to upgrade.”

So the 2.5 branch, which came out only a few months ago, is having support dropped and everyone should upgrade, according to Matt Mullenweg. Because, as he claims, it should be “painless.” But even before he wrote that, people were already describing the problem with Podpress, based on testing with beta versions of Wordpress 2.6.

Automattic and the core Wordpress developers should work with major plugin developers more closely and maintain older branches for longer, or at least do more research before they make claims about whether there “should” be plugin compatibility.

As for plugin developers, if they are going to promote third-party products through their plugins and also ask for donations, as Mr. Kuykendall does, perhaps they should provide a bit more customer service and actively maintain their product so it can be useful to users for more than a few months

Though a new version was promised to be released by now, users are still waiting.

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  1. 5 Responses to “Podpress meltdown illustrates problems with Wordpress management”

  2. By Scott Frangos on Jul 29, 2008 | Reply

    Hi -
    You raise a number of great points Dan. While I agree with what you’ve said in principle — that we need a better way to ensure smooth upgrades and functionality between WordPress core, and associated plugins, I think there’s a flaw in the current system.

    What’s the motivation for a plugin developer to stay current? If you get a free plugin, then you should expect the same value in service. What I mean is, very few people donate to plugins, yet they expect the authors to provide immediate support for free? What’s wrong with that picture? Should I count the ways including the need for plugin developers to work on their “real” paid jobs?

    Suggestions:
    – Brainstorm and implement a paid level of service for key plugins
    – Brainstorm and implement a marketplace where developers receive the structure and guidance needed to properly program plugins, AND where donations are solicited aggressively, and authors rewarded by some point system incorporating downloads, feedback, and service reviews FINANCIALLY for their efforts.

    I co-developed a recent plugin release that already has around 300 downloads… but not one donation. Come on… there has to be a better way where everyone wins.

    - Scott

  3. By Dan on Jul 29, 2008 | Reply

    @Scott:
    I think what you’re saying–that “there has to be a better way” for this to work–is right on point.
    These are innovative times in the blogosphere, and maintaining a good relationship between Wordpress/Automattic/core developers and theme/plugin developers is very important in keeping Wordpress in the lead in the CMS game.
    The big question is, how can plugin and theme developers keep up with the growth and change in the Wordpress ecosystem as it grows exponentially? As Automattic and properties it owns like Wordpress.com and Gravatar continue to collect investment and even revenue, how will plugin developers stay up to date with the new code, and stay financially viable, without similar kinds of scaling and financing? They may not be able to, which is why I wanted to bring this issue up.
    Perhaps the kind of marketplace you describe, or a well-managed startup specializing in Wordpress plugins, could start to correct some of this asymmetry.

  4. By Matt on Jul 30, 2008 | Reply

    On a pure technical level, post revisions was in core for three full months before the release:

    http://trac.wordpress.org/changeset/7747

    There were 4 pre-releases of WordPress 2.6, three betas and a Release Candidate, all of which included full post revision functionality.

    Automattic does not control or manage WordPress.org development, they’re separate entities. (Though Automattic does contribute a lot of resources.) Comments about our release schedule should probably be directed to either myself or the WP lead developers. I’ll personally take responsibility for pushing us to be on a more aggressive release schedule to get improvements into the hands of users faster.

    As for financial motivation, I presume that’s there for PodPress as there appears to be an arrangement with Podango. My guess is that Dan wanted to put a lot of improvements into this update rather than just fixing the 2.6 compatibility problem and that probably ended up being a bigger task than he imagined or time got taken away by life/family/love/work. From the site:

    “this podPress update is NOT just for 2.6 support. Its a very large redesign to the codebase which is making it possible for the ports of podPress to Drupal and Joomla in the near future.”

    That sounds non-trivial, rather than a few lines to fix 2.6 compatibility.

    Anyway with our new update system, when the update is available it should get into the hands of people very quickly.

    Scott, with regards to donations, when WP.org actively solicited them we’d get about 1 per 15-20k downloads, and that’s for core software!

  5. By Dan on Jul 31, 2008 | Reply

    @Matt:
    Thanks for sharing your views here.
    I clarified the post slightly (see the crossed-out and italicized area) with respect to the relationship between Automattic and Wordpress.org.
    As far as the reasons for the delay in a new Podpress version, those may be perfectly valid reasons, I just wanted to chronicle the inconvenience and anxiety that many users appear to be experiencing over the situation since they have come to rely on that plugin so much for their podcast.

  6. By Matt on Jul 31, 2008 | Reply

    Two WordPress developers have volunteered fixes for both the 8.8 and 8.9 branches of PodPress – it’s only a few lines of code to cure the problem:

    http://azaozz.wordpress.com/2008/07/31/podpress-in-wordpress-26/

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