SUGGESTION: Only developers should add extensions

[Elpie]

First off, let me say I think the Extensions site is fantastic - well done guys!

However, it occurred to me that there could be problems with it. I note, for example, that some extensions have been added without the knowledge of the developer who wrote them.  If the dev doesn't know they are there, there is no way he/she can know whether the extension is one which is outdated or not. Nor can the community know they are getitng the latest version, whether there are any known issues, security fixes out etc.

People may well assume that an extension is okay to use, but for all we know it may be quite old. Who gets the blame when things go wrong? Why, the dev of course! 

Now, I know that GNU/GPL allows distribution, but I notice that there are a number of extensions there that do not have licensing details. I suggest that until licensing is known, and until the developers of extensions are made aware that their extensions are here, that these ones should be unpublished. Just as a precaution.  I would hate to download and modify something only to find out that I had no right to do so.

Just my 0.02c (inflation ignored) worth!

[masterchief]

As this situation will no doubt arise, probably for other reasons that you have stated, a facility to report listings is included.  Have a look at the site instructions here:

http://extensions.joomla.org/content/view/15/63/1/3/

The list itself is also agnostic towards whether a listing is correctly licensed or not, or if the download works as advertised, etc.  It's just a listing, not a distribution centre.  If, as you say, you download something where the license is unclear, then the onus is on a) the host site to ensure it is clear and b) that you have undestood what you are downloading.  If it's not clear, don't download it - simple as that.

[brad]

Can I also just add, the list we kicked off the Extenions site with, was already available here on the forums, "Kens List".

As Andrew says, feel free to report a listing if you need to.

Isn't it such a great site/resource?! I'm excited!

[gsbe]

Of the 327 extensions currently listed in the directory, ~150 have been claimed. We're almost up to 50% in the first day!

[brad]

Of the 327 extensions currently listed in the directory, ~150 have been claimed. We're almost up to 50% in the first day!

Awesome.. now.. you need some sleep.

[Asphyx]

Not sure exactly how the extensions site was populated by I assume it was largely from info gleaned from the developer site.
Elpie makes a good point in that a developer could make changes in the developer site to his project and this new info might not be reflected in the ext site.

Is it possible to add a section to the Dev site that a developer could control his listing on the ext site?
The team did an awful lot of work to get this site up but we should try and find some ways to make it easier on them so that users and Devs can do most of the maintenance for them...

[gsbe]

This is the eventual goal, of couse...to merge the data from J!Forge with the Extensions Direction. When that becomes a reality...I can't even begin to guess. Since J!Forge is running on SFEE and the common interface is SOAP there are quite a few possibilities. You can follow some of them on the developer site and in core member's blogs there.

I think that the Extensions Directory fills a gap between user and developer that was not available before. It sets a standard for how extensions should be supported. It also gives the user the ability to give feedback directly to the developer and to other users. I'm interested to see what this directory does to bridge these two communities.

[Elpie]

I wasn't going to respond but as I have had some people getting upset with me over the post that started this thread, I thought I had better explain what I wrote.

If you see my very first line, I congratulate the team for the extensions site. I said

I think the Extensions site is fantastic - well done guys!

Where I wrote:

People may well assume that an extension is okay to use, but for all we know it may be quite old. Who gets the blame when things go wrong? Why, the dev of course!

I was talking about the developers of the extensions. I was not referring to the Joomla developers nor did I expect that anyone would read into things anything that was not said.  My concern came simply from noticing that some extensions are links to forum postings, even Mambo forum postings, and that the age of some of those forum posts plus the high possibility that the devs who wrote the scripts may not know their scripts are even in the extensions directory, raises the risk that some of these extensions (a)  may have bugs that have since been fixed; (b) may not work properly on some versions of Joomla; (c) may lead to people being unhappy with the work the particular 3rd party dev has done as a result.

If a 3rd party developer doesn't know his/her script is there they cannot be blamed if the script is misrepresented or if it does not work on some versions of Joomla.  The dev probably will be though.  The 3rd party dev. I repeat NOT THE JOOMLA DEV TEAM!

For heavens sake, it was a post made as constructive feedback and even said the extensions site is fantastic. I hope this satisfies those people who like to read between the lines and imagine they are seeing things that just weren't said. Bad luck if it doesn't.

[brad]

Please use the report link to make us aware of these extensions that are a problem. We'll do our best to correct them.

Thanks.