Supporting Plugins
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This document provides tips for plugin developers on how to support users without losing your mind. It suggests documenting your plugin clearly, taking time to understand issues before responding, saying no to unreasonable feature requests, and knowing when it's okay to stop supporting a plugin by announcing end of life. The key is being polite, testing problems before accusing users, and walking away from support conversations when needed to avoid burnout.
Supporting Plugins
- 1. How to Support The Masses
- 2. Without losing your mind Tips and tricks to keeping it all in perspective, while still giving people the best experience possible when it comes to support.
- 3. Who Am I? Mika A. Epstein (a.k.a. Ipstenu) Over a decade of supporting technologists, programmers ... and grandmothers
- 4. I have the BEST IDEA! It starts with you and your dream (or desire).
- 5. I assemble my code
- 8. Wow! People are using my plugin!!!
- 9. Not everyone likes it...
- 11. Do I want to help them? Do I want to spend my time doing support? You don’t have to! But....
- 12. What’s in your README? • Are there alternate support methods? • Email, other forums, UserVoice? • Is there no support? • Is there only paid support?
- 13. Unless you clearly state otherwise on your plugin page, users have a reasonable expectation that you will provide free support in the WordPress.org Forums.
- 14. Is it really my problem? Valid complaints? Reasonable requests? Not RTFMing?
- 15. Okay, I’m going to help! • Can I reproduce it? • Have they tried turning off other plugins? • Have they tried using the default theme?
- 16. Oh! It’s a conflict!
- 17. Should I fix it? • Is it a security hole? • Is it in the scope of your plugin? • Is the other plugin/ theme behaving badly?
- 18. If you can’t fix it... •Be honest •Be direct •Consider patches from users •Ask for help
- 19. What about requests? My users want special features. Well ... Okay.
- 20. It totally needs a unicorn! Yeah, I know it’s an RSS plugin, man, but think about it! UNICORNS!
- 21. JUST SAY NO!
- 22. 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?
- 23. But I want the unicorn!
- 24. You can still say no.
- 25. It’s okay to ... • walk away • say no • get mad • give up • ask for help
- 26. It’s not okay to... • blame them (even if it’s their fault) • be mean • accept abuse • ignore them*
- 27. Tips So what should I do?
- 28. Document It What it does What it doesn’t How it works Support options Known/common errors
- 29. REMEMBER! If you make a BIG change ... DOCUMENT IT!!
- 30. Take Time Think before you answer Study the error reports Test possibilities Take time for yourself
- 31. Be this guy! Walk away from the computer once in a while
- 32. I have a life! It’s ...
- 33. Don’t Attack! They’re not attacking you Don’t bite the users Passion makes people seem aggressive Strong opinions can be misread easily in text!
- 34. Don’t be this guy What do you want me to do? LEAVE? Then they'll keep being wrong! http://xkcd.com/386/
- 35. EOL What if I’m just done with this plugin?
- 36. Warn them! “This is no longer supported.” Push a final version to notify users. Alerts in the admin screen
- 37. Hand off? Give it to someone else. Ask someone to take it over. Email wp-hackers. Post in the forums.
- 38. The End