Supporting open source WordPress plugins (and themes)

Quite a while ago now, I built a WordPress plugin called MobilePress while I was contracting for company. Eventually we spun it off and used it to create a startup, but that story is for another day. I recall quite vividly, the day that the plugin went live. There was quite some buzz around it as it was one of the first plugins that could render a mobile version of your blog. This was before responsive themes were the in thing and smart phones were main stream. The plugin continued to grow daily and before long we had thousands of downloads and people were loving it. But that’s when it started. Having put a plugin out there that got some serious attention, people started finding bugs. They also wanted it customised to their needs and if something wasn’t available that they thought should be, oh did you hear about it – mostly on social media. Supporting an open source plugin is definitely not for the weak. It takes a lot of determination and commitment. It’s easy to put something out there but much harder to commit to it for the long term. I’m as guilty as many open source developers at not doing a good enough job supporting my open source software. What makes it especially difficult #wordpress #smallbusiness #entrepreneur

https://managewp.org/articles/11545/supporting-open-source-wordpress-plugins-and-themes