Plugins dying off... (1 Viewer)

[Phill Healey]

As a user of MP for somewhere in the region of 10years now, it seems as though the plugin side of things has never really exploded. There have been some great plugins over the years. Some of them (online-videos) have been great and successful, whereas others have been brilliant ideas but have never made it to a stable release.

As a developer myself, I realise that this is always going to happen. However, it just doesn't seems -IMHO- that the plugin community has ever really moved up a gear. Plugins are essentially secondary with would be developers coming and going without ever releasing a viable plugin. Likewise, there has been few 'wow' developments, despite the fact that there is a LOT of potential. Even the plugins that do make it into the wild are mostly only picked up by handfuls of users.

With that in mind, I just wonder if creating some form of marketplace for plugins and even themes would improve things in terms of giving developers motivation and with making plugins available to users in a more direct and simplified manner. Even the Raspberry Pi computer has its own marketplace where dev can sell their work for a bit of pocket money. This is a widespread model that seems to be paying dividends in all manner of platforms.

iTunes, Google Play, Amazon App Store, Chrome, etc....

Anyway, I was just interested in putting out the idea and seeing what peoples thoughts on it are. Obviously I have no power to make this happen, but I am interested in the debate surrounding it.



***NOTICE***

By arketplace I mean something in line with current practice across numerous platfors, whereby free and paid apps/ plugins sit alongside each other.

 

[LJG]

I think I may disagree.

The plug-ins I use are fantastic!

And, if the developer asked, I would happily pay a little for their time.

 

[The_Stig]

I tend to like your idea. I would definately pay for a few plugins to keep them alive. But - as far as I understand it - this will never be part of official Team Mediaportal as it wouldn't work out with the open source background.

Me likes the way some plugin devs are doing here via donations or e.g. like MPiV did it (Free version in Apple Store with restricted access, Full Version for a few bucks)...

 

[wizard123]

I think this is a good idea if it attracts more devs, mediaportal will always be open source but why cant we have separate plugins and skins available in a market place as bolt ons ? free plugins could be in there too.

 

[MrTechno]

An easier payment channel would give plugin devs more pocket money but I can't see it increasing the number of "wow" developments. What you need for that is time (lots and lots of it) and for that the economics just don't stack up. Short of earning enough to quit my job and write plugins I can't spend any more time on MP dev than I already do.

Where it might scale is in more collaborative efforts. 1 person doesn't have the 40 hours per week it would take to make a "wow" plugin in a reasonable amount of time, but 10 people doing 5 hours per week might achieve it pocket money or no pocket money. Obviously I have no idea how to make this happen...

 

[Edalex]

Some of plugin devs have paypal accounts and if you want to give some money to dev I think you can easily do it this way

 

[Phill Healey]

I think I may disagree.

The plug-ins I use are fantastic!

And, if the developer asked, I would happily pay a little for their time.

I didn't say there weren't any fantastic plugins. I mean that outside of the main plugins that nearly everyone uses, there isnt much else. The quantity and range of decent plugins hasnt changed much over the years.

 

[Phill Healey]

I tend to like your idea. I would definately pay for a few plugins to keep them alive. But - as far as I understand it - this will never be part of official Team Mediaportal as it wouldn't work out with the open source background.

Me likes the way some plugin devs are doing here via donations or e.g. like MPiV did it (Free version in Apple Store with restricted access, Full Version for a few bucks)...

Open Source and Free are actually two seperate things. It's true that a lot of OS software is free, but there is also a lot that is paid for. OS simply means you get a copy of the source code and can edit it to your own needs.

Plus, there is no reason why plugins have to be OpenSource just because MediaPortal is. Ive seen, several plugins overr the years that have required some paid element.

 

[Phill Healey]

I think this is a good idea if it attracts more devs, mediaportal will always be open source but why cant we have separate plugins and skins available in a market place as bolt ons ? free plugins could be in there too.

Absolutely. Thats what I meant, but evidently didn't get across in my op.

 

[Phill Healey]

An easier payment channel would give plugin devs more pocket money but I can't see it increasing the number of "wow" developments. What you need for that is time (lots and lots of it) and for that the economics just don't stack up. Short of earning enough to quit my job and write plugins I can't spend any more time on MP dev than I already do.

Where it might scale is in more collaborative efforts. 1 person doesn't have the 40 hours per week it would take to make a "wow" plugin in a reasonable amount of time, but 10 people doing 5 hours per week might achieve it pocket money or no pocket money. Obviously I have no idea how to make this happen...

Fair enough but everyone is different. For any it may be the difference between pushing on with a plugin and seeing that people value it, or not bothering because it sees like the feedback iplies dev tie isnt worth the effort.

Some of plugin devs have paypal accounts and if you want to give some money to dev I think you can easily do it this way

Indeed. But that's something different to what I'm trying to open debate about.