If you have a WordPress plugin in the official directory, you can now add some pizzaz to your listing with a custom header image.
To add a custom header image to your plugin listing, you’ll need to have a 772 Ć 250 pixel jpeg or png checked in to your plugin’s SVN directory at assets/banner-772×250.(jpg|png). After a few refreshes, the image should appear for everyone.
For some examples of the new header image at work, see Akismet, bbPress, BuddyPress, and Jetpack.
This is still an experimental feature, so there is always a possibility that the dimensions, placement, and other aspects may change in the near future.
I will play a brief round of Devil’s Advocate Jr..
Ambitious & involve plugin-authors will be all over this. Shop-based plugins-pages will get obvious upgrades. But there are 17,000 plugins in the repository, and many of them (most) are “amateur” products, with everything that implies.
Are we going to use a lack of image-uploads to ‘target’ ‘low-performance’ plugin-listings? I hope not. Among the many (relatively) ‘unloved’ plugins at Extend, are many that are good but novel ideas (with substantial potential), and even more that cater to small audiences and will never climb up the rankings. Should we just ditch all those ‘minor’, often ‘untended’ plugins?
I hope not. Ambitious plugin authors and software shops that hope to be professional, obviously want to direct their efforts to plugin-venues that will receive wide interest. It is inherent in ‘reality’, that plugin-topics which will never attract a large audience, will be addressed (if at all) mainly by ‘amateurs’ who lack skill, resources & ‘committment’.
I think the new plugin-page images are a fine idea. Many pages will not be upgraded with images, though, and I hope that does not prove to be the cue for a purge.
I doubt the lack of an optional header image would ever be a reflection on the quality or usefulness of a plugin. After all, would you say the same thing about a blog with no header image?
A good blog without a header image? No way. š
Mr. Mullenweg & crew took an entire development cycle off recently, to (personally, uncharacteristically) address issues with the WordPress Dot Org Community facility. Musta been getting oughta hand …
WordPress is at a major juncture. Decisions press. Policies await, impatiently.
Certainly, update-records are an obvious way to assess the attention a plugin is getting – we don’t need a new image to track activity.
I guess the image looks more like a proxy-indicator for potential upheaval (the Theme Wars went rounds of diplomacy & battles, before the Nuclear Option) than a direct cause.
I prefer/have more confidence in an assertive Matt Mullenweg, and am encouraged by recent signs we see. I could even accede to an Extend cleanup/purge, if WordPress really needed it to gain position/stature/credibility, of the right sorts. I just like the old collection of half-finished/baked plugin-projects, and wanted to put my 2 cents in. š
James,
I looked for a better way to contact you … but I am getting New Comment notices on this particular post, for spam that are deleted. 13 notifications, not one new comment.
I’d like not to turn off Notify … just in case one was real, ya know? š
Ted
They definitely are spam, but they’re making it past the spam filters. If they make it past the filters, they’ll be treated like new comments, so the notifications are sent.
Bogus ‘New Comment’ notice #14 just came in. 2 main points:
1.) This spam is pretty fancy stuff. Virtually none of it is the usual scatter-gun noise. “Attack” is a closer fit than “spam”.
2.) I’m just about outa here. Other WP sites get spam too, but they aren’t sending out New Comment notices for it.
This crap has to be hurting your site. Who needs the hassle?
If you would like, I will help with research. I believe this is a correctable malfunction.
I’m well aware of how they are spam, otherwise they’d still be here.
Most of our spam is posted by actual people, so conventional spam filters won’t catch it, and this post appears to be a rather juicy spam magnet.
You’re welcome to unsubscribe from the comments via the “Unsubscribe” link in the emails you receive.
Hey James,
I kind of agree with Ted. I don’t think Ted means that the product behind the picture is necessarily poor. I think, however that there is a huge difference between a website that you’ve navigated to and going through pluggin’s with and without pictures. I’ve been in the social media and production business for a long long time. And one of the things I am sure of and have read numerous statistics about is content and its effect on people when making decisions.
Once again, I believe Teds point to be right. When working in a world with a ridiculous amount of information, people choose to shorten their time in information selection by determining shortcuts to thinking about selection. Pictures and rich media (video) are huge ways to do that. That is why Google makes video a priority and why you see it on so many SERP’s. People will certainly lend credibility to pluggin’s that have pictures. Thats my to cents anyway.