Fuss over "Duplicate" plugins

Recently, there's been a fair bit of fuss over "duplicate" plugins - especially those that provide Logging, TNT blocking or similar measures. The argument repeatedly being brought up, is that there are too many of these plugins that do similar tasks, and therefore - something should be done about it.

To give a little context on this, it's generally the plugin developers who're moaning here, and the "solution" being brought up in general, seems to center around the idea of Bukkit Staff not approving plugins that are similar to others; or provide similar functionality.
The idea being, that removing plugins that are almost identical, helps people find the more useful ones and prevents so many plugins that die out after a few weeks.

For me personally, I see it as a terrible idea to remove plugins, or stop their submission; simply due to having similar functionality. If you start preventing some plugins and allowing others - you end up with little diversity, less opportunity for server-owners to run a server how they wish, and less developers in the community.

On some occasions I've heard people go as far as to say "there should only be one plugin of each type on Bukkit". While this is definitely an extreme view; it does lead on to my next point. If we limited plugins based on what they do - what would happen to the number of very similar; but still unique plugins there are. For example, my own LDQuest plugin is definitely not the only Quest plugin. However, (at least at time of release) it was the only one to provide quests in the manner it did - other quest plugins implemented an entirely different system, that had different objectives in mind. In the system of "no duplicates", would we be limited to a single Quest plugin, and expect it to provide the functionality that every quest user wants? Of course not.

So, I hope you can see that my view is thoroughly opposed to any idea of Bukkit Staff censoring or otherwise deciding which plugin ideas are "valid" and which aren't.
I'd love to hear your opinion on it - whether you agree with removing duplication, think it's a bad idea; or even prefer some kind of middle ground where plugins are rated by the users.

Thanks for reading.

 

I feel as that it is not trying to get rid of small amounts of duplicates, its about getting rid of the plugins that have 20+ duplicates (like the very simple logging/blocking plugins)
honestly the easiest solution is to get rid of the purple developer tag as that is a reason a lot of people create these crappy plugins

 

well.. there are 2 problems we have

1) A lot of the plugins are "exactly" (around 95%) the same, especially if you take a look at the tnt and logger stuff.. somebody sees it and says... well that is nice but instead of cake for a placed tnt I want to have a flower... woops... a new plugin... not even that he copied the code to more than 20 %..
2) On the other side we see plugins go dead because the developer goes awol..

So I would like to see more working together between developers, so instead of creating your OWN you add the functionality TOO the other plugin, at least when the difference is so small like with the tnt or logger plugins. Or you take over an old plugin and make it work again. Instead of writing something "new" which is just almost again the same but with a new name..

A lot of people start small... fine... but you can also take over plugins which are inactive like I did and help people.. without making a copy of the plugin, changing the full config and permissions etc...

So what would be perhaps an idea to have a solution: (Keeping in mind that I would like to keep the forums here on top of dev.bukkit but that is another thing..)

a) Give Plugin Developers their Plugin Developer status, as that also comes with perks like access to "superelite" information.
b) Don't move their Plugins into Release but in NOTReleased Plugins if they have the same functionality (around 90%) like at least 2 other plugins.
c) If those developers don't develop another plugin in the next serveral month which are being moved to Released Plugins remove the Plugin Developer Status.
d) If other Plugin Developers are not active anymore remove their Status and if a plugin is moved into Inactive move a Plugin from not released into released.

yeah I know a lot of work for the mods...

but I think c) and d) should be done... and quite fast... as I know a lot of one hit wonders here who are plugin developers (or only have PRIVATE plugins) and a lot of developers who only have inactive plugins.

and with one hit wonders I mean developers who create just a simple plugin and that's it, not something like your ldquest ;-)

Just my POV..

 

I've seen some "Plugin developers" asking the most stupid questions possible, questions or posts that make you wonder how they can walk upright on two feet, not to mention how they got that purple tag if they don't even know the most basic things about Minecraft or Bukkit.

 

hence why i am all for getting rid of the tag, its not necessary IMO as if you make plugins you should know whether or not you really a doing decent development

 

well the tag is one thing... but it also means you are in a specific group which give you access to more forums..

and I don't think people who keep on developing and create nice and interesting plugins should NOT have this tag..

and I don't want a devide between plugin developers who know java since ages or code already since ages and people just starting...

make it a require to keep your plugin updated and create at least ONE unique plugin or keep other plugins alive and than you wouldn't have the problem...

atm it is to easy to get the tag.. and atm it is for live... just look at how many people have the tag but didn't even update their plugins since 4 months... they are still active in the forums though... and sometimes they even through their "weight" around..

but just because of those and the people who create the next tnt plugin to remove the tag altogether is plain... STUPID.

 

remove the tag and give access to everybody to each part of the forum, would be a non-issue then

TBH there is nothing special in the Bukkit+ section anyways, especially since the noobs who create the tnt plugin can go there anyways

honestly i am one of those people who has a little bit of output every once in a while in the form of public plugins and occasionally update them, then again nobody asks me to update then so I forget and don't care

 

If the purple tag was initially to 'distinguish the maker of a plugin with other people', then I'd say:
- Get rid of the developer tag: it does not distinguish pro coders and weak coders
- Add a blue 'Original Poster' tag for everyone instead, so people can still distinguish the developer and the regular users in the developers main thread.