Paying for WordPress plug-ins

Starting today I’m going to pay the WordPress plug-ins designers who helped build my web site. I urge you to do the same.

Although I picked up some Fortran and Pascal at school and university, I’m no programmer.

Even if I was, those languages are useless preparation for the modern tools used to build web sites. My only brush with programming was more than 30 years ago.

So when it comes to making this site sing and dance, I use a series of modules known as plug-ins to add functions to WordPress.

At the time of writing there are 20 plug-ins installed and active on this site.

Some handle administration tasks readers never get to see. Others are more obvious. For example, Tobias Bäthge‘s WP-Table Reloaded handle’s the tables in my NZ media on Twitter directory.

Plug-ins are usually free. Most authors write them for love, not money. They share the results with others.

As if writing plug-ins wasn’t enough work, they also support users. I’ve called on support a few times, some of it is first class.

Which is why, starting today, I’ll be making a point of donating to the plug-in designers who have helped to make my site a better experience for readers.

It’ll take some time to pay every designer. But it’s my resolution to pay them over the next few weeks.

I’m also going to acknowledge their work by listing them on my links page.

Updated July 13, 2011: I’ve moved my WordPress plug-in links to a separate page.