Suggestion: Automatic Plugin Compatibilty Info

(I assume that) WordPress blogs already query the plugin repository when someone views the ‘Admin’ pages ( … assumption based on the fact that I get told by a bubble that there’s a newer version of ‘x’ plugin available).

Unfortunately the ‘plugin compatibilty’ box on a plugin’s repository page probably MAINLY only gets voted on – if at all – by new users of that plugin. It’s unlikely that people who have happily used a particular plugin for ages will ‘revote’ when upgrading their WordPress version. This makes the information particularly unuseful just after an upgrade to the WP core.

Why not therefore make the communication two-way – in other words, when I view my dashboard I ‘send’ “I’m using X, Y, and Z plugins on WP3.6”. Admittedly some of the plugins for some people may be broken, but I’m guessing that users pretty quickly deactivate or remove them.

On a similar subject, how about a “Why” tick box when removing plugins. A few simple reasons, like “Doesn’t work” “No longer required” and “Using a different plugin” should cover the majority of reasons for removal, and I’m sure most users wouldn’t mind this small extra step (for the good of the community after all!)

“This plugin has been downloaded 40,000 times” is not really useful information if 40,000 people have found that it doesn’t function as expected. “This plugin is active on 10,000 sites” is much more useful to know.