10

At the TeX SO it's usual to mark questions that led to new packages with a little box, like this:

This question led to a new package:
packagename

> **This question led to a new package:**  
> [`packagename`](http://www.ctan.org/pkg/packagename)

(Check this and this.)

I think it would be nice to do the same here and mark the questions that led to new plugins. Then, as it's mentioned in the posts linked above, we could search for "led to a new plugin" and see all the plugins that originated at the Vi SO.

this would also be useful for future users who get here looking for answers to the same questions. Instead of reinventing the wheel, they'll quickly find out there's a plugin that does what they want.

Edit:

Here are a couple of examples:

This question led to this plugin.

This question led to this plugin.

These questions helped with this plugin.

9
  • Have there been a significant number of answers that have actually directly caused the authoring of new plugins? Have there been any?
    – user72
    Jul 30 '16 at 18:37
  • @JoshPetrie Well, directly caused might be a stretch, but many of my recent questions surfaced while I was trying to write plugins. That would be more like "this question helped with the creation of a new plugin", but it might still be worth noting. A couple really directly led to plugins themselves. And besides my own questions, well, I wouldn't know if there are others, would I, since they're not marked, haha.
    – dbmrq
    Jul 30 '16 at 18:50
  • Could you edit your question to link to the posts you're talking about?
    – user72
    Jul 30 '16 at 18:54
  • @JoshPetrie There you go. :)
    – dbmrq
    Jul 30 '16 at 19:04
  • 1
    There's a couple of questions that have made me think about writing a plugin. I haven't quite got there, yet, but this idea is actually an incentive for me to do so. :)
    – Rich
    Aug 1 '16 at 8:16
  • 4
    I think the idea isn't bad but there is a risk of abuse: it could lead plugin creator to ask (not relevant) questions in order to advertise there plugin... I'm not saying I'm against this idea, I'm just pointing out a potential problem. Now if the idea works well on TeX SO, I don't see a reason not to use it here.
    – statox
    Aug 1 '16 at 12:06
  • @statox That's a good point. It should be fairly easy to see whether or not the plugin predates the question, and I'm sceptical plugin authors would go to trouble of writing fake questions before they start work on/publish their plugins, but it's extra moderator burden if we want to prevent this, and without clearly stated guidelines for what is acceptable I could see it getting a bit messy.
    – Rich
    Aug 2 '16 at 9:22
  • 1
    @Rich: Yes I agree that it is unlikely to happen: The important point is to 1) have clear guidelines about that 2) be sure that our moderators would be ready for this potentially additional moderation job. From what I understand our site doesn't need that much moderation work for the moment so I guess they would be able to handle it.
    – statox
    Aug 2 '16 at 11:23
  • What about questions that initiated new features in pre-existing plugins? For instance, to answer vi.stackexchange.com/questions/7925/… , I've added a couple of functions and mappings to something that was already there.
    – Luc Hermitte
    Aug 27 '16 at 12:51
4

I'd like to think that most people who create a plugin based on an answer here already go back to their answer to add a link. I certainly do.

As for the box layout, it is the proverbial bikeshed. I have so far just added a simple link to my answers, but if people want a consistent box then that's fine. Either way, editing an answer to add a link to a plugin which was created from the question should be fine in most cases (especially if the author of the plugin is the same as the author of the question).

As for maintaining a list of plugins, good idea! I have just started such a list here.

I included my own plugins and the ones in this questions except for vim-ditto, since it wasn't really clear to me from which question this was inspired and it was phrased as "help with" − to be clear, I don't think we need to list plugins that were helped out by an answer on this site, just plugins that were inspired by a question on this site.

Feel free to expand this list.

From the comments:

I think the idea isn't bad but there is a risk of abuse: it could lead plugin creator to ask (not relevant) questions in order to advertise their plugin

[..]

The important point is to 1) have clear guidelines about that

The "risk for abuse" is already present. Linking to plugins is not only allowed, it is encouraged. It's just that answers that offer only "try this plugin" without any further explanation are considered undesired.

If you can ask an on-topic question and write a decent answer to that, then by all means go ahead. I couldn't care less if you did it only to promote your plugin, if the content is good, then the content is good.

I don't think we need any new guidelines for this.

1
  • TIL what a bikeshed is :-) Long life to our new community wiki list of plugin!
    – statox
    Aug 8 '16 at 9:19

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .