I was reading Joost de Valk’s post, On the GPL, Themes, Plugins & Free. Matt Mullenweg had mentioned during WordCamp Chicago 2009 about how WordPress was going to be putting a separate section recognizing people who did commercially supported GPL themes. I for one, though I have never been very verbal about it, have always had done this for my own themes that I made for clients.

Recently, I blogged about How To Appreciate Your Web Developers where I try to spread the message that it is important to support your web developers and how to do it. This can be tied with the topic for WordPress GPL themes and plugins. I like this idea about the themes, but I have to agree with people like Joost de Valk and Justin Parks that plugin developers should be included. These special plugins give that extra oomph to make your site pop. I remember my first plugin donation was to Alex King for WP-Grins and that was a couple years ago. I now make free emoticon smilies for people to use and most people probably have used his plugin.

What are your thoughts on this? Do you even think there should be a section to recognize GPL supported themes or plugins? Have you ever donated to a WordPress plugin developer?

With the recent passing of Michael Jackson, there has been an amazing thing. People are showing their concerns for Michael Jackson and spreading news via Twitter, Facebook, blogs, normal online news sites, and more.

Of course, Michael Jackson has always been someone to talk about. He was a very influential man within pop culture. For decades he has been a celebrity. People grew up to him on television and through music. People even grew up with his family too. I remember when I was young that my father use to blast his Thriller album loudly. I cannot forget it even at such a young age.

Music artists across many genre has publicly said that his music and dancing influenced some of their work at one point or another.

Although the majority of his life was without the social media that exists today (like the internet), he stuck to several principles when in the public eye.

• He was true to himself even if some decisions were not accepted by others.
• He influenced others and became an expert to others who were in the same industry.
• He had a team of people besides himself at getting the word spread about his music.
• He was consistent with his music and dancing by breaking new barriers and delivering a better song each time.
• He successfully branded himself not just as a person, but on a business level too!

So before his official site or fan club ever came online, he was already a social media expert. Of course, it cost him money, but he connected with those who could help him on his journey. Michael Jackson will always be remembered for his work.

What will you remember about him? How can you use his successful climb in social media to influence your own?

Let us face it, web developers can be under-appreciated. Most offer their work for free and ask for nothing. The problem is, some of these developers come up with great things. What spurred this topic on… well, the topic came up in the WordPress group in LinkedIn. It was apparent that I was not the only person experiencing a bit of under-appreciation.

Did you know PHPads has had over 2700 downloads since January 2009, and PHPurl has been downloaded over 700 times. This is not a rant. Believe me, if I felt like it, I would, but that is not the point. All of these people go through and download. Each download takes a little bandwidth and people are making money off of at least PHPads. A free tool that makes you money.

Think about all the scripts and plugins you have used, even those WordPress plugins. There are plenty of people who make plugins… many of which are very handy. I have helped test quite a few plugins and tweaked many more for my own use as well as use for clients. Have I donated – yes I have. How many plugins do you use? How many of them have a little link to donate? Have you ever donated?

I know that not everyone has a lot of money, especially with the tough economy, but we should help each other out in some way. It is the generally better to spread the word about the resource than to donate, but that little bit always makes a developers day. Here is how you can appreciate your developers, whether they are a developer of an entire script or even WordPress plugin:

• Blog about the script or plugin if you liked it. You never know… one of the people who read your blog and then visited that developer might spread the word or even donate.
• Tell people in your social media networks like on Facebook and Twitter about it.
• If a developer does not have a way for you to donate, contact them and urge them to put one up. Whether you do donate or not once they do put a donation button up, at least it is up and visible.
• Put up credit somewhere on your site on what script or plugin you are using, even if you are using it to develop a client’s website.
• Donate at least $5. It is not much, but every little bit is appreciated.

Simple, right? What others ways do you think might help developers become more appreciated?