Download Monitor is old. Around 8 years old in fact and was one of the first plugins I made for WordPress, back in the time before custom post types and all the other luxuries developers enjoy today.
It has been rewritten 4 times, seen well over 100 releases, and been downloaded 600,000 times. The latest ‘v1’ reboot has been praised and I often receive nice comments from users even though development has slowed of late.
But but therein lies the problem; time. The biggest, most exciting projects I’m working on (WP Job Manager, and WooCommerce at Woothemes) take up most of my time, so without sleeping at my desk I don’t have sufficient time to maintain and grow the plugin.
So rather than let it die a slow and neglected death, I’ve taken the difficult decision to abandon the project.
But Don’t Worry, It’s Being Adopted
Developer Barry Kooij (previously with Yoast and now a coworker at Woo) will be taking over the development of the plugin going forward.
The repositories have been transfered and work has already begun on the next version, so it looks like the plugin will be going for a few more years after all. Good luck to him!
With Download Monitor off of my plate, I can now focus on my other projects which are really taking off in a big way and demanding more of my focus. I’m really excited about it’s future, and I’m happy that Download Monitor is in safe hands.
Comments
4 responses to “Parting Ways with the Download Monitor Plugin”
@mike thanks for keeping it alive all these years, appreciate all your work on it!
Can’t wait to see what Barry does with it!
@mike Like Jeffrey, thanks for keeping it alive so long. It’s a great plugin and I’m sure Barry will take good care of it!
@mike Thank you for answering me and making all these arrangements for a beloved plugin. As a proud donor to the work, I look forward to looking at WooCommerce as well. Welcome Barry – the website’s changed since I first found it at the beginning of Dec. Great work.