Wow, I just got an error while uploading a theme, here's a screenshot:

http://oi45.tinypic.com/260tmqb.jpg

What does it mean?

Faulty notifications sent:

http://trac.elgg.org/ticket/4654

Compatible Elgg version no longer displayed on plugin pages:

http://trac.elgg.org/ticket/2756

@iionly - the compatible Elgg version is appended to the title of the plugin

Regarding version information:

I don't know if I had only missed that before or if the version information was not yet displayed appended to the plugin name when I posted this ticket. I guess I just missed it.

BUT...

I'm not really happy about that way to display compatibility information:

• I would expect such information to be included either in the plugin stats or maybe even better: restructure the plugin page layout to display in one section on the page (maybe between plugin description and release information): "Compatible Elgg version: X.X  ....       DOWNLOAD" (as the download button in the "title" section looks also rather strange).
• Appending the version information to the plugin name is not transparent: how should I know that the version shown is after the name isn't part of the name? How should I see it as an information about "Compatibility"?
• Some plugins already include "for Elgg X.X" in the name (or in case of my plugins I decided to name the "Elgg X.X: Plugin name"). For such plugins it looks rather strange now: "Plugin X for Elgg X.X for Elgg X.X". The advantage to include the version information in the name is that the version is also visible on the plugin lists already and not only on the plugin pages alone.
• For older plugins that were uploaded before the version dropdown selection was included on the upload page there is nothing appended to the plugin name. How should anyone (new users especially) know that this means that the plugin most likely does not work on the more recent releases. If there would be the text "Compatible Elgg version" followed by nothing shown on the page the user might get suspicous more likely.

There may be other reasons against the current convention to add the version information to the plugin name. Well, I stop listing them nonetheless. Are there any reasons why to append the Elgg version to the name?

What's your opinion?

yes @iionly you are right

I like appending the elgg version to the name - many of us were doing it anyway for the simple reason that it's visible and unambiguous.  I agree that it could make sense for it also to be listed elsewhere though.  You can edit the title of any plugins to remove your appended "for Elgg x.x"

@Matt: when modifying the plugin title you can only remove the "Elgg X.X" title part you have added yourself. But then the version information will not be shown for example on the list view of plugins or the river because the appendix "for Elgg X.X" that gets automatically added is only included on the plugin page. So, modification of the plugin title by the uploader would only result in less information available.

Also, I doubt that many developer who have included the version information in the past will adjust the title of formerly uploaded plugins (if only due to lazyness). For these plugins the double version information will stay. It's just a flaw, but still...

I'm putting it in the title because 1) that was the defacto standard that people have been setting and 2) it's useful. I think developer laziness is actually a point in *favor* of putting it in the title automatically, because that means older plugins which didn't specify it in their titles will now be explicit (e.g. Tidypics, Pete's Themes, etc.). Will a few plugins look silly? yea. Does it matter? no.

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@Evan:

Yes, adding version information to the title of a plugin has become a defacto standard. Why? Because it had been useful in the past before any version information at all had been shown on the plugin pages. Before Elgg 1.7 (or Elgg 1.6?) there was not even the option to select a compatible Elgg version when uploading a plugin release. Then this option was added to the upload form but still not shown on plugin pages (http://trac.elgg.org/ticket/2756). Then the version information was shown on plugin pages at last. Still, developers included the compatible version in the title. Why? Maybe because it has already become a defacto standard but maybe also because it added some additional information at other places on the community site (plugin widget on profile, list view of plugins, river entries). Adding the version information to the title on plugin pages (and only there) leaves us with two options now: either we still add the version information to the title even if this looks rather strange now on plugin pages or we don't add the version information to the title and the additional information on other pages than the plugin page is lost.

I don't understand the second argument: there's a default for compatible version always been set when uploading a plugin release and leaving this setting unchanged. So, in case of a lazy developer there will still always be some version information available but it simply might not be the correct one (I guess it will be an interesting question which version to set as default when Elgg 1.9 will get released, i.e. when to change default from 1.8 to 1.9...). Anyway, there will be a version information be available to be displayed (and it seems also for older plugins there is now always some version shown different to the old Elgg 1.7 community theme). But still this does not necessarily need to be appended to the title.

"Will a few plugins look silly? yea. Does it matter? no."

Yep, a few plugins will look silly.... Do they need to look silly? Nope... as the version information does not need to be appended to the title but can be shown separately on the plugin pages. Would it be less informative to display the version information separately on plugin pages? Nope... as the version information is also only appended on plugin pages.