Is this plugin dead/abandoned?

Like many plugins on www.ads-software.com, it is released as a free and open community contribution. If it works for you, use it. If it doesn’t, use something else. If something is broken, share your issue and suggested solution so others may benefit.

Most issues when installing have to do with themes that either use FontAwesome in a conflicting manner, or style menus in such a way where display of icons requires tweaking. I am generally unable to provide custom styling on a user-by-user basis. Your mileage may vary.

Sure. And like all plugin authors, you are prompted to test and confirm your plugin with current releases, and if it’s compatible to push the “Compatible up to” tag. That is what I’m asking about.

I’m not looking to contribute or take it over, I don’t have a specific issue, and I’m not looking to do basic QA acceptance testing. I’m looking for confirmation that you are ensuring compatibility with current versions before I use it. The repo is rife with abandoned plugins and I avoid them if possible. No offence is intended, I simply seek clarity.

In the case of this plugin, the stated compatibility is for version 3.8.15, which is a security fix for the 3.8 branch despite having been lapped by 3.9 over a year ago. Since you are stating that it is explicitly compatible with the updated 3.8 branch and not the 3.9+ versions released before 3.8.15 — and specifically the current version — it implies that you are only ensuring compatibility up to 3.8. Which is either accidental or very specific.

Hence my question.

Sure. That’s understandable. 3.8.15 is just the last time I checked and updated the readme.

The “compatible up to” is a bit misleading in this regard. All Menu Social Icons does is filter through menus and add classes for FontAwesome. The filters in use have been around and unchanged since 3.0. I wouldn’t expect it to stop working until the wp-admin Menu interface is completely abandoned for the one in the customizer.

Generally speaking, I’ve been unable to volunteer support or updates for my plugins on .org for over a year. Every plugin and every developer is different, but in my case, I wrote hundreds of thousands of lines of freely available code, and simply burnt out.

I wish I could offer more, or had a clear model for sustaining code on .org, but just like everyone else, I had to turn attention to systems that give back.

In short, most plugins on .org are volunteer, and in my opinion, most appropriate for users who can dig in and read through code themselves. If hands-on-support is desired, some of paid plugins on other markets may be a better fit.

Think of .org as a food bank, scrap yard, or library. If you’d like regular updates or customer service, markets offering a customer relationship are a more appropriate place to search.