akismet/readme.txt

That was the current WordPress version at the time of the last release. It hasn’t been increased since then because we haven’t released a new version of the plugin since then.

To answer your question, yes, it works fine with the WordPress 3.2.1.

Okay, so where does the information displayed here:

Requires WordPress Version: 3.0 or higher
Compatible up to: 3.1.4
Last Updated: 2011-1-14
Downloads: 7,036,346

…come from?

Does the “Compatible up to:” area come from the readme.txt file or somewhere else?

If the plug-in is only advertising that it works up to 3.1.4, isn’t that giving people a mixed message about what versions of WordPress it will actually work with?

bamajr,

I can see where it can be a bit confusing about the compatibility of plugins.

The Askimet readme.txt shows it’s been tested up to 3.1
The plugin page shows it’s compatible up to 3.1.4.

Maybe the developers update the Compatible up to version to let us know what they know for sure it works on, without going through the process of updating just the readme.txt file and doing a new version number just for that change, which would alert all of us there’s an update.

Think about how much work that would be to keep changing the readme.txt file for every plugin of what version it’s been tested on and then doing a new version for that simple change. It’s best to wait until they’ve improve or fixed something in an update.

The plugin repository is a great place to find out information about our plugins. We can view requirements, compatible up to, last updated, Changelog, and also see votes from other users.

For me, I hop to the Last Updated section, if it’s really old I consider finding a replacement. Then I jump down to the Compatibility Votes for my current version and see works vs. broken.

If I find that a plugin is voted as broken, I click on the “Forum Posts” link on the page and find out why it was reported as broken. Sometimes, it’s an end-user issue and not the plugin itself.

You can also help out by participating in voting. The more votes, the more each of us know if a plugin works.

Hope that helps.