Albert Einstein was once quoted that Compound Interest was the Eighth Wonder of the World – I propose a Ninth Wonder of the World – Open Source Software.

Back in “the day” if you used a piece of software, say for example, Microsoft Word, and you thought to yourself, “Self, it would be really nice if Word could do ‘x’ – that would make my life a lot easier.” The only avenue by which you could possibly ever have your wish materialize was to write, call, or email a ‘suggestion’ department (if one existed) and hope that one day, (maybe elebendy years later), your desire may become a reality and your productivity will take a dramatic upturn.

Thankfully (wonderously?) that’s not the case in the Open Source world. With a little programming prowess, (or a few online connections) if you want some kind of feature or functionality added to your software, basically, “Your wish is your command!”

The open source community (of which WordPress is a part) basically has embedded in its collective consciousness a giant suggestion box. If you want a feature, you can develop a plugin. If you want an enhancement, you can modify a theme. If you’re not happy with a current implementation with something, you can make it better. There are no restrictions to what you can do except your imagination. And if you aren’t the actual person with the programming skills to do so, you can easily find someone who would be willing to program such a plugin for a very reasonable fee at sites like eLance or vWorker.

Open Source software, as opposed to closed or proprietary software, gives you the freedom to make software do what you want it to do.

I experienced a great example of this phenomenon this very week. Recently I was made aware of a plugin called CubePoints, which gives community-driven sites (like TheWPDojo) a point-system for member activity. The more active you are on TheWPDojo, the more points you get. You can receive points for commenting on a post, creating a post, or even just for checking into the site each day!

At TheWPDojo, I have also installed forum software for our community (that’s you!) to have discussions in. I thought “Hey, wouldn’t it be great if CubePoints would work with the forum plugin as well, so if they create a topic or reply to a topic in the forum, they also can receive points?”

Here’s where the beauty of Open Source shines! And as is often the case, when I tend to think of a ‘good idea’ someone else has beat me to the punch and already has a solution in place!

I did a Google Search for “CubePoints SimplePress” and came up with this article. Two code changes later, CubePoints can now reward members of TheWPDojo with points whether they are participating in our great community through article comments or through the discussion forum.

This is but one such solution I have come up with while building TheWPDojo – and for whatever website you are looking to build for whatever niche you are looking to serve, I’m sure you will run into the same scenario of “I wish I could do ‘x’ with my website.” Odds are, you can! Just search the user community for the plugins you are working with or do a Google search and see what comes up… I’ll bet you’ll be pleasantly surprised!

What about you?

Have you had this happen to you, where you were desiring some functionality with a WordPress Plugin and you found a solution that someone else had made? Let us know by commenting below – you may help or inspire someone else with their website, or you may find another point of inspiration for yourself by reading something that another member has done on theirs.

And hey, you’ll get some points!

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