Posting "unapproved" links

Yesterday, on one of my plugins which is still under approval, a person wanted a link to download it. I created a release on the Github repo and posted the link there. It was deleted. Why?

Why was it deleted? Why can plugins like Essentials provide links to unofficial builds on (i.e. Jenkins) but i can't post a comment with a link? Double standards?

 

There is no double standard. The guidelines are quite clear on this matter. See the Download Links section of the guidelines for more information.

Link for convenience: http://wiki.bukkit.org/BukkitDev:Project_Submission_Guidelines#Download_Links

 

Not clear to me. Mind explaining?

 

stuntguy3000 You can have a link to unapproved builds on a CI server, granted you follow the guidelines. If its not on a CI server, it must be on dev.bukkit.org

It's in clear English btw.

 

What difference does a CI server vs Github releases make?

 

If you can compile a plugin and go through the trouble of making a GitHub release, you can upload it to DBO. Unless there is a server crashing bug or a dupe exploit in your plugin waiting for the approval process should not be a problem.

 

That didn't answer my question one bit.

The Bukkit approval process is about 1 week. And, The update i posted was quite critical, none the less.

So what is the difference?

You can't say waiting is good. This is a contradictory rule and a double standard. Allowing downloads from one service, but not another.

 

You can PM a BukkitDev staff member if your current plugin on BukkitDev wrecks servers and ask for a faster approval time. Currently, our approval time is rather high at about 3 days on average, yet that does not provide justification for bypassing our guidelines. As you have provided no justification to allow any random hosting service (which is all GitHub releases are) I do not see a reason to allow that concession. Saying "You allow CI's" is not justification for allowing any other site or service for plugin downloads.

We only allow CI services as many developers like the speed at which they can develop and distribute test builds, while still using BukkitDev to be the primary source for distribution of the builds they recommend for use to the majority of their users.