Shoutbox

All nice ideas in theory... However, in practice: one big mess which doesn't work half of the time...

Like said before, it requires that the plugin developers are VERY serious about their work and not lazy at all. The plugins, sites and data must be maintained all the time. From all the plugins that are made, only a very very small handfull are actually maintained and updated if nessecairy. If you roam these forums you'll notice right away that many plugins are written and then forgotten about (even by their creators). Many creators also don't bother writting decent readme's, or at least give some very small explaination or even let it be listed in the official database.

Then there is indeed the fact that developers wont have access to the maintained "versioncheck-file" on the server and they need to contact someone whenever they want to change it. Again, prone to delays, mess and redundant things...

All things considered, a good theoretical idea, nothing more...

PS: it would be a good start if everyone who ever made a plugin and published it here on the forums, submitted his plugin to the official database including (including!!!) proper instructions, description of the plugin, link(s) to thread(s) (or site) for more info, etc... But since this isn't even happening, I realy don't see a point in making a central update thingie...