HI!
Some history:
Blender Addons Project in it’s current form, started way back in 2.49 with this:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.4/Py/Scripts
With changes to Blender & Python in new territory: Blender 2.5, we ported over many, many addons into the new system.
As Blender Matured & Addons Devs kept updating through API changes breaking their addons, most were brought through into the Blender 2.6x era, which culminated here:
http://wiki.blender.org/index.php/Extensions:2.6/Py/Scripts
During this time there were many talented authors who dedicated a great amount of time to addons dev, some have gone, some have stayed, some come & go.
Now we are into 2.7x & it’s time to move Addons forward once again.
The Project:
1/ Repairs & Updates, Removals & Mergers, New Developers!
1a/
It’s time to Repair broken useful addons in Blender Release & Blender Contrib
There’s many broken or partly working addons, from sapling in release to mesh_extra_tools in contrib.
There is a bug tracker for addons here: https://developer.blender.org/maniphest/project/3/type/Bug/
Rather than everyone report individual bugs for addons, please check if the addon already has a reported bug, then add your bug to the report. Thanks. Also do not use the bug tracker for feature requests, it’s for bug reports & code fixes.
1b/
It’s time to Update many addons, from adding materials support to ANT landscape in release to putting the best small mesh edit addons into mesh_extra_tools & removing the now invalid ones. Addons in Blender need updating, to be taken forward in developement, as Blender moves forward.
1c/
It’s not nice to remove an addon from Blender. Especially from Blender release. However, if the addon has no maintainer or no way of repairing to work with Blender, then it really cannot be shipped with Blender. Adding warnings is ok in some cases, until the addon is repaired, but if an addon is sitting there going stale with no-one to fix, it will be removed in 2.73. We have seen this already with the Screencast keys addon, which had non-solvable problems. It’s gone. Other’s will follow unless the community on which the addons library was founded step up & help again.
1d/
Mergers, love them or hate them, addons such as add_mesh_extra_objects, mesh_extra_tools, mesh_select_tools & more, work well. Iceking’s tools are another example (not in Blender yet 
). Identifying & merging similar function addons makes sense. If your a mesh editor, you might need several tools that vary from blender’s built in. Tools such as inset & extrude group together well, or a sculptor might want to enable one addon not 5. This does have to be thought out carefully, if executed well, it works well.
1e/
New Developers!
Old developers!
With the move from subversion to Git there’s many addons devs who didn’t make the jump. Some of these are slowly coming back, which is great. I see many. many more addons devs who have their own git repo’s, which is great. many of these “new” developers would be very welcome to add new addons into both contrib & after review, Blender Release.
New developers are most welcome to help out with many things, Bug Fixes/Reports, Patches/Fixes are always welcome.
Targets:
Repairs & Updates, Removals & Mergers: addons release 2.73, addons_contrib 2.73
New Devs & New Addons in addons_contrib 2.73 (maybe one or two in release)
New Devs & New Addons in addons release 2.74
Summary:
Many addons started their life here on these forums, this community has done an outstanding job in creating, maintaining & participating in the development of Addons in Blender.
Let’s keep it going & make Addons stronger.
Thank You!
EDIT: Please keep this thread dedicated to Developement of Addons.
