Fire
Download and install.
Useful, distinctive and likely to remain in the setup.
Recurring format
Fire or Nah?
The Friday Freebie Ranking
Don't download it yet.
ASP tests selected freebies before they reach the ranking.
How it works
A free plugin is not a mandatory installation.
Free plugins appear all week.
ASP downloads, installs and tests them before your plugin folder has to suffer.
In each edition, selected freebies are ranked by usefulness, workflow value and the likelihood that they will still be installed next month.
The point is not to collect everything. It is to decide what deserves a real place in the setup, what is worth claiming for later and what can be ignored without emotional damage.
Occasionally an offer appears before the product does — a plugin announced without a name, a licence promised for something that has not shipped. That gets ??? as a verdict. The opportunity is worth telling you about; an opinion about a product nobody has heard yet is not ours to give.
- 01 Freebie appears
- 02 ASP claims it
- 03 It gets installed and tested
- 04 The ranking is published
Editorial model
Verdict and status are separate
Verdict tells you what we think. Status tells you what is happening. A plugin can be Fire and Free. It can be Nah and Breaking. It can be Stash and Call an Ambulance. These measure different things.
VERDICT
What do we think?
Editorial judgment. Not timing.
- Fire
- Download and install. Useful, distinctive and likely to remain in the setup.
- Stash
- Claim it while it is free. Keep it around for a future project if it earns the slot.
- Digital Furniture
- Functional, but mostly there to occupy disk space and appear in plugin scans.
- Nah
- Not worth the registration, download, installation or extra scan.
- ???
- The offer is real, the product is not public yet. We publish the opportunity and withhold the opinion.
STATUS
What is happening?
Temporal context. Not quality.
- Breaking
- Fresh news. No pressure. Breaking, not bleeding.
- New Release
- A recent release. Quality still has to prove itself.
- Free
- Currently free. Duration not inferred.
- Call an Ambulance
- A genuinely exceptional opportunity that probably will not wait.
- Last Chance
- Only when the deadline is documented or officially confirmed.
- Updated
- An existing article received materially new information.
Evaluation criteria
What gets tested
- Usefulness
- Does it solve a real production problem?
- Workflow
- Is it fast, clear and practical?
- Character
- Does it offer something meaningfully different?
- Staying Power
- Will it still be installed next month?
Four possible outcomes
The ranking
Stash
Claim it while it is free.
Do not necessarily install it now, but it may be worth keeping in your account for a future project.
Digital Furniture
It works, but it will probably spend most of its life occupying disk space and appearing in plugin scans.
Nah
Not worth the registration, download, installation or additional plugin scan.
Current status
First ranking in preparation.
The plugin folder is currently accepting volunteers.