Guideline change: Reviews of Commercial/Pro Plugins

As discussed at https://make.wordpress.org/support/2024/02/suggestion-for-a-change-in-the-guidelines/ , the forums team met on Slack on Feb. 8 and agreed to the change in the guideline regarding commercial reviews.

The paragraph currently reads

Reviews of plugins and themes are to be limited to the functionality of the plugin Plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party or theme hosted on WordPress.org WordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ and the support provided by the authors for the versions of the plugins/themes hosted on WordPress.org.

That sentence will be replaced with

Reviews of commercial plugins/themes are acceptable on wordpress.org w hen such reviews discuss functionality or user-facing features. Reviews that are essentially payment disputes or are used to leverage support will be archived, with a reply that such disputes should be handled via private email.

Essentially, if it’s about WordPress, the review is OK. If it’s about the process of purchasing, subscribing, or supporting the paid plugin, then a review is not OK.

Various what-if scenarios we discussed on Slack Slack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/ . The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/ . .

The plugins document will be updated in the near future.

Steven Stern (sterndata) 10:34 pm on February 8, 2024

+make.wordpress.org/plugins/
+make.wordpress.org/themes/
Matt Cromwell 4:47 pm on February 12, 2024

Reviews very often cite the quality (or lack thereof) of Support. This guideline change doesn’t mention that at all, but Support clearly doesn’t fall into the realm of “functionality or user-facing features”.

I personally believe that the quality of Support is vital to a plugin Plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party /theme and should be allowed as the inspiration of a review, but just wanted to raise that as a question since the way this was clarified seems like it could have sideways implications.
- James Huff 7:28 pm on February 12, 2024
  
  Right now, reviews mentioning support quality in the free forums are absolutely allowed. As you mentioned, they do indeed reflect on the user’s experience with the free plugin Plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party /theme.
  
  What we don’t want are reviews of support earned by purchasing the commercial version of the plugin/theme, as that would be irrelevant to the user’s experience with the free plugin/theme.
  
  The difficulty often comes in users simply mentioning “support,” and not clarifying if it was free support or paid support. Those will need to be handled on a case-by-case basis.
Matt Cromwell 4:50 pm on February 12, 2024

Additionally, I don’t know what the technical implications are of a Review being “Archived” versus “Deleted”. Is there a difference? Does being Archived impact the overall rating of the plugin Plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party ?
- James Huff 7:23 pm on February 12, 2024
  
  There is effectively no difference, we always archive instead of delete, so that it is removed from public view but a record is kept.
  
  The only exception is spam, no reason for that take up space in the database.
Matt Cromwell 7:03 pm on February 12, 2024

One more question, is it possible to petition for old reviews to be removed in light of this new policy?
- James Huff 7:24 pm on February 12, 2024
  
  No, guideline changes are not retroactive, as anything otherwise would impose an undue burden on the volunteer moderators.
Alan Fuller 9:28 pm on February 12, 2024

Oh I completely disagree with

What we don’t want are reviews of support earned by purchasing the commercial version of the plugin Plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party /theme, as that would be irrelevant to the user’s experience with the free plugin/theme.

It is flawed logic. If it is OK to review up-sold functionality ( which is also “irrelevant to the user’s experience with the free plugin” ) then it is OK to review up-sold support.

You really can only have both or neither IMHO.
- James Huff 11:37 pm on February 12, 2024
  
  The issue is the difficulty in disentangling functionality of the free plugin Plugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party /theme vs. the commercial plugin/theme. At this time, there are not enough volunteer moderators to manage that distinction, so if the review covers functionality, then the review stands.
  
  Support is a bit different. Either they don’t clarify where the support came from and it stands, or they do clarify it’s commercial support and we remove it. For more on that, please see this earlier reply: https://make.wordpress.org/support/2024/02/guideline-change-reviews-of-commercial-pro-plugins/#comment -173502

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Guideline change: Reviews of Commercial/Pro Plugins

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