In reply to John Dee.

Sorry, I forgot to subscribe so I did not see your reply earlier.

This is because you have been trained – as a user – to think that the plugins suck, or that they authors aren’t reputable [why are you checking if you don’t think that?]!

No I haven't been trained to think that. The WordPress eco system is incredibly diverse, with all kinds of people in it not just users and developers. There are end users, power users, hobby devs, freelancers, enterprise level devs etc along with dito characters. The way I audit plugins probably isn't the same on how the plugin team does these checks. Everyone can have a plugin in the .org rep and I agree with that. It's an open source project, not a company. The repository serves other purposes than just serving me plugins for my project.

This makes the smell worse. In fact, the notice will be used for exactly what you’ve said: to check if the author is somehow “bad” [which they too often are!].

. No, I just check who I am dealing with. Can it be bad? Yeah. Have you heard of the Mason Soiza scandal, Pipdig? Oh and apps /plugins turning rogue after an ownership change isn't exclusive to WordPress. Happens in the playstore and even the App store as well.

But it also works the other way around. When a plugin gets adopted by a bigger company (like f.e. Automattic, Ithemes WPEngine) it can mean it will align better with other plugins in the future. In that case in time another plugin (or custom code) has to make place. Regular checks like these are in my opinion just good housekeeping.