Two months ago the WordPress Plugin Directory guidelines became a heated topic of debate after the plugin team began cracking down on incentivized reviews. The most recent publicized incident involved the Sprout Invoices plugin, which was temporarily removed from the directory and all of its 5-star reviews erased after it (more…)
Last week, Dan Cameron, creator of Sprout Invoices, received an email from the WordPress.org plugin review team stating that his plugin was in violation of the repository guidelines. Sprout Invoices was promptly removed from the directory and all of its 5-star reviews were also removed. Cameron had been discounting the (more…)
WordCamp Europe 2016 had 500 attendees sign up for contributor day, which was held on Sunday at the University of Vienna. For the first time ever, the event hosted a plugin review workshop led by Mika Epstein where attendees learned about how the repository and review system works. Epstein announced (more…)
One of the main items on the agenda for the Theme Review Team this week was to finalize what type of upselling is allowed in themes hosted on WordPress.org. With the requirement of using the customizer for options, theme authors have gotten creative with upsells and will sometimes include panels (more…)
The official plugin directory is arguably the best place to host a plugin if you’re looking for the widest distribution, but it’s also one of the most inhospitable for developers. A current meta team initiative is focused on improving search, including prioritizing translated plugins for international users, and streamlining plugin (more…)
Today the WordPress plugin review team issued a reminder for what they said is a long-standing, unwritten rule: frameworks are not allowed in the official directory. In a post tiled “Please do not submit frameworks,” Mika Epstein outlined the reason behind the rule: At this time, we are not accepting (more…)
In February 2015, the WordPress Theme Directory launched a new design. Konstantin Obenland worked with Samuel “Otto” Wood and the WordPress meta team to update the design and move the directory off of bbPress. Today Obenland announced that the Plugin Directory will be getting a similar treatment. Version 3 of (more…)
One of the small hurdles to hosting a plugin on WordPress.org is the fact that you have to use SVN to ship your updates. Most developers are far more familiar with Git. It’s not difficult to learn how to use SVN for the sake of WordPress.org plugins, but many find (more…)
WordPress.org is making strides towards fully localizing the project’s official theme and plugin directories. Dion Hulse posted this morning that he has enabled localized theme directories for all Rosetta sites. For example, the Romanian themes directory is available at: ro.wordpress.org/themes/. Theme filters, directory sub-navigation, info and download buttons, and other (more…)
The WordPress.org Meta team is on a roll this month. Following the successful launch of the new theme directory, the plugin directory is getting the same treatment with a fresh coat of paint and a set of brand new features. Browsing the official plugin directory is now similar to searching (more…)
This year the WordPress plugin directory crossed 35,000 plugin listings and is rapidly approaching one billion total downloads. WordPress 4.0 added custom icons to the plugin installer in the admin, which helps developers to differentiate their plugins in this massive sea of extensions. Plugin branding is useful for standing out (more…)
The WordPress Plugin Directory currently lists more than 29,000 plugins. It’s the first stop for any WordPress user looking to extend the capabilities of the software. With over 585 million downloads and a massive worldwide user base, it takes a dedicated team to monitor the quality and security of so (more…)