In reply to Alec.

Great topic for a poll and a discussion though.

Otto's point about how the featured (default tab) list changes on a per site basis surprises me. I manage nearly 100 very diverse sites and the list almost always the same: Akismet, Jetpack, Yoast, Buddypress, bbPress, ThemeCheck (lately), WP Super Cache (the only independent). This featured list is very stupid as I have two of those installed already on the particular site I'm checking now.

Ah, I see Recommended is another tab with a slightly different selection. Perhaps Featured needs to be done away with and the Recommended tab put out front. I get about the same plugins you do though Jeff on my sample site which suggests the algorithm is far from exciting or likely to show new faces.

The info would be much fresher if the featured/recommended plugins should rotate among top ranked plugins almost regardless of active installs (set a minimum of course, whether 200 or 1000).