What a great article. Yes it is interesting why WP.org is so nontransparent, isn’t it? Probably don’t want to take up the server data for storing this amount of information in order to give it back to you. Well, actually, the better prediction is that they don’t have ‘accurate’ stats. Never have and never will. It is far to easy for a user to manipulate a plugin file directory so that the WP install cannot track them. Say you install a plugin called ‘my-plugin’ and it is from the WP repo. If you just go to /wp-content/plugins/ and find that plugin, then you can rename it. From there you just rename the file that loads the plugin and then go activate it.

What is all this geek speak? It just means that too many developers out there are able to take your free plugin and make it their own. The stats are useless. Sorry.

Chuck