In reply to Ryan Hellyer.

Ryan, I think there's the idea that enforcement is selective and that's just not the case. No matter how much some insist on "nepotism" or conspiracy theories. ;)

Enforcement happens when it's found. Some may not like author's reviewing their own work, some may believe that other reviews are "bad" but that's not the same thing as someone doing something they shouldn't have done and getting caught.

Forum moderators review the reviews. The majority of the time those reviews are fine even when they're angry, self-reviewed by the plugin author or even about a pro version of the free plugin or theme.

This is one case where the plugin author did something that was found after the fact. If it came up 2 years ago the result would have been the same and nothing would have been different except for the number of reviews in question.

The forums are staffed by unpaid volunteers doing their best on their own free time out of the goodness of their hearts. Honest.

The idea that those volunteers are Automattic Robots (Autobots?) or Yoast Drones (Yoasties?) or whatever is derogatory. It's not true regardless of whatever conspiracies or unhappiness some like to insist on.

It's also not a good idea to hold an "open court" because it's not enforcement by popularity. This isn't the first time this has happened and it probably won't be the last. The idea isn't to shame people or debate these things; the author did something that's not permitted. It was dealt with and hopefully a lesson is learned.