Hi. Let's clarify things.

Note, this is a big comment. If you want to reply, then by all means do so, but please, don't cherry pick from my quotes. I'm not looking for an argument, and I won't engage in that kind of discussion. I'm just explaining how things are at present. :)

Reviews and managing them

First, the reviews system is part of the forums. As such, the Support Forum moderators have power over it. Since we introduced the review system many years ago, the forum moderators have done exactly what they are supposed to do: moderate it. So when they discover reviews that should not be there, they delete them. Then they notify the plugins team about the problem. So in this case, all the affected reviews were removed before the plugins team was told of the issue. Note, *all* of them, not just the five-star ones. There was some miscommunication about that, I believe.

It is the job of the plugins team to interact with the plugin authors. Therefore, if a plugin is doing something bad, we tell the author to make it stop doing that bad thing. If the plugin author is doing something bad, we ask them to stop doing it. Usually this is all that happens. Everybody gets sorted, everybody gets on with their day. In this particular case, Mika asked him to remove the code, he did, we considered the issue finished.

In this specific case, I entered the scene after Mika asked me to help. I explained the situation to Dan, as I've done many times before. This is not the first time we've removed false reviews. It's not even the tenth time we've done it. Reviews get removed for all sorts of reasons. Again, the forum team handles it. They're quite good at their jobs.

Now, note that nowhere in this process is there any room for "punishment". We don't punish. We're not judges. We are not seeking justice. We're simply seeking to fix problems with the directory and the forums and the WordPress.org website. That's all we do. We work to make the website better, smoother, more accurate, and more useful to the millions of users that depend on it running smoothly.

So, if you want to talk about this subject, then please think of it from that mentality. Because we definitely do. I appointed most of the forum moderators. I recruited the plugins team. I've helped with the theme review team by providing them with much of their tooling over the years. I've spent a lot of time and effort in finding the right kind of people and getting them the powers and tools and information they need to run this 13-year-old website. And I'll back their decisions... Or sometimes reverse them, but only rarely. We have a good team of good people doing good work. :)

On the topic of "Guidelines"

I wrote those detailed plugin guidelines 5 years ago (give or take). At the time, I was against it. I still think that the golden rule is good enough. Call me an optimist. But, sometimes people need details. So, since it seemed we needed them, I wrote them, everybody on the team agreed with them (with only minor wording changes), and we adopted them. They have come in handy over the years, mainly to give us a place to point to when somebody asks where "it's written". We can say "right there".

But, the truth is, I don't like those guidelines. I don't like the idea of having "rules" or "regulations" in the first place. I prefer to rely on people. People who make decisions, who take stands, who believe in what they do enough to be able to argue for their points. That's how we make open source software, isn't it? Decisions are made by discussion, sometimes argument. People work together to create all this cool stuff, for free, just because they want to. I mean, that's pretty cool, right? I love it. I love that idea, that concept. I love it when people do that, because they just become the best people when that happens. It's great to watch.

At the same time, there are others outside of that "circle". And I understand that feeling too, that the circle itself seems closed to some. There is a viewpoint that there's a sort of "groupthink", and if you disagree with the general principles, then you're shut off from the community in question. It's not a good thing, and one we have to actively fight against in all things. You see it in core all the time, they're constantly fighting that battle. Outside opinions are the best ones. Prevents stagnation and rot. Any healthy open community needs fresh input, constantly. New ideas, new ways of seeing things.

This is why I don't like the guidelines. They blockade us into a fixed circle. Not healthy. Not good. But after what we've seen in the last 6 years with the plugins review team, I can say this in confidence: They are *necessary*. The directory has a big fat target painted right on it. We've been mostly successful in keeping the bad out, the good in. But bad/good is the same as black/white. The real world has shades of gray.. a full spectrum of color in fact. That makes the easy decisions hard, and the hard decisions impossibly difficult.

That said, the guidelines should be revised. But not just a few things added here or there. Mass revision. Big update. We're working on that. Have been for a while. Before this post or even this particular discussion.

Now, the only reason I'm mentioning it here is because when that comes out, because of this story, then it's going to be seen as reactionary. But it's not, really. Unfortunate timing, perhaps. The plugin directory revamp has been going on all year. Right along with the idea of expanding the review team. And thus, by necessity, changing things up. Shake up the system. New review process. More reviewers. More feedback to authors, especially new ones. Right now, plugin reviews happen fairly quick because we're not checking for things like code quality. Would like to, of course, but just don't have the time. More eyeballs might help that along.

Conclusion

Anyway, that's my thoughts on the topic. I'm still considering the issues surrounding Dan's specific problem. Two years certainly is a lot of reviews to remove. And it's not every day where somebody I respect makes this big of a mistake, with such large consequences. And like I said, we aren't about punishment, in any way. But it's a complicated issue. And I'm still thinking about it. Dan sent me a list of the reviews that were "paid for". So, I'm thinking about it.

Okay? Cool.