Guideline change: Reviews of Commercial/Pro Plugins

As discussed at https://make.wordpress.org/support/2024/02/suggestion-for-a-change-in-the-guidelines/, the forums team met on Slack on Feb. 8 and agreed to the change in the guideline regarding commercial reviews.

The paragraph currently reads

Reviews of plugins and themes are to be limited to the functionality of the pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party or theme hosted on WordPress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ and the support provided by the authors for the versions of the plugins/themes hosted on WordPress.org. 

That sentence will be replaced with

Reviews of commercial plugins/themes are acceptable on wordpress.org when such reviews discuss functionality or user-facing features. Reviews that are essentially payment disputes or are used to leverage support will be archived, with a reply that such disputes should be handled via private email.

Essentially, if it’s about WordPress, the review is OK. If it’s about the process of purchasing, subscribing, or supporting the paid plugin, then a review is not OK.

Various what-if scenarios we discussed on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/..

The plugins document will be updated in the near future.