Clarification on Taking Over Plugins

Sometimes people get random emails from strangers about taking over their old plugins, and I wanted to take a moment to explain how that works.

First of all, 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 team does not hand out your email. If you’ve been contacted by someone, they got your email or contact information off your website or plugin code.

When someone comes to us asking about taking over a plugin, we ask if they’ve attempted to contact the original dev first. If they have and gotten no reply (or if they can’t find a way to contact you), we’ll email you about it and give you their email so you can contact them back. It is possible that someone may just email you out of the blue asking about taking over your plugin. However. Under absolutely no circumstances should you feel like you must give up your plugin, even if it’s old and out of date.

Your plugin is yours. We will only close it if there are security issues or guideline violations, and we will always email you about that (so remember to keep your email up to date in your forum profile!). We also will never just give away your plugin without contacting you first, and getting your approval. The only exception to this is if you’ve totally dropped off the planet, your email bounces, and your website is gone. Then we assume you’re done.

If someone would rather close a plugin than hand it over, that’s their call and we support it. We would rather have the plugin carry on, of course, but hey, things happen. That’s why some names are ‘blocked’ from the repository, by the way. We’ve closed an older plugin.

If you want to close your plugin email us at pluginsATwordpress.org and link us to the plugin page. But do consider giving it away too!