Guideline Update

The previously proposed changes have been merged into the plugin guidelines.

It’s important to note that I do not think this is a ‘complete’ or ‘finished’ project. The guidelines are imperfect, in part because it’s impossible to create a rule for every single possible variant of a possible conflict, but also because we cannot predict the future.

There are people who are unhappy we didn’t go far enough with certain guidelines — like not saying “you may have 3 links to your own products on your 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 admin pages.” Others are unhappy we’ve gone as far as we did in certain situations — such as the 9th guideline’s prohibition against harassment.

Accepting the imperfection of English, as well as the flaws built in to creating guidelines for such a large audience, many of whom do not speak English natively, has led to situations where we have to settle. These guidelines are not perfect. They are not complete. They will be constantly evolving and adapting as we try to please and protect the majority of developers and users.

I encourage all of you to help us write them better. You can email us at plugins@wordpress.org or make pull requests on the GitHub repository. While we may not accept all requests, I promise we do listen to and read every last one.

#guidelines