Title: Guideline Update: Clarifications to trialware and human readability
Author: Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)
Published: August 23, 2018

---

 [  ](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ipstenu/) [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ipstenu/)
9:23 pm _on_ August 23, 2018     
Tags: [guidelines ( 27 )](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/tag/guidelines/)

# Guideline Update: Clarifications to trialware and human readability

Two situations have arisen where we feel it would be best to clarify the guidelines
a little.

**Guideline 4: [Human Readability](https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/#4-code-must-be-mostly-human-readable)**

We strongly feel that one of the strengths of open sourceOpen Source Open Source
denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and
may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing
model, see GPL. is the ability to review, observe, and adapt code. By maintaining
a public directory of freely available code, we encourage and welcome future developers
to engage with WordPress and push it forward.

However with the advent of larger and larger plugins using more complex libraries,
people are making proper use of build tools (such as npm) to generate their distributed
production code. In order to balance the need to keep 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/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/)
or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. sizes smaller while still encouraging
open source development, we will be requiring plugins to make the source code to
any compressed files available.

For example, if you’ve made a GutenbergGutenberg The Gutenberg project is the new
Editor Interface for WordPress. The editor improves the process and experience of
creating new content, making writing rich content much simpler. It uses ‘blocks’
to add richness rather than shortcodes, custom HTML etc. [https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/](https://wordpress.org/gutenberg/)
plugin and used npm and webpack to compress and minify it, you must _either_ include
the source code within the published plugin _or_ provide access to a public maintained
source that can be reviewed, studied, and yes, forked.

We strongly recommend you include directions on the use of any build tools to encourage
future developers.

**Guideline 5: [Trialware](https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/#5-trialware-is-not-permitted)**

Historically we’ve not permitted test or trial plugins that arbitrarily limit usage,
and then upsell, to be included in the directory. The primary reason we don’t permit
this is that locking people down to a specific number of (say) images is foolish
and a pointless endeavour. People can, and will, fork your locked plugin and unlock
it, as well they should. That said, we’ve always allowed (and will continue to) 
plugins that offer a free limited service (think Akismet for a good example).

Related to this are ‘sandbox’ plugins, used for testing. For example, if your plugin
only accessed the Instagram _Sandbox_ APIAPI An API or Application Programming Interface
is a software intermediary that allows programs to interact with each other and 
share data in limited, clearly defined ways., and included upsells about a pro version
that allowed full access, you would be a trial plugin. Since they are easily abused
as turning the directory into a marketplace, we have modified the 5th guideline 
to address this more clearly.

[#guidelines](https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/tag/guidelines/)

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 1.  ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/a3d65dbb7c58b7892c698cf0dc222f33f6cd231c13196f29a067dedd4d7e529c?
     s=32&d=mm&r=g)
 2.   [Bernhard Kau](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kau-boy/)  9:33 pm _on_ August 
     23, 2018
 3.  I like the idea of having all (self created) source code in a readable form available.
     It would also be nice, if we could (some day) add a “Contribute to this 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/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/)
     or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. at [platform XY]” to the readme
     files (or plugin headerHeader The header of your site is typically the first thing
     people will experience. The masthead or header art located across the top of your
     page is part of the look and feel of your website. It can influence a visitor’s
     opinion about your content and you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look
     different on different screen sizes. comments), so users can easily find the plugin
     on GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories
     that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories
     are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced
     the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors
     can be reviewed and discussed before being merged by the repository owner. [https://github.com/](https://github.com/)/
     GitLab/Bitbucket/etc. Or should plugins authors put those links in a random place
     in their readme?
 4.  And regarding the Trialware, how would you judge this plugin: [https://wordpress.org/plugins/encyclopedia-lexicon-glossary-wiki-dictionary/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/encyclopedia-lexicon-glossary-wiki-dictionary/)
 5.  It limits the number of items you can create to only 18, which for me is a clear
     violation of “Guideline 5”.
 6.   * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/27180c82524020e7339e2b30818b6d8ab004c54f730f12b1434b1e365be0e175?
        s=32&d=mm&r=g)
      *  [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ipstenu/)  9:50 pm
        _on_ August 23, 2018
      * >  Or should plugins authors put those links in a random place in their readme?
      * For now I would recommend putting it in the FAQ or the description. We may 
        craft a dedicated place, but at this point in time fewer than 1% of all plugins
        need to do this anyway, so it’s not horrible.
      * > It limits the number of items you can create to only 18, which for me is 
        > a clear violation of “Guideline 5”.
      * I would tell you to email `plugins@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/](https://wordpress.org/)` in general. I’ll have a look
        though
      * ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/843d6bdf2ce104d96b205e682c4ecaab8567b2571caa7056a7f55a1d4d9b5521?
        s=32&d=mm&r=g)
      *  [Neil Murray](https://profiles.wordpress.org/buzztone/)  9:54 pm _on_ August
        23, 2018
      * 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/](https://wordpress.org/plugins/)
        or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party. headerHeader The header of 
        your site is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead
        or header art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel
        of your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and
        you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different screen
        sizes. is already too cluttered – far easier to just be added somewhere in 
        the Description.
         - ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/27180c82524020e7339e2b30818b6d8ab004c54f730f12b1434b1e365be0e175?
           s=32&d=mm&r=g)
         -  [Ipstenu (Mika Epstein)](https://profiles.wordpress.org/ipstenu/)  11:46
           pm _on_ August 23, 2018
         - Really the issue of having it in the headerHeader The header of your site
           is typically the first thing people will experience. The masthead or header
           art located across the top of your page is part of the look and feel of 
           your website. It can influence a visitor’s opinion about your content and
           you/ your organization’s brand. It may also look different on different 
           screen sizes. is management. We gain the ability to force the link to show
           where _WE_ want (as .org maintainers) but then we have to think about how
           to manage arbitrary URLs. People could put in pr0n links after all and they’d
           be hidden as “Code Source” or something. At least this way they have to 
           make an effort to hide evil.
 7.  ![](https://secure.gravatar.com/avatar/de1f679d6b8785ef0ba4fa5d235c9e7fa3709da7707e731cc61e46645e48cecf?
     s=32&d=mm&r=g)
 8.   [Kim Gjerstad](https://profiles.wordpress.org/kgjerstad/)  9:09 am _on_ October
     4, 2018
 9.  Thanks for insisting. We obliged.
 10. We’ve wanted to make our repo public for a while for readability and security 
     reasons.
 11. [https://github.com/mailpoet/mailpoet/](https://github.com/mailpoet/mailpoet/)

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