Reminder: Plugins are closed if emails bounce

We emailed out the ‘5.0 is coming’ email and received a record high number of bounces. Over 2000. Normally we get a couple hundred, mixed in with vacation notifications (which we ignore) and auto-replies.

When your email bounces, we close 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 because we no longer have a way to communicate with you. We even email you to tell you, just in case it’s a one-off glitch. If your email auto-replies, you get a warning. If you don’t fix this, the next auto-reply gets you closed. There are a couple exceptions to this, like the person who’s system got stuck in a loopLoop The Loop is PHP code used by WordPress to display posts. Using The Loop, WordPress processes each post to be displayed on the current page, and formats it according to how it matches specified criteria within The Loop tags. Any HTML or PHP code in the Loop will be processed on each post. https://codex.wordpress.org/The_Loop. and emailed us back 6 times for one plugin.

• If the email was the owner of the plugin, and there’s no clear secondary owner, the plugin’s closed
• If the email was the owner but we can tell another account is the co-owner, we transfer the plugin and email the new owner to explain
• If the email is a committer, their account is removed and the owner emailed to explain why

Why so many?

But this number being so high was astounding to us. Like I said, it’s 10x the norm. In looking into it, we’ve determined the following facts led to this number:

• Yahoo will delete your email account if you don’t use it for a year
• Google reserves the right to deactivate your email after 9 months of inactivity
• Free Windows Live Hotmail accounts become inactive if you don’t sign in for more than 270 days
• Google email groups default to not allowing external emails.

My guess is that with GDPR being a thing, many email servers have gone ahead and deleted things. Also I suspect they changed the defaults on Google email groups, since a few of these accounts have been around for a while.

How do I get my plugin reopened?

First check that your user’s email is correct. If not, fix that. Then email us and ask if your plugin can be reopened. Most everyone has been reopened immediately. The stragglers are due to ownership issues. This is why we’re so pedantic about official accounts owning plugins. If the owner bounces but other people from the company have official accounts as committers, we’ll transfer the plugin.

What can I do to prevent this from happening?

The simple answer is “Make sure your email is up to date and functional.”

• Add 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/ to your email’s white-list so you always get our emails
• If you have a plugin that is a company plugin, make sure that the plugin owner’s email us up to date, and not an auto-reply
• If your email is an alias, make sure everyone who gets the copy of the email is an active users
• If you use a group/mailinglist account for your plugin, make sure wordpress.org can email it (groups need to allow ‘world’ access to send to)

#email, #reminder