Over 150 plugins were closed during WCUS due to auto replies, bounces, and confusing plugin 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 ownership.
In our plugin developer expectations, we say this:
It is the responsibility of the plugin developer to ensure their contact information on WordPress.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/ is up to date and accurate, in order that they receive all notifications from the plugins team. Auto-replies and emails that route to a support system are not permitted as they historically prevent humans from addressing emails in a timely fashion.
Your email has to work. If we can’t get a hold of you, we’re going to either remove you from your plugin or, if you’re the owner, close it. This is especially true if we can’t figure out who’s meant to own a plugin, or the ‘official’ company account is bouncing.
If your email sends an auto-reply, or a partial bounce (that is, you have a group email and one address in the group bounces) we ALWAYS email you with as much detail as needed to resolve the issue.
Since we sent out a mass email in October, pre 5.0, and another last week, we had a 50 day window for many people to correct the issues.
Let’s hit up some of the reasons why we do this:
Auto-Replies are a bad developer practice
Two reasons, besides the fact that they’re spammy, that a developer account should never auto-reply:
1. Security
2. Communication
Security is the biggest. An auto-reply generally comes from a SUPPORT account. A support account should NEVER be receiving our emails because they’re likely to be related to insecurity in your plugins. We don’t 0-day you, ever, that would be cruel. We want you to fix things ASAP, though, for your users, and if support gets that message, now you have more people, who may not understand not to tell customers about the problems. Also we have no way to be sure the developer got the email. You’re trusting support to escalate properly every time.
Communication is obviously related. We’ve got to be able to get a hold of you, and putting layers between us and you isn’t going to help.
Auto-replies cause developers to not get notifications
We actually DO inform everyone about the status of auto-replies. Once we determine what plugin causes the reply, we email everyone with commit access (i.e. your developers) that there is a problem and to please resolve it. The fact that a high number of you aren’t seeing those emails is indicative of the problem.
Developers aren’t support
For the majority of plugins, this is actually not true. That is, most people are developers and their own support. But those aren’t the people who make auto-replies. The people who have auto-replies tend to be companies. And for a company, there’s a reason they want the auto-replies for people contacting support. That’s perfectly sensible.
The disconnect here is that we expect the people who have commit access to be developers. We
Thankfully we have a solution for you! You can add your support users as Support Representatives for your plugin!
WordPress isn’t your user
All of that said, having an auto-reply on the account you use here to manage your plugin and support your users creates a poor experience. People can’t email you from WordPress.org and while you can chose to get emails for all new posts in your plugin’s forum, having that sent to an auto-reply is rather odd. Why would you want to auto-reply to an automated notification email?
Shared accounts are dangerous
This goes back to security. Don’t share accounts. NEVER share accounts. Give developers individual access to commit code. Add support reps individually. Doing this gives you an easy way to track who commits what code, who answered what question, and you can now hold them accountable for their individual actions! Got one support tech who goes off the rails? You can explain that it was one person and you’re handling it. Or the forums team can help you block Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. their account if needed.
Bounces are harder to unravel than you think
Sometimes a bounce is obvious. If a user no longer exists, we can close the plugin. If a domain no longer exists, you’d think we could close it, but what if that happened because a company renamed themselves and forgot to update the emails? And what about when the bounce is from the domain, but doesn’t say WHICH user account bounced? It takes time.
We know a handful of people have been upset to find out we closed their plugins instead of trying to sort out who actually should own the plugin when the email bounced. We are sorry about that, but it was a case of prioritizing and expediency. It’s much more efficient for us to close the plugin and let you contact us than to spend a couple hours untangling who represents a company and is legally responsible for managing a plugin.
Questions?
As always, if your plugin was closed and you don’t know why, email us with a link to the plugin and ask. We’d rather have them up and active and usable too!
#reminder #email
