Change to How Long Active Reviews Remain Open

tl;dr Starting in October, you will have THREE (3) months to complete your review before we reject it.

This will not affect most of you who actively read this site.

For a very long time, we’ve allowed plugins 6 months to finish a 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 review. That’s more than enough time for any reasonably attentive developer to make changes (especially considering the majority are ‘please sanitize/escape’).

In January 2021, we had 596 ‘pending’ reviews, which meant there just under 600 plugins that had been reviewed and we were waiting on a reply/completion. We’re seeing over 800 in September.

That rise is out of step with the number of plugin submissions. In fact, if you look at our posts to Make/Updates, you can see we’re pretty stable around 140 plugins submitted a week, but the “pending; replied to” value is inching up.

Since the majority of those plugins that don’t reply or finish in 3 months aren’t going to any time soon, we’re changing our policy to try and be more sustainable and less work. From now on, you have THREE months to finish a review before we reject it.

What about existing plugins/reviews through September?

There’s no change to existing submissions. Which means the “Reject all reviews pending completion” logic works like this:

• Sept 30 – 6 months (i.e. from March ’21)
• Oct 31 – 6 months (i.e. from April ’21)
• Nov 30 – 6 months (i.e. from May ’21)
• Dec 31 – 6 months (i.e. from Jun ’21)
• Jan 31 – 6 months (i.e. from Jul ’21) and 3 months (i.e. Oct ’21)
• Feb 28 – 6 months (i.e. from Aug ’21) and 3 months (i.e. Nov ’21)
• March 31 – 6 months (i.e. from Sept ’21) and 3 months (i.e. Dec ’21)
• April 30 – 3 months and older (i.e. Jan ’22 and before)

Yes, it’s a little messier for us, but it’s the most fair we can be to existing reviewers. It would not be kind to pull the rug out from under them.

What happens if I take more than 3 months?

Just keep replying to the review! We’ll work through it with you and tell you to resubmit when the review is good. That also lets us fast track you since you’ve worked so hard!

Can’t I just resubmit right away?

You could, but we’d pend your review and ask you why you never finished the previous one, which means your whole review will take longer, and we’ll make a note on your account about not following directions.

What if I can’t reply because I deleted/lost the review?

We get it. Mistakes happen. We’ve all deleted the important email! Email us at plugins@wordpress.org from the account/address that submitted the plugin and we will re-send it for you.

Why did I get rejected if I never got a review?

There are two cases where this could happen:

1. Your plugin was rejected right away. In those cases we email you with an explanation as to why, so please wait an hour. You should get a followup.
2. Your email ate the review email. A number of services (including Gmail) can be configured in a way that might cause you to have a review misplaced through no one’s fault.

In both cases, reply to the rejection email and ask.

Is this automated?

Not yet, no, but I’d like it to be eventually.

UYes, this means every month end, someone goes through and selects all submissions from a time period and changes the status en bulk.

Why did you rejected my plugin after you emailed and said it was approved?

Human error. Or internet greebles. Probably the first. We do our best, but sometimes a mouse didn’t click when we thought it did, or a human got distracted, and mistakes happen. Those are generally our mistakes, and we are sorry when that happens.

Please email us back and tell us. We’ll get you fast tracked and sorted.

I have another question not answered!

Have a shout in the comments.

#reviews, #timeline