Tag Archives: policy

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 8:13 pm on January 28, 2019
Tags: , policy,   

Reminder about Behavior

This really shouldn’t need to be said however, based on three recent incidents, it is clear we need a reminder.

You are responsible for your own actions and choices. If you decide to do a thing, you are assuming responsibility for the outcome and, like it or not, the repercussions fall on you and you alone.

When you work with a team of people to support and maintain 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, everyone is required to follow the plugin and forum guidelines. Choices made by the team will impact the group as a whole, for good or ill.

Recently a company was banned due to having never briefed their employees on the plugin guidelines. This led to a new, un-monitored employee, egregiously violating the guidelines, harassing and abusing the volunteers of the forums as well as the end-users, who were just trying to get help with the plugin.

The company had been warned about this kind of behaviour before. In fact, they had been issued a final warning. As this was a repeat of the exact behaviour they’d been warned on, their plugin was closed and the company prohibited from hosting anymore.

Sadly this isn’t the only time that’s happened in the last 4 months.

If you work with a team of people, the company/group is responsible for each other. If one person in your group/company violates the guidelines, it’s the whole group who will suffer as you’ve demonstrated an inability to manage your team. The same is true if a rogue intern or SEO marketer spams the forums. They’re doing those actions in the name of the company, which makes the company accountable for their actions.

Don’t hire random people from companies like Fourer to do your marketing. Don’t let people loose in the forums without making sure they understand the guidelines and our expectations.

Abuse, name calling, harassment, stalking, and spamming the forum moderators is not permitted behaviour by anyone. Users are banned for this, and developers will find their companies and all plugins similarly removed. We feel it’s unfair of people to put the burden of monitoring and managing their team on the volunteers of the forums and the plugin team. This is especially true of companies.

Please make sure the people who work with you understand not just the guidelines, but the stakes. Quite often we find an enthusiastic intern is the cause of sockpuppeting, or a well-meaning SEO consultant who took the wrong lessons to heart and made a readme filled with spam.

If we have to contact you multiple times about your behaviour, or that of the people you’re working with, we’re simply not going to permit you to use our services any longer.

#guidelines, #policy, #reminder

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 7:35 pm on November 21, 2018
Tags: policy,   

Reminder: We can’t rename plugins post approval.

When you submit 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, the plugin slug (i.e. the URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org) is determined from your plugin’s display name, as set in the main plugin file. The slug can be changed while a plugin is in review but we cannot change it once your plugin is approved.

That’s why, when you submit a plugin, we send you an automatic email telling you what your slug is, and asking you to please reply immediately if that slug is wrong. We also show you what the slug will be on the post-submission page.

If you fail to tell us before we approve your plugin, you’re going to be stuck with the name you got, unless there’s an extenuating circumstance (like a legal issue, or a typo). We do not accept ‘resubmissions’ to fix the name, as we’re making every reasonable effort to get the information out there for you to act on.

Please. Make sure you read the emails. Make sure you check the slug after you submit. Tell us right away when you spot something wrong. And above all? Remember you have full control of your slug in your own submission 🙂

#reminder #policy

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 4:48 pm on December 8, 2016
Tags: , policy   

Reminder: Make Sure Your Email Is Up To Date

I know the 4.7 ‘please test’ email went out a bit late (WordCampWordCamp WordCamps are casual, locally-organized conferences covering everything related to WordPress. They're one of the places where the WordPress community comes together to teach one another what they’ve learned throughout the year and share the joy. Learn more. US, blame Wapuu), but we did send it and just like last time, we’ve taken action the replies.

  • If you reply and ask for 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 to be closed, we close it.
  • If your email auto-replies, we warn you once. If you were warned previously, we close your plugin(s).
  • If your email bounces we close your plugin or, if there are multiple developers involved, remove your account and notify them.

These actions are taken for security. If we have no way of getting in touch with you, or if your email is invalid, it puts your users at risk. Not to mention getting 2500 auto-replies is pretty frustrating.

Remember, it is a requirement that we be able to contact you. We don’t mind if the email is a group mail, but it should never auto-reply to anything from 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/. Just whitelist us (and yes, you can do that with ZenDesk read this ticket for details) and make sure nothing from .org gets a bounce reply. This will also make our servers faster, which I know you’d like.

If you can’t do that, you’ll need to change your email to something else. Do to that, go to https://wordpress.org/support/users/YOURID/edit/ as the user in question and edit the email. Done.

On a happier note, less than 100 people had to be contacted this time around! It only took me 2 hours to sort it out, versus last time which was much higher. The majority of the issues came from new plugin developers, which is understandable, but a few of the long-standing devs had a rude awakening this morning, I’m sure.

Thank you everyone for understanding.

#notice #policy

Pippin Williamson 3:06 pm on October 5, 2015
Tags: , policy,   

Guidelines for Plugins that Include Company and/or Product Names in the Plugin Name

Note: This document is from 2015 and some information is out of date. Please refer to the Plugin Developer FAQ and the detailed plugin guidelines. In the case of any inconsistencies, the current documentation (i.e. NOT this one) are correct.

A common point of confusion is that this document talks about 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 names and permalinks. The two are not the same but due to changes in how the directory processes display names (that is, your display name is what generates the permalink), the use of prohibited terms for permalinks is extended to plugin display names at the time of submission.

Also a number of trademark owners have changed their enforcement and rescinded permissions we had to use certain terms in both names and permalinks. As this is an ongoing and regularly changing list, we do not yet have an up to date list of all prohibited terms.

Should you receive an error on submission says to remove a term entirely from your Display Name, the correct action is to do so. Those are not mistakes, they are changes we have been legally required to make.

When submitting plugins to the 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/ repository, there are a number of guidelines for what is and is not acceptable. One of those guidelines has to do with the name of your plugin, especially when it includes the name of a company, trademark, or product.

If you have submitted a plugin and received a rejection email that started with something like the quote below, it means you need to adjust the name of your plugin.

We’re no longer accepting plugins that include a trademarked product name or term as the name or slug of a plugin. Nor are we accepting plugins that include the name of another plugin at the beginning of the name/slug.

Before you submit your plugin for review, take the name of your plugin into consideration and try and pick a name that will not be rejected. To help you choose a better name, here are a few guidelines to keep in mind.

Your plugin includes the name of a company, trademark, or product

Take WooCommerce as an example.

The following names will be rejected:

  • WooCommerce – Product Add Ons
  • WooCommerce – Better Stats

We will, however, accept the following (if not already taken):

  • Product Add Ons for WooCommerce
  • Better Stats in WooCommerce

One of the key points is that your plugin’s name cannot start with the company/trademark/product name.

Here’s another example. Stripe Payments will be rejected. Payment Form for Stripe will be accepted (if available).

You work for the company whose product’s name you are using

You are permitted to submit plugins that include the company/trademark/product name If you work for the company owns it.

For example, if you work for PayPal, you may submit a plugin named PayPal Payments.

In order to have your plugin approved, you must submit the plugin from an official company account. This usually means the email address on the account is {yourname}@{company}.com If you submit it from a non-company account, your plugin will be rejected.

You do not work for the company but you have permission to use the company/product/trademark in your plugin’s name

In this case, we will ask you for proof of written permission from the company that explicitly states you have permission to use the name.

For example, if you wish to submit a plugin called Gravity Forms – CSV Exporter, you must have proof of written permission from Rocket Genius, Inc. to include Gravity Forms in the name.

Please provide proof with your initial submission, otherwise it will be rejected.

Edit: Sadly, we can no longer accept ‘permission’ for names, as revocation means we have to remove the plugin permanently. Since that’s a disservice to your users, we feel it’s better to have a universally acceptable plugin slug from the start. If you submit “Gravity Forms – CSV Exporter” the slug will be automatically changed to “gf-csv-exporter” for you. In cases where we cannot pick an acceptable slug, we will email you with proposed solutions.

Questions, Feedback, Comments

If any of this is unclear or you have comments or questions, feel free to leave them below.

Update 1

There was some confusion as to some of the guidelines regarding trademarks, company names, and product names.

To help clarify:

1. If your plugin name includes a trademarked product name or term, you must be the owner of that trademark, work for the company that owns the trademark, or you must have permission from the owner to use it.

2. If your plugin’s name includes the name of a company or the name of a company’s product, you may not use their name at the beginning of the plugin’s slug. “WooCommerce – Product Addons” is not permitted. “Product Addons for WooCommerce” is permitted as a display name.

3. These guidelines are specifically at the slug of the plugin (wordpress.org/plugins/this-is-your-slug). The slug is auto generated based on the name you enter when submitting your plugin. After submission, you can still alter the exact name that is displayed on your plugin’s page via the readme.txt file.

Edit: As of 2018, the slug (aka permalink) is generated by the display name, which means display names that contain prohibited trademarked terms will be prevented from submission. We apologize for this inconvenience.

Note: these are not 100% hard-fast rules and there are always exceptions. It is up to the reviewer’s discretion how strongly they wish to enforce these guidelines. To best ensure your plugin is approved in a timely manner, however, do your best to follow these guidelines.

#guidelines, #policy, #submissions

Ipstenu (Mika Epstein) 2:16 pm on August 26, 2015
Tags: policy   

Forks and Copies

This has come up recently. What happens when someone submits 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 that’s a copy of another?

The tl;dr here is this: Please email us at plugins@wordpress.org if you find someone has slipped an uncredited fork or identical copy of another plugin into the repository.

In general, we spot these before they ever get published. We rejected 10s of plugins a month for being identical copies. That said, we also approve double that for being legitimate forks.

While the GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. and it’s compatible licenses allow for forking, we have an ‘above and beyond’ rule for hosting here, that means your plugin must be a substantial change of the original. We do not allow direct copies of other plugins to be re-listed under somebody else’s name, we allow changed forks.

What does that mean? It’s very simple. You have to add new features, remove features, modernize, fix, clean up, or otherwise make a change to the plugin that differentiates it from the original. In rare cases, a simple clean-up will be accepted, but normally we try to get a hold of the original authors and have the fixes folded in to the original plugin. If you have a fork, we require you to retain all credit and/or copyright information.

That’s all well and good. What happens when we miss one?

Contact us. Email us at plugins@wordpress.org and tell us “Plugin A is a copy of Plugin B.” If both plugins are on the 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/ repository, provide links — there are 45k plugins in our repository, no links means it takes us an extra email or three to sort out which plugin you were talking about. Anyone can report this, though we ask you be reasonable and not accusatory. We are real humans who will read your emails. Treat us like that 🙂

We’ll open up both plugins, the current versions and the originals, and run a diff between them to see what’s different. If it’s just renaming plugin functions, we’re going to close the copy. If it’s clearly a full rewrite, with moving functions to namespaces etc, we’re likely to keep both versions open. A full modernized rewrite is a legit fork. We will go back and ask them to put credits and copyright info back in, but rarely more.

If the original plugin is NOT hosted on WordPress.org, then it’s more complicated because we need to see them to compare. This means if you, as a user, see a copy of a premium plugin, you need to ask the original developers to contact us. Why? Well, have you ever tried, as a non-paying customer, to contact some of these folks? It’s an uphill battle. It’s worse when they’re hosted on places which protect their email addresses. That’s great, we totally get why you do that, but we have no way to contact them. Many times we’ve reached out and gotten auto-replies that take weeks to get back to us with a real human.

If you’re the original developer, email us a copy of your plugin (we promise not to steal it) and if you can, explain how you know it’s a copy and not a fork.

But whatever you do, please, please, please, don’t take all this to the forums and post complaints that the forked plugin authors are evil or what have you. That doesn’t make for a happy community. Report things properly. Let us know. We’ll take the angry hit from them for you.

If you’ve written a fork or a copy? Please make sure you’re really making a fork! Just slapping on your name and changing function names isn’t enough of a fork for us to host it here. We don’t want to have 100 plugins that are the same, save the credits. We want to have plugins that do different things.

Edit: All questions about the GPL-100% rule and how it applies to WORDCAMPS needs to be asked of the https://make.wordpress.org/community/ team – All those comments are being deleted for derailing the topic here.

#policy