[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #7035: Plugin Directory: Add filters for community & commercial plugins

[Making WordPress.org]

#7035: Plugin Directory: Add filters for community & commercial plugins
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 Reporter:  ryelle            |       Owner:  ryelle
     Type:  enhancement       |      Status:  closed
 Priority:  normal            |   Milestone:
Component:  Plugin Directory  |  Resolution:  fixed
 Keywords:  has-patch         |
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Comment (by coffee2code):

 Any classification system is going to have its edge cases and overlaps.
 The more comprehensive, and thus finer-grained, you make a classification
 system, the more complex it becomes. The more complex, the harder it
 becomes to manage and the harder for users to understand.

 Being a commercial plugin/theme does not preclude community contributions.
 Nor does being labeled as such suggest a bias or prejudice on the part of
 WordPress.org or the community. (You may be reading your own biases into
 the labels.)

 "Commercial" simply informs users that the plugin/theme offers commercial
 upgrades, extensions, and/or support. If those are the case, then a
 plugin/theme can be classified as commercial. WooCommerce clearly fits
 into this classification and is classified accordingly. Based on your
 description, both WPGraphQL and WPGraphQL for FacetWP (were it available
 in the directory) seem very clearly to be "Community" plugins.

 Currently, the classification is opt-in by the plugin's developers, so if
 they feel their plugin is "Community", then that's what they can request.
 Likewise if they feel it's "Commercial". Or they can opt not to be
 classified at all.

 > Should enterprise users only install Commercial plugins (as a sign of
 quality), or should ecosystem advocates gravitate to Community plugins (as
 a sign of open source ethos)? Wherever your subconscious bias leads you,
 it's still wrong, because of point 1.

 Users can do what they wish with the information provided. There is no
 implication that a commercial plugin is of any different quality than any
 other plugin. It literally is just indicating that there is a commercial
 aspect of some form for the plugin.

 We can't control people's biases. Someone could feel a commercial plugin
 is just going to be limited, that non-paying members might be treated as
 second-class users, and that it'll just constantly upsell to them. Others
 could appreciate that there is a business behind the plugin and that the
 commercial aspect makes the plugin more sustainable, more reliably
 supported, and that a marketplace or extensions enhances the vibrancy of
 its ecosystem. Any or all of those biases for either views may or may not
 be true for any given plugin or even generally. The "Commercial"
 classification doesn't inherently imply any of them.

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7035#comment:9>
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