[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #7477: Introduce limits for readme field length

[Making WordPress.org]

#7477: Introduce limits for readme field length
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 Reporter:  dd32              |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  defect (bug)      |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal            |  Milestone:
Component:  Plugin Directory  |   Keywords:
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 **In short: I propose limiting it to 1,500 words per section**

 ''Reasoning & the data''

 While reviewing some search-related tickets I found a plugin that was
 appearing in results that it arguably shouldn't, and upon inspecting it,
 found that it was violating [https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins
 /wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/#12-public-facing-pages-on-
 wordpress-org-readmes-must-not-spam Guideline 12 "do not spam"].

 Upon reflection of this, and looking at data of all plugins, I feel we
 would be best placed to introduce limits to the readme content length,
 such as to limit spammy behaviour and reduce the impact it has upon the
 search results.

 **I propose limiting it to 1,500 words per section**, similar to how we
 already limit the `short description` to 150 characters, and assets to
 certain file-sizes.

 The choice of 1,500 is such that it means zero change to (literally) 99%
 of plugins, and 99.8% have less than 3,000 words.

 The final 0.2% of plugins are those who I would call out for being in
 blatant violation of the guideline, in one case, the readme is over 260KB
 amounting to over 26,000 individual words.

 This is not to say that a plugin with less than 1,500 words is not in
 violation of the guideline, this is only intended on being an absolute
 hard-limit. A plugin could violate it with a few hundred words. Once you
 start to exceed 1,500 however, it becomes increasingly hard to prove that
 it's for a humans benefit, and not to simply benefit search rankings.


 To put these numbers into perspective..
  - an average book has between 250-300 words per page
  - an average readable computer print-out has 400-500 words per page,
 possibly up to 800 if you squeeze it in.
  - 26k words is between 30 and 80 printed sheets of paper.

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7477>
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