[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #7816: Display a special banner for very old, obsolete plugins

[Making WordPress.org]

#7816: Display a special banner for very old, obsolete plugins
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 Reporter:  tellyworth        |      Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement       |     Status:  new
 Priority:  normal            |  Milestone:
Component:  Plugin Directory  |   Keywords:
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 The oldest plugin in the WordPress.org plugin directory has not been
 updated in almost **twenty years**. Amazingly, it still works, in a way.

 It's great that we have an active archive dating back decades. However,
 plugins that have been untouched for such a long time almost certainly
 shouldn't be installed on a production site today.

 We do display a warning message on old plugins; but it's the exact same
 message regardless of whether it has been abandoned for 18 months or 18
 years:

  This plugin **hasn’t been tested with the latest 3 major releases of
 WordPress.** It may no longer be maintained or supported and may have
 compatibility issues when used with more recent versions of WordPress.

 I propose that we add a new banner for **very old plugins** -- those that
 haven't been updated in many years, and that have a Tested Up To version
 that is well beyond its end-of-life date. Something like:

  **This plugin is obsolete.** It has not been maintained in many years,
 and should not be used on a new site. It is available here for archival
 and historical reasons.


 Additionally, I would suggest that we remove the Download button from
 those plugins; make sure they can't be accidentally installed via wp-admin
 in recent WP versions; and exclude them from most searches (without making
 them completely impossible to find).

 I'm open to suggestions as to what the threshold should be for considering
 a plugin as "obsolete". To choose an arbitrary example, `not updated since
 before 2010 AND Tested Up To is less than WP 3.6` gives about 1500
 plugins, almost all of which have less than 100 active installs. A
 threshold date of 2014 would give closer to 9000 plugins.

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/7816>
Making WordPress.org <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/>
Making WordPress.org