[wp-meta] [Making WordPress.org] #8225: Plugin search: slug field boost creates permanent advantage for grandfathered trademark slugs

[Making WordPress.org]

#8225: Plugin search: slug field boost creates permanent advantage for
grandfathered trademark slugs
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 Reporter:  jeangalea         |       Owner:  (none)
     Type:  enhancement       |      Status:  new
 Priority:  normal            |   Milestone:  Improved Search
Component:  Plugin Directory  |  Resolution:
 Keywords:                    |
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Comment (by gibrown):

 Howdy. So ya that regression is a problem. Also it looks like line 198:
 https://github.com/WordPress/wordpress.org/blob/7c52c748eab8f1d3b33bca81f15cf30341f66694/wordpress.org/public_html
 /wp-content/plugins/plugin-directory/class-plugin-search.php#L198 is also
 incorrect, but not causing problems as long as no one adds an extra param.

 So as a first point. I also kinda hate the slug boosting, but when I was
 building and evaluating the algorithm we needed it in order to have some
 consistency for use cases people had. We used to always put an exact match
 at the top and so heavily boosting on the slug was the best way to
 approximate that behavior while also ensuring that a search for "social"
 would not show https://wordpress.org/plugins/social/ at the top (random
 example, but there are many common words used as slugs).

 That said, I suspect this bug/regression may be causing real issues. I've
 been asked in the past about a few particular searches and I think this
 regression could be why I didn't understand the ranking:
 https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/form/
 https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/forms/
 https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/form+builder/
 https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/quizzes/
 https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/lead+magnet/
 https://wordpress.org/plugins/search/reCAPTCHA/

 Not having any boosting on the slug is also a problem.

 For the given "instagram" examples, I don't think adding the slug boosting
 back in would matter at all. The active installs is by far the heaviest
 weighted field and in the two example results it is a difference between a
 plugin with 60k installs and one that has a 20x bigger install base. For
 the goal of guiding users to plugins where they are likely to have the
 best long term support experience this seems like a good ranking.

 A 5x boost sounds like a lot, but you have to look at it in context. The
 boost for title is 5x plus another 2x against partial prefix string phrase
 matches (title.engram). Excerpt, Description, and Tag matches also have a
 2x boost. The biggest difference with these examples is that
 active_installs of 1m is going to have a ~5x boost while 60k is about 2.5x
 (plus support and ratings).

 @dd32 my recommendation is to try fixing the bug that was introduced and
 see how it affects some of these search examples. It is a bit of a moving
 target because plugin authors are constantly adjusting their descriptions
 to boost rankings. Still I think we should try it. I suspect it won't make
 that much of a difference for most cases tbh.

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Ticket URL: <https://meta.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/8225#comment:5>
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