Closed plugins should still have a public page

[tellyworth]

Currently, closed/disabled plugins show a 404 error page for regular users.

It would be better to have at least a minimal public page for historical context. Perhaps with download links etc disabled.

[tellyworth]

Make closed plugins visible from its slug page only.

[tellyworth]

Disable the download button for public users on closed plugin pages.

[tellyworth]

The two initial patches give a minimal implementation to start with.

Closed (disabled) plugins are visible from the slug page - ​https://wordpress.org/plugins/wpclef/ for example. They don't appear in search results or other list contexts.

The theme patch hides the Download button on closed plugins. There are probably other things that should be disabled or hidden, and the message should be better - perhaps "This plugin has been closed and is no longer available for download."

[Ipstenu]

Historically disabled and closed plugins have not been displayed because they're usually done so for pejorative reasons.

Ill or nill, unless we're documenting WHY things are closed, I don't think it's wise to show closed plugins except to say "This plugin is closed..." as it would just cause the same FUD we have today (which I don't like, and yes, I'd like us to tackle in phase 2 :D )

Instead of showing the readme, I would recommend we display a simple message.

Closed: This plugin has been closed and is no longer available for download.

Disabled: This plugin has been closed for new installs.

In both cases for owner/admin: If you did not request this change, please contact plugins@… for a status. All developers with commit access are contacted when a plugin is closed, with the reasons why, so check your spam email too.

Then we can start considering how to properly flag things as 'closed by developer request' and 'closed for guideline infraction' (though I don't want to dog-shame developers and publicize their mistakes if I can help it...)

[jipmoors]

Adding meta robots noindex to disabled plugin page

[jipmoors]

My new patch is doing the following:

• refreshing the template file
• removing JSON LD
• adding meta robots: noindex to the page

[jipmoors]

Related #2860

[Ipstenu]

FYI #2860 is intended to _eventually_ be incorporated into this, but step one is to record why :) Then I have to figure out how we go back through the thousands of closed plugins and record things properly. Bad data is as useless as no data, after all. That's the phase 2 I mentioned before.

[melchoyce]

@tellyworth Can you add some screenshots of your patch?

[SergeyBiryukov]

The latest patch does not address comment:2.

[Ipstenu]

@SergeyBiryukov - I think it's okay to push this without tracking why just yet.

That is, we can change it to "This plugin has been removed from the directory and is no longer available for download."

We can go back and enhance it with a separate ticket, but we need to make a step forward :) I'll make a ticket for the follow up of 'Publicly track and disclose WHY a plugin was closed' once we're done with #2860

[tellyworth]

attachment:2627-add-noindex-meta.2.patch​ builds on @jipmoors patch with a couple of improvements:

• Clearer error message
• Hides Previous Versions on Advanced page

[Ipstenu]

:thumbs up emoji:

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 6118:

Plugin Directory: Allow closed/disabled plugins to have a public page.

• Add a notice explaining the plugin's current status.
• Add noindex meta tag.
• Remove Download button and Previous Versions section.

Props tellyworth, jipmoors, Ipstenu, SergeyBiryukov.
See #2627.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 6127:

Plugin Directory: After [6118], allow logged-in users to view closed/disabled plugins as well.

See #2627.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 6128:

Plugin Directory: Don't display the locale banner for closed plugins.

See #2627.

[Ipstenu]

Proposed design

[Ipstenu]

Sample Description Page

[Ipstenu]

Sample Development Page

[Ipstenu]

Using ​https://wordpress.org/plugins/rickroll/ as an example, I've uploaded two images for examples of a 'better' layout.

Important notes:

1) Support, Reviews, and Advanced View can be left alone for now.

2) In the absence of a readme...
2a) plugin 'name' should be the slug (so yes, "Tap-dancing Demons for WooCommerce" would be woo-tap-demons)
2b) 'author' should be whomever is the owner of the plugin (there's a field for that)

3) Never show the header image or the custom icons

4) CURRENTLY the only things we can show on the status sidebar are "Status: Closed" - the other two need to wait for #2860 :D

The reason we're hiding images and content when possible is that plugins are sometimes closed due to guideline/copyright/content issues regarding readmes and images. If a dev has a plugin closed for injecting spam-links or is using copyright-protected images, we need to hide that for potential legal reasons.

While we can (and will) go in and edit those things for them, I'd rather protect them from themselves from the get-go. Makes for less work for US.

[joostdevalk]

Fixes the plugin template for closed and disabled plugins

[joostdevalk]

Version 2 of the template

[Otto42]

In 6225:

Plugins: Modify how the plugin pages look for closed plugins.

• Display that the plugin was closed and when (if we have that information)
• Show plugin author a notification box telling them to contact plugins@ if they didn't get an email why
• Hide most of the content from the readme
• Don't display the plugin name, just the slug in its place
• Hide icons, banners, any content from the plugin author
• Leave space for reasons of closure for future enhancement

Fixes #2627. props @joostdevalk, @otto42

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 6230:

Plugin Directory: Show an auto-generated icon for closed plugins instead of an empty block, to preserve consistent layout.

See #2627.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 6232:

Plugin Directory: Remove unnecessary closure in template-parts/plugin-single.php.

See #2627.

[SergeyBiryukov]

In 6538:

Plugin Directory: Show an auto-generated icon for closed plugins instead of an empty block, to preserve consistent layout.

Previously: [6230], accidentally overridden in [6287].

See #2627.