Reviews: Change from "forever editable" to "threaded"

[mrfoxtalbot]

This idea came up on the support table at WCEU Contributor Day (@igorel and others). I realize that this is a significant shift in the way reviews work but I think it is worth exploring.

Currently, users posting reviews can edit their own plugin and theme reviews as many times as they want and there is no time limitation either. By allowing keeping reviews open FOREVER, we introduce lot of complexity and exceptions in they way they are listed (#6094) and in the way notifications are handled (#2884). This is made worse by the fact that anyone else can piggy back on other user's reviews, as they often do (#6865).

The rationale behind leaving reviews always editable for authors is allowing them to update their review if they change their mind but it would be better if could preserve the old review and show it alongside the newer one. This was raised in #1181

There is a third element to take into account: edited reviews are very hard for moderators to monitor (#6426). This forces us to choose between two evils: we either have to archive reviews from users whose intentions we feel a little bit unsure about OR we need to let them stay and run that risk that future less-than-ideal updates to their reviews will likely go under the moderatoration radar.

To address all of the above. I would propose the following changes:

• Only the author of the review, the author of the plugin, and moderators can can participate in a thread. Fixes 6865. Non-participants looking at someone else's review will be directed to write a review of their own.
• Reviews and replies are only editable during the 1h window (like any other forum post, which fixes 2884 & 6094).
• Even though replies are not "editable forever", the thread itself DOES stay open forever for new replies. Fixes 3505 and alleviates 5877
• Review authors would be allowed to update their rating each time they add a new reply to the thread. A small "changed from X to Y stars" would be shown below each new comment, if applicable.
• To accommodate larger themes, we might need to fix 5635

To wrap it up: we would give up the "flexibility" of having third actors participate in reviews (which we ask people not to do, anyway) and we would gain a review system that is easier to moderate, does not need to overwrite content, and that does not require so many workarounds and exceptions.

[mrfoxtalbot]

Updated this part: "To accommodate larger PLUGINS" and replaced it with "THEMES", as plugins were already fixed.

[foosantos]

This would be a great idea!

Only the author of the review, the author of the plugin, and moderators can can participate in a thread.

It would be good to add support reps as well.

[mrfoxtalbot]

It would be good to add support reps as well.

100% agreed, thank you for the suggestion, @foosantos.

[mrfoxtalbot]

If I understand correctly, and as quick digest, there are two blockers to move this forward:

1. A technical one: Adding multiple Theme authors #27 and reps #5635 is limited at the moment.
2. A conceptual one: There is some disagreement on wether limiting comments in reviews is detrimental to the community and towards participation in general.

[mrfoxtalbot]

I am going to drop two examples to illustrate my point that reviews should be limited their author and to the theme/plugin author:

• ​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/remember-gen-x-doesnt-like-to-click-twice-when-once-will-do
• ​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/the-users-keep-complaining-about-the-user-experience-2023

[dd32]

In 13582:

Support Forums: Reviews: Track the review rating with the topic, rather than the shared ratings table.

Users can have their reviews moderated / hidden if they violate the forum guidelines, and subsequent reviews will replace the users review for all reviews instead of just the new one.
This allows us to keep a history of the rating for a review, even if a newer review from the user has a different rating.

See #4275, #7064.