WordPress just dropped a major update regarding the plugin directory: the Featured Plugins Experiment. If you’ve spent any time building for the repo lately, you know the “chicken and egg” problem. You build a solid tool, but because it has zero installs, it stays buried on page 20 of the search results. This initiative, pitched directly to Matt Mullenweg, aims to fix that by surfacing newer, high-quality plugins that haven’t hit the big leagues yet.
I’ve seen plenty of “experiments” come and go in the WordPress ecosystem, but this one feels different. It’s not just about popularity; it’s about technical merit. Specifically, the team is looking for plugins with fewer than 10,000 active installs that have been listed for less than a year. Every two weeks, eight plugins are selected to be featured, provided they hit a specific quality bar.
Technical Standards: The Selection Bar
As a dev, the most interesting part of the Featured Plugins Experiment isn’t the visibility—it’s the criteria. They aren’t just looking for “cool ideas.” They are looking for code that follows WordPress Coding Standards. We’re talking human-readable code, proper use of nonces, and rigorous sanitization.
Specifically, many developers fail because they treat security as an afterthought. If you want your plugin to even be considered, you need to stop using $_POST directly without verification. I’ve refactored dozens of legacy plugins where the previous dev just “shipped it” without a single wp_verify_nonce in sight. That won’t fly here.
The “Featured” Way to Handle Input
In contrast to the naive approach, here is what the experiment looks for in terms of basic security and implementation standards. If you are practicing modern plugin development, this should be second nature.
<?php
/**
* Naive Approach (Will be rejected)
*/
function bbioon_save_settings_naive() {
if ( isset( $_POST['my_option'] ) ) {
update_option( 'my_option', $_POST['my_option'] );
}
}
/**
* Technical Standard Approach (The Featured Bar)
*/
function bbioon_save_settings_standard() {
// 1. Check permissions
if ( ! current_user_can( 'manage_options' ) ) {
return;
}
// 2. Verify Nonce
if ( ! isset( $_POST['bbioon_nonce'] ) || ! wp_verify_nonce( $_POST['bbioon_nonce'], 'bbioon_save_action' ) ) {
wp_die( 'Security check failed' );
}
// 3. Sanitize and Save
if ( isset( $_POST['my_option'] ) ) {
$clean_data = sanitize_text_field( $_POST['my_option'] );
update_option( 'my_option', $clean_data );
}
}
Governance and Visibility
The Featured Plugins Experiment is currently being curated manually by Nick Hamze. While some might prefer a fully automated algorithm, I actually think manual curation is a win for the community right now. Algorithms can be gamed; a human can see if a developer is actually responsive in the support forums or if the UX reflects “care and intentionality.”
Furthermore, this experiment ties into the larger shifts we are seeing in the directory for 2025 and 2026. The goal is to reward developers who address problems not already well-served by “The Big Five” plugins that have dominated the repo for a decade.
Look, if this Featured Plugins Experiment stuff is eating up your dev hours, let me handle it. I’ve been wrestling with WordPress since the 4.x days.
Final Takeaway
Therefore, if you’re a plugin author, this is your signal to clean up your repo. Don’t bundle unnecessary libraries, keep your readme accurate, and for the love of Gutenberg, use the official Slack channel to provide context. The Featured Plugins Experiment is a rare opportunity to bypass the “zero install” graveyard, but only if your code is up to the task.
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