Prohibit ads and banners in native blocks and block editor

[markzahra]

I've come across a number of cases, as have others, where plugins are advertising other plugins in the native WordPress block editor, either with banners at the top of the editor itself or in the settings of native WordPress blocks.

If the ads and banners are placed in areas and settings owned by the plugins themselves, advertising one's own updates and relevant products is fine, but these should not be done in the native WordPress editor and blocks.

In order for this not to get out of hand in the way that ads and banners in WordPress notices have in the past, and to keep the WordPress experience consistent for all users, I'd like to propose that such advertising be prohibited and any relevant guidelines and rules be updated to make this clear.

Attached are a few examples of such cases, and below are some posts from X with more reports of such behaviour from certain plugins as well as community feedback on the matter.

1. ​https://x.com/markzahra/status/1935992967615168646
2. ​https://x.com/ciorici/status/1909520775729627637
3. ​https://x.com/morganhvidt/status/1909142679998615609
4. ​https://x.com/markzahra/status/1923365109281309122

[fierevere]

Thus can be considered as dashboard hijacking and its already forbidden in the plugin developer guidelines

[SirLouen]

I'm not 100% confident, but I think this is not the place to report issues with plugins
Check: ​https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/handbook/get-involved/

[markzahra]

Replying to SirLouen:

I'm not 100% confident, but I think this is not the place to report issues with plugins
Check: ​https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/handbook/get-involved/

From my perspective, this is about updating WordPress' guidelines for developers, not just plugins specifically, but if that should be discussed elsewhere, I'm happy to do that, so long as it's not ignored.

I originally set the component to be the editor since that's the area this is impacting.

[markzahra]

Replying to fierevere:

Thus can be considered as dashboard hijacking and its already forbidden in the plugin developer guidelines

If this is the case and it falls under that guideline (could be, I wasn't sure if the editor and dashboard are considered the same), I hope to see that guideline expanded upon to make it more clear on what's acceptable and what's not, and swift action taken against those violating the guideline so that it doesn't become a bigger problem.

[SirLouen]

Replying to markzahra:

Replying to SirLouen:

I'm not 100% confident, but I think this is not the place to report issues with plugins
Check: ​https://make.wordpress.org/plugins/handbook/get-involved/

From my perspective, this is about updating WordPress' guidelines for developers, not just plugins specifically, but if that should be discussed elsewhere, I'm happy to do that, so long as it's not ignored.

I originally set the component to be the editor since that's the area this is impacting.

This place is not for WP developers in general, but for solving problems in the code of the WordPress core itself.

Obviously, only with code, we cannot impede that the extenders add this kind of code to create these ads.

But it's true that there are some guidelines for the plugin extenders community that they should abide to. And those guidelines could be improved to avoid this trouble.

I recommend you to go into the WordPress Slack, into the channel #pluginreview and comment this case with them.

cc @davidperez @frantorres

[davidperez]

Hello,
This is already forbidden in the Plugins Guidelines:
​https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/#11-plugins-should-not-hijack-the-admin-dashboard

We have a procedure for users for solve this kind of problems:

1. Contact to the author about this problem. If it's not giving a solution, go to next step.
2. Contact to Plugins Team. We will contact to the author to stop making these practices.
3. If we don't receive a reply, it could cause the close of the plugin.

Regards.

[markzahra]

Replying to davidperez:

Hello,
This is already forbidden in the Plugins Guidelines:
​https://developer.wordpress.org/plugins/wordpress-org/detailed-plugin-guidelines/#11-plugins-should-not-hijack-the-admin-dashboard

We have a procedure for users for solve this kind of problems:

1. Contact to the author about this problem. If it's not giving a solution, go to next step.
2. Contact to Plugins Team. We will contact to the author to stop making these practices.
3. If we don't receive a reply, it could cause the close of the plugin.

Regards.

Thanks, David, understood. Just a quick question on point 2. I've done this in the past when I found a third-party plugin was violating another company's trademark, but was told by the Plugins Team to not contact them about someone else's plugin and trademark since it's not our own. Could that also be the case here or would I have a valid point to reach out about such instances?

[davidperez]

Hello,
I can’t speak for what happened in the past, but we usually ask users to contact the authors first. We act as an intermediary between users and authors, and we aim to maintain a good relationship. We only intervene when an agreement cannot be reached between them.

[fierevere]

Related ​https://wordpress.org/support/topic/what-are-you-doing-with-this-new-promo-banner/

This ticket shall be closed as it does not relate to core WordPress, but more to guidelines for plugin development

[SirLouen]

@markzahra as commented, I suggest following those guidelines and if possible, join Slack channel I commented you and follow there a conversation if you need.

Closing this ticket, thanks for informing, though.