Rules of when and how plugins get featured

[Xpirix]

Originally posted on the mailing list: https://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-developer/2025-February/067390.html

From @timlinux

Unfeatured all for now and Add a ticket / TODO to come up with a set of rules of when and how plugins get featured

[EmHain8]

So questions are to determine how a plugin become featured:

1. Can you pay to get it featured with the provision that the plugin needs to be reviewed as well
2. Should contributors or sponsors plugin be automatically featured
3. How long does a plugin hold a feature status
4. Could this be automated based on some metric based for a period of time - so let's say a new plugin gets released and they have a high download rate over maybe a month - then it becomes a featured plugin
5. Do we ask plugin owners to email the list and then a group considers whether or not to feature their plugin?
6. How many plugins get featured? 3 - as this is what sits at the top
7. Do we not feature plugins?

[rayrayzayzay]

I've always wondered how this works! Featured plugins are valuable to the plugin developer for promotion, and to the user searching for the right solution, so I think a balance is key (and appropriate). Some ideas:

• First slot: Sustaining members should have the option of featured plugins for a term, cycle this based on sustaining membership numbers
• Second: newly listed plugins get a slot for 2 weeks or something?
• Third: Cycle any 4+ star plugins

This is valuable real estate for QGIS, whose sustainability I deeply care about, so I think reserving it for highest level of sponsorships is key, while also ensuring a positive search experience for the user.

[DelazJ]

If we want to feature plugins, I think we should clarify first WHAT a "featured" plugin means. Maybe because I'm not a native English speaker, but I find it hard to guess what is behind. And who does it target, what is the expected benefit? Then we could discuss how to be eligible, how many plugins, how long...

[EmHain8]

Featured plugin, as far as I can understand, get:

• placed in the top row
• are tagged 'featured'
• have a graphic badge saying 'featured'