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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “astronomy”

wp.org orders by popularity, so a plugin a host bundled onto millions of sites, or a big-brand one that's slow and mediocre, can sit at the top. Our ranking is built to answer a different question: which of these is actually worth installing. How this works →

For “astronomy”, we agree with wp.org on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 8 of the top 20. 4 plugins are pushed down for signals wp.org ignores: errors, a host-installed base, or removal risk.

wp.org search ranks on

Install count (uncapped), the raw star average, freshness, and support. Popularity dominates, so the biggest install base usually wins regardless of how it got there.

We add

A cap on the install boost, volume-weighted ratings, and signals wp.org can't see: whether it throws errors on current PHP, whether the install base is organic or host-pushed, and its risk of being pulled.

merit plugin wp.org
1 Location Weather – WordPress Weather Forecast, Air Quality & Weather Widget 10K+ · 4.5★ (103) wp.org #1 2 XTX Integration for Netatmo 10+ · 5.0★ (2) wp.org #4 2 too low 3 Celestial Lunar Phase Widget 50+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #2 1 too high 4 W WP Nasa/ADS Query Importer 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #3 1 too high 5 S SolarDawn Sunrise & Sunset Widget 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #5 6 The Stars at Night 100+ · 5.0★ (3) wp.org #14 8 too low 7 APIFreaks — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #7 8 Curiosity POTD 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #6 2 too high 9 M Moon Phases 300+ · 5.0★ (4) wp.org #21 12 too low 10 CosmyDay Astrology Widgets — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #8 ↑1 2 too high 11 WP Moon Phase Widget 200+ · 3.8★ (4) wp.org #16 5 too low 12 Mosne Media Library AstroBin — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #9 ↓1 3 too high 13 Sonoquill – AI Podcast Production — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #10 3 too high 14 Enhanced Body Class — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #11 3 too high 15 Noesia Smart Waiter — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #12 3 too high 16 News Aggregator 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #13 3 too high 17 RoxyAPI: Astrology, Vedic, Forecast, Human Design, Numerology 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #15 2 too high 18 H Hello Star 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 1 too high 19 L Launches from SpaceX 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #19 20 N NASA Picture of the Day 20+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #20 21 Quizess 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #18 3 too high 22 G Galaxy Zoo — · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 1 too low 23 H Helioviewer.org – Latest Image 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #22 1 too high

Merit ranking caps the install boost at 1M (wp.org leaves it uncapped), replaces the raw star average with a volume-weighted Bayesian score and a Wilson lower bound, and keeps wp.org's own freshness and compatibility decays. Method from the plugin-directory source; see Meta Trac #8298. Positions are tracked daily from the first visit to a keyword, so the small arrows show movement since tracking began.