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wp.org search vs our merit ranking: “buddypress photo gallery”

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 “buddypress photo gallery”, we and wp.org disagree on the top plugin, and our order differs from theirs on 11 of the top 20. 5 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.

Ranked above its merit

Cincopa video and media plug-in shows at wp.org #5 but places #11 on merit, a gap of 6 places. Its 1K+ installs carry it up the search order; its 2.8★ average from 26 reviews, plus freshness and upkeep, place it lower on our volume-weighted scale.

Buried gem

Dokan: AI Powered WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace Solution – Build Your Own Amazon, eBay, Etsy places #8 on merit, 4.6★ from 768 reviews, but shows at wp.org #14. A smaller install base keeps it further down the default search order than its quality signals alone would.

merit plugin wp.org
1 EWWW Image Optimizer 1M+ · 4.8★ (1841) wp.org #2 1 too low 2 rtMedia for WordPress, BuddyPress and bbPress 7K+ · 3.7★ (152) wp.org #1 1 too high 3 FileBird – WordPress Media Library Folders & File Manager 200K+ · 4.7★ (1122) wp.org #4 1 too low 4 Directorist: AI-Powered Business Directory, Listings & Classified Ads 20K+ · 4.6★ (698) wp.org #7 3 too low 5 MediaPress 3K+ · 4.7★ (33) wp.org #3 2 too high 6 FluentCommunity – Ultra-Fast High-Performance Social Network, Community, LMS & Online Courses 8K+ · 4.9★ (93) wp.org #6 7 User Frontend – Membership, User Registration, User Profile, User Directory & Content Restriction with Frontend Post Submission 20K+ · 4.1★ (535) wp.org #11 4 too low 8 Dokan: AI Powered WooCommerce Multivendor Marketplace Solution – Build Your Own Amazon, eBay, Etsy 30K+ · 4.6★ (768) wp.org #14 ↓1 6 too low 9 One User Avatar | User Profile Picture 100K+ · 4.7★ (41) wp.org #12 3 too low 10 T Tooltips for WordPress 5K+ · 3.8★ (75) wp.org #10 11 Cincopa video and media plug-in 1K+ · 2.8★ (26) wp.org #5 6 too high 12 Activity Plus Reloaded for BuddyPress 1K+ · 5.0★ (9) wp.org #8 4 too high 13 MicroPayments – Fans Paysite: Paid Creator Subscriptions, Digital Assets, Wallet 20+ · 4.2★ (5) wp.org #13 ↑1 14 CBX Poll 50+ · 4.7★ (3) wp.org #9 5 too high 15 B BuddyPics 20+ · 4.6★ (7) wp.org #20 ↑1 5 too low 16 B BuddyPress Album 60+ · 3.4★ (10) wp.org #21 ↑1 5 too low 17 MediaPress Featured Content 40+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #17 18 I Import from Ning 10+ · 3.3★ (4) wp.org #19 ↑1 1 too low 19 A Airy Frontend Forms 40+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #15 4 too high 20 JSON API Cincopa 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #16 4 too high 21 A A Simple Backend 10+ · 5.0★ (1) wp.org #18 ↑1 3 too high 22 B BP-Gallery Sidebar Widget 10+ · 0.0★ (0) wp.org #23 ↑1 1 too low 23 B BuddyPress Photos+tags 10+ · 1.0★ (1) wp.org #22 ↑1 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.