WordPress.org Pending Approval Sucks

I make WordPress plugins. Some of them are free on this website, and some are commercial under a different project. Nothing too exotic. Just normal WordPress plugin stuff: write the code, test it, fix the stupid little bugs, check if WordPress is angry, then publish it somewhere so people can use it.

So I thought it would make sense to distribute some free plugins through WordPress.org. That would be handy for users. They could find the plugin directly from the WordPress dashboard, install it with a few clicks, get updates properly, and avoid manually uploading ZIP files like it is still the golden age of mild technical suffering.

Nice idea.

Then I tried to get a WordPress.org account properly approved. And here we are.

My WordPress.org Account Went Nowhere

At first, I thought the problem might be me. That would be annoying, but at least understandable. My project is called IT SUCKS!, which is not exactly a polished corporate brand with a smiling customer support lady, a fake “we care” slogan, and a stock photo of five people staring at a laptop like it just solved world hunger.

So, I thought maybe the branding was the issue. Maybe someone looked at the domain itsucks.fyi, saw the name, and decided this was not the kind of wholesome little flower they wanted in the WordPress.org garden. Fine. Possible.

So I sent an email explaining the situation. Something like: hey, I am a real person, I make WordPress plugins, the branding is weird on purpose, and my new WordPress.org account is still not approved. Then I waited. And waited.

And received nothing useful.

No clear explanation. No simple answer. No “your account is pending because of this.” No “please provide more details.” Just the magical invisible waiting room where your account technically exists, but apparently not enough to be useful.

So yes, I think I am eligible to say this: WordPress.org account approval sucks.

Maybe It Was Just Me

To be fair, I first thought this might be only my case. Maybe the name IT SUCKS! looked suspicious. Maybe the email domain looked too new. Maybe someone did not like this website. Maybe some automated system decided I smell like spam, crime, or too much sarcasm.

I do not know.

And because I do not know, I am not going to pretend I have evidence for that. I can guess, but guessing is not proof. Annoying, yes. Evidence, no.

So I did what every slightly irritated person with internet access does: I started searching. And it turns out this is not just me.

Other people have reported WordPress.org accounts getting stuck as “pending approval” too. The issue is not imaginary. It is not only my branding. It is not only my cursed little corner of the internet. Apparently, the invisible waiting room has other guests. Lovely.

Stuck as “Pending Approval”

There are public WordPress.org support threads where users say they received the account setup email, clicked the password or profile link, and then saw a message saying their account was still “pending approval”.

That is the fun part.

The account exists enough to receive an email. It exists enough to tease you with the idea that you can continue. But then, when you try to set it up properly, the door stays locked. That is not a smooth onboarding experience. That is like receiving a hotel key card, walking to your room, and finding a brick wall behind the door.

The Problem Is Not Only the Delay

Waiting is annoying, but waiting without knowing why is worse. A delay with a clear reason is irritating. A delay with no explanation is a little guessing game nobody asked for.

WordPress.org support does not always publicly explain why an account is held. In one public support thread, a moderator approved pending accounts but said they could not publicly disclose why the accounts were kept in limbo.

I understand the logic. If the reason is connected to spam prevention, abuse detection, or account security, they probably do not want to publish a full “Dear spammers, here is how our filter works” manual. Fine.

But from the normal user side, it still sucks. You are left wondering what triggered the problem. Was it the email address? The domain? The username? The IP address? The timing? The website? The fact that your branding contains the word “sucks”? A robot with trust issues?

Nobody knows. The user just sits there, staring at the screen, waiting for the approval fairy to stop smoking behind the shed.

Email Reputation Can Be Part of the Mess

Some reports suggest that email reputation or delivery can also be involved. In one support thread, a moderator suggested that a company email server may have been flagged and recommended checking with the mail provider. In another case, someone reported a “554 5.7.1 High probability of spam” error when trying to contact a WordPress.org password-reset address.

There was also a case where a user could not successfully contact WordPress.org from one email provider, but sending from Gmail worked.

So sometimes the issue may not be only the WordPress.org account itself. It can also be the email route, domain reputation, spam filtering, or the email provider used to contact support.

That is a beautiful mess, because now a user gets to wonder whether the problem is the account, the email, the domain, the server reputation, the spam filter, or some hidden WordPress.org goblin rejecting messages for sport.

Helpful? Not really.

Anti-Spam Systems Can Treat Real People Like Trash

To be clear, I understand why WordPress.org needs anti-spam systems. Any large public platform will attract garbage accounts, fake users, spam bots, SEO parasites, plugin spam, malware attempts, and all the other digital fungus that grows anywhere with a registration form.

So yes, filtering is necessary.

But automated systems are often very confident while being very stupid. A real person can do a normal thing and still get treated like a suspicious object. That is the price of modern internet security: bots still get through, and real people sometimes get thrown into the swamp.

WordPress.org Support Is Partly Volunteer-Based

Another important detail is that some WordPress.org support work is volunteer-based. That explains why things can be slow. People are helping in their own time, and I do respect that. Open-source communities do not run on magic. They run on time, patience, unpaid work, and probably too much coffee.

If WordPress.org is important enough to be the official home for plugins used across millions of websites, then the path for a real developer to open an account should not feel like dropping a message into a cave and hoping a volunteer bat eventually flies back with approval.

That is not exactly a premium developer onboarding experience. It is more like “please wait, someone may or may not look at this before your motivation dies.”

Account Approval and Plugin Approval Are Different Waiting Rooms

There is also another confusing part: WordPress.org account approval and WordPress.org plugin approval are not the same thing.

Account approval means your WordPress.org account becomes usable. Plugin approval means your submitted plugin gets reviewed and accepted into the WordPress.org plugin directory.

They are connected in practice because you need an account before you can properly submit and manage plugins, but they are separate processes.

So yes, there can be more than one waiting room. One for the account. One for the plugin. Maybe another one for replies. Maybe a small decorative waiting room for your patience, just to make sure it dies properly.

Plugin Review Is Its Own Beast

The official WordPress.org plugin submission page says the process starts by signing up for a WordPress.org account, submitting the plugin for review, and then waiting for manual review. The review can result in approval or an email asking for more information or corrections.

WordPress.org says plugin review can take 1 to 10 days, and that they attempt to review all plugins within 5 business days. That sounds reasonable on paper. Very calm. Very neat. Very “everything is under control.”

But the plugin ecosystem is huge, and the queue can be heavy. WordPress’s own plugin team has said plugin submissions doubled compared to the previous year, while the team was operating with approximately the same number of volunteers. They also described the challenge of keeping first reviews under one week while submissions were reaching hundreds per week.

So plugin review delays are not surprising.

The funny part is that I am not even complaining about plugin review yet. I am still stuck at the account door, politely holding my free plugins like an idiot while the building refuses to let me inside.

Why This Matters

This matters because WordPress.org is not just some random website. For WordPress plugins, it is the main official directory. It gives users trust, visibility, easy installation, update delivery, and a normal way to find free plugins from the WordPress dashboard.

For users, that is handy. For developers, it can be useful. For free plugins, it is probably the most obvious distribution channel.

So when a developer wants to offer useful free plugins and gets stuck before even submitting anything, the whole process starts to feel silly. Not catastrophic. Not dramatic. Just silly and annoying.

A clearer message would help. Something like: your account is pending manual review, this can take several business days, possible reasons include anti-spam checks or email reputation, please do not create multiple accounts, and contact this address with these details if needed.

That would already feel less like talking to a locked door.

What I Will Do

I may wait. I may send another short email. I may try a different route if needed. Or I may simply stop caring for a while, which is honestly very tempting.

Because here is the thing: I can live without a WordPress.org developer account. I have lived without it for years, and I can continue living without it for another few years. My free plugins can still be downloaded from my own website. Users can still install them manually. The internet will survive.

The only reason I wanted WordPress.org was convenience for users. Easier discovery. Easier installation. Easier updates. A cleaner route for free plugins.

But if the official route starts with an invisible waiting room, then fine. I can work around it.

Less WordPress.org visibility also means fewer users, and fewer users means fewer support questions. To be honest, that is more comfortable for me. I like making plugins. I do not exactly wake up in the morning dreaming about answering support questions from people who clicked three buttons and somehow created a disaster.

So maybe this is not only a problem.Maybe it is also a blessing with a login screen.

WordPress.org Pending Approval Sucks

To be fair, I understand why WordPress.org needs account checks, spam filtering, plugin review, security rules, and human moderation. The plugin directory should not become a garbage dump full of malware, abandoned nonsense, fake plugins, and SEO trash.

But there is still a difference between serious review and vague limbo.

When a real developer creates an account to publish useful free plugins and gets stuck without a clear explanation, the system feels broken from the outside.

Maybe it is anti-spam. Maybe it is email reputation. Maybe it is volunteer workload. Maybe it is the plugin ecosystem being too big for the process around it. Maybe it is all of that.

Whatever the reason, the result is simple: WordPress.org pending approval feels like an invisible waiting room. And yes, it sucks.