Hi Richard,
Sorry this happened on your side. I know it is really frustrating to lose ratings. That hurts, especially if you have built them up over years.
We did not remove the plugin without communication. The closure was announced publicly in July here:
https://web.archive.org/web/20251110110415/https://rating-widget.com/blog/goodbye-ratingwidget/
There was also a permanent notice on the site, visible on all pages. On October 20 we also emailed all users about the upcoming shutdown and suggested alternatives. It is possible that message landed in spam. You can try searching your mailbox for the subject “Important Notice: Upcoming Closure of RatingWidget”.
I completely get that none of this helps if the emails never reached you. Still, I hope it gives a bit more context around what happened. For a replacement, many users moved to YASR and have been happy with it, so it might be worth checking out.
Wishing you a smoother start to the year, and many new 5-star votes ahead ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
