Some trusted community members have the necessary permissions at HDS to make them ‘featured’. As Starcrasher already mentioned, the rating and comments every user can leave through HaikuDepot are the direct measure of user preference.
There are no firm rules what makes a package ‘featured’. Major criterion is user ratings/comments, of course. I’d prefer native apps over ports, if they have similar features. Also, we avoid having too many similar apps in the ‘featured’ group.
And again, if anyone feels an app should be included or kicked from the ‘featured’ list, open a thread and we have a discussion and poll.
When is a package ‘active’, what does it mean?