In reply to Zachary Skaggs.

Just to chime into @Zachary Skaggs comment:

The argument from the WordPress team is of course that all support should be managed in the same place for every single plugin. While this is a noble effort, it’s incredibly short sighted and misguided.

This change seems intended to penalize plugin developers who choose solutions outside of the forums to support their tools. Unfortunately the WordPress forums are an incredibly poor avenue for support compared to proper support-centric tools like HelpScout and others.

Why use the word "penalize"? It's not that at all.

Here's my take on this, it really is about the reputation of the whole community. IMHO that's why a plugin's support link should not go to a third party site. While you and others are responsible, reputable, professional etc. there are many more that will and can exploit users.

Of course that can still happen when users are directed by someone to an author's site. But I think you can see that being told by an author to seek support elsewhere is not the same as being sent there via a WordPress plugin page.