[theme-reviewers] how close is too close?

[Edward Caissie]

I use a rule of thumb that says: there must be a significant difference in
design and / or functionality between the submitted theme and the "parent"
it was derived from.

As Justin suggests, if it can be accomplished with CSS alone (and minimal
code) then it is not likely to be "approved" for the repository but of
course this is very subjective. Essentially it boils down to if you have to
ask if it is a child-theme then most likely it is.


Cais.

On Tue, Dec 28, 2010 at 6:03 PM, <justin at justintadlock.com> wrote:

> I have a few rules when deciding whether something should be a child
> theme of another theme.
>
> * Could the theme be achieved with CSS alone? It should be a child
> theme.
> * Are there 5 custom templates or more that step outside of what the
> parent theme does? It should be a parent theme.
> * Does the functions.php file have more than 10kb (very generous) of
> custom functions? It should be a parent theme.
>
> These are just some general rules I go by to give myself some sort of
> standard.
>
> Obviously, there has to be a little more leeway when it comes to
> TwentyTen. That's the theme that devs will learn to build from. I just
> hate having to see that same code over and over and over.
>
>
>
> -------- Original Message --------
> Subject: [theme-reviewers] how close is too close?
> From: Amy Hendrix <sabreuse at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, December 28, 2010 2:52 pm
> To: theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>
> Hi all,
>
> I'd love to see some discussion on themes that are obviously derived
> from another theme, but have more new work in them than something
> that's just a straight-up child theme. What's "too close"? Is it a
> matter of adding or removing functionality? Rewriting significant
> parts of template files (as opposed to, say, copy-pasting the new
> theme name wherever the old one appears)?
>
> At this point, I feel like there's a continuum that goes something like:
>
> Author copied Twenty Ten but changed the site title to pink. Child
> theme, also poor taste.
> Author copied Twenty Ten, changed the site title to pink, and removed
> the headers that say "Twenty Ten".
> ...
> ...
> ...
> ...
> Author wrote every line from scratch. Author is an utter masochist who
> never heard of code re-use.
>
> And I'm clear on recognizing the ends of the spectrum but the middle
> is fuzzy - so I'd love some thoughts from the rest of you about how
> you recognize the line?
>
> Thanks,
> Amy
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