[theme-reviewers] New ticket

Thu Apr 21 16:14:43 UTC 2011

I do use my own standard boilerplate, but I wouldn't want to impose it on
anyone. Every reviewer is going to be most comfortable communicating
information in his or her own manner.

What I think is critical is communication of these two key points:

1) Why the Theme failed the review (i.e. the *required* issues)
2) How to communicate with the reviewer

For the first point, I simply list comments under the following headings:

'''Theme-Check Required''' (Note: we shouldn't have any more of these)

'''Required'''

'''Required, but can be fixed in next revision''' (Note: only if nothing is
listed under the '''Required''' heading)

'''Strongly Recommended, not Required'''

Then, under the heading, '''Review Summary''', I add certain boilerplate
text, that I recommend as generally useful for any reviewer, i.e.:

For a complete review:

'''Review Summary'''

'''This is a complete review.''' Theme cannot be accepted until items listed
under '''Required''' are addressed. Once these issues have been resolved,
please re-submit your Theme using the uploader tool on
wordpress.org/extend/themes, and a new Trac ticket will be generated.

Note:
 * Re-submitted Themes are given review priority over new Themes.
 * Prior to re-submitting, please ensure Theme meets all requirements in the
[http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Review Theme Review Guidelines] and the [
http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Unit_Test Theme Unit Tests].

For a cursory review:

'''Review Summary'''

'''This is a cursory review only.''' This Theme failed a sufficient number
of criteria to warrant discontinuing further review. '''Prior to
re-submitting, please ensure Theme meets all requirements in the [
http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Review Theme Review Guidelines] and the [
http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Unit_Test Theme Unit Tests].''' Once these
issues have been resolved, please re-submit your Theme using the uploader
tool on wordpress.org/extend/themes, and a new Trac ticket will be
generated.

Note:
 * Re-submitted Themes are given review priority over new Themes.
 * Test your Theme using the [http://pross.org.uk/theme-check/ Theme Check
tool], and ensure that no errors are found, prior to re-submission.

Finally, under the heading '''Responding To This Review''', I add additional
boilerplate text:

Theme developer questions, comments, and feedback are welcome and
encouraged. Please use one of the following methods:

 1) Leave a comment on this ticket
 2) Email the theme-reviewers email list
 3) Use the #wordpress-themes channel on irc.freenode.net

I'm certainly open to any additional standardization that you think would be
useful?

Chip

On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 10:58 AM, Dre Armeda <feeds at armeda.com> wrote:

>  Chip, I think another area we may want to look at is how the reviews are
> published to the theme submitter. What about standardizing the information
> published in the review, and using a single template that contains all of
> the relevant review points?
>
> As an example:
>
>    - Intro statement (exp. Thanks for contributing. The theme is awesome
>    but there are areas you need to clean up)
>    - Theme Check Info
>       - Required Items
>       - Recommended Items
>       - Info Items
>    - Debogger Items
>    - Deprecated Calls Info
>    - Test Data Info
>    - Test Environment Info
>    - Quick Observations
>    - Recommendations
>    - Closing Statement
>
>
> Let me know if I missed anything. The objective is to manage expectations.
> Standardizing gives a uniform feel upon delivery of the review information
> to the submitter, and also gives reviewers a common approach which may
> improve the process and learning curve.
>
> Just an idea. Continual process improvement will enable us as reviewers to
> become more proficient :)
>
> Cheers,
> Dre Armeda
>
>
>
> On 4/21/11 8:49 AM, Towfiq I. wrote:
>
>
>
> On Thu, Apr 21, 2011 at 7:41 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>wrote:
>
>> A good question.
>>
>>  When we only had 3-6 active reviewers, we would, purely out of
>> necessity, perform cursory reviews. Unfortunately, that practice primarily
>> led to the Theme developers addressing only the issues noted in the cursory
>> review, and not ensuring that all of the Guidelines were met. Thus, we would
>> end up seeing the same Theme, several times - and each time, reviewing the
>> Theme would incur the overhead of a new review.
>>
>>  So, now that we have many reviewers, I would strongly recommend that
>> every review be as thorough and complete as possible. Our goal would be to
>> review a Theme only once (if perfect the first time) or twice (the second
>> time, addressing all issues in the first review) before approval.
>>
>>  Also, doing so will help all of the new reviewers through the learning
>> process of performing Theme reviews.
>>
>>  Chip
>>
>>
>>
> Totally Agree with Chip...
>
> --
> Towfiq I.
>
>
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