<div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 4:07 PM, Otto <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:otto@ottodestruct.com">otto@ottodestruct.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="im">On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 3:53 PM, Chip Bennett <<a href="mailto:chip@chipbennett.net">chip@chipbennett.net</a>> wrote:<br>
> Likewise with Widgets, we should have a wider discussion regarding whether<br>
> or not it should be removed. My initial take is that it is all manageable by<br>
> the end user, and additional feed types can be added via plugin (or the<br>
> Theme), and implementing the default feed support doesn't detract.<br>
</div>> ...<br>
<div class="im">> It might be instructive to get some examples of some of these<br>
> special-purpose Themes. The only one I've seen so far - a "Coming Soon"<br>
> Theme, is (as Frumph pointed out) something that can be managed via Plugin,<br>
> using any Theme.<br>
<br>
</div>I think this is rather beside the point. I use a "coming soon" theme<br>
on a few sites. It's handy.<br>
<br>
The fact of the matter is that themes and plugins are not that<br>
different. I can make a plugin which redirects a couple of hooks and<br>
completely bypasses the theme system to replace it with a theme in the<br>
plugin directory. Big deal. It doesn't make any different whether it's<br>
a theme or a plugin, except that themes tend to be about looks and<br>
plugins tend to be about function.<br>
<br>
"Tend" being the operative word there. If I am looking to put a comic<br>
strip system on my blog, I'm going to look for a theme that makes it<br>
easy for me to do that, because comic strips are very visual.<br>
<br>
Whether something should be a theme or a plugin is really a judgement<br>
call, and not everybody has the same judgement. If somebody makes a<br>
special purpose theme, then the purpose of the theme should be taken<br>
into account. A coming soon theme, for example, needs no feeds, no<br>
comments, no post loop. But it's still perfectly valid to do it as a<br>
theme and not as a plugin.<div><div class="h5"><a href="http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers" target="_blank"></a></div></div></blockquote><div><br></div><div>Without getting into the specific merits and arguments... just a general question: what if we added a blanket statement that certain review Guidelines could be subject to exception, at the discretion of the Theme Review team, for "special purpose" Themes?</div>
<div><br></div><div>Chip? </div></div><br>