<meta charset="utf-8"><div><i>Disclaimer - I am referring to Platform theme as well as Swift theme here just for examples. I admire both of them and have immense respect for their developers .</i></div><div><br></div>I just checked first featured theme - platform and found few things that I think are not allowed by WPTRT team:<div>
<ol><li>First platform theme uses add new top-level-menu</li><li>Second they are not using register settings properly</li><li>For various image uploads they are not using wordpress media library </li><li>(noted by Satish) "Platform uses pagelines logo in the header, while it should show the blog name and blog title." I am 100% sure, my theme will be rejected if I do this! ;-)</li>
</ol><div>There may be more! Above I found at first look! Also, some of issues might have been discussed here already.</div><div><br></div><div>I'm bit disappointed to see one featured theme is allowed to break WPTRT *guidelines* while another theme (swift theme by Satish) was rejected for the sake of same guideline!</div>
<div><br></div><div>I already read this - <a href="http://make.wordpress.org/themes/2011/01/05/discussion-on-menu-locations-for-theme-options/" target="_blank">http://make.wordpress.org/themes/2011/01/05/discussion-on-menu-locations-for-theme-options/</a> and from what I saw there, WPTRT team is yet to finalize their stand on location of theme option page(s)!</div>
<div><br></div><div>In that case - rejecting a theme for NOT using <span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">add_theme_page() and at the same time approving another theme which is NOT using </span><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">add_theme_page() <i>(and also making that theme featured)</i> is totally unfair even it may be unintentional.</span></div>
<div><br></div><div>I agree with Chip's comment - </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0.8ex; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-color: rgb(204, 204, 204); border-left-style: solid; padding-left: 1ex; ">
What you perceive to be bias is better described as us being human. We can and do make mistakes, and we can and do review Themes differently - not because we are biased for against a particular Theme or developer, but rather because we, as humans, are merely imperfect.</blockquote>
<div><br></div><div>I am really grateful for WPTRT team for spending so much time to keep theme repo clean and updated. But I believe few things can help all of us:</div><div><ol><li>a complete document finalizing what constitues *guidelines* (may be few more pages on codex).</li>
<li>guidelines should be numbered like laws are numbers in legal/judicial system</li><li>a defined process to pass verdict on new codes/features that may not be covered by *guidelines* (as I believe *updating* guidelines will be never ending process)</li>
<li>a notification system - when major changes to guidelines takes place a kind of mass email to all theme developers by a WPTRT member explaining impact of major change (we can use this mailing list)</li><li>Report guideline violation button on theme repo (I will explain its usage with an example below)</li>
</ol><div>As an example:</div></div><div><br></div><div>As I said before - WPTRT team seems yet to reach a final decision on <font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; ">add_theme_page() compulsion. In that case, its not fair to reject any theme which is NOT using it (my personal opinion)</span></font></div>
<div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; ">Once WPTRT team makes a decision on it, say WPTRT decide to force </span></font><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">add_theme_page(), then a notification will be issued with such a major change and theme developers can be given some 30 days to update their themes to meet guidelines.</span></div>
<div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; ">Now, </span>Report guideline violation button on each theme will be added. A visitor may use it to report a theme for guideline violation and he can quote guideline number for reference. This will force developers to be more accountable towards their work!</div>
<div><br></div><div>On sidenote - theme-check script which runs on uploading theme can be updated to meet guidelines. After that it can be run as a cron job on all themes on repo to check which themes are yet to meet new guidelines (say after 30 days!)</div>
<div><span style="border-collapse: collapse; font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; "> </span></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; ">Goal is - to reach a common agreement on what is allowed and remove bias from the theme review process! </span></font></div>
<div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; "><br></span></font></div><div><font face="arial, sans-serif"><span style="border-collapse: collapse; ">It is essential for the community to keep its contributor motivated no matter how big or small it is. Just my thoughts...</span></font></div>
</div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="arial, sans-serif"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: collapse;"><br></span></font></div>--<br>Rahul Bansal | Founder & CEO | rtCamp Solutions Pvt. Ltd.<br>
Skype: rahul286 | Twitter: @rahul286 | Web: <a href="http://rtcamp.com/" target="_blank">http://rtcamp.com/</a><br><br>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 9:48 PM, Chip Bennett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:chip@chipbennett.net">chip@chipbennett.net</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex;">
<div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im">On Tue, Feb 15, 2011 at 9:15 AM, Satish Gandham <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:satish.iitg@gmail.com" target="_blank">satish.iitg@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:</div><div class="im">
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<br>Here is the screen shot of platform theme, on a new installation of WordPress after importing the test data.<br>
<br><a href="http://d.pr/hyYJ" target="_blank">http://d.pr/hyYJ</a><br><br>1.It uses pagelines logo in the header, while it should show the blog name and blog title.<br>2.Text on default installation is unreadable.<br>3. Screenshot is not close to the default installation..<br>
<br></blockquote></div></div>By the way, there is something wrong with your default installation of Platform. <a href="http://www.chipbennett.net/upload/pagelinesdefault.png" target="_blank">Here's what I see</a> on default installation of the <a href="http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2927" target="_blank">most current version</a>.<div>
<br></div><div><font color="#888888">Chip<br></font><div><br></div><div><a href="http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2927#comment:3" target="_blank">P.S.</a></div><div><br></div><div><a href="http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/2927#comment:4" target="_blank">P.P.S</a>.</div>
</div><div><br></div><div><br></div>
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