<p dir="ltr">For the moment, the theme review admins can pick the featured themes by hand, until I get the major overhaul done. I'm working on it, I assure you. :-)<br></p>
<p dir="ltr"> </p>
<div class="gmail_quote">On Jul 3, 2014 12:16 PM, "Srikanth Koneru" <<a href="mailto:tskk79@gmail.com">tskk79@gmail.com</a>> wrote:<br type="attribution"><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div dir="ltr">Since Otto hasn't stuck random there yet, its time for new featured themes.<br></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Fri, May 30, 2014 at 1:51 PM, Jose Castaneda <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:jomcastaneda@gmail.com" target="_blank">jomcastaneda@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr">I honestly never even gave it a second glance. The main reason was because when I saw "Make" I initially thought that it was step in the right direction. The first theme from a long standing and very much reputable theme developer makes it to the top? I had to check it out. I saw "Stargazer" and wasn't too surprised it was a featured theme I mean with twelve themes and a lot of plugins in the repo I couldn't help but bite, I just had to take a quick peek at the code. On both themes really.<div>
<br></div><div>Part of the reason I feel this way is because featured themes should make you feel like that is the standard when it comes to theming. I think it is one of those if you look for a symptom you're bound to find one type of things.</div>
<div><br></div><div>From what I can recall it is a randomized list of themes that is being used. How it's being generated is up to the higher ups. I can only guess that it is not an easy thing to code which is why I have no intentions on really asking how or what the requirements are. If I knew I would just as easily create a theme that would cater to that just to be featured.</div>
<div><br></div><div>As a theme reviewer for going on two years I have to say that things have changed. I wanted to embrace the incentive but that failed because of the direction it was headed. Now I can let somebody else deal with it and I can try my best at making sure that themes won't be breaking sites and meeting the standards rather than just simply approving themes to get my theme count up. I mean that is one of the many reasons I chose to review themes; that and I wanted to improve my coding abilities while gaining some WordPress knowledge along the way.</div>
<div><br></div><div>I think part of the reason I think this way is that just because it's a featured theme does not mean it's a great theme. It's like when they say Windows 8 is the latest, greatest thing. Doesn't make it true. There are several themes I have seen that are feature worthy or at least notable that haven't been featured before the incentive, during and currently. A decent example would be the theme: Hueman; but you know what? It's not up to me. Will I question it? Of course. Will it change things? Probably not. The main reason being I'm not in that position of power. If I were though, I can honestly say it would be tough to be fair and unbiased.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Like I said though: I never even gave it a second glance. I see new themes, try them out and move on. If I like it I'll say something about it otherwise it's just a moment in my timeline. :)</div>
</div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div>On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 6:58 PM, Trent Lapinski <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:trent@cyberchimps.com" target="_blank">trent@cyberchimps.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
</div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div><div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><div>Is anyone else disappointed to see that the theme review contest was ended for a list of commercial theme shops with close ties to Automattic, personal friends, and employees of Audrey Capital (Matt Mullenweg’s personal investment company)?</div>
<div><br></div><div>The Theme Foundry (one of Automattic’s earliest theme partners), Justin Tadlock (a <a href="http://WordPress.org" target="_blank">WordPress.org</a> admin), Sarah Gooding (a blogger for Audrey Capital), TeslaThemes (<a href="http://wptavern.com/teslathemes-celebrates-one-year-of-being-in-business" target="_blank">http://wptavern.com/teslathemes-celebrates-one-year-of-being-in-business</a>), and Themeify (a major commercial theme shops first theme on <a href="http://WordPress.org" target="_blank">WordPress.org</a>) were all just gifted featured themes on <a href="http://WordPress.org" target="_blank">WordPress.org</a>.</div>
<div><br></div><div>So what exactly is the criteria for being featured now?</div><span><font color="#888888"><div><br></div><div>
<div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;word-wrap:break-word"><div style="color:rgb(0,0,0);letter-spacing:normal;text-align:start;text-indent:0px;text-transform:none;white-space:normal;word-spacing:0px;word-wrap:break-word">
<div style="word-wrap:break-word">--Trent Lapinski<br>=============<br>CEO of CyberChimps Inc.</div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><a href="http://CyberChimps.com" target="_blank">http://CyberChimps.com</a></div><div style="word-wrap:break-word">
Twitter @trentlapinski</div><div style="word-wrap:break-word"><span style="font-size:12px">Skype: mobiletrent</span><br></div></div></div>
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