[theme-reviewers] Theme Review Feedback at WPTavern Forum

[yulian yordanov]

  It's not a rejection as you describe it, we just close the ticket 
assigned with the version - that's how the TRAC works. There is nothing 
deliberately. I always try to give detailed information but it's time 
consuming process, and I'm not a paid tester :) who wrote detailed 
descriptions. It's up to developer if he wants to fulfill the 
requirements for the repo; every theme per se is good and can work as such.

yulian <Fingli>

On 25.8.2010 18:49, Otto wrote:
> On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 7:27 AM, Chip Bennett<chip at chipbennett.net>  wrote:
>> Disagree, 100%. The Theme repository is linked directly into the back-end of
>> WordPress, and represents and reflects WordPress.
>> Also, poor code quality and failure to keep Themes from becoming obsolete
>> through function deprecation and failure to include new/improved core
>> functions and features is *bad* for end users.
> Hey, no, don't get me wrong. We want good code. But that doesn't mean
> we have to punch people in the face until we get it.
>
> My main problem is with the "rejection" here. Nobody should ever be
> "rejected" by our community. That's an extremely bad way to deal with
> authors, especially when they need our help in learning how to improve
> their code.
>
> Here's my suggestions for how to adjust our process:
>
> Step 1: No rejections. Period. When you send a rejection to an author,
> well, that's a "final" state, isn't it? Where's the authors incentive
> to come back to us when we've told him that he's not welcome here?
>
> Step 2: No closing tickets until they're really done. You can't have a
> dialog when the ticket is closed, because nobody is listening at that
> point. Authors that have issues need to have a chance to respond to
> them and to be educated. Ideally, they'd be able to upload the changes
> directly using the ticket system somehow, instead of resubmitting the
> whole theme again. If we need tech improvements to fix this, so be it.
>
> Step 3: Improve the way we respond to problems. I understand that
> reviewing is difficult, but these cursory and short reviews I'm seeing
> in trac with a list of problems (many of which I do not consider to be
> "problems") is hard to parse, especially for a new author. Maybe we
> need a tool to help reviewers build a more verbose list, with links to
> the codex and longer explanations of why we think certain things
> should be included in themes. But simply saying "=>  body_class is
> required" doesn't really seem to be particularly useful to a theme
> author who may not grasp this process.
>
> Basically, I want there to be a dialog between the reviewers and the
> authors, and to give the authors a chance and the tools necessary to
> improve. As it stands now, they really are not being given that
> chance. The numbers really do speak for themselves.
>
> But in order for this to happen, I think we also need to use a little
> more common sense in some of these items. Yes, every theme should have
> body_class, but if a theme doesn't, well, it doesn't really hurt
> anything. So that should be a case where we tell the author "Hey, you
> should add body_class. Here's an explanation why." and then let them
> do that instead of simply saying "Oh ho, you failed our test! You're
> *rejected*."
>
> This is what I'm really trying to get at here. The system as I've just
> experienced it is difficult, confusing, and leaves a bad taste in my
> mouth. I don't want to go through it again, to the point where I won't
> be submitting any more themes to the system but just releasing them
> myself instead. How does that help anybody, anywhere? How does that
> improve my skills as a theme author? How does that benefit the users
> of my theme, if they are having to upgrade manually instead of using
> the automatic upgrader? This poor review process I experienced has
> driven me away and seriously hurts everybody involved.
>
> Can't we consider that and consider ways to fix it? Let's build a
> community here.
>
>> Go audit the 545 Themes that were rejected. You tell us what percentage of
>> those should have been approved, in your opinion, and why.
> All of them (maybe 98%) should have *eventually* been approved,
> instead of being outright rejected and the theme developers told that
> they were unwanted here. Instead, most of those people probably won't
> be coming back or fixing those themes. Because rejection didn't stop
> them from getting released, it just stopped them from getting released
> through WordPress.org and stopped them from having discussions with
> the people in our community about it.
>
> -Otto
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-- 
Юлиян Йорданов

Yulian Yordanov
http://post-scriptum.info/