[theme-reviewers] Theme Review Feedback at WPTavern Forum

[Andrew Nacin]

On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 5:21 AM, Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com> wrote:

> We don't need high quality code or high quality themes.


On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 8:27 AM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:

> Most are failing for the basics: errors output by WP_DEBUG, invalid
> HTML/CSS, no wp_head() or wp_footer(), etc.


Most plugins and themes output errors on WP_DEBUG. Including/especially
commercial themes and the top plugins. Even though the use of notices or
deprecated functions is NOT indicative of poor quality code, the simple fact
is that very few of them do have quality code. A sad few.

Akismet is quality code, yet it triggers them. So does core, on occasion.
(Just visit plugins.php when running multisite, for example. And before 3.0,
try using the QuickPress module -- yuck.)

I love WP_DEBUG. I wrote an entire plugin (that most of you use) to record
deprecated calls, I've written blog posts on debugging WordPress, and I
cringe like the rest of you when a theme or plugin spits out errors. I've
briefly looked through the theme review process. At first I loved that
themes were getting a review all the way down to the notices, but I've since
had some second thoughts. Rejecting a theme purely for notices or deprecated
functions is a bad, bad idea, and is not the intent I had when I wrote a
plugin devoted to catching them.

Realistically, quality and education are our priorities. We cannot fail at
education, or quality will suffer if only because quantity will as well. I
see no problem with a theme being approved with notices/deprecated calls, if
that's the only thing wrong with it.

I believe Otto is spot on when it comes to the current deficiencies, and I
do hope they are addressed.
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