[theme-reviewers] Theme Review Codex Page: Addressing Recent Feedback

[Chip Bennett]

On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 3:37 PM, Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com> wrote:

> Looking at it now. Random order thoughts follow:
>
> XHTML is dead, we should allow for the fact that many newer themes are
> going to be HTML 5. I have personally switched to it exclusively. Note
> that the core can produce acceptable HTML 5 just fine. BTW, "profile"
> is not supported in the head tag for an HTML 5 document.
>

I didn't touch any of that yet. I know there's been some discussion here on
the mail list. I can look back through the threads, and update the
Guidelines accordingly. In general, I'll try to make sure that the
requirements are worded such that they reflect being "as required" for the
(correctly) specified doctype/etc.

>
> Widgets are only necessary if the theme has a sidebar. Not all themes do.
>

Note: I wasn't addressing *changing* any of the major requirements; I was
mostly clarifying intent. Changing the "required functionality" Guidelines
should be subject to - and the result of - discussion and general consent
among the review team.

>
> Automatic feed links may be undesirable in some custom purpose themes,
> or if the theme incorporates its own special types of feeds (using
> add_feed or similar). Possible examples: photoblog, podcasting
> specific theme, comic strip oriented theme.
>

Likewise with Widgets, we should have a wider discussion regarding whether
or not it should be removed. My initial take is that it is all manageable by
the end user, and additional feed types can be added via plugin (or the
Theme), and implementing the default feed support doesn't detract.

>
> Ditto comments, not all special purpose themes need necesarily support
> this.
>
> It might be instructive to get some examples of some of these
special-purpose Themes. The only one I've seen so far - a "Coming Soon"
Theme, is (as Frumph pointed out) something that can be managed via Plugin,
using any Theme.

But, I think there's definitely benefit of such "special purpose" Themes
still being usable, to a certain extent, in the normally anticipated
use-case (blog, comments, etc.).

Chip
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