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

[Chip Bennett]

On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 4:07 PM, Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Aug 26, 2010 at 3:53 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>
> wrote:
> > 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.
> > ...
> > 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.
>
> I think this is rather beside the point. I use a "coming soon" theme
> on a few sites. It's handy.
>
> The fact of the matter is that themes and plugins are not that
> different. I can make a plugin which redirects a couple of hooks and
> completely bypasses the theme system to replace it with a theme in the
> plugin directory. Big deal. It doesn't make any different whether it's
> a theme or a plugin, except that themes tend to be about looks and
> plugins tend to be about function.
>
> "Tend" being the operative word there. If I am looking to put a comic
> strip system on my blog, I'm going to look for a theme that makes it
> easy for me to do that, because comic strips are very visual.
>
> Whether something should be a theme or a plugin is really a judgement
> call, and not everybody has the same judgement. If somebody makes a
> special purpose theme, then the purpose of the theme should be taken
> into account. A coming soon theme, for example, needs no feeds, no
> comments, no post loop. But it's still perfectly valid to do it as a
> theme and not as a plugin.
> <http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers>
>

Without getting into the specific merits and arguments... just a general
question: what if we added a blanket statement that certain review
Guidelines could be subject to exception, at the discretion of the Theme
Review team, for "special purpose" Themes?

Chip?
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