[theme-reviewers] My First Suggest-Approval *sniff*

[Otto]

I may not express this properly, given that I've had a couple of beers
today, but... ;)

When you give a theme not-approval, you're not actually stopping the
theme from being released, or stopping people from using it, or
anything of the sort. You're just cutting off the users of that theme
from the primary update mechanism that is built right into WP.

I've looked at several of the rejected themes in the trac, and without
exception, every single one of them is available for download on the
author's site.

See, when a theme gets updated in the repo, users get a notification.
They can one-click update the theme and get new features, security
fixes, etc... Think of plugin updates, it's the same basic principle
here.

Given that themes are just as capable as plugins, this sort of thing
isn't protecting users, it's actively harming them. It hurts users to
be using themes that are not from wp.org. Sure, a theme author could
implement their own update mechanism (it's actually quite easy), but
none really have so far.

We *really* want users to get theme updates and to get used to
updating themes in the same way that they update plugins. If this
means we need to sacrifice a few minor things here and there then
quite frankly I'm for letting the "minor" things slide.

I have full faith in the theme reviewers to be able to determine what
is a minor problem that can be fixed in an update vs. what is a major
problem that must be resolved immediately. C'mon people, you have both
brains and judgment skills. You're all programmers. You know PHP. You
should be able to tell what's minor or not. This "abide by the list"
mentality is not helpful to anybody.

But that's just my opinion. Take it as you will. ;)

-Otto