[theme-reviewers] Submitting a One-Page Placeholder Theme

[Ryan Frankel]

The main difference I see is just from a user perspective.  Personally, if I wanted a landing page I would install WordPress and immediately look for a landing page theme with all of the styling and options I want.  Since the design/look/feel of the site itself is centered around the idea of a landing page it seems logical to me to have it as a theme.  I don't see any reason that it couldn't also be a plugin but plugins in general (for me) are much more difficult to incorporate stylistically to a theme.  Since so much of a landing page is also the stylistic aspect and not functionality it seems like it falls under a theme.

I do agree though that more advanced companies/users may find a plugin much more useful.  With a plugin you could have multiple landing pages and be able to test and track each one.  They could also feed your regular site and match well with your ads.  But I think I have wandered off topic here. My basic thought is just that many more users would find and use specialized WP implementations as themes over plugins.

ryan


On Oct 29, 2011, at 4:17 PM, Doug Stewart wrote:

> On Sat, Oct 29, 2011 at 4:05 PM, Ryan Frankel <ryan.frankel at gmail.com> wrote:
>> We had the same discussion regarding the ticket tracking themes.  I still believe that ideas like this have a place as a theme as opposed to a plugin.  While the same functionality could be installed as a plugin many users have a specific purpose in mind and want the ease of only having to install a theme that directly relates to that purpose.  A landing page is a great example of that.  Many micro and small businesses only want a landing page and are going to look for a 'Landing Page Theme'.  As many WP users are new to the system, this significantly simplifies the process because they find a theme with the functionality they want, hit activate, set the options and they are done.  If you move the functionality to a plugin you have to expand the design to allow it to work in any theme and with that theme's styling which seems, at least to me, like a lot more work and less useful to the end user experience.
>> 
> 
> Here I disagree with you. What's the functional difference between
> activating a plugin and setting its settings vs. activating a theme
> and setting its settings? And why not simply intercept the request
> early on in the process and just decline to process the template
> hierarchy as long as !is_logged_in()?
> 
> -- 
> -Doug
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