[theme-reviewers] Author URI q

[Chip Bennett]

There really is no definitive answer to those questions - at least, not
right now. That's why such things are being considered on a case-by-case
basis.  Remember: we're trying to balance ensuring that repository-hosted
Themes are following best practices against ensuring that we are
encouraging/facilitating - or, at least not discouraging/stifling -
innovative Theme development.

Trying to define "innovative" is much like Supreme Court Justice Potter
Stewart trying to define
pornography<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it>:
*we know it when we see it*. If we could definitively describe and
categorize such development/design, then it probably wouldn't be innovative.

The best I can say is: exceptions can be made for almost every guideline,
if sufficient justification is provided. If you're doing something that
would require such an exception, and you believe that the benefits of what
you're doing outweigh the reasoning behind a particular guideline, then ask
for an exception, and explain your rationale.

I try to remain particularly cognizant of any perceived precedents that
might be set by such exceptions; rest assured that the only precedent set
by any such exception is that every request for an exception will be
treated objectively and fairly, to the best of our ability.

Chip

On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 4:31 PM, Sayontan Sinha <sayontan at gmail.com> wrote:

> Chip,
> What would be deemed innovative, extended functionality? Purely from the
> theme's point of view the theme customization needs no top level menu
> (everything could be added under "Appearance"). Rather, a top level menu is
> defined to support plugins that are distributed through the framework
> store, which may or may not add sub-menu items under this top-level menu.
>
> My contention is that any theme that is distributed as a framework could
> claim that it needs a top-level menu (even if the theme itself needs none),
> so that plugins based on the theme could add their menu pages to the
> top-level menu.
>
> Sayontan.
>
>
> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 2:23 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>wrote:
>
>> I could buy into that, provided that the extra options pages are added
>> via add_appearance_page(). I still think that top-level menu entries should
>> be treated on a case-by-case basis, and generally represent innovative,
>> extended functionality.
>>
>> Chip
>>
>> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 4:14 PM, Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com> wrote:
>>
>>> On Tue, Feb 21, 2012 at 3:43 PM, Sayontan Sinha <sayontan at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>> > I took a look at the ticket: this theme asks for an exception on
>>> > add_submenu_page() because plugins rely on it. Is that permissible? Why
>>> > wouldn't plugin authors create their own top-level menu instead of
>>> relying
>>> > on the theme's? I can foresee a situation where several theme authors
>>> might
>>> > request this as an exception saying that they have ancillary plugins
>>> > developed by others, and the plugin developers rely on a top-level menu
>>> > required by the theme.
>>>
>>> Actually, I've always thought that rule was a bit too tight and could
>>> do with some loosening up a bit. There's no technical reason to
>>> restrict theme authors into one-and-only-one menu item, for example.
>>>
>>> I don't much like themes (or plugins) adding top level menus myself,
>>> but I don't see anything particularly bad about a theme adding more
>>> than one submenu under Appearance, for example. Grouping different
>>> sets of related functionality into better places for example. Too many
>>> themes try to implement tabbing or some such to shove everything onto
>>> one page, which isn't very user friendly.
>>>
>>>
>>> -Otto
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>>
>>
>
>
> --
> Sayontan Sinha
> http://mynethome.net | http://mynethome.net/blog
> --
> Beating Australia in Cricket is like killing a celebrity. The death gets
> more coverage than the crime.
>
>
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>
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