[theme-reviewers] splitting reviewers between queues

Fri Jan 27 09:14:42 UTC 2012

Up until about 5 years ago (when I transitioned into web design full-time)
I was an Organizational Psychologist - things like badges work well as a
motivational tool for some types of people, and absolutely not for others.
I'm one of the others :)

If there was a badge, I might consider putting it on my site, but it would
have zero impact from an incentive point of view. I'm far more internally
motivated, so external things like badges (or certificates etc) have no
real meaning to me. In terms of theme reviews, I contribute because it
allows me to give back to the community and to also learn from the
experience - if I'm not able to do reviews, it's not because of lack of
motivation, but simply a lack of time :(

______________________________
*Taryn Wallis*
Phenomenoodle
WordPress design & development
www.phenomenoodle.com

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 8:36 AM, Netzberufler
<netzberufler at googlemail.com>wrote:

> I find Badges are a great idea. They should also be included into the
> WordPress Profile Pages. http://profiles.wordpress.org/users/ or
> http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/profile/ . BTW why are there different
> profile pages on wordpress.org?
>
> I currently don't review themes cause of my exams but I will begin
> reviewing again in 2 weeks ;)
>
> 2012/1/26 Rankin, Matthew W. (Student) <mrankin at my.ccsu.edu>
>
>  Not directly related to this email thread but seems like a good place to
>> post it. I was thinking about why there aren't more volunteer reviewers and
>> why many are slow to review themes. I think it may be because it lacks
>> incentive. So, I had an idea which may attract more reviewers and increase
>> productivity among current reviewers. My idea is to create a WordPress
>> badge. Theme reviewers can post this badge on their own websites to say
>> that they contribute to WordPress. You could even create different levels
>> of badges so as you review more themes you get higher level badges. It's a
>> simple idea which has proven effective on many websites around the web.
>> What does everyone else think of this idea?
>>  ------------------------------
>> *From:* theme-reviewers-bounces at lists.wordpress.org [
>> theme-reviewers-bounces at lists.wordpress.org] on behalf of Rankin,
>> Matthew W. (Student) [mrankin at my.ccsu.edu]
>> *Sent:* Thursday, January 26, 2012 12:49 PM
>>
>> *To:* theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>> *Subject:* Re: [theme-reviewers] splitting reviewers between queues
>>
>>   I'll do my best to follow your lead Chip. I've just been so busy
>> lately I haven't had time to do many reviews. But I should be able to fit
>> in one theme a day.
>>  ------------------------------
>> *From:* theme-reviewers-bounces at lists.wordpress.org [
>> theme-reviewers-bounces at lists.wordpress.org] on behalf of Chip Bennett [
>> chip at chipbennett.net]
>> *Sent:* Thursday, January 26, 2012 12:31 PM
>> *To:* theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>> *Subject:* Re: [theme-reviewers] splitting reviewers between queues
>>
>>  I don't think a paradigm shift is necessary (or helpful) at this point.
>>
>>  The bottom line is: about 10 tickets per day are submitted. Thus, we
>> need about 10 tickets per day reviewed and closed, in order to keep up with
>> the submission rate. We are approaching 100 people who have reviewed
>> Themes. If every person with ticket privileges reviewed two tickets, we
>> would exhaust the current queue entirely.
>>
>>  I've tried to push in the past to get reviewers to consider committing
>> to a certain minimum level of participation, but as you've noted: it's not
>> practical. We ARE all volunteers, and all have extremely busy schedules. (I
>> last saw a "40-hour work week" sometime last summer.) Efforts to get such
>> commitments inevitably have the opposite effect, as IMX they have only
>> driven volunteers AWAY from contributing their time.
>>
>>  That said: I'll do my best to lead by example. I will commit to
>> reviewing one Theme per day, every day.
>>
>>  Chip
>>
>> On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 11:07 AM, Edward Caissie <
>> edward.caissie at gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> Although it shouldn't need to be written, but once again it appears a
>>> reminder appears to be needed ...
>>>
>>> To the best of my knowledge, every member of the current Theme Review
>>> Team is a volunteer. Every member also has a "full work load" with many
>>> simply unable to devote any time to this volunteer activity during that
>>> scheduled time. Many of the volunteers have other additional WordPress
>>> related activities that add to their typical "40-hour week" work load. We
>>> all have lives, too ... so, quite simply, we give what time we can and look
>>> to the community to contribute some of their time. Wait times, as noted
>>> many times, are inversely proportional to the amount of volunteer reviewers
>>> available to do the work.
>>>
>>> We can appreciate the wait time is long and frustrating. This is not the
>>> only time this topic has been discussed, these are not the only ideas that
>>> have been considered. Unfortunately until their is perhaps a paradigm shift
>>> in regards to the WPTRT we may simply be forced to continue to endure and
>>> forge ahead under these conditions.
>>>
>>>
>>> Cais.
>>>
>>>
>>>  On Thu, Jan 26, 2012 at 11:48 AM, Bruce Wampler <weavertheme at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>
>>>>  I would like to add my perspective on the review process.
>>>>
>>>> I have been submitting one theme - with revisions and slight name
>>>> modifications - for almost two years now - starting with 2010 Weaver,
>>>> changed to simply Weaver, and now Weaver II.
>>>>
>>>> Because Weaver II is a name change, and represents a total rewrite of
>>>> Weaver, it has been in the Priority Queue for almost 3 months now. I've
>>>> just been sitting here waiting my turn.
>>>>
>>>> But seriously - three months for new themes? The past week, the review
>>>> rate has been only one new theme reviewed.
>>>>
>>>> It is important to keep existing themes up to date - but to essentially
>>>> have the new theme approval rate one a week will do nothing to encourage
>>>> authors to submit new themes.
>>>>
>>>> I had good reasons to change from Weaver to Weaver II, and perhaps
>>>> should have requested it be treated as a revision of the existing approved
>>>> theme. But I don know if I knew three months ago, that I likely would have
>>>> done things differently, including the possibility of simply abandoning the
>>>> WP theme repository.
>>>>
>>>> But Weaver II represents a cutting edge theme/framework that has (or
>>>> had three months ago) really new features, including what I think is likely
>>>> the best mobile support of any WP theme. It is really frustrating to see it
>>>> languish in the queue.
>>>>
>>>> I just think a almost three month wait is excessive, and will seriously
>>>> discourage developers from developing and submitting new themes.
>>>>
>>>> The discussion of new 3.4 features seems almost silly since if the new
>>>> queue theme stays at several months, it is likely that there won't be any
>>>> new themes.
>>>>
>>>> I believe is really important to keep fresh, new themes with cutting
>>>> edge features coming in for the future health of WordPress.
>>>>
>>>> Just some thoughts. I believe something needs to be done. I'd volunteer
>>>> to review some themes, but I have serious ethical concerns about that, as
>>>> well as a full work load supporting my theme which has become very popular
>>>> on its own while waiting on the queue.
>>>>
>>>> Bruce Wampler
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>  _______________________________________________
>>>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
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>>
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