[theme-reviewers] splitting reviewers between queues

Fri Jan 27 14:41:05 UTC 2012

There are many people ( myself included ) who review themes just for the satisfaction of helping out WordPress. However, there are many people out there who need a little more than that to review themes. Even just a thank you and a WordPress badge to post up on their site would go a long way in attracting more theme reviewers and getting more production out of less active reviewers. The idea is fairly straight forward and easy to implement, and has a proven record of success as you can see by looking at many other websites around the web who use similar ideas. 
________________________________________
From: theme-reviewers-bounces at lists.wordpress.org [theme-reviewers-bounces at lists.wordpress.org] on behalf of Simon Prosser [pross at pross.org.uk]
Sent: Friday, January 27, 2012 9:09 AM
To: theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
Subject: Re: [theme-reviewers] splitting reviewers between queues

What incentives? wordpress.org is a free organization and the theme
team volunteer the time to review themes in their spare time.
They all have regular jobs and lives as well.

On 27 January 2012 13:41, Chandra Maharzan <maharzan at gmail.com> wrote:
> I haven't reviewed any themes but I do think  this volunteer thing
> might need to go at some point. Have a dedicated team who reviews
> themes and they get incentives on each theme or something. Otherwise
> like a person said above, people are discouraged. I was when I
> submitted a theme about a year ago and it was reviewed in a long time
> and the same thing is happening now. And I have 2 themes in the repo,
> pretty popular ones. I am sure many designers feel like me.
>
> On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 2:59 PM, Phenomenoodle | Taryn Wallis
> <taryn at phenomenoodle.com> wrote:
>> 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
>>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> 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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>>
>>
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>
>
>
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> cmans
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