[theme-reviewers] splitting reviewers between queues

Fri Jan 27 15:41:47 UTC 2012

An incentive idea would likely help to some degree, but to be quite honest
a badge system needs to be policed ... as it has been noted there are many
places you can find themes with "bad" code (base64, SEO spam, etc.) what
would stop theme authors such as these from simply copying the badge image
and posting it on their site?

Personally I take very little stock in "badges" as they are simply much too
easy to forge ... and since it is a perception idea being brought forward
it would be ripe for these forgeries.

Cais.

PS: You might note I am in a "devil's advocate" kind of mood today.

On Fri, Jan 27, 2012 at 9:41 AM, Rankin, Matthew W. (Student) <
mrankin at my.ccsu.edu> wrote:

> 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
> >>>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> _______________________________________________
> >>>> 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
> >>>
> >>
> >>
> >> _______________________________________________
> >> theme-reviewers mailing list
> >> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> >> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
> >>
> >
> >
> >
> > --
> > cmans
> > _______________________________________________
> > theme-reviewers mailing list
> > theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
> > http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>
>
>
> --
> My Blog: http://pross.org.uk/
> Plugins : http://pross.org.uk/plugins/
> Themes: http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/profile/pross
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