[theme-reviewers] Questions on my first review

Wed Jun 12 14:56:58 UTC 2013

@Thomas where are you getting the information that shortcodes are not allowed?

From: Thomas from ThemeZee 
Sent: Wednesday, June 12, 2013 7:39 AM
To: theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org 
Subject: Re: [theme-reviewers] Questions on my first review

Sorry Chip, I don't saw your last email until now. Stupid Gmail Import..

I know the Presentation vs Functionality Guideline, but this guideline is really unclear worded for me. I only understand it know because I have followed the mailing list here for some time. Since then I know most things I can include in my themes and what not. I'm no native speaker so maybe it's just that ;)

I agree that the guideline can not list every possible issue, but a few examples below the guidelines would be nice. 

Post Content Shortcodes are not allowed. 

Custom Post Types not allowed (except for special use cases?)

Functionality which is not presentational like Tracking Codes, SEO Options ...

As you have said every human interprets the guidelines differently. Therefore they should be as clear as possible to make the theme reviews as consistent as possible. 

That is just my opinion, I don't want to offend anyone ;)

2013/6/12 Thomas from ThemeZee <contact at themezee.com>

  Ah of course shortcodes and CPTs should always be forbidden because they cause really high lock-in effects, but there are also lock-in effects (although they're smaller) of Google Analytics and SEO options. 

  My email should not induce that these things should be allowed, I just want a clear guideline :)

  Best Regards,
  Thomas

  2013/6/12 Thomas from ThemeZee <contact at themezee.com>

    Allowing {plugin-territory-stuff} now (even if it's disabled by default) would have the effect that theme developers are allowed to also include shortcodes and custom post types in their themes. 

    After all in my opinion shortcodes and CPTs are more presentational than sharing buttons, google analytics and SEO. I had planned to include a simple image slideshow based on CPTs a few month ago and was turned down.

    And it was a good thing. It took me some time but now I truly believe that themes should not include any plugin territory features. Therefore I would suggest to continue the {plugin-territory-stuff} is strictly forbidden policy..

    The only thing that really bugs me is that there is no guideline and no consistent rules. The result is that their are hundred of themes which have a lot of plugin stuff in their themes and other themes are rejected for the exact same features. 

    I can live with both {plugin-territory-stuff} is allowed or not, but it should be stated clearly in the guidelines and applied by all theme reviewers.

    Just my 2 cents

    Thomas

    2013/6/12 Peter Kakoma <kakomap at gmail.com>

      The issue is that there is no definitive guideline about {plugin-territory-stuff}. I believe the end-goal of this discussion is to draft one and share it with the rest of the world (otherwise we'll be discussing this again two months from now when a first-time reviewer asks the same question)

      And in as much as my theme is guilty of adding Analytics, I agree with you-the line should be drawn at non-presentational stuff (*cough* SEO, *cough*). Removing Analytics now, updating the theme.

      On Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 4:06 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:

        I don't agree that the Favicon guidelines are appropriate for extending to all {plugin territory} functionality. 

        Things that are marginally presentational (e.g. sharing links)? Using the Favicon guidelines as a model is reasonable. But Google Analytics: no reason to facilitate Themes adding this functionality. It's not in any way whatsoever presentational. As far as I'm concerned, that's an absolute line of demarcation. If it's not in any way presentational, it doesn't belong in a Theme, opt-in/disabled-by-default or otherwise.

        On Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 8:37 AM, Edward Caissie <edward.caissie at gmail.com> wrote:

          On Wed, Jun 12, 2013 at 2:46 AM, Peter Kakoma <kakomap at gmail.com> wrote:

            a.. Themes are recommended not to implement custom  {plugin-territory-stuff} functionality. 

            a.. If implemented, {plugin-territory-stuff} functionality is required to be opt-in, and disabled by default. 

            a.. If implemented, {plugin-territory-stuff} functionality is required to support user-defined {plugin-territory-stuff} images

          Those points are fairly well sorted except for the third which is really more relevant to the original ideas behind the use of favicons, but if you use the first two points as your benchmark then you should be (for the most part but not 100% guaranteed) fine with going forward.

          Edward Caissie
          aka Cais.

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