[theme-reviewers] Proposed criteria change for Commercially Supported GPL Themes page

[Scott Reilly]

On Sat, May 18, 2013 at 5:39 PM, Bryan Hadaway <bhadaway at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> * Distribute 100% GPL themes, including artwork and CSS.
> * Have professional support options, and optionally customization.
> * The theme company's site should be complete, well-designed, up to
> date, and professional looking.
> * The theme company must have at least one actively maintained theme
> (i.e. updated within at least the last 2 years) in the WordPress.org
> Themes Directory.
>
> @Scott - I think that's great. And furthermore, you're dropping any/all
> unwritten rules, correct? If there are still unwritten rules that will still
> be applied I think those need to be disclosed and added to the eligibility
> checklist.
>

Yes. The "more than 1 theme" requirement wasn't as explicitly spelled
out as the others, but was certainly originally intended. For the sake
of clarity, the new criteria would be in lieu of that requirement. It
was an oversight that it wasn't more clearly spelled out, which was
unfortunate. There are no criteria that are unwritten, though there
are probably plenty of edge cases not being listed that would be
obvious grounds for decline (such as if a theme shop advocated hate
crimes, had porn ads, etc).


> Also:
>
>
> "* The theme company's site should be complete, well-designed, up to
> date, and professional looking."
>
> Obviously, that's completely subjective and less tangible than the others. I
> assume that's taken with a grain of salt, like a theme that is clearly
> over-the-top "ugly" with a confusing design and flashing lights etc might be
> denied. But, just because someone reading the submission looks at a site and
> is like "Meh, that's a boring design.", is that really grounds?
>

You're correct in that it's for over-the-top "ugly" sites. For the
most part the two aspects that are actually evaluated are:

* "complete" : The theme shop site must be finished in its design
(i.e. not obviously a partially working work-in-progress, or a "coming
soon") site. They must also be actively selling and supporting their
themes.
* "up to date" : We want to see some semblance of activity from the
theme shop within the last 6 months or so. Blog posts, new theme
releases, replies in their support forums (if public), or news
announcement.

The other aspects are somewhat subjective as you noted, and are
generally only applied in an extreme and obvious situation.


> Is it sort of a:
>
> * We reserve the right to decline any theme shop.
>
> Type situation?
>

No, the reasons are as I just stated above.


Cheers.

-Scott