[theme-reviewers] Removing core features

[Bryan Hadaway]

@Chip - I've never personally agreed with this logic actually, as it
contradicts itself.

There are lots of things that break when switching themes (naturally),
menus and widgets are the best and most obvious argument. Users are just as
oblivious to that, but it's allowed. There's no consistency requirements
here. For example, one theme could have specialized footer menus and
widgets. When a user switches to a different theme those are "lost" or
"unhooked", unregistered.

This isn't any more dramatic than RSS feed behavior changing. In fact, I
could argue that people are more bewildered by menus/widgets changing than
they would meta/RSS related tweaks.

So, we're talking function vs visual. Well, a theme hasn't been just visual
for a long time, there's all sorts of functions going on and special things
you can add that aren't basic or default and guideline approved that can
dramatically differ one theme from another.

Themes have evolved past being themes a long time ago, especially with
premium themes. I think many users/customers have come to expect that a
theme is really a full website experience with all sorts of bells and
whistles and features and that WordPress is just the underbelly CMS to
those means.

This rule definitely feels dated. I think it's more convenient for the
end-user to have an all-in-one experience, not have to do too many add-on
configurations.

In the end, there's hardly any difference for the end-user between
guideline-meeting themes and specialty themes. I think they're just as
unwitting either way, which makes the rule moot. In the end, a user's
understanding of a theme is only as good as the effort put in by its author
to educate users on the themes purpose and features.

In fact, it would only be irresponsible to lead users to the expectation
that all themes (function wise) are alike, because that's not the case at
all. They should learn that themes are uniques and they should do their
research before choosing or switching to a new theme. I think the new
built-in theme preview helps a lot,

I think this rule sounds good on paper, but doesn't live up to the
real-world use and expectations of WordPress themes and their respective
users in 2013.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.wordpress.org/pipermail/theme-reviewers/attachments/20130522/c5730102/attachment.html>