[theme-reviewers] Removing core features

[esmi at quirm dot net]

on 23/05/2013 00:41 Bryan Hadaway said the following:
> For any of you that have user-bases, customer-bases or both, you already
> know what I'm saying is true. For novice WordPress users (that is most
> WordPress users) it's a miracle that they get WordPress and a theme
> installed in the first place. Though, most are only able to do so by using
> 1-click installs. By adding a new step, installing a plugin to get the
> features that we "promised!" it just adds another hurtle for the user.

Coming from the WPORG forums end of things, I disagree. Most people can 
install themes & plugins just fine. What does cause them confusion is 
trying to figure out where a theme ends and a plugin begins. Quite a bit 
of time is spent on the forum just trying to talk them through locating 
exactly what is adding their slideshow, lightbox, [insert bells & 
whistles of choice here] - their theme or a plugin.

What they can also find difficult is the amount of configuration 
sometimes needed by a theme or plugin to "get it to work properly". 
Being hit by a huge mass of settings is not conducive to building 
confidence. Similarly, themes that automatically throw in everything but 
the kitchen sink cause no end of frustration because users often want to 
change just one little thing but can't. Trying to explain to them that 
"if you don't want <foo> feature, then you will probably need to use 
another theme" does *not* go down well.

On that basis, anything that breaks the whole experience down into nice, 
little, independent, bite-sized pieces would probably help, in my 
experience.

Mel
-- 
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