[theme-reviewers] Removing core features

[Bryan Hadaway]

Yeah, man, then you know. I'm sure you've had your share of support
headaches, though perhaps not exactly the same. It comes with the territory
and you have to refine and filter and narrow it down as best you can to
avoid people making common mistakes.

Though one of the golden rules will never change, most people hate to read
and would rather ask straight out then take the time to search the forums
or look at the docs, FAQ, whatever.

You can sticky forum topics, keep changelogs up-to-date and public, send
out an email blast, post news on the blog, write documentation, both inline
(within the theme) and more extensively on the site etc etc etc. No matter
what, inevitably, not everyone will get the memo. Even if you've gotten it
down to only 10% (uninformed) of your user-base, if you have a huge
user-base, 10% is still going to be a lot.

The companion plugin isn't my idea, that's just what I've heard is the
"industry talk", especially at WordCamps, but it's starting to look like a
breakdown in communication over what was really, originally discussed. I
don't know first-hand so that's why I was asking... but if even Chip and
Otto don't know what I'm talking about, clearly I was misinformed or I
myself, completely misinterpreted the concept.

>From what I understood, those above all our pay grades don't understand or
agree with all these popular premium themes (we all know the massively
popular ones) that are making bank with over-the-top bells and whistle
option panels built-in. That they want to start pushing for themes to be
style only with features/options coming packed together as a companion
plugin. But, that's pretty much everything I've already said, I just don't
know how to be any more specific than that. Seems pretty straightforward.
But, I suppose black and white of something that may not exist at all is
still going to be invisible.

If it's still confusing, sorry. That's as best as I understand it myself if
it's even accurate. I would recommend neglecting the info at this point,
unless someone has a better idea that can inform us?
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