[theme-reviewers] Question: Someone Want to Take Benefit From a 'Top Reviewer of the Month'.

[Otto]

On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 9:46 AM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:
> Where is there a win-win here, no matter what we decide?

Sorry, but I don't claim to have all the answers here.

It seems to me that you're kind of forcing this argument though. A
company that employees people who make code should have them do code
reviews. Peer-review is a standard in the industry. You review the
code of your co-workers. You review the code of your predecessors. You
review other people's code in order to make better code yourself. I've
done it ever since I've been a professional programmer. It's normal
practice.

Okay, so maybe some theme shops didn't do it before the incentive
thing. But they're doing it now, and that's good. I'm okay with it,
and I don't think that this constitutes "paying for featured". They're
paying their employees to do something they darned well should have
been doing already. If the community benefits from that, great, more
the better. If we have to drop a small carrot to get them to do it and
better themselves in the process, and improve the state of the code in
the world, hey, that's right in line with our goals. Code is poetry
and such.

This still strikes me as substantially different than straight up
paying somebody who does reviews to "feature our theme". I'm okay with
companies paying their employees and having reviews be part of that.
I'm not okay with companies finding existing reviewers and paying them
the equivalent of a bribe to showcase their theme. You say it's fine
with disclosure, and I understand your position here, but I'm really
not okay with that even with disclosure. It's not a good arrangement,
it doesn't fit the program in the way I want the program to work.

-Otto