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

Wed Jan 29 21:43:37 UTC 2014

@Trent - We said yes to allowing employees to help with reviews under
solo username. If you wish to hire more people, I don't see the reason
why not.

Paid decisions should not be allowed, at least not in my book.
It gives me the creeps just to think about it.

@Bryan - +1 to redesign and the rest as well :)

On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 3:28 PM, Trent Lapinski <trent at cyberchimps.com>wrote:

> If it isn't a matter of resources, then why hasn't the contest been
> maintained in nearly 3 months?
>
> Chip you are absolutely correct I'm upset that Responsive was removed from
> the featured list, by far the most popular theme on WordPress.org, and I
> was told to pay my employees to start doing theme reviews to win a contest
> that we can't win because all of the tickets are being assigned before my
> team can get to them. I'm pretty sure anyone else in my position would be
> upset, and feel extorted by this situation as well.
>
> Apparently having the most popular theme on .org means nothing, and the 3
> years of contributions my team has provided to .org are also now
> meaningless.
>
> My team was already doing reviews regularly for nearly 3 years now under
> their own accounts because we were contributing to the community as
> individuals. We have pooled all of our employees into a single account now
> to do reviews thanks to the contest, and even so we can't get as many
> tickets as we would like so we have no chance at winning the contest.
>
> In essence, I'm being told I have to pay to have my theme featured now.
> Which if that's the case, who should I make the check out to?
>
> I suppose my final question is:
>
> *Are we allowed to bribe the winner of the contest whenever the admins
> decide to honor it?*
>
> Again this seems ridiculous, and unfair to me, but if the admins are going
> to allow other theme shops to bribe the winners then I will unfortunately
> have to start doing the same.
>
> I will happily double any offers anyone else is receiving if the admins
> are now allowing bribing.
>
> P.S. I can't even believe we're having this conversation. This feels
> horribly wrong to me.
>
> --Trent Lapinski
> =============
> CEO of CyberChimps Inc.
> http://CyberChimps.com
> Twitter @trentlapinski
>
> On Jan 29, 2014, at 12:56 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:
>
> Honestly, it's not a matter of not having enough resources to police the
> program. The biggest issue right now is obviously inadequate reviews that
> admins have to spend a great deal of time auditing and reopening. (On
> average, I have to reopen about 9 out of every 10 approved Themes that I
> audit.)
>
> Part of that is on us; we need to find better ways of providing education
> and tools needed to conduct reviews. But part of that is on reviewers
> simply not doing due diligence before resolving Themes as approved.
>
> As for the success of the program itself: I disagree that it has not
> worked. We have increased the rate of overall Theme approval several-fold.
>
> Essentially, you want to end the incentive program because Responsive was
> de-listed from the Featured Themes list? I'm sorry that Responsive being
> de-listed seemed unfair, but no Theme (other than core Themes) is
> *entitled* to be listed as "Featured". I never wanted to be involved with
> Featured Themes selection to begin with. I want to focus on seeing great
> new Themes reviewed and approved, and getting them into end users' hands.
> But the WPTRT has been tasked, in part, with helping to manage that list.
> The only fair way I could see to do so was to come up with a way for all
> reviewers to have the opportunity to select Themes.
>
> As for making the process more inclusive: that will be part of the changes
> coming next month. But along with increased inclusiveness will come
> increased accountability.
>
>
> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 3:41 PM, Trent Lapinski <trent at cyberchimps.com>wrote:
>
>> How are you guys going to police this when you can't even regularly honor
>> the contest itself in the first place? The current featured themes were
>> last updated in November.
>>
>> Right now the way the contest is setup, the person or company who pays
>> the most to do the most reviews wins. That's not a contest. That's not
>> democracy. That's not open source.
>>
>> Please end this contest, it's a failed experiment that isn't fair to
>> anyone involved. CyberChimps and any other theme shop or single developer
>> should all have an equal opportunity to be featured. Again, the best themes
>> should be featured. If that means my themes are never featured again
>> because others are making better themes then so be it.
>>
>> The .org admins clearly don't have the resources, or time to police and
>> run such a contest, and the overall concept doesn't make sense to begin
>> with. We all knew this would be gamed, and now we're going to start banning
>> people for doing what they were encouraged to do by the admins? How does
>> that make any sense?
>>
>> -Trent
>> CEO CyberChimps Inc.
>> Sent from my iPad
>>
>> On Jan 29, 2014, at 12:29 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:
>>
>> Well one of those issues we can address immediately: nobody should be
>> assigning multiple tickets at a time. Assign one ticket at a time, and post
>> (full) review comments, before moving on to another ticket.
>>
>> If it appears that anyone is attempting to game the system by hogging
>> tickets for new Themes - at the sole discretion of the admins (and Otto,
>> who isn't exactly known to deal with such things with kid gloves) - we will
>> handle such gaming appropriately.
>>
>>
>> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 3:24 PM, Trent Lapinski <trent at cyberchimps.com>wrote:
>>
>>> As the owner of a theme shop (CyberChimps) being forced by the .org
>>> admins to now pay employees to do theme reviews I inherently hate that we
>>> are being forced win the contest to keep our themes featured.
>>>
>>> We use to do theme reviews to contribute to the community but now that
>>> we're being forced to do them to be able to afford to support our themes it
>>> feels more like extortion then a community contribution.
>>>
>>> Responsive has had over a million downloads, and is the most people
>>> theme on .org that isn't a default theme. We were featured for some time,
>>> but were unfeatured without explanation and saw a dramatic decline in
>>> downloads, and revenue. Now we're stuck maintaining a massive theme that is
>>> no longer supporting itself, providing support and maintaining a popular
>>> theme like Responsive isn't cheap. You'd think .org would want to reward
>>> their most popular theme, instead we're having to delay the release of 2.0,
>>> and are being forced to rededicate our resources to win the review contest
>>> so we can get downloads and revenue back up so we can even continue
>>> development.
>>>
>>> We point blank have asked .org admins what we can do to be considered
>>> for being featured again and there answer was to pay people to win the
>>> contest every month. A contest that isn't even being maintained monthly,
>>> that is being gamed by other theme shops.
>>>
>>> What was once a community contribution has been turned into a confusing
>>> nightmare. We can't even get themes to review because other theme shops are
>>> assigning themselves everything ticket immediately. The system is
>>> absolutely being gamed, and soon the cost of entry won't even be feasible
>>> for CyberChimps, so I have no idea how anyone else is going to even have a
>>> chance.
>>>
>>> We should be rewarding the best and most popular themes, not extorting
>>> theme shops and preventing everyone else from being featured. Theme reviews
>>> should be a community contribution and have nothing to do with featured
>>> themes.
>>>
>>> -Trent
>>> CEO CyberChimps Inc.
>>> Sent from my iPad
>>>
>>> On Jan 29, 2014, at 11:49 AM, Srikanth Koneru <tskk79 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>> Not possible for an individual to compete against the might of theme
>>> shops. They can have 4 guys reviewing 4 themes simultaneously.
>>> Was this vote admin only vote? don't recall it on the list.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 1:14 AM, Edward Caissie <
>>> edward.caissie at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>
>>>> I was originally out-voted on not allowing "theme shops" have one
>>>> account for all of their employees to use as I was concerned it would
>>>> create an "unfair advantage" for them to choose a Featured Theme (and why
>>>> wouldn't they choose their own?) so there is not much more I can add to
>>>> this conversation except to say I agree for the most part with Otto's
>>>> responses.
>>>>
>>>> Edward Caissie
>>>> aka Cais.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 2:21 PM, Philip M. Hofer (Frumph) <
>>>> philip at frumph.net> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>   Could always have the random themes that display be pulled by date
>>>>> as well, max 1 year since last update sort of thing.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>  *From:* Jose Castaneda <jomcastaneda at gmail.com>
>>>>> *Sent:* Wednesday, January 29, 2014 11:14 AM
>>>>> *To:* Discussion list for WordPress theme reviewers.<theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org>
>>>>> *Subject:* Re: [theme-reviewers] Question: Someone Want to Take
>>>>> Benefit From a'Top Reviewer of the Month'.
>>>>>
>>>>>  I think the issue that arose was exploiting the system by reviewing
>>>>> that persons theme regardless of position in the queue of tickets.
>>>>>
>>>>> At least that is my take. I received a similar email about two months
>>>>> back. I never responded, just deleted it.
>>>>>
>>>>> Sent from my iPhone
>>>>>
>>>>> On Jan 29, 2014, at 11:01 AM, Rohit Tripathi <rohitink at live.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>  A Very Good Point raised by Emil.
>>>>>
>>>>>  ------------------------------
>>>>> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 12:52:26 -0600
>>>>> From: emil at uzelac.me
>>>>> To: theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>>>> Subject: Re: [theme-reviewers] Question: Someone Want to Take Benefit
>>>>> From a 'Top Reviewer of the Month'.
>>>>>
>>>>>  I am with Chip here, paying your employee or employ someone
>>>>> is 100% the same, no difference whatsoever.
>>>>>
>>>>> The moment we said yes to commercial Theme shops to have their
>>>>> people review tickets under a single username, is the moment we
>>>>> allowed
>>>>> this very thing as well. Not sure what is the problem?
>>>>>
>>>>> Every time one of us mentions Featured Themes, entire* community jumps
>>>>> on. When we need help, only few of us replies. How come?
>>>>>
>>>>> http://make.wordpress.org/themes/2014/01/28/time-for-a-new-team-rep/
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 11:51 AM, Srikanth Koneru <tskk79 at gmail.com>wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> all 3 options can be manipulated unfortunately, admin choice is fine
>>>>> but a bit more frequently would be nice.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 11:19 PM, Konrad Sroka <konrads at themekraft.com
>>>>> > wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>  Otto +10000
>>>>>
>>>>> Why not get rid of the featured themes sections like it is now and
>>>>> have a filter for
>>>>>
>>>>> "most downloaded" and "best rated"
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> Maybe add a filter or tag for commercially supported themes, so you
>>>>> know you can get professional support and stuff like that..
>>>>>
>>>>> Or make a poll on wordpress.org twice a year and the results are the
>>>>> "featured" themes
>>>>>
>>>>> Cheers, Konrad
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On 29 January 2014 18:25, Rohit Tripathi <rohitink at live.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>  I am not in favour of switching Featured themes to a Random Themes
>>>>> Section. Because Many themes in the repository are outdated or not fully
>>>>> compatible with recent versions of WP.
>>>>>
>>>>> +1 for the Redesign of landing Page.
>>>>>
>>>>> :)
>>>>>
>>>>>  ------------------------------
>>>>> From: zulfikarnore at live.com
>>>>> To: theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>>>> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 17:11:33 +0000
>>>>>
>>>>> Subject: Re: [theme-reviewers] Question: Someone Want to Take Benefit
>>>>> From a 'Top Reviewer of the Month'.
>>>>>
>>>>> Part of the original question asked "has this happened to anyone" (not
>>>>> the exact words) - the answer is yes, not once not twice but a good few
>>>>> times. Initial response? I responded with not part of my business
>>>>> plan/working model! Then followed by "mark as junk" and now that is where
>>>>> (if any) those emails land and deleted without a first look never mind a
>>>>> second.
>>>>>
>>>>> For me the incentive scheme and having a theme featured for my hard
>>>>> work is only a bonus - true benefit is derived from learning code as Otto
>>>>> said. The real reward out of it all will be when one day I create a theme
>>>>> from scratch, submit, have it reviewed, approved and made live without a
>>>>> single issue being raised - now that is (will be) the achievement :)
>>>>>
>>>>> So,
>>>>>
>>>>> 1) Should we be paid to review themes in order to win and get the
>>>>> payer's theme featured? Certainly Not!
>>>>>
>>>>> 2) Should commercial theme shops pay their employees to review for the
>>>>> same end in mind? Weather they get a theme featured or not they are going
>>>>> to pay their employee regardless. So that is their prerogative - but should
>>>>> they hire for the sole purpose of reviewing and getting featured? To me
>>>>> that is no any difference to 1 above and is a No!, but who is going to
>>>>> police it?
>>>>>
>>>>> Solution? Switch the "Featured themes" section to a "Random themes"
>>>>> section and let the system cycle though all and any theme on a given time
>>>>> period and everyone is a winner. Easier said than done with over 2000
>>>>> themes I know :)
>>>>>
>>>>> I second and +1 the call for a redesign of the landing page.
>>>>>
>>>>>  ------------------------------
>>>>> From: christine at bluelimemedia.com
>>>>> Date: Wed, 29 Jan 2014 08:02:39 -0800
>>>>> To: theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>>>> Subject: Re: [theme-reviewers] Question: Someone Want to Take Benefit
>>>>> From a 'Top Reviewer of the Month'.
>>>>>
>>>>> Awesome, I'll see what I can do.
>>>>>
>>>>> Christine Rondeau
>>>>> Bluelime Media
>>>>> www.bluelimemedia.com
>>>>> twitter: @bluelimemedia
>>>>> skype: bluelimemedia
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 7:58 AM, Otto <otto at ottodestruct.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 9:56 AM, Christine Rondeau
>>>>> <christine at bluelimemedia.com> wrote:
>>>>> > I still think that
>>>>> > rethinking the theme landing page with a better more visual design
>>>>> would be
>>>>> > nice.
>>>>>
>>>>> I wholeheartedly agree. Poke your designer friends. We need a better
>>>>> design. :)
>>>>>
>>>>> -Otto
>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>>>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________ theme-reviewers
>>>>> mailing list theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________ theme-reviewers
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> --
>>>>>
>>>>> i.A. Konrad Sroka
>>>>> Themekraft  UG haftungsbeschränkt
>>>>> Beautiful Themes and Plugins for WordPress and BuddyPress
>>>>> web - http://themekraft.com
>>>>> mail - konrads at themekraft.com
>>>>>
>>>>> Höhenstrasse 55
>>>>> D-40227 Düsseldorf
>>>>> Germany
>>>>> HRB 66772, Gerichtsstand Düsseldorf, deutsches Recht
>>>>> Geschäftsführung / Managing Director: Sven Lehnert
>>>>> USt-ID: DE282376267
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>>
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> _______________________________________________ theme-reviewers
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>>>>>
>>>>>  _______________________________________________
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>>>>>
>>>>> ------------------------------
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>>>>>
>>>>
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