[theme-reviewers] Contribution days

[Chip Bennett]

I still think the best approach for Contributor days is either to take on
ONE Theme, to review as a group (under the responsibility of the person
leading the review effort), or only a few Themes, and review in smaller
groups (again, under the responsibility of the person leading the review
effort).

The problem we run into is that mass-assigned tickets have a much higher
abandonment rate. Tickets either don't get even initial review comments, or
else the follow-up/continuation review doesn't happen after the developer
addresses the initial review comments, and uploads a revision. We then have
to follow-up on those tickets, and reassign them, so that the reviews can
be completed.

That definitely creates more work for the Admins - but far more
importantly, it is a bad/frustrating experience for the developer, waiting
through the queue, and then seeing their assigned ticket get abandoned.


On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 11:10 AM, Tammie Lister <karmatosed at gmail.com>
wrote:

> I wanted to take a little moment to start up a discussion on whether there
> is anything we can do to make contribution days run a little smoother for
> theme reviews.
>
> Currently, we have a request post that people post to in order to get a
> review. Once assigned, they can do the review. This works well if time
> isn’t poor, often at contribution days we just want to strike while the
> iron is hot and get people contributing. Our current method also puts extra
> weight on admins, who already are doing a great amount of work.
>
> Having people post also poses issues when people may not have posted on
> the blog. They then have to wait to be approved as flagged as potential
> spam before they can even post. This is a double hurdle.
>
> I absolutely understand why we need to have a process and why we can’t
> just let anyone review anything without easing them in. However, I do
> wonder what could be done to improve this process and encourage more people
> to contribute. We need reviewers and contribution days are a great place to
> recruit :)
>
> If one of us that can assign our own reviews, is at a contribution day we
> can assign to ourselves. But, that limits it again. Ideally nobody would
> need to be there that has any level.
>
> I don’t claim to have the answers, but I have a few possibilities:
> 1. Better documentation on how to do your first review. I think Chip, you
> were going to refresh your great post about that - time willing of course.
> 2. A ‘how to run a theme review section at contribution day’ section.
> 3. Maybe a pool of past themes we can give new reviewers to ‘cut their
> teeth’? This could also even be a test theme. Maybe to level the playing
> field one that covers the basics you should know. Possibly a cool sub
> project? A doing_it_wrong theme.
>
> I’m sure I am missing some great ideas, hence interested what people
> think. I’d love to find ways we can make this process better and get more
> contributors as a result.
>
> What do people think?
>
> Tammie Lister
>
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