[theme-reviewers] Contribution days

Mon Jul 14 18:16:25 UTC 2014

I led the theme reviews group at WordCamp Switzerland and I had the same
issues as you Tammie.

I think a teaching session in the morning is good and in the afternoon let
some groups do their own reviews and let them ask any questions which arise.

The teaching section can be difficult if you do not have a beamer/projector
and if you are taking a theme that you are reviewing for the first time. It
is also difficult to get the group to read through all of the
documentation. A possibility would be to do some type of screen sharing.

A way that I found worked was to let people pick a theme and write a review
without it being assigned to them. Here is an example:
https://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/18375

This ticket can easily be picked up by someone else if they do not continue
the review later.

I also had the idea of theme_doing_it_wrong and would be willing to help
create one. I think it would be a useful teaching tool as you can show what
the common mistakes look like so that people know what to look for when
doing a review.

On 14 July 2014 20:05, Emil Uzelac <emil at uzelac.me> wrote:

> No idea is crazy! Anything we can do to improve is good and appreciated.
>
> Time is not always on our side, but if it was "I" would make a short video
> review followed by slide presentation or equivalent.
>
> Video would include the basic steps and what to look for while doing a
> review.
>
> This can also be just in a written form as well :)
>
>
> On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 12:16 PM, Tammie Lister <karmatosed at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>> To summarise we have a few ways then for a contribution day to go:
>> - One theme that is reviewed by group together: This has issue of a large
>> group. At Manchester we had over 11 people - that's too big a group for one
>> contributor to lead through a review without people loosing interest. This
>> also relies on someone being able to assign to themselves.
>> - A small selection of themes (maybe earlier defined) : This poses issue
>> of how many, prior knowledge.
>> - Everyone gets one and does review: This has a higher fail rate and
>> could impact negatively on the submitter.
>>
>> Whatever we do more work for admins has to stop. I'm very against adding
>> to your already filled plates.
>>
>> What about the idea of a theme_doing_it_wrong that could be used to train
>> people on? Think of it as a test everyone has to pass. I know this would
>> take effort to create, but could that be worth it? Could this be a way to
>> get people involved? Or is this a crazy idea that should be dropped?
>>
>> Tammie Lister
>>
>>  On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 5:57 PM, Emil Uzelac <emil at uzelac.me> wrote:
>>
>>>  That's a tough one, not really sure how we would scale :)
>>>
>>> Main reason, person would need to have an admin privileges, know what
>>> he/she is doing and to be trusted as well.
>>>
>>>
>>> On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 11:32 AM, Tammie Lister <karmatosed at gmail.com>
>>> wrote:
>>>
>>>> That rocks Emil, and I absolutely appreciate all the effort put in by
>>>> admins to help assign. This happened for us at WordCamp Manchester also, I
>>>> think we woke Chip up a long list of emails :) Your workloads as admins are
>>>> huge though, I'd love to find a way to make this easier on you and the new
>>>> reviewers.
>>>>
>>>> However, that doesn't solve the times when people are busy. Dealing
>>>> camp by camp isn't a great way for scalability. People rightly have lives
>>>> outside of theme reviews and I feel relying on anyone being around isn't
>>>> great or a good solid long term plan. It's unfair on anyone. I'd love to
>>>> see every contribution day (a girl can dream) have a group for Theme
>>>> Review. At that scale, it would be hard to have someone be there all the
>>>> time.
>>>>
>>>> Thanks,
>>>> Tammie Lister
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 5:26 PM, Emil Uzelac <emil at uzelac.me> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>>  I will be in San Francisco for 5 days, including the Contribution
>>>>> Days. Tickets can be assigned on the spot if needed.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 11:19 AM, Srikanth Koneru <tskk79 at gmail.com>
>>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>  A theme that does everything wrong as a training tool, for new
>>>>>> reviewers to cut their teeth, they can practice on it and when ready can
>>>>>> start reviewing themes. I think that will greatly reduce admin effort in
>>>>>> auditing approved themes.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Mon, Jul 14, 2014 at 9:40 PM, 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
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>>>>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>>>>>>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>>>>>>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>
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