[theme-reviewers] So many themes are still not live

[Emil Uzelac]

Hey Tammie you rock! just saying :)

On Sunday, October 12, 2014, Tammie Lister <karmatosed at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hi Andre
>
> :)
>
> Time wise it's hard to be exact, the more you do the quicker you get. Also
> just doing one a week makes an impact. Every single review matters. I'd
> love you to do more than one, but every little bit helps.
>
> You can find out more here's:
> https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/about/join-the-team/
>
> I look forward to you starting to review. Feel free to contact me if you
> need any help while you are starting. Each new reviewer also has a mentor,
> so you will be in good hands.
>
> Thanks
> Tammie
>
> On Sunday, October 12, 2014, Styled Themes <social at styledthemes.com
> <javascript:_e(%7B%7D,'cvml','social at styledthemes.com');>> wrote:
>
>> Hi Tammie,
>>
>>
>>
>> It sounds like you want me to join the team and become a theme
>> reviewer…I’m guessing it’s the 3 times you asked, haha J
>>
>>
>>
>> Anyway, I’ve thought about being a reviewer a few times before. If I did
>> jump in, I would want to make sure I have the available time to do it. Just
>> how long does it take on average to do a review anyway?
>>
>>
>>
>> Andre
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> *From:* theme-reviewers [mailto:
>> theme-reviewers-bounces at lists.wordpress.org] *On Behalf Of *Tammie Lister
>> *Sent:* October-12-14 2:31 PM
>> *To:* Discussion list for WordPress theme reviewers.
>> *Subject:* Re: [theme-reviewers] So many themes are still not live
>>
>>
>>
>> So styled themes, your comment brings up one point right off. You say:
>>
>>
>>
>> "I’m not a reviewer, so it’s hard for me to say anything about the theme
>> reviewing process and what  gets missed..."
>>
>>
>>
>> My one question to you is, why are you not a reviewer? Solving things
>> starts with people who submit themes also being reviewers. From there we
>> can start building things. Why aren't you a reviewer? What can we do to get
>> you to be a reviewer?
>>
>>
>>
>> Time to do one review can be found by anyone, so let's get you reviewing.
>> Let's start seeing how you can be at the heart of making the review process
>> better for everyone.
>>
>>
>>
>> Thanks
>>
>> Tammie
>>
>> On Sunday, October 12, 2014, Styled Themes <social at styledthemes.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>> I agree Justin, a little more consistency and fairness is part of the
>> experience. I also agree that in a perfect world, theme developers should
>> have the mindset that we’re here to “give back” to the community by
>> providing and improving on FREE themes and SUPPORT for the community.
>>
>>
>>
>> I know that my own goal is to simply provide quality free themes to the
>> community. For such a long time I’ve seen too many plain and boring themes
>> listed (sorry, but it’s true), and I wanted to see more themes that have
>> more visual impact that competes with premium theme sites. So I decided to
>> submit themes. Of course, there’s always room for improvement, even with my
>> themes, but I’m starting to see other theme developers submit themes that
>> are much better than before (which I am glad to see). The end-user doesn’t
>> care that code is aligned perfectly, or that functions are prefixed with
>> the theme’s name; they download and use themes based on how the theme looks
>> and what features it offers so that it’s going to benefit their website.
>> Yes, code quality is critical, but it should not be the only factor.
>>
>>
>>
>> I’m not a reviewer, so it’s hard for me to say anything about the theme
>> reviewing process and what  gets missed, or what needs improving on.
>> Perhaps a few things I could say and/or agree on:
>>
>>
>>
>> 1.       Guidelines seem to be spread out across the universe and
>> sometimes contradict each other
>>
>> 2.       Guidelines should be written in a way that “new” inexperienced
>> reviewers/developers can understand terminology and what something means.
>>
>> 3.       Review checklist…make sure there is just “one” list in one
>> location. Again, it’s like guidelines, everything is spread out and hard to
>> find or to confirm that something stated is up to date and accurate
>>
>> 4.       In the past, I’ve found that a reviewer says one thing while
>> another will say something otherwise different, or not even part of the
>> review guidelines. An official review checklist is needed and needs to be
>> followed without straying off. Most times, it’s because the reviewer
>> honestly did not know or was a aware of any changes to the review checklist
>> or guidelines.
>>
>>
>>
>> What I would like to see is the possibility of a three tier review
>> process:
>>
>>
>>
>> (1)    Visual review of the overall theme
>>
>> (2)    Code review of the theme, if it passes the first tier
>>
>> (3)    Lead (admin) final approval for inclusion
>>
>>
>>
>> The review process is strictly code based, and it really should be based
>> on both visual and code. People who come to the repository don’t care that
>> code is aligned, or that functions are prefixed with the theme’s slug, they
>> choose themes strictly on how a theme looks and what features it has. They
>> also want to know that they will get support when needed without waiting
>> too long.
>>
>>
>>
>> There’s so much potential for the repository, but there is definitely
>> room for improvement everywhere. I’d like to see the repository grow into a
>> source of providing free high quality themes that can compete with
>> commercial sites. I’d even like to see the same kind of page structure for
>> themes as plugins have. I’d like to see the Preview button load an actual
>> demo of the theme…which brings me to the idea that any theme that gets
>> submitted, needs to have an actual demo website to showcase that theme; the
>> current preview is well….pathetic.
>>
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>> *From:* theme-reviewers [mailto:
>> theme-reviewers-bounces at lists.wordpress.org] *On Behalf Of *Justin
>> Tadlock
>> *Sent:* October-12-14 12:52 PM
>> *To:* Discussion list for WordPress theme reviewers.
>> *Subject:* Re: [theme-reviewers] So many themes are still not live
>>
>>
>>
>> Personally, I'd love to make things a little more consistent and fair.
>> But, I want to make something clear to everyone.  We're not here to promote
>> your theme or to make sure your theme gets its time in the spotlight.  What
>> we do here is for the benefit of WordPress users.  Your reasons for
>> submitting a theme don't necessarily need to be altruistic, but we have to
>> treat it as such.
>>
>>
>>
>> With that said, there are ways of making things more consistent.  This
>> all starts with reviews.  The reason we (the admins) get backed up is
>> because we're still having to perform full reviews on themes that are
>> already approved.  In a more ideal scenario, we'd do a check to make sure
>> things look pretty good and mark the theme live.
>>
>>
>>
>> But, we don't have an ideal scenario at the moment.  I can't remember the
>> last time I didn't reopen an approved ticket.  Our initial reviews are
>> overlooking major things, even just outright broken code.  I rarely have to
>> activate a theme to see these problems.  I just open up the theme files,
>> and they're right there in my face.
>>
>>
>>
>> If we want to talk about "fairness" and so on, let's talk about the real
>> problems first.  What can we do to improve our review process?  Any
>> improvements here will trickle down and improve the entire system.
>>
>>
>>
>> A few of the areas I see that both theme authors and our reviewers could
>> improve in are:
>>
>>
>>
>> 1) Security.  This is particularly relevant with theme options and custom
>> widgets.  Is there something we can be doing to improve this area?  It's a
>> major blocker for themes.  If it were up to me, we'd ban anything that
>> didn't use the theme customizer (except in special cases).  I believe that
>> would cut back on so many problems because it'd limit a lot of custom code
>> used to build settings pages.
>>
>>
>>
>> 2) Understanding the difference between "content generation" (plugin
>> territory) and "content presentation" (theme territory).  Basically, don't
>> use custom post types, taxonomies, or metadata to allow the theme's users
>> to create content.
>>
>>
>>
>> 3) License/copyright.  We've improved leaps and bounds in this area, but
>> there shouldn't be any reason one of the admins should be reopening a
>> ticket for a license/copyright issue.  This is probably the first thing
>> reviewers need to look at.
>>
>>
>>
>> And, these are just some of the major things.  I'd love for us to be at a
>> point where we're pushing for better things like proper translation
>> support, accessibility, and so on.
>>
>>
>>
>> Let's focus on continuing to improve the overall process.  Are there
>> tutorials that y'all would like to see to help improve things?  I'd be more
>> than happy to write those or dig an existing one up.  Can we make things
>> clearer in the guidelines?
>>
>>
>>
>> Maybe our focus should be on building tools for theme authors to submit
>> better themes.  Any plugin ideas to help with this?  Or, are we simply not
>> putting the existing tools into theme authors' hands?
>>
>>
>>
>> Other things I think we need to improve is the theme guidelines
>> themselves.  The content of the guidelines are fine, but finding a specific
>> guideline kind of sucks.  I don't even know what page each guideline is
>> on.  I just happen to know most of them by memory and rarely need to look
>> them up.
>>
>
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