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

Sun Oct 12 22:08:41 UTC 2014

There is always room! Think of it as another art form. ;)

On Sun, Oct 12, 2014 at 3:04 PM, Styled Themes <social at styledthemes.com>
wrote:

> Thanks Tammie…as I mentioned, I’ve considered it a few times.  I’ve been
> working on another project for the bulk of this year, but I will give the
> reviewer idea some more thought. I consider myself more of a designer than
> a developer, but I’m sure there’s room for designers too. I’ve been
> creating WP themes for about 5 years now, before it was Joomla for 6
> years…although I only do WordPress now, so not to worry J
>
>
>
> - Andre
>
>
>
> *From:* theme-reviewers [mailto:
> theme-reviewers-bounces at lists.wordpress.org] *On Behalf Of *Tammie Lister
> *Sent:* October-12-14 2:53 PM
>
> *To:* Discussion list for WordPress theme reviewers.
> *Subject:* Re: [theme-reviewers] So many themes are still not live
>
>
>
> 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>
> 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
> <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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>
>
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