[theme-reviewers] Theme

[Otto]

On Tue, Sep 23, 2014 at 5:13 PM, <contact at theme-seed.com> wrote:

> Hi Theme Review Team,
>
> We're trying to upload our Wordpress theme to the free themes directory
> and it is 9 mb, but the upload limit is 8 mb, how could we get our theme to
> you guys for review?
>
> (it includes a couple nice plugins that are activated via tgm plugin
> activation as to why it is a larger file size)
>
> Thanks so much!
>
> Theme Seed
>
>
The short answer is: make it smaller than 8 meg.

While many others have told you that bundling plugins isn't permitted, and
the use of TGM and such is extremely limited, and even that themes should
not be adding shortcodes, the underlying concept you should be taking from
this is much simpler: Themes should be *themes*.

A theme controls the look and feel of the site. It shouldn't add
functionality that modifies how the site works. It shouldn't add custom
post types, or shortcodes, or anything that affects the content people put
in. It shouldn't change the way people have to use their WordPress site. It
should not require that people use their site in a specific way. These are
all outside the scope of a "theme" as we see it.

If you want to make a theme better able to integrate with certain plugins
from the directory, then you can include code to let users optionally
install those plugins. But they must be optional, the theme must continue
to work without them, and it must not do anything without the user's
explicit approval, such as auto-installing stuff.

If there is anything in this theme you've created which doesn't directly
affect how the site looks, then it shouldn't be in there in the first
place. Make it a plugin, make that plugin work with a bunch of themes
instead. This will cause your theme to not pass review, so best to get it
handled before uploading.

-Otto
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