Emil Uzelac 11:33 am on February 28, 2013

Things you don’t like or would like to improve or change?

This is so called anything goes here discussion

We would like to know: what is it that you as an author don’t like or really want to change around Theme Review and our entire process?

(no personal agendas please, we do see quite enough of that around here lately)

unsalkorkmaz 11:48 am on February 28, 2013

Waiting.. Waiting is too long. I sent a theme for review and waited 3+ weeks. Theme got denied because of 1-2 little things that can easily fix in 1 hour… Even you fix it, you need to wait another 3+ weeks for second review.
At least there should be a chance to fix quick like in 12 hours ? I mean give theme author 12-24 hours before decline theme?
- Chip Bennett 6:34 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  Theme got denied because of 1-2 little things that can easily fix in 1 hour…
  
  But if they were such simple things, why were they not fixed before submission, or during the three-week waiting period?
  
  One thing that the Admins are adamant about is that Theme Reviewers not be used as “quality control”. The vast majority of the time, simple things that obviously don’t conform to the Guidelines are indicative of a developer not doing due diligence before submission. So, that’s why we no longer require full reviews before closing a ticket.
  
  Is it possible to overlook things? Sure. But as you’ve seen, the turnaround time for a review is already long enough as it is, and having to weed through the crap submissions just to find the Themes submitted by developers who honestly have made a good-faith effort to conform to the Guidelines is often like trying to find a needle in a haystack.
  
  At least there should be a chance to fix quick like in 12 hours ? I mean give theme author 12-24 hours before decline theme?
  
  Allowing a grace period to fix and resubmit is an option entirely at the discretion of the Theme Reviewer. At this point, I don’t think it’s beneficial to *require* Theme Reviewers to provide a grace period, because it would get abused.
  
  But if you’re able to address issues quickly, and re-submit, it never hurts to comment in the original ticket, indicating that all issues have been addressed, and linking to the new ticket.
  - Paul 7:30 pm on February 28, 2013
    
    yes, I did that when I submitted my last theme. There were only a few minor issues that I was able to fix straight away.
Paul 12:10 pm on February 28, 2013

Well, if anything goes, then I don’t like the email list for communication. I’d prefer forums.
Another thing: when you submit a theme for review, there’s a period of waiting. If you upload a new version in the meantime, there’s no easy way to manage that.
An idea: how about a multiple choice quiz about the Theme development guidelines that any person submitting a theme should take. Like a test for being able to upload a theme for the first time.
- Srikanth 12:24 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  I suggested that once, it was shot down 🙂
- SriniG 2:12 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  Quiz or no quiz, I think there should be more information in the theme upload page than there currently is. Specifically, information that there could be a waiting time, probably a link to the themes tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. and that newer versions of the same theme should be uploaded via the extend/themes/upload/ page rather than as attachments to the ticket to the first version, things like that. I see many new submitters getting confused on these points. Just a little information on the process followed can be helpful. Also emphasize the point that themes that don’t meet up with the requirements in the theme review page are subject to disapproval.
  
  Another thing: when you submit a theme for review, there’s a period of waiting. If you upload a new version in the meantime, there’s no easy way to manage that.
  
  I don’t think there is any difficulty in managing that. Simply upload a new version and provide a link to the new ticket in the original ticket. But as I said above, it helps let the new submitters know about these processes and methods.
  - Mahesh 5:11 am on April 9, 2013
    
    I agree with the “more information in the theme upload page”. As of now there isn’t much transparency for them to make an estimate of how much time it would take for the approval.
- Chip Bennett 6:10 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  Can’t the TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. ticket, with comments, be used for that purpose? Note that any reviewer can comment/provide input/feedback on any ticket.
- ryanve 6:42 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  @Paul Agreed. A forum would be better searchable in Google and more in the vein of opensource. IMO using GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ issues would be ideal. I’d love to see WP ditch the tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. and use Github (https://github.com/WordPress/WordPress) to greater effect.
  - Chip Bennett 6:57 pm on February 28, 2013
    
    A mail-list isn’t ideal for everything, but it is useful for some things. For as much as is feasible, we’re doing our best to move toward most of the communication happening here on the Make/Themes site.
    - toscho 9:32 pm on March 1, 2013
      
      The mailing list suffers from full quotes. These create many duplicates and make search unnecessary hard.
      The Make-sites are too restricted. Very few people can open a new thread here.
      
      Something more community-friendly would be nice.
  - Paul 7:32 pm on February 28, 2013
    
    yes, it would be nice to have a pre-screening on GithubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/! I like that idea. then once it’s ready, submit it to tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/.
Greg Priday 12:25 pm on February 28, 2013

Some things I’d really like to see:

== A Vote Based Review System ==

I’d like to move over to a system where each theme submission becomes a community discussion. This would allow anyone to point out issues, offer help and ultimately vote for or against inclusion in the directory. P2P2 P2 or O2 is the term people use to refer to the Make WordPress blog. It can be found at https://make.wordpress.org/. would be a great platform for this.

Benefits:

Allows anyone to start checking new themes without committing to a full review.
More public theme review process would help educate reviewers and developers.
Faster feedback for developers. Waiting 1 month for each round of feedback can be frustrating.

== More Automated Tests ==

Theme-Check is great, but we could do with a few more automated tests. I’ve extended theme-check to include a whole bunch of extra tests. They aren’t perfect, but they’re a massive help. I used these tests to review ~60 themes on tracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. last week.

I think as a community we could automate 90% of the theme review guidelines. We could even include the unit tests with a little help from PhantomJS.
- Paul 12:48 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  maybe you should work together with Mario, he has a theme mentor pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party that adds extra checks
  - Chip Bennett 6:28 pm on February 28, 2013
    
    My preference would be for any Theme-Check extension to be pushed back upstream into Theme-Check itself. Theme Mentor is great, but the more we can do with fewer Plugins for Reviewers to install, the better.
    - nofearinc 5:23 pm on March 1, 2013
      
      (wrong account switched above by mistake with the reply below)
      Chip, I replied back to your comment in my blog as for the reasons I would keep the Theme Mentor separate. It’s an open discussion, though I still believe these cover two different aspects of the review process.
      - Chip Bennett 7:34 pm on March 1, 2013
        
        No problems there; but anything that is developed using Theme-Check’s designed extensibility would be most logical pushed directly upstream to Theme-Check, rather than being ported to a separate PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party, IMHO.
- nofearinc 2:02 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  I’m slowly working on the Theme Mentor as Paul mentioned above, it’s purpose is exactly pointing tests based on existing reviews with about 70% success rate (better to have ‘see this’ without guaranty instead of missing details while reviewing code).
  The project is also on GitHubGitHub GitHub is a website that offers online implementation of git repositories that can easily be shared, copied and modified by other developers. Public repositories are free to host, private repositories require a paid subscription. GitHub introduced the concept of the ‘pull request’ where code changes done in branches by contributors can be reviewed and discussed before being merged be the repository owner. https://github.com/ and collaborations are welcome.
- Chip Bennett 6:25 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  Vote-based system:
  
  Implementing a vote-based system would bring things to a grinding halt.
  
  Currently, community discussion is entirely possible – right in the Theme-TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. ticket generated for the submitted Theme. That process is entirely public, because anyone can read the tickets, and anyone with a WPORG username can comment on the tickets.
  
  More people doing piecemeal reviews would introduce further delays, and would result in more issues falling through the cracks, because there’s no guarantee that they were ever checked.
  
  More automated checks:
  
  Patches welcome. 🙂
  
  If you have extended Theme-Check, please push those improvements back upstream. It was written the way it was specifically with this purpose in mind.
  
  Ideas for further automating or otherwise facilitating the Review process are always welcome.
  - Greg Priday 8:07 pm on February 28, 2013
    
    Yeah, I think I have a fairly idealised view of how voting system would work. Alos, getting it right would also probably take a lot more effort than it’d be worth.
    
    I’ll put some work into my theme checks and try submit a few patches.
konradS 1:38 pm on February 28, 2013

It should be possible to have several persons working on themes!
- christine 5:17 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  That might get a bit confusing.
  
  Instead, I would love to work on abandoned themes. If the dev hasn’t updated the theme in more than 2 years, then I would love the ability to adopt it and resurrect it.
Stephen 2:36 pm on February 28, 2013

As an theme author, I would like to see same and consistent treatment regarding review guidelines. My theme was asked to remove Author URI as it against the policy – personal site or development siteDevelopment Site You can keep a copy of your live site in a separate environment. Maintaining a development site is a good practice that can let you make any changes and test them without affecting the live/production environment.. I removed it in the latest release.
But this is still bother me as why many themes can have the companies as Author URI. Technically their Author URI is the URI for their Premium or PRO themes, not the URI for Lite theme in repo.
I am not here to question their business model. The key point is same treatment.

As a theme reviewer, I would like to see repo promotes Open SourceOpen Source Open Source denotes software for which the original source code is made freely available and may be redistributed and modified. Open Source **must be** delivered via a licensing model, see GPL. not just GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples.. I think the repo is slowly (or has ) become a marketplace.
- christine 5:16 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  I think that Stephen has a point. I’ve been asked to removed things from themes when previous themes were fine. I understand that reviewers are human and make mistake, but perhaps having a thorough list of review items and final score would be a good idea.
  
  Say, there are 100 things that need checked, when you have your final review, you can see the full list with comments to go along it.
- Chip Bennett 6:17 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  Your point about consistent reviews is certainly valid. That’s why the Guidelines read as rigidly as they do – so that they can be as objective as possible, in the hopes of ensuring the most consistent and least subjective review possible.
  
  But reviewers are human, and are all volunteers. If you disagree with a review comment, there are recourses (discuss in-ticket, escalate to theme-reviewers mail-list, etc.).
  
  As for your specific issue: it was discussed in-ticket, and on the mail-list, and the reviewer made the correct decision. Author URI is reserved for the *personal/development* site of an individual developer who submits a Theme, or the Theme shop landing page for a Theme shop that submits a Theme.
  
  Author URI should not be used for an up-sell page. Nor should the Theme URI be used for an upsell Theme promotion, for that matter.
  
  Handling of credit URLs is one of the most difficult aspects of Theme review, both because of the inherently subjective nature of the criteria, and because credit links are the single most-likely aspect of a Theme to be intended for abuse.
  - Stephen 8:01 pm on February 28, 2013
    
    My case was closed. I believe it is correct according to the guidelines. Can I implement it this way?
    IBM, you are a consulting form, not a theme shop. Therefore, you cannot be the author of GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples.-Licensed theme.
Satish Gandham 4:14 pm on February 28, 2013

Selection of featured themes should be transparent. It should be based on communities choice rather than one single person making the call.

Featured themes section should be updated regularly and frequently to give a fair chance to all the themes and developers.
- christine 5:14 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  I agree with Satish, the featured themes on wordpress.orgWordPress.org The community site where WordPress code is created and shared by the users. This is where you can download the source code for WordPress core, plugins and themes as well as the central location for community conversations and organization. https://wordpress.org/ is pretty poor. In fact much of the theme section on the wp.org site is poor and there was discussion of this at the community summit. WP.com has a great way to feature it’s theme which is way more visual stunning.
  
  Having said that, this has nothing to do with theme review, so it’s probably best to continue this discussion at another time.
- Chip Bennett 6:19 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  We’re going to have a discussion on this. It is a lower priority at the moment, but we’ll get to it.
ryanve 6:50 pm on February 28, 2013

The prescreen is too strict. I think that the only required functions should be the hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same.: wp_head() and wp_footer(). There are valid reasons that someone would want to avoid direct use of echoing functions like body_class(). These would be better as warnings rather than fails. Related: https://core.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/23537
- Chip Bennett 6:55 pm on February 28, 2013
  
  What are the “valid reasons” not to require body_class(), post_class(), comment_class() (via comment_form()), etc.?
Justin Tadlock 12:16 am on March 1, 2013

Frankly, the nit-picking of every little item and spending days arguing over them is tiring. It feels like we spend more time debating inconsequential things than reviewing. It’s a big turn-off from the review team.

For example, the theme name guideline we just discussed the other day. That should’ve been resolved by just using a little common sense. I see no reason why it warranted a major discussion in the mailing list.
- Emil Uzelac 12:54 am on March 1, 2013
  
  Human nature is to agree and disagree and that’s something we need to live with. Once this discussion is over we will gather your thoughts and act upon them accordingly and hopefully few things will change.
  
  Discussions are good and never a turn-off 🙂
  
  So far this is what we hear:
  
  Wait Time
  Forum -vs List for Communication – (I am in favor of this and something we talked with all Team Reps last month)
  More Consistent Reviews
  
  Featured Themes should be on the list, but I do agree with Chip that this is not priority. And just to note that one person does not make this call, it’s between all of us here.
  - Justin Tadlock 2:07 am on March 1, 2013
    
    I’ve got nothing against discussions and didn’t claim that they were a turn-off.
    
    It’s just tiring to see some of the seemingly endless debates about things that are of little consequence when it comes to whether a theme works or does not work.
    
    Anyway, I’m just answering the question.
    - Emil Uzelac 2:14 am on March 1, 2013
      
      I know 🙂
- Daniel 2:47 am on March 1, 2013
  
  Another example is branding/demo content, some common sense should have been used there as well.
Daniel 2:45 am on March 1, 2013

One thing that I would like to see if a checklist of things to check before uploading in a format where we can print then out.

Maybe it just me but I sometime find it easer to have a checklist on paper than trying to have both theme and checklist up on screen at the same time.
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Jason Hoffmann 7:13 pm on March 1, 2013

I’d just like to echo what christine said. If a theme hasn’t been updated in over 2 years, it would be great if there was a way to update or adopt it. Since it’s all GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples., as long as attribution remains with the new author and the old author that should be something that’s possible right?

Other then that, improving findability should perhaps be a bigger priority, as well as getting rid of very old themes.