Theme Directory: Tags/Filters

One of TRT’s new goals is focusing on improving the theme directory in a way that’s beneficial for users and theme authors. There’s going to be a bit of overlap between the directory and the review queue, but our primary focus here is on improvements to the directory itself.

Because directory improvements are such a big undertaking, I thought I’d break things down into a few different posts. Today’s focus is going to be on the tags/filterFilter Filters are one of the two types of Hooks https://codex.wordpress.org/Plugin_API/Hooks. They provide a way for functions to modify data of other functions. They are the counterpart to Actions. Unlike Actions, filters are meant to work in an isolated manner, and should never have side effects such as affecting global variables and output. system. Improving this would be an easy and major win for all.

Based on the survey results, people tend to use the tag filter feature the most often to find themes in the directory.

But, as we all know and what seems to be evident from the survey, tags need some major work. So, let’s make them better!

Color tags

The first order of business is probably dropping the “Colors” tags. These don’t seem to be used much.

Based on the survey and an earlier discussion, it’s probably time to let go of these.

Subject tags

This is probably the biggest point we need to focus on. No one is using these tags to find themes, but I believe it’s because our subject tags leave a lot to be desired. Currently, we have three tags:

  • Photoblogging
  • Holiday
  • Seasonal

There’s a lot of room for improvement there. I’d love to put together a solid list of subject tags. Take a look at what other theme directories outside of .ORG are doing. What can we learn?

Other tags/filters

Now is the time to offer up any ideas on tags/filters. I’ve only posted what I think is relevant from the survey about tags. If you have other ideas, let’s hear them.

Other improvements

I’m the point person on directory improvements. So, feel free to get in touch on SlackSlack Slack is a Collaborative Group Chat Platform https://slack.com/. The WordPress community has its own Slack Channel at https://make.wordpress.org/chat/. (@greenshady) about other things you want me to bring up for discussion.