The reviewer flow current and future

We all know that the reviewer flow has a number of hitches in it currently. But, what does it currently look like and how can we start to fix this? In order to answer this, I started by laying out the current flow visually. Here it is:

It’s overwhelming when you view it like that. So, what can we do about this?

Suggestions

In thinking about a future path of reviewing I thought how we could improve things now, not thinking about automation or other things that are longer term at this point. We need to fix things sooner as there are long queues and a giant work load mixed into a lengthy process isn’t good for anyone.

Here is a starting point to see what we could do:

What is being suggested?

• We simplify the uploading process to just be a single page that also has the agreement. We can use conditional loading of content make sure for users they don’t go down a multiple page tunnel just to upload a theme.
• Only on signing the agreement do you upload. We discussed this before and it is worth us doing.
• New wording and content for the uploading page – iterating on work already done.
• Review what emails are sent and their content. We currently have a lot of information gaps for themers.
• If a reviewer has had 6 or more themes successfully reviewed and made live, they then can make themes live. This is a big change but important one as removes the key reviewers queue for those who know how to review. Key reviewers will still be observant and the ability to make live can and will be removed if standards fall. This will initially be done as a month long experiment, if it is successful then it will be made permanent.

This is just the start though lets aim for getting this all in by the end of the year and then see what else we can do.

Get involved

One person alone won’t make this happen, this is also just some ideas to help start us improving – we can do a lot more. How about we discuss this during our weekly meeting on  Tuesday at 18:00 UTC in #themereview 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/.? We can then discuss things work out who wants to help make this happen and discuss the ideas.