KafleG 11:20 am on June 5, 2019
Tags: Agenda ( 105 )

Theme Review Team Meeting Agenda for 11 June 2019

Theme review team usually conducts meetings on the second Tuesday and fourth Tuesday of the month. Second Tuesday in the month is the open floor and fourth Tuesday has a fixed agenda.
Due to the number of agendas that we need to discuss, we are going to conduct a second Tuesday meeting with fix agendas.

We encourage all members and anyone interested to attend.

Channel: #themereview | Time: Tuesday, 11th June 2019, 17:00 UTC

Agenda for Discussion

What to do with legacy themes with readme files that don’t match the standard? – Proposed by @joyously
Proposal to remove the TA program. – Proposed by @joyously
Discuss possibilities and ramifications of removing closed tickets to make the name available. – Proposed by @joyously
Suggestion to limit all links in a theme to the Theme URI and Author URI. This includes links to 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 recommendations, upsells, design services, etc. – Proposed by @greenshady
Revisit/clarify if needed the stance that themes in the directory must be fully functional and complete. They cannot require plugins or users to write code to get a specific design. They must work as a standalone theme. This is meant to be an all-encompassing guideline to cover starters and other blank themes. – Proposed by @greenshady
Demo content should be added using `add_theme_support( ‘starter-content’ )`. No extra .xml files with uncontrollable links or downloading unknown external content. – Proposed by @acalfieri
Idea to create a council/group to judge individual issues (or grey areas) regarding themes. – Proposed by @bothera
Team Lead Interest – We are looking for the replacement of our existing lead @acosmin.
Open Floor

Meetings usually last around 60 minutes. If anyone wants anything else to add on the existing agenda comment below and I will try fit it in. Due to the high number of items to get through in the next meeting any additional items may be added to the agenda of the following meeting for discussion.

Additionally we are looking for a person with managment skills to help us get things done and to keep track of things that are in progress. If you have time to help out and management skills, or know anyone that does, let us know.

Discussion can be held in the comments below.

#agenda

poena 12:59 pm on June 10, 2019

1) Do not display the new field if they dont exist. Send bulk emails to authors with the information. ( We need to be absolutely sure about the readme format first
2) It is difficult to discuss here without knowing the reason.
3) only remove not approved tickets older than 2 years.
4) I am ok with limiting upsell links but support and recommended plugins should be allowed if the 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 is in the plugin directory.
5) Further discussion is needed.
6) We allowed this because the Preview is bad. But if authors abuse it and
add spam it needs to be removed.
The starter content needs a lot of work, to work with all installations not only fresh installs.
7) I think it will be difficult since people already dont show up for meetings. It will increase the queue for those themes.
ItsAnilSingh 4:58 am on June 11, 2019

1) There should be a re-check on the inactive moderators.
2) For new reviewers, they should be included into the trainee group with atleast self-assigning and approval permissions (final review from seniors mandatory). And also re-check on them every month for inactivity.
acalfieri 6:26 am on June 11, 2019
Some comments about demo content files:
- They download things from places other than the WordPress servers, which is not secure.
- I think coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress.’s starter content works as intended: if a site has already posts, pages and images it’s possible to see how the theme looks like without starter content.
- What can we do to improve the preview?
vlad.olaru 8:42 am on June 11, 2019

1. What to do with legacy themes with readme files that don’t match the standard?
Programmatically do the best we can to extract the needed information from the available readme, and gracefully degrade when not available. This is what supporting legacy states is all about.
The way I see it at the moment, there is little incentive for theme authors to actively maintain their themes (other than themes with commercial versions) and push regular updates. Forcing everyone to update would work only with a paradigm shift in this state of things.

2. Proposal to remove the TA program.
Disclosure: I am part of Pixelgrade who is a TA.
This proposal is part of the same family of initiatives that are grounded just in personal beliefs and opinions, not in some common values and principles of the larger community, specifically the 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/ Themes community. It can go either way but without any meaningful improvements, other than punishing someone. We as a community need to pause and consider the fundamentals first, and then the specifics.
In the current state of things, I believe no action is better than any action.

3. Discuss possibilities and ramifications of removing closed tickets to make the name available.
I am curious about why “making the [theme] name available” is/should be important for the WordPress.org Themes Repository? Are there marketing reasons? Technical ones? Why not consider instead the inherent weakness of relying on [just] a readable slug to uniquely identify a software package in the year 2019?

4. Suggestion to limit all links in a theme to the Theme URI and Author URI. This includes links to 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 recommendations, upsells, design services, etc.
and
5. Revisit/clarify if needed the stance that themes in the directory must be fully functional and complete. They cannot require plugins or users to write code to get a specific design. They must work as a standalone theme. This is meant to be an all-encompassing guideline to cover starters and other blank themes.

Let’s consider the situation where a small coffee shop owner decides his business needs a site. He’s heard of WordPress and the fact that it is free is very much in line with his non-existent budget. He ends up to one of the many cheap WordPress hosting solutions out there, he clicks the “install WordPress” button, follows the onboarding, and presto, he has a website.
Now he thinks TwentyNineteen doesn’t represent his brand and goes to the one place in the admin that seems to tackle this “Appearance”. Bang, a neverending list of designs appears, each closer or further away from his ideal scenario. He finds a business theme that seems to fit the bill, with the added promise that it can cover stuff that he never knew he needed, but sound very attractive (just look at the OceanWP description).
He or she gets very hopeful that things will go smoothly. Installs the theme and… OK, the style of his “Hello World” site has changed, a bit, but what to do next? Where is that contact page with the nice “Thank You” messages (as he has seen on so many sites)? Where is that Google Maps section with colors to match his brand? Where is the shop since… why not take a stab at selling online? It seems everybody is doing it, so why not?
He starts to lose enthusiasm and begins to question things. Maybe something went wrong and I need to try again, maybe I am doing something wrong, maybe the hosting package that I’ve just paid for is not right, maybe this theme is to blame, maybe there is some trickery here… And on and on he goes.
Maybe he will google things and discover that a theme is a theme, a plugin is a plugin, and you shall not confuse the two. Maybe he will read through a couple of articles and educate himself. Or maybe he will give up and go with Squarespace or Wix or WordPress.comWordPress.com An online implementation of WordPress code that lets you immediately access a new WordPress environment to publish your content. WordPress.com is a private company owned by Automattic that hosts the largest multisite in the world. This is arguably the best place to start blogging if you have never touched WordPress before. https://wordpress.com/ (if he can wrap his head around the difference between .org and .com).

So my question is the following: how can we expect to hammer out any trace of guidance from themes (including upsells) when every non-technical human out there projects just about everything relating to their website unto the theme? Instead of pushing for onboarding, for communication, for education, we just want to service professionals that want pure Lego bricks because they know what they are doing. Have you played with a Lego set lately? Have you looked at their “onboarding”?

6. Demo content should be added using `add_theme_support( ‘starter-content’ )`. No extra .xml files with uncontrollable links or downloading unknown external content.

Please let the coreCore Core is the set of software required to run WordPress. The Core Development Team builds WordPress. starter-content initiative fade away. It has been 3 years since it first appeared and hasn’t gained any meaningful traction that I can see. Why resurrect something that is based on the wrong assumptions, the main one being this: “Themes define a subset of core-provided starter content?” Since when should core handle what are valid usage cases for themes (or even core itself)? Taking the responsibility of defining a set and having everyone pick from that set is equal to defining the usage domains.
If I create a theme for a niche that is not “predicted” by the core developers, what shall I do? OK, my theme is for South-Korean teenagers that are into Pokemon… I guess some boat pictures will do a decent job of appealing to them. They will have the maturity of seeing past the boats and imagine legendary Pokemon instead. 🌈
Demo-ing a theme (and providing demo/starter content import) can only be done by giving freedom to the theme creator to do his or her magic. Anything else is missing the point.
We can only sacrifice so much in the name of security before we lose all the fun in this, for both sides. This is why firewalls and scanners exist at a server level. Maybe the WordPress core should be more hands-on in terms of security and 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./blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. things that look suspicious.

7. Idea to create a council/group to judge individual issues (or grey areas) regarding themes.
Totally agree with this.
But having this council without a clear set of values and principles to guide their decision making is a recipe for endless debates and frustrations. Everyone will represent their own personal experience, their own vision of what WordPress should be, of what the web should be, and what have you. All while everyone meaning no harm and truly wanting to help.

—
I’ve done it again. Another “wall of text” 🤷‍♂️I did not intend to write so much, but the problems that were raised enticed me.
Bothera 10:06 am on June 11, 2019

1. Fallback to style.css or hide the fields

2. The TA program shortens the queue and makes the authors in it more aware of current rules, I would be sad to see it shut down.

3. Great idea

4. I don’t think upsell and 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 recommendation is an enemy, but I do believe spammy upsell is a bad thing. It would be great with some standard ways of doing it, for example make it a requirement to use https://github.com/justintadlock/trt-customizer-pro and find a way to do it better with plugins too, I think TGMPA is a bit spammy as well honestly.

5. They should be in another list, blank themes, frameworks and so on don’t belong together with fully functional themes

6. Agree with Poena

7. It’s my proposal but other solutions might work as well, for example a code repositorary might lessen those situations

Welcome to the Themes team!

Handbooks and review requirements

Coding standards and plugins

Code Packages

Communication

Theme Review Team Meeting Agenda for 11 June 2019

Agenda for Discussion

Welcome to the Themes team!

Handbooks and review requirements

Coding standards and plugins

Code Packages

Communication

Agenda for Discussion

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