Tag: WPTRT

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One Theme Per Author? No!

Back on August 23 there was a WordPress theme review meeting that included a discussion (and vote?!) about restricting the number of new themes an author can submit to the WordPress theme repository. Current guidelines/rules make that a limit of one. Yes, a single theme (although supposedly updates to approved themes do not count)!!

I apparently missed that meeting (although I did go back and “vote” against the rule earlier today); and, I opened a discussion related to it on the WordPress #themereview Slack channel (it’s a long read now).

Hopefully I got my point across about it not being a good idea but there does not seem to be many, if any, supporters for changing it now (even if it was meant as a three month trial); although the idea to remove it when the queue is only a couple of weeks long was suggested. Unfortunately my schedule does not readily allow for midday meetings when the theme review team meets to discuss their latest ideas, or review past decisions … and using the rule as a queue shortener?! Really?

Little did I know all those years ago when a friend expressed his concerns for creating guidelines related to theme submissions that they would come to fruition. Even though I am no longer directly involved with the theme review team admins (or whatever appeasement title they choose to be known as) I can only hope that finding the time today to start the discussion will keep it fresh enough for the next theme review team meeting.

In the meantime, I am going back to developing my “new” theme; and, wondering where to publish it. Since the WordPress theme directory/repository and its myriad guidelines/rules may be making it not the best place to do so anymore (again?!!) I will have to start looking elsewhere.

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Why Free Plugins

I write plugins for many reasons. Sometimes there is a need; sometimes it’s a Mallory-Everest exercise but every time it is with the full intention of releasing the plugin to the WordPress Extend repository. Currently I have eight plugins freely available and hosted at WordPress, and one more (which is a minor modification of another author’s plugin) hosted at BuyNowShop.com.

Although my schedule has been filled with my WordPress Theme Review Team activities of late, I still make every effort to maintain the plugins in the repository at a “current” level relevant to the current stable release of WordPress itself. I also make every effort to insure the plugins are relatively future-proof so I do not have to drop everything to update them with each new release.

I also work with feedback from end-users to add additional functionality as well. If I feel the new functionality would have widespread appeal then I add it to the plugin’s TO-DO list; if it seems unique or what I expect to be a rarely implemented idea I will suggest the end-user attempt to modify the plugin (sometimes with the necessary code changes as well); or, I may offer to make the modifications for a fee. This of course is also dependent on the end-user’s request and where they want to implement the plugin … I have been known to provide my services pro-bono if the cause is right.

I have received some donations related to my works, both themes and plugins, and I find it to be a great reward. I don’t look at the monetary value; I look at it as a reward of recognition. A donation tells me someone liked one of my plugins (or themes) well enough to express their gratitude with their hard-earned money. A simple thank-you comment or email is great, but I recognize and appreciate the extra efforts it takes to give monies, or other gifts, too.

I’d like to take this opportunity to thank all the people that have made donations, both to myself and to all the other designers and developers that keep the lifeblood of WordPress flowing.

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You Could Be WPTRT

How do I get involved with the WordPress Theme Review Team (WPTRT)?
It’s really rather simple. Just follow these steps below.

  1. Subscribe to the Theme Review mailing list.
  2. Make sure you have a WordPress.org username.
  3. Send a message to the mailing list expressing your interest in helping out with Theme Reviews.
  4. A current WPTRT member will contact you (generally via a reply to your message). If you are ready they will assign you a ticket in the Theme trac and you will be on your way to becoming a Theme reviewer.

Of course, there is more to reviewing Themes as part of the WPTRT, the above is just how you get started.

Let’s have a quick look through these steps.

  1. Subscribing to the mailing list gets you involved in one of the main discussion areas of the WPTRT. It is one of the places we discuss ideas about various items that may, or may not, affect how the Theme Review guidelines are interpreted or used when reviewing a submitted Theme.
  2. Your WordPress username is a common focal point for all of your WordPress activities. If you are a Theme author, or a plugin developer, you already have one and this is the one that will be used on the Theme trac system. It could also be the username you log into the WordPress Support forums with although current members generally use their “developer” username.
  3. We need to know you are interested, although you can also log into the #wordpress-themes channel on freenode.net and chat via IRC with one of the theme reviewers as well. The mailing list is generally the more common approach.
  4. We assign the first few tickets to new reviewers just to help with the learning process. Once you have shown you understand the process we’ll make a few changes behind the scenes and you will be able to assign yourself your own tickets in trac and carry on reviewing Themes.

We expect that sometime during this process you have thoroughly familiarized yourself with the Theme Review guidelines as well as a few other relevant pages in the codex. Here are the links to the pages I always recommend reading:

NB: Just in case, I would suggest reading these pages at least once a week, although generally our intent is to not have them change very often.

Also, you should create yourself a test-bed installation; import the Theme Unit Test data (from the link above); and, install the following few very useful plugins:

I also suggest installing a plugin that writes viewable text to ‘wp_footer()‘ for testing as well, if you do not have your own preference you are welcome to download and install my BNS Login plugin.

Now, you might be asking why would I want to join the WPTRT?
There are many reasons and many ways to get involved with the WordPress community. This one will offer you: insight into how the Theme submission process works; the opportunity to influence positive change in the Theme Review guidelines; a wealth of new ideas and code possibilities; and, interactions with some of the best and the brightest current Theme authors involved with the WordPress Themes repository.

N.B.: The above “guest” post was written after a suggestion from Jeff Chandler during the 106th episode of the WordPress Weekly podcast; and was posted by Jeff at the Weblog Tools Collection site.
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Time Flies

I cannot believe it has been 10 days since I last made a new post here. I do not even have the excuse of being busy posting on my other sites although there have been a few posts made.

I wrote about the lastest release of one of my plugins, BNS Featured Tag version 1.8.1 on October 3, 2010. It was more or less my standard announcement post when I release a new version of a plugin.

A few days later, I wrote about the latest version of Ground Floor, 1.6, on October 6. Again, a simple announcement post for one of my free WordPress Themes.

The following day I posted an article at WPFirstAid.com under my nom de plume for that blog of The Doctor. The gyst of the article was how to Extend the WordPress Menu, referring to adding content to the wp_nav_menu() function output. I started writing the post on October 6 and published it on October 7 as I found it a bit more involved to explain the technique for everyday use after it had been sorted out.

Yesterday, October 12, I wrote a post for the just opened domain WPTRT.com. I registered the domain a little while ago for any potential uses the WordPress Theme Review Team (WPTRT) may need that were not readily available. The post itself was a summary of the First Meeting the WPTRT held on October 9, 2010 (via IRC).

It seems I have been busy doing a great many things I enjoy over the past 10 days which proves the old adage:

time flies when you’re having fun!

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WPTRT Permission Sets

Another new development with the WordPress Theme Review Team (WPTRT) is the additional responsibility of managing the Theme Trac system. Below are the basic permission sets, with links to the Trac wiki for additional details. Currently there are four basic sets in the following top-down order:

  • reviewer-manager

    • PERMISSION_ADMIN – All PERMISSION_* permissions

  • reviewers

    • TICKET_CREATE – Create new tickets

       (also allows for the re-opening of tickets)

      TICKET_MODIFY – Includes both TICKET_APPEND and TICKET_CHGPROP, and in addition allows resolving tickets. Tickets can be assigned to users through a drop-down list when the list of possible owners has been restricted.

      • TICKET_APPEND – Add comments or attachments to tickets

        TICKET_CHGPROP – Modify ticket properties (priority, assignment, keywords, etc.) with the following exceptions: edit description field, add/remove other users from cc field when logged in, and set email to pref

  • authenticated

    • TICKET_APPEND – Add comments or attachments to tickets

      TICKET_EDIT_CC – Full modify cc field

      WIKI_CREATE – Create new wiki pages

      WIKI_MODIFY – Change wiki pages

  • anonymous

    • MILESTONE_VIEW – View milestones and assign tickets to milestones.

      REPORT_SQL_VIEW – View the underlying SQL query of a report

      REPORT_VIEW – View reports, i.e. the "view tickets" link.

      ROADMAP_VIEW – View the roadmap page, is not (yet) the same as MILESTONE_VIEW, see #4292

      SEARCH_VIEW – View and execute search queries

      TICKET_VIEW – View existing tickets and perform ticket queries

      TIMELINE_VIEW – View the timeline page

      WIKI_VIEW – View existing wiki pages

      Repository Browser – ALL Views

The above permissions are based on a standard installation of Trac with the addition of the user groups: reviewer-manager and reviewers. The reviewer-manage group consists of Simon Prosser and myself. The reviewers group will consist of those users who have been actively participating in Theme reviews and consistently following the Theme Review page guidelines and standards as the basis for their review comments.

The authenticated group is all users who are logged in. To log in just use your WordPress.org username and password. This is essentially the default group and will allow logged in users to make comments on tickets. This provides authors and other interested individuals the ability to use the Trac system to communicate their concerns, questions, or complaints in regards to their relevant ticket(s). This will also allow for new users to become involved with the Theme Review Team as well. Although this group does not have permission to resolve tickets they are more than able to do a full review and participate in the process.

The anonymous group simply allows for all the relevant viewing permissions so you can look around and read without having to log in.

As an aside, I developed the above list with the help of the Mindmap software Freeplane, if you are interested in a copy of the mindmap download this file. (You may have to right-click and Save Link As … with a .mm extension.)

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Featured Themes

Hard work and keeping focused on the potential benefits of the tasks at hand can bring unexpected rewards.

It’s been three months since I joined the WordPress Theme Review Team (WPTRT). Today, Simon Prosser and I were granted moderator privileges to the Extend/Themes forum at WordPress.org.

Our privileges at WordPress.org allow us to: take a theme submitted for review “live” if it passes all of the Theme Review criteria; “mark as old” if it does not; or, suspend the theme, if necessary or requested.

Our latest bump allows us to now be directly involved in selecting which themes are listed under the Featured Themes heading on the main page of the Extend Themes repository page.

The Theme Reviewers intent is to involve the community as much as possible in the selection process. There are currently no set guidelines we will be using, aside from the requirement that themes being considered will need to meet current Theme Review guidelines and standards … with the emphasis being on currently released themes.

Now, as community members ask how are Featured Themes chosen I would like to extend to the community the opportunity to recommend the general guidelines for choosing the themes to be shortlisted … perhaps additional related criteria the WPTRT should consider … or maybe even who should be choosing the actual themes to be featured?

As the WPTRT Lead I am not looking for which theme you want to recommend, yet, but I am looking for why any particular theme should be recommended. What criteria would you use?

Take advantage of this opportunity and leave a comment. Share your thoughts and ideas on choosing Featured Themes.

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WPCandy Interview

I was the subject of an interesting interview by Ryan Imel of WPCandy.com tonight that mostly focused on the WordPress Theme Review team and its work.

I say interesting as it was done via Skype with video. I use Skype often for many things such as instant messaging and VoIP calls but I had never actually put to use a web-cam. Setting my newness jitters aside as I had agreed to the interview a few days earlier and while I stumbled about with a few settings, Ryan patiently waited. A few minutes later he “pinged” me and we began …

We chatted for about 30 minutes. I talked a bit about myself but mostly I wanted to focus on what the WordPress Theme Review team is doing and this was made easy by the questions Ryan posed as this was his goal as well. I’ll not go into any more details as this interview was Ryan’s idea and I believe his upcoming post with the footage will be very interesting. Look for it soon on WPCandy.com

I am often very self-critical so I believe I could have been better prepared and spoken more eloquently. Ultimately I wanted to make sure everyone of the team members were given credit for all the hard work they have done and continue to do …

… for the Team!

If I have missed anyone, my sincerest apologies … just drop me a note and I will update this post.