How to begin? Well, back in 2012 I took the plunge and began my first theme review. It was a great experience because I got a chance to not only learn something but give back as well. I was already looking at themes because I love design. I wanted a different theme for my site and wanted to learn how to create themes. Of course, at the time there was only one in-depth tutorial on creating WordPress themes.
I’ll skip ahead a little bit and get to the part that may be juicy for some. After some time I was able to assign my own themes to review. This was a different time. The capabilities have changed a little over time. The process has – to a degree – changed. Some parts for the better.
Now, what I’m going to share may startle a few and rattle a few cages, but I’m okay with that. Reason is because I know I’m not alone when I feel this way. The process has slowed down too much. What used to take a week is now months. It’s not that reviewers don’t have time, it’s not that we don’t have the people, or the know-how. A lot of it is because there is so much to look over.
Today, I began to think about what needs to be looked over by one person. Yes, one person does a review of one theme. Then an admin looks over and sets the theme live. This process is being worked on.
Now, as I said, I actually counted all the requirements that need be addressed before any theme can be made live. Let’s count them by the sections they are listed:
- Code: 6
- Core functionality/features: 11
- Presentation/Functionality: 1
- Docs: 1
- Language: 4
- Licensing: 4
- Naming: 2
- Options/Settings: 4
- Plugins: 2
- Screenshot: 2
- Security/Privacy: 4
- Selling/Credits/Links: 2
- Styles/Scripts: 6
- Templates: 4
Wow! That is a lot to look over, right? Looking at the core functionality and features is a daunting one. Eleven items! Eleven! Add them all together and you have fifty-seven requirements that a theme must meet in order to meet the standard and pass. Now, that does not include the accessibility audit if a theme has the accessibility-ready tag listed. Yes, that too has a few requirements that need to be addressed.
So you can kind of see why it can take some time to conduct a theme review.
The other part is the time frame. Theme reviewers give up to a week for the theme’s author to submit a revised version of the theme with all the fixes. Does it always happen? No. A lot of the non-approved themes are because they didn’t reply in time or didn’t submit it in time. It does happen.
The downside is that some will submit a revised version on the last day before the “deadline,” and the process can then be resumed. The reviewer will look over the changes and make note of any missing requirements. As you can see the time can add up. As that happens, new themes are being submitted and sort of left there without a review.
You can see how they can quickly add up. Currently the wait time to have a reviewer assigned is about seven weeks. You read it right. Seven.
One thing that may make it faster is closing a ticket if the theme does not meet half of the requirements. Okay, great but not all themes have that many issues, correct? It is possible but how many are there that do?
Or perhaps not approve the theme if it doesn’t meet all the security and core requirements? Makes more sense to do something like that, right? At least then we can focus a little more on teaching about better practices and posting on the make blog about theme development.
Don’t get me wrong, this hasn’t stopped me from reviewing themes at all and it won’t. I just wanted to share a different point of view on an ever-evolving process.