Comments on: Time for WordPress theme standards? http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/ Connect and Convert ™ Tue, 10 Jan 2012 12:58:00 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v= By: Tom Pick http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-16 Tom Pick Tue, 22 Sep 2009 19:45:56 +0000 http://www.lynx-marketing.com/?p=364#comment-16 Scott - great post, couldn't agree more. WordPress newbies in particular would really benefit from this, and gravitate toward free or paid themes that they could be confident met stringent WordPress standards. Scott – great post, couldn't agree more. WordPress newbies in particular would really benefit from this, and gravitate toward free or paid themes that they could be confident met stringent WordPress standards.

]]> By: Tom Pick http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-12 Tom Pick Tue, 22 Sep 2009 15:45:56 +0000 http://www.lynx-marketing.com/?p=364#comment-12 Scott - great post, couldn't agree more. WordPress newbies in particular would really benefit from this, and gravitate toward free or paid themes that they could be confident met stringent WordPress standards. Scott – great post, couldn't agree more. WordPress newbies in particular would really benefit from this, and gravitate toward free or paid themes that they could be confident met stringent WordPress standards.

]]> By: Tom Pick http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Tom Pick Tue, 22 Sep 2009 14:45:56 +0000 http://www.lynx-marketing.com/?p=364#comment-11 Scott - great post, couldn't agree more. WordPress newbies in particular would really benefit from this, and gravitate toward free or paid themes that they could be confident met stringent WordPress standards. Scott – great post, couldn't agree more. WordPress newbies in particular would really benefit from this, and gravitate toward free or paid themes that they could be confident met stringent WordPress standards.

]]> By: Scott DeToffol http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-10 Scott DeToffol Tue, 22 Sep 2009 03:38:49 +0000 http://www.lynx-marketing.com/?p=364#comment-10 I agree that the Theme Directory is a good place to start for free themes. But what about the thousands of free and premium themes that don't take the time to submit to the official directory? <br><br>Also, the guidance is for authors not users. The Theme Directory presentation does not define the tags as elements of a self-reporting standard. And the tags seem under-reported. To be useful in this suggested context, they should list what features are supported and which are not.<br><br>In short, I agree that the Theme Directory is a decent start. Now these self reported "standards" should be made useful to theme users (especially novice users) and extended out into all the legitimate Theme sites and companies around the Internet. I agree that the Theme Directory is a good place to start for free themes. But what about the thousands of free and premium themes that don't take the time to submit to the official directory?

Also, the guidance is for authors not users. The Theme Directory presentation does not define the tags as elements of a self-reporting standard. And the tags seem under-reported. To be useful in this suggested context, they should list what features are supported and which are not.

In short, I agree that the Theme Directory is a decent start. Now these self reported “standards” should be made useful to theme users (especially novice users) and extended out into all the legitimate Theme sites and companies around the Internet.

]]> By: Devin Price http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-9 Devin Price Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:19:15 +0000 http://www.lynx-marketing.com/?p=364#comment-9 If anyone would like to see what <a href="http://WordPress.org" rel="nofollow">WordPress.org</a> actually requires to be in the repository see this link:<br><br><a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/about/" rel="nofollow">http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/about/</a><br><br>I like the idea of requiring your html/css to validate- though that does bring up some issues if your are using -moz-border-radius or other unique cases. Hopefully there is enough community involvement with the repository that authors of bad code can be notified quickly and helped in the process of creating clean valid themes.<br><br>Thanks Ian for twittering this. If anyone would like to see what WordPress.org actually requires to be in the repository see this link:

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/about/

I like the idea of requiring your html/css to validate- though that does bring up some issues if your are using -moz-border-radius or other unique cases. Hopefully there is enough community involvement with the repository that authors of bad code can be notified quickly and helped in the process of creating clean valid themes.

Thanks Ian for twittering this.

]]> By: Ben Huson http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-8 Ben Huson Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:55:07 +0000 http://www.lynx-marketing.com/?p=364#comment-8 There is already a lot of guidance for WordPress theme authors. There is a fairly comprehensive checklist at:<br><a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development_Checklist" rel="nofollow">http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development_Ch...</a><br><br>"...list of standard features that theme developers would self identify that they include..."<br><br>The WordPress Themes Directory already provides a solution for this. When creating a theme, it is already possible to add tags to identity key features of the theme such as "one-column" and "fixed-width". See:<br><br><a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/about/" rel="nofollow">http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/about/</a><br><a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/tag-filter/" rel="nofollow">http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/tag-filter/</a><br><br>Is it just a case of encouraging theme authors to use of other tags such as:<br><br>"xhtml" if your theme is valid XHTML<br>"threaded-comments" if you have a designed threaded comments template<br>"theme-options" if you can customise the theme with settings in the admin<br>"seo" if your site adheres to good SEO principles<br>"widget-enabled" if widgets are supported<br>etc...<br><br>These tags also get displayed in the WordPress Theme directory on each themes's page which should mean that users can make an informed decision. For example:<br><a href="http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/thematic" rel="nofollow">http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/thematic</a><br><br>So if a set of useful tags as outlined above could be decided upon and adopted by some of the major theme frameworks and more popular themes, it may hopefully encourage other theme authors to do the same. There is already a lot of guidance for WordPress theme authors. There is a fairly comprehensive checklist at:
http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Development_Ch…

“…list of standard features that theme developers would self identify that they include…”

The WordPress Themes Directory already provides a solution for this. When creating a theme, it is already possible to add tags to identity key features of the theme such as “one-column” and “fixed-width”. See:

http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/about/
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/tag-filter/

Is it just a case of encouraging theme authors to use of other tags such as:

“xhtml” if your theme is valid XHTML
“threaded-comments” if you have a designed threaded comments template
“theme-options” if you can customise the theme with settings in the admin
“seo” if your site adheres to good SEO principles
“widget-enabled” if widgets are supported
etc…

These tags also get displayed in the WordPress Theme directory on each themes's page which should mean that users can make an informed decision. For example:
http://wordpress.org/extend/themes/thematic

So if a set of useful tags as outlined above could be decided upon and adopted by some of the major theme frameworks and more popular themes, it may hopefully encourage other theme authors to do the same.

]]> By: scribu http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-7 scribu Mon, 21 Sep 2009 18:50:47 +0000 http://www.lynx-marketing.com/?p=364#comment-7 I don't think you can actually set any meaningfull standards, besides the ones already imposed by the official theme directory. It would only hinder creativity, in my opinion. I don't think you can actually set any meaningfull standards, besides the ones already imposed by the official theme directory. It would only hinder creativity, in my opinion.

]]> By: Ian Stewart http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-6 Ian Stewart Mon, 21 Sep 2009 17:49:50 +0000 http://www.lynx-marketing.com/?p=364#comment-6 Good post. I think the official WordPress Themes Directory is the answer to this. It's tough to standardize what (in a lot of cases) boils down to style issues. But if you want your Theme included in the official directory you have to commit to what are the really important standards with WordPress Themes. Things like important function calls for plugins and widgetized sidebars. Basically the catastrophic stuff. Anything else is, again, a style issue. Luckily there are a lot of themes to choose from! Good post. I think the official WordPress Themes Directory is the answer to this. It's tough to standardize what (in a lot of cases) boils down to style issues. But if you want your Theme included in the official directory you have to commit to what are the really important standards with WordPress Themes. Things like important function calls for plugins and widgetized sidebars. Basically the catastrophic stuff. Anything else is, again, a style issue. Luckily there are a lot of themes to choose from!

]]> By: Time for WordPress theme standards? | ShareFavorite http://www.lynx-marketing.com/2009/09/time-for-wordpress-theme-standards/comment-page-1/#comment-5 Time for WordPress theme standards? | ShareFavorite Mon, 21 Sep 2009 03:32:13 +0000 http://www.lynx-marketing.com/?p=364#comment-5 [...] is the original post:  Time for WordPress theme standards? Related [...] [...] is the original post:  Time for WordPress theme standards? Related [...]

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