Theme reviewers needed – lots of them.

  • Now that we have the 1.5 themes list in place and it is continuing to grow, we would like to start making it more accessible and helpful to users.

    One plan is to have theme reviews listed. Obviously, with over 250 themes this could prove to be a huge task. So, if you want to get involved, feel like writing some reviews on themes you have tried, or simply do not have a life and need something more, let us know and come and give us a hand.

    Kafkaesqui has offered to have a look at making a theme browser for the themes, similar in design to Alex King’s, and we are also looking into adding screenshots of each them as well.

    The plan is to have a database that will provide as much information about all the themes available, in the easiest manner possible.

    250 themes
    – 25 people at 10 themes each?
    – 10 people at 25 themes each?
    or most likely 3 or 4 people at HEAPS of themes to review.
    And of course, even writing one or two reviews would be very helpful.

    This is a community project, so get over to the WRC, register, and as soon as you feel like it, start writing reviews. All contributors are given level 9 access and have their names highlighted in big flashing lights.

    If you think this can work, please get involved!

    Please note that my ‘offline’ life is taking a lot of my time and I may not be able to respond to questions, suggestions until the end of work each day.

    You can contact me at [shadow12 gmail]

Viewing 15 replies - 16 through 30 (of 43 total)

  • Yessiree Bob… I’d love to get started reviewing ASAP; I just need some helping getting the review template setup. Anyone got a bit of free time? ??

    pplproof are you talking about shadows site or your own? I’ve constructued a review template in my head…and sketched something out. If I get my own blog working I might try something for my own reviews, but it would nice, digressing slightly, to see some review site releated tempaltes ??

    This is a neat idea, Shadow, but I can’t get the WRC link to work. Can you post it again, please? Thanks.

    https://wrc.os42.com

    Jinsan – I’m talking about the WRC site. ?? You guys should come on over to the forum, cause I’m getting lonely just idling around there. :p

    Well, pplproof, I tried, but even though I registered etc. I got an error when trying to access the forum: this area available to moderators only.

    Yeah there are some funny things going on there cause I did a review on Placid but it shows it was done by someone according to my check of her last post was in August 2004, I had the darnest time this morning thinking my mind was playing tricks on me again. I wanted to edit the review to include the screenshot but could not edit it and then found out it was authored by someone else, although it was me. The whole time I was logged in under my screen name, but hey not to worry, computers don’t make mistakes, do they?

    dawg – Once I have higher access, I’ll go ahead and change it… I’m more than happy to pick up as much of the slack as necessary, I just need some help with the technical end of things. ??

    Thanks , It is late now but will do another review in the morning.

    Thread Starter shadow

    (@shadow)

    Ok guys. Sorted out a few odds and ends. Perhaps the forum may be a better option than here though. All added – moderator status.

    Youve got me in there shadow ?

    Thread Starter shadow

    (@shadow)

    Done now Root. But ummm, erm,,, well, there is a lot of judging and erm, like….well… do you have time to be looking at theme reviews….:P

    do reviews also include votes? Can downloader vote if they like the theme?

    Number of stars could be useful for downloaders to decide if they want to grab the theme.

    hey at least this is a healthy discussion and it’s great to see someone taking a proactive approach to extended the life and organisation of themes by having the community itself critique the themes for them.

    the only thing I would say if stars were introduced is to place them at the end of the review. 9/10 times a user will see the stars first and then ignore the gut of the review, the pros and cons of it. Web surfing is treated like McDonalds. Much of why a theme is good and bad is in the content written in the review.

    A five star rating for a theme doesn’t mean it’s a good theme, just a popular one and popularity can be fickle, as can user tastes. Reviews provide a meaty base understanding what a user considers a good theme. Is it not flexible enough to edit? Does have too many images making it load for along time? Is it suitable for lower resolutions and so on and so forth. Often I see “wow that theme is awesome” to paraphrase, but why is it awesome and do you think that because it’s awesome that it will be easy to customise to make your own and keep it looking awesome. All of this is covered in a review, and I hope that those that do look for the reviews, read the content and then the rating (if there is one). A better thing would be to include something like Conclusion or Final Thought or Overall and add that conclusion to an excerpt perhaps, as it gives context to the the praise or criticism of the review rather than a meaningless star rating.

    Keep up the great work Shadow and a fantastic project ??

    Thread Starter shadow

    (@shadow)

    I have to agree Jinsan. It’s great to see so many WP users jumping in and helping. The reviews that have been done so far, are constructive, honest and reflect the fact they have been done by people who know how WP works.

    We are still in our early tages and have not ironed out every little option, such as template and/or structure of review itself, but they certainly make for good reading so far:)

    Hmmmm….can I nominate it for the Content Competition too ??

    If you would like to add a review yourself or comment on one that has already been reviewed, the more info the better…

Viewing 15 replies - 16 through 30 (of 43 total)
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