Submission of 'Citrus' WordPress Theme
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I wish to submit my wordpress theme ‘Citrus’ for inclusion on WordPress.org and possibly WordPress.com.
This theme is fixed width, widget capable,is GPL licensed and is available on my site in three different formats: Narrow 2 Column; Medium 2 Column and Wide 3 Column. The link below is to the demo page of the Medium 2 Column version.
The page for ‘Citrus’ is: http://emptynestthemes.emptynestheritage.com/?p=580.
You will find several other themes on my site, but they are not yet GPL licensed. I intend to take care of that asap.
Please let me know at christineblythe500@hotmail.com of any issues or concerns.
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If you go to extend, themes, you will find a page where you can submit your theme for review.
First, all the Themes on your ThemeURI site will need to be GPL-compatible, or else your Theme won’t be accepted.
Second, Artiseer-generated Themes are not accepted.
Third, I would make ALL of those Themes a single Theme, with each variation being a user-selectable “skin” (i.e. color scheme) and “layout” (i.e. 1-, 2-, or 3-column).
The Citrus theme is GPL licensed. I did say in my original post that the others were not yet licensed and therefore I have not included them.
However, I am concerned about ‘Artisteer generated sites’ not being accepted. I am honest and I use Artisteer to find the bare bones I like and build and customize on those to get themes I like. I never submit or post sites directly generated from Artisteer. I don’t see this as being any better or worse than using other design tools that are commonly used (i.e. photoshop, etc.) I could easily remove all references to Artisteer in the code but that is not being honest.
Is there a rationale about why these themes are not accepted – especially when they are offered for free? My themes are getting a great response without being on WordPress and I challenge anyone to come up with my themes just using the generator. I’ve submitted to other theme libraries and they don’t seem to have these same prejudices about Artisteer?
I am a loyal WordPress fan and I’m very proud of the themes I’ve created. I will still gradually license all of my themes. I will continue to offer them on my website Empty Nest Themes. I thank all of those who are fans of my themes and continue to use my site.
The Citrus theme is GPL licensed. I did say in my original post that the others were not yet licensed and therefore I have not included them.
Understood, but it is WordPress Theme Repository policy:
Themes from sites that support non-GPL (or compatible) themes or violate the WordPress community guidelines themes will not be approved.
And:
WordPress is Open Source, and all the themes we host here are Open Source. If you want your theme to be proprietary or promote things that violate WordPress’ license on your site, the directory probably isn’t the best home for your work.
As for Artiseer:
However, I am concerned about ‘Artisteer generated sites’ not being accepted. I am honest and I use Artisteer to find the bare bones I like and build and customize on those to get themes I like. I never submit or post sites directly generated from Artisteer. I don’t see this as being any better or worse than using other design tools that are commonly used (i.e. photoshop, etc.) I could easily remove all references to Artisteer in the code but that is not being honest.
Is there a rationale about why these themes are not accepted – especially when they are offered for free?
I again quote from policy:
The goal of our themes directory isn’t to have every theme in the world, it’s to have the best.
Artiseer-generated Themes (or any other generated Themes) have never been accepted in the repository, for several reasons. Primarily, the Repository is intended to be an incentive for creative, original works. But also, generated Themes tend to use obsolete code, and almost never meet current guidelines.
And if you can rehabilitate a Theme with generated code such that it is compliant with the Guidelines, then you know enough not to need to use the generator in the first place.
My themes are getting a great response without being on WordPress and I challenge anyone to come up with my themes just using the generator.
Here’s my rule of Thumb: if I can no longer tell that a Theme is Artiseer-generated, then it will at least be considered.
I’ve submitted to other theme libraries and they don’t seem to have these same prejudices about Artisteer?
I’m curious: what other Theme libraries?
No problem. I won’t sully the WordPress site with my ‘below par’ (at least as far as you’re concerned) work.
I will, however, state my objections here. I am a designer!! I am the first to admit that I am no expert on using code – especially php and css. I learned on html and therefore I’m at a disadvantage.
That does not mean that my design skills are below par. I thought these were free WordPress theme ‘designs’ offered on WordPress – not free ‘code’.
I have also taken a look at the background documentation of themes on the site and the main reason I started designing was for myself because I was very unhappy with what was available. There were numerous issues with formatting, etc. and there is plenty of documentation on WordPress’ site regarding ongoing issues and bugs to do with themes that have been accepted and that supposedly use ‘non-obsolete’ code.
My belief is that elitist attitudes such as yours only serve to stifle creativity. I take great offense at you referring to my themes as not being ‘creative’ or ‘original’. They are both and have been and will continue to offer my work elsewhere.
By the way, what position do you hold with WordPress that you appear to be the guard at the gates keeping us ‘bad folk’ out????
PS. The reason I started designing my own themes is because every single theme I used from the WordPress library after every WordPress upgrade, the themes conflicted and became unusable. Evidence of this can be found on any one of my four blogs in which I posted about these problems. The other three blogs are:
Empty Nest Genealogy
Feathering the Empty Nest
View From the Empty NestI’ve had to do one upgrade since using my own themes on all of my sites – with no problems I might add? Maybe simplicity (or what you consider obsolescense?) is the best??
No problem. I won’t sully the WordPress site with my ‘below par’ (at least as far as you’re concerned) work.
I never said that your work was sub-par. I said that generated code, such as that produced by Artiseer tends not to be up to current standards.
I have also taken a look at the background documentation of themes on the site and the main reason I started designing was for myself because I was very unhappy with what was available. There were numerous issues with formatting, etc. and there is plenty of documentation on WordPress’ site regarding ongoing issues and bugs to do with themes that have been accepted and that supposedly use ‘non-obsolete’ code.
Indeed; it is a constant issue. There are Themes in the repository that are long-since out of date. I have no control over anything already in the repository.
My belief is that elitist attitudes such as yours only serve to stifle creativity. I take great offense at you referring to my themes as not being ‘creative’ or ‘original’. They are both and have been and will continue to offer my work elsewhere.
Again: I’ve no intent or desire to stifle creativity.
By the way, what position do you hold with WordPress that you appear to be the guard at the gates keeping us ‘bad folk’ out????
I’m just a lowly Theme Review team member. On the one hand, I’m tasked with enforcing certain policies set by others (e.g. the license issue for other Themes on your site); on the other hand, my personal concern is raising the level of code quality, to help avoid issues of security and code obsolescence in the future.
PS. The reason I started designing my own themes is because every single theme I used from the WordPress library after every WordPress upgrade, the themes conflicted and became unusable. Evidence of this can be found on any one of my four blogs in which I posted about these problems.
Yes; Theme obsolescence is a huge problem. The Theme Review team has only been active for about 9 months. You should notice a sharp increase in code quality for Repository-hosted Themes submitted/updated since late last summer. But as of yet, we can do nothing regarding already approved Themes that are obsolete.
Ironically, Artiseer has been a huge contributor to the problem of code obsolescence. I can’t tell you how many Themes I’ve seen submitted for review that were generated by Artiseer, using code that was several versions out of date.
I’ve had to do one upgrade since using my own themes on all of my sites – with no problems I might add? Maybe simplicity (or what you consider obsolescense?) is the best??
Simplicity is great. Simplicity isn’t “obsolescence”. Simplicity is also the polar opposite of Artiseer-generated code.
Here’s the bottom line: you don’t need Artiseer. You don’t. I have complete faith that you can learn the WordPress template system entirely on your own. (I did it – and if I can do it, anyone can.) And when you do, you’ll write better, cleaner code than anything Artiseer could ever hope to produce.
This will be my last post on this topic. I have no intention of ever submitting any of my themes to this site. I am very disappointed in WordPress and if I had not already committed everything to using it, I would be using another such as Drupal or Joomla.
I have every intention of and have already been learning the php and css code. In the meantime, however, Artisteer works fine for me.
The problem has not been Artisteer code being obsolete. Any code becomes obsolete over time. Maybe there should be an expiry date for themes by which they have to be upgraded/updated or removed?
As already mentioned, all of my four blog themes (all different but designed by me using Artisteer) went through the WordPress upgrade absolutely unscathed. I have subscribed to the Artisteer updates and my themes will be continuously updated.
I suspect that others have not bothered to pay for the updates of the software. Another requirement may be that the newest version of the software has to have been used on themes submitted.
Anyway, ’nuff said. I don’t know why I’m bothering, but maybe some of what I’ve said will sink into your or someone else’s brain at WordPress and some common sense will be used in future.
Just wanted to update as it’s been a while since this exchange regarding my use of Artisteer for my theme designs.
My four sites have all been through two more WordPress updates (a total of 3) since installing my own themes and there have been no issues whatsoever.
My site is: http://www.emptynestthemes.emptynestheritage.com
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