Chip Bennett

All of that looks exactly right.

Next question: where did you get the .MO/.PO files? Are they Theme translation files, or core translation files?

Use a different Theme, unless you just happen to like spammy links in your footer.

I’ll hazard a guess that this code outputs spam links in your footer. Further, the Theme very well may have “kill code” that will prevent it from working if you remove or modify that footer code.

Try a Theme from the official WordPress Theme repository instead.

The Theme is probably irrelevant in this case. The issue is that you’ve not configured custom navigation menus (which this Theme supports).

Go to Dashboard -> Appearance -> Menus
Create a new menu, and configure it as per your needs
Then apply that menu to the appropriate Theme location

As Thesis is a commercial Theme, you will need to consult the support offerings of the developer, DIY Themes.

Full disclosure: I am one of the Theme Review Team admins. We (the admins) are tasked with updating the Featured Themes listing.

To be completely honest: there are no big secrets; it’s just not something that we often put a great deal of thought into. For almost two years, we have been nose-to-the-grindstone, focused on getting the review queue under control. That has consumed so much of our time that we honestly haven’t had the time to spare even to begin to think about how, long-term, the Featured Themes listing should be managed.

If and when we can maintain the review queue under control, we will very likely approach the Theme developer community regarding how the Featured Themes listing should be managed. Until then, it is a far greater benefit to the community for us to keep our focus and efforts on turning around Theme reviews as quickly as possible.

Please clarify: what is helpers.php, and why do you believe it to be inherently malicious?

Pulling Themes from SVN is done at your own risk. Please note that code in SVN is retained in perpetuity (generally speaking). End users are expected to pull Themes only from Extend. Anyone pulling directly from SVN is assumed to be a developer, and knowledgeable enough regarding obsolete and/or malicious code.

When found, malicious Themes are suspended in Extend, but the code isn’t always removed from SVN. Usually, code with worms and the like IS removed from SVN. If you wouldn’t mind indicating the specific files with malicious code in each of the above-listed Themes (every version isn’t necessary; just pick one example for each Theme), we’ll take care of it.

Also, try this?

function hooktest_enqueue_scripts( $hook_suffix ) {
    if ( 'appearance_page_hooktest' == $hook_suffix ) {
        wp_enqueue_script( ... );
    }
}
add_action( 'admin_enqueue_scripts', 'hooktest_enqueue_scripts' );

The actual call is:

do_action('admin_enqueue_scripts', $hook_suffix);

So, you should be able to pass the $hook_suffix as an argument into your callback.

Either one is entirely acceptable. The point of the guideline is to ensure that a Theme’s admin scripts only get enqueued on the Theme’s own admin settings page.