[wp-forums] Support for non-repository-hosted Themes

[Chip Bennett]

Oh, certainly, we should not give the impression that general
Theme/Theme-development questions are unwelcome (often, they are the most
fun to answer!).

Perhaps this is part of a bigger discussion that might be needed, regarding
a bit of a reorg of the forums, to separate Theme-specific help from general
Theme-development help (not to mention, general, non-WP-specific CSS/HTML
help). However, we do currently recommend (via forum sticky post) that users
post their questions through their Theme's Extend listing page (for several
good reasons). But if the UX could be improved for that, all the better. I
like the interstitial idea.

Along the same idea of improving UX: what about a core patch, to add a
support-forum link in the WP-Admin, e.g. in Dashboard -> Appearance ->
Themes? I could investigate it and write something up.

Really, my concern is several-fold:

1) Getting users in touch with the right people (i.e. the developer) for
Theme-specific support
2) Eliminating support topics that are specific to commercial Themes
3) Making support in general more efficient
4) Discouraging use of Themes from sketchy distribution sites

I'm also trying to address this from the other side as well, by suggesting
to Theme developers that they should consider soliciting support queries
through their Theme-specific forum link on their Theme's Extend listing
page. The more we can get users and developers together, the better-off
everyone is. But I digress.

Chip

On Fri, Jul 8, 2011 at 11:47 AM, Jane Wells <jane at automattic.com> wrote:

> That's not a bad idea, though there will always be more general questions
> too that are applicable to any theme. We'd also need to very careful not to
> create an us vs them situation, or to raise the barrier to entry too high
> for asking a question. Forcing someone to find their theme in the repo and
> ask from there doesn't sound like a great ux to me, but we could possibly
> achieve a similar end by having an interstitial before the forum post entry
> that has them choose (auto-complete/search) their theme to get the
> auto-append in action and remind them that commercial themes are just that
> -- commercial -- and are supported by their creators if the question is
> specific to that theme.
> j
>
>
>
> On 7/8/11 12:30 PM, Chip Bennett wrote:
>
>> All,
>>
>> Apologies if this question has been discussed previously. I did find one
>> previous post here<http://lists.automattic.**
>> com/pipermail/wp-forums/2010-**June/005602.html<http://lists.automattic.com/pipermail/wp-forums/2010-June/005602.html>
>> >,
>>
>> that failed to generate any response or discussion. If it's been discussed
>> already, just point me to the appropriate archive so that I don't start a
>> re-hash of something that's already been discussed/settled.
>>
>> I spend most of my time in the Themes and Templates forum. Anyone who does
>> also is familiar with this exchange:
>>
>> "Help! I can't do X."
>>
>> "What Theme are you using?"
>>
>> "I'm using Some Commercial Theme"
>>
>> "You need to consult Some Commercial Theme's developer for support"
>>
>> "But I have to pay for support there!"
>>
>>
>> What are your thoughts on making it the official policy that the WPORG
>> support forums will only provide Theme-specific support for
>> repository-hosted Themes? This policy would address not only the issue
>> above, but would also eliminate issues with Themes downloaded from sketchy
>> third-party sites.
>>
>> Would this be a good idea? A bad idea?
>>
>> If we went this route, I would even suggest that we consider only allowing
>> topics to be posted through the Extend/Themes listing page for each Theme
>> (if such a restriction is even possible), to force topics to be
>> auto-tagged
>> and subject-appended with the Theme Name. Doing so would eliminate another
>> round of basic questions, since Theme-specific support generally requires
>> looking at the Theme template files, and knowing what Theme is in use
>> up-front will help us provide better support, more quickly.
>>
>> Chip
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