WordPress Theme and Plugin Challenge Results

04 Jul
2006

Posted by David Peralty as WordPress Plugins, WordPress Themes

WordPress slowdown and a challenge started a week before the end of the month. I was hoping to try to stir up the WordPress community, but alas, there was nothing but a faint trickle of ideas though I am not surprised by the results. I am sure some will blame the summer months or the short span of this challenge, but honestly, I think it just shows the current state of the theme and plugin community. With up to a total of 10 spots open to have a link to their theme or plugin on every page of Blogging Pro for a month, I expected to atleast get 10 entries, but I did not even get that many.

I actually got more links reporting the challenge than entries in the challenge which is actually a very interesting twist on how the community has changed.

Since we did not get many competing entries, those that did enter will get their front page spot on Blogging Pro. Thank you to the few that entered at all.

The results are as follows…

Themes
I feel dirty v1.0
Winter Solstice 1.0
Grimm DF

Plugin
Custom Rewrite Rules

While I found it sad to see so few entries, I am happy by what did make it in. I am impressed by most of what was sent to me, and feel that they deserve their addition to the sidebar of Blogging Pro. I will be working on complete writeups on each of these, which you can expect to see soon.

I want to thank everyone who helped, as well as those that entered. You have confirmed my fears about the WordPress theme and plugin community. Let’s hope the development community does better with their Bug Hunt today.

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23 Responses

Scott

July 4th, 2006 at 5:20 pm
1

I really like I feel dirty, I think that’s a fantastic theme.
Leanne

July 4th, 2006 at 10:55 pm
2

I Feel Dirty is a lovely theme and I have downloaded it for possible future use.

Winter Solstice is classic Wordpress garbage.It’s the typical Kubrick inspired theme with a different header.You should not have even allowed that theme to be posted because it personifies what you say is wrong with the Wordpress themeing community.

GrimmDF is okay.I can’t say much for a theme the owner threw away and then drug out of the garbage to pass on the public.They will get lots of traffic to their site now and that is probably why it was submitted.
digitalramble

July 5th, 2006 at 1:57 am
3

I like the Grimm theme. I’m surprised at how few entries you got. I’d've entered the ones I did last month, but they’re really tiny little utils, done more for me to learn how to do plugins than anything else. One’s a little favicon manager, and the other’s a blog roll based on a bloglines reader account.
adam

July 5th, 2006 at 3:46 pm
4

honestly, i’m glad you got so few entries.
i’d rather see theme and plugin authors take their time and properly test and bug squash, rather than rushing to get a half-finished product out the door.

and your last paragraph is troubling. didn’t those who _didn’t_ enter confirm your fears, rather than the people you’re ‘thanking’?
Bloggers Buzz

July 6th, 2006 at 2:35 am
5

[...] After a disappointingly low number of entries, Blogging Pro has announced the entries for inclusion on the front page of Blogging Pro. But while the entries were less than what would have been liked, there is however a positive tilt: [...]
Scott

July 6th, 2006 at 6:58 am
6

The inner-editor of Adam shines. Funny demonstrative prounoun, eh?
David

July 6th, 2006 at 10:07 am
7

Adam, you are right, but also the number and type of entries I got, as well as those who said they would enter and didn’t are the ones that confirmed my fears about the current state of the WordPress theme and plugin community.

You should also be sad at how many I got. I did not ask that the themes or plugins be unique to my challenge. Where are all the plugin developers? Where are all the people making themes? I did not ask anyone to rush, but those with works in progress could have been inspired to work on their project. We are a week into July and still some of those who said they were going to get their themes or plugins done in time have still not released them.

The slowdown is here and a reality, despite what anyone says.
adam

July 6th, 2006 at 10:22 am
8

you derrided the community for not being creative enough, and then expected people to not bother trying to make things that were unique? c’mon.

i do see the slowdown, but i think you’re taking yourself and your influence too seriously. And people with long-running projects? see leanna’s comment about viitoria’s theme above. there’s the real reason for the slowdown.
adam

July 6th, 2006 at 10:22 am
9

weren’t, not were.
David

July 6th, 2006 at 12:00 pm
10

Actually, I am annoyed at the lack of new and creative things happening, but even looking at the community as a whole, there is not much happening lately.

I was only trying to inspire those who have been holding back. Which is why the interview with Phu Ly as well, and my continued work on here. I dont think I am powerful at all, but I had hoped that I could reach enough people who felt as I do, and had the talents to change it.
Viitoria

July 6th, 2006 at 1:10 pm
11

@Leanna:

I can’t say much for a theme the owner threw away and then drug out of the garbage to pass on the public.They will get lots of traffic to their site now and that is probably why it was submitted.

So you’re saying that once an original theme is no longer used on the creator’s site, it’s garbage? I spent a lot of time on that theme, and I think that when you personally have used a theme, you love it the most, and that dedication to it is what helped to develop it. It wasn’t a quick/recycle theme for hits - it took a long time to create and was in fact up for a long time.

Also, if your statement is true, then would you berate the creat of this theme for releasing is garbage as well, as is any theme that was based off a previous site skin?

A design on any site is not “thrown away.” What would you say to a net where everyone kept the same design for forever and ever and coveted it themselves? Then WordPress Themes might not exist.
puffermedia

July 6th, 2006 at 8:17 pm
12

I’m new to this whole WordPress world (by a couple of weeks, whenever I can grab the time). But I have to say the 3 posted themes are really, really nice. They inspire me to create blogs that beautiful.

Cheers.
David

July 6th, 2006 at 8:47 pm
13

Glad to hear it puffermedia. Good luck with your WordPress experience. And hopefully more and more exceptional themes will be released as people have the time and energy.
Resultat af Wordpress tema/plugin udfordring » ProBlog.dk » At blogge - din guide til blogging og blog-værktøjer

July 7th, 2006 at 9:44 am
14

[...] For noget tid siden kunne vi berette om BloggingPro.com, som havde lavet en udfordring til Wordpress udviklere, i et forsøg på at sparke lidt liv i udviklingen af udvidelser til Wordpress. Desværre havde det ikke den store slagkraft, og kun 3 temaer og 1 plugin blev indsendt til udfordringen, på trods af en ellers fornuftig læserskare. While I found it sad to see so few entries, I am happy by what did make it in. I am impressed by most of what was sent to me, and feel that they deserve their addition to the sidebar of Blogging Pro. I will be working on complete writeups on each of these, which you can expect to see soon. [...]
adam

July 7th, 2006 at 9:58 am
15

i’m nodding along with viitoria up there. leanna should also note that the entirety of wordpress is more or less matt’s ‘garbage’, the volunteers who are building this software are doing it to serve their own needs, and sharing that work as appropriate.

david, there seems to be real push among WP users that they want *something* new, but they’re not really sure what. competition after competition after competition isn’t helping at all. all it leads to is increased criticism of designers who provide what is appropriate to them, which doesn’t match what people seem to want. there needs to be another way to acheive the result you’re looking for.

also, please install wp-subscription-manager.php into the root of your wordpress install (as noted in the installation instructions for Subscribe2comments), and/or unsubscribe me from this thread.
Chris

July 11th, 2006 at 6:28 am
16

David,

You wanna reopen this thing??? Lol.. ;p I just started using WP and have been busy pumping out plugins to tweak things to the way I want. I was so busy with the coding that I haven’t been browsing much lately and didn’t even know about this.

Anyhow, I’m not sure what the community was like before June 06, but I’ve been happily coding and adding features that I get feed back about. My main problem for tracking these and any new plugin ideas is a consolidated place with more organisation than the forums to track these. Possibly a structured wishlist place would be good. Unless there is one I don’t know about… heehee…
Chris

July 11th, 2006 at 6:29 am
17

Oh by the way, how do I go about getting my plugins listed here? Cheers!
sunburntkamel

July 12th, 2006 at 4:28 pm
18

[...] i’m now really bugged by pro-bloggers complaining about the lack of templates. if you’re blogging for money, you should expect to need to hire a designer. despite the shaky-at-best legality of canvas‘ non-comercial license, it makes sense for them to want to release it as such. those guys are designers. if they successfully make every template completely customizable, they’ll be working themselves out of a job. it wouldn’t surprise me if, should they be convinced that they can’t distribute canvas without falling under the GPL, they stop distributing it. [...]
studio ST » Un modesto premio para nuestra plantilla

July 12th, 2006 at 6:11 pm
19

[...] los resultados en Google y las más de 700 descargas en Theme Viewer. Hay otra en camino. # Escribe tu comentario Etiquetas XHTML permitidas <a href=""title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <code> <em> <i> <strike> <strong> Nombre [...]
My Take on the “WordPress Community Slowdown” | blogHelper

July 15th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
20

[...] It’s been more than a week since Blogging Pro’s WordPress Theme and Plugin challenge ended, but some of David (from Blogging Pro)’s comments about the whole Wordpress community slowdown still nags at me. [...]
Sara

July 23rd, 2006 at 8:01 am
21

Wish I would have known about this! Congrats to the entrants!
The Future: A Dialogue · plaintxt.org

August 13th, 2006 at 8:30 pm
22

[...] Keep in mind that these were all completed within seven days of first release of the Sandbox (and those are just the ones I found). Seven days with changes to the Sandbox? Well done all, and take that, Blogging Pro. [...]
xenical

October 7th, 2006 at 11:12 am
23

xenical…

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