A Year in Themes Team – 2024

Happy New Year 2025 to all!

Here’s a summary of the WordPress Themes Team’s contributions in 2024, including Trac ticket activities and blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. theme statistics.

We sincerely appreciate everyone who participated in reviewing and creating themes, attended team meetings, identified bugs in the Theme Developer Handbook, and contributed in other ways to support the Themes Team.

Please note that these statistics are based on WordPress TracTrac Trac is the place where contributors create issues for bugs or feature requests much like GitHub.https://core.trac.wordpress.org/. custom query filters and some manual counts. If you notice any inaccuracies in the data, feel free to let us know, and we’ll verify them promptly.

Major Highlights

General Overview

In the year 2024,

  • 39671 tickets were opened (Both new and updated)
  • 39796 tickets were closed
    • 39046 tickets were made live. (This includes news and updates)
      • 1926 new Themes were submitted for review.
      • 1566 new Themes were made live. (All Block, Hybrid, or Classic Themes)
      • 360 new Themes submitted for review are closed as not approved.
      • 37210 Theme updates were made live.
    • 725 tickets were not approved.
    • 25 tickets were closed-newer-version-uploaded.

The percentage of new themes live is 81.3% whereas 18.7% were not-approved.

Monthwise data for 2024 (New Themes Submission, Live and Not Approved)

Months/StatisticsTotalLiveNot Approved
January15011733
February13310627
March14910940
April16714423
May17614630
June15213418
July18215032
August20116734
September20316340
October16213032
November1309931
December645311

Bar graph showing the comparison data for 2024 (January – December)

Block Themes Statistics

  • The number of Block Themes submissions: 646
    • Block themes were made live: 549
    • Block themes were not-approved: 96
    • Currently under review: 18

Monthwise data for block themes 2024 (New Themes Submission, Live and Not Approved)

Months/StatisticsTotalLiveNot Approved
January150305
February1332912
March1493412
April167526
May1765311
June152494
July182499
August201658
September2036712
October162447
November130377
December64230

Bar graph showing the comparison data for block themes 2024 (January – December)

Top 10 Theme Authors

Here is the list of the top 10 authors by number of themes uploaded.

AuthorsTotal Number of Themes LiveNumber of Classic Themes LiveNumber of Block Themes Live
@automattic98098
@cretathemes32032
@ascendoor31310
@vowelweb31292
@pewilliams30030
@themagnifico5230300
@bosathemes29290
@classictemplate26260
@omegathemes26260
@themegrove26026

Theme Reviewers

In the year 2024, we have 9 reviewers. Here is the list of the top 5 reviewers with the number of reviews (including not-approved).

Theme ReviewerNumber of reviews (including not-approved)
@kafleg1192
@acosmin513
@fahimmurshed93
@vowelweb89
@bijayyadav25
@rabieelkheir3
@rinkuyadav9993
@shivashankerbhatta3

HelpScout Stats

In the year 2024,

Email Conversations 670Messages Received 920
Replies Sent 606Emails Created 38
Resolved 425Resolved on First Reply 84%

Blog Posts Statistics

Block Theme Handbook

Worked on the following chapters,

Huge props to @greenshady for his hard work to complete this handbook.

Thank you @acosmin for helping to collect statistics and data on 27th Dec.

#themes-team

X-post: Hello, WordPress Community – Let’s Chat!

X-comment from +make.wordpress.org/project: Comment on Hello, WordPress Community – Let's Chat!

Nominations Call for the themes team representatives: 2025 Edition

The Themes team is seeking representatives for the year 2025. It’s time to submit your nominations! Please leave a comment in the section below to nominate a team member. Based on the nominations, two or three representatives will be selected for the Themes team.

Currently, @acosmin@shivashankerbhatta, and me (@kafleg) are the team representatives

What are Team Reps?

Team representatives are responsible for acting as the primary communicators on behalf of their team.

In the WordPress open-source project, each team typically has one or two representatives (reps).

Read here to learn more about team reps.

Responsibilities:

  • They represent the team
  • Communication with other teams
  • Post weekly updates
  • Mentor theme reviewers 
  • Transfer themes, suspend or delist themes (if necessary)
  • Conduct team meetings, write meeting agendas and meeting notes 
  • Guide theme authors and reply to their questions 
  • Regularly check themes team email and follow-up etc. 
  • Maintain Theme Check pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party
  • Review Patterns and set live or delist them, etc.

What are the qualifications?

A representative should be an active member of the WordPress Community. Someone reliable and trusted, familiar with WordPress theme development.

How to nominate someone? 

The deadline for nominations is Sunday, December 15, 2024.

Nomination text sample: “I would like to nominate @nominee_wp_username”. Or you can also nominate yourself. You can write “I would like to nominate myself”. 

If you get nominated but if you are not ready for the reps, you can decline it as well.

How Will the Election Work?

If we receive more nominations and are unable to reach a consensus on the representatives, we will hold a vote, similar to an election. If necessary, we will publish a separate post with detailed information about the voting process.

Once the results are in, the new team representative(s) will be announced in a follow-up blog post.

If you have any questions, feel free to comment below. Happy Nominating!

#themes-team

Celebrating 1,000 Block Themes in the themes repository!

I’m happy to share news about a major milestone in the WordPress community: the addition of 1,000 block themes in the themes repository. This showcases the growing popularity of blockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience.-based design and empowering theme authors.

The Rise of Block Themes

The first block theme to go live was Armando, crafted by Carolina Nymark (@poena).

As of October 22, 2023, there are 536 block themes live, and since January 1, 2024, that number has risen by an impressive 457. This rapid growth reflects the community’s enthusiasm for block-based design, making it easier than ever to create unique, tailored experiences online.

Celebrating Top Theme Authors

The achievement of 1,000 block themes would not be possible without the dedicated efforts of talented theme authors. Here are the top 10 contributors to the WordPress theme ecosystem:

  1. Automattic – 116 themes
  2. Creta Themes – 41 themes
  3. VW Themes – 39 themes
  4. WPRadiant – 35 themes
  5. pewilliams – 34 themes
  6. CozyThemes – 32 themes
  7. CodeYatri – 30 themes
  8. Catch Themes – 29 themes
  9. Superb Addons – 28 themes
  10. themegrovewp – 27 themes

These authors have played a crucial role in expanding the block theme landscape, offering users a diverse array of styles and functionalities to choose from.

What’s Next for Block Themes?

The themes team would like to see more block themes. We expect an influx of innovative designs and functionalities. Whether you’re a developer, designer, or site owner, the potential of block themes offers exciting opportunities for creativity and customization.

We encourage everyone to dive into the themes repository and explore the vast selection of block themes available. Whether you’re starting a new project or looking to refresh an existing site, there’s a block theme waiting for you.

Join the Celebration!

If you have your favourite block theme, comment below. Or if you’re building any block theme and planning to submit in the WordPress themes repository, we also love to listen to that. Comment down below.

Happy WordPressing!

Thank you @acosmin for collecting the data and reviewing the post.

#block-themes, #block-based-themes, #full-site-editing, #themes-team

Themes team meeting notes for October 22, 2024

The meeting notes are from the themes team discussion.

  • Date: October 22, 2024
  • Time: 15:00 UTC
  • Location: #themes channel
  • Agenda: Themes team meeting agenda
  • Agenda Prepared by: @kafleg
  • Meeting facilitator – @kafleg
  • Notes taker – @bijayyadav
  • Full transcript –  #themes channel

Attendees:

Thank you everyone who attended the meeting.

1. Weekly Updates

In the past 7 days,

  • 751 tickets were opened
  • 755 tickets were closed
    • 741 tickets were made live.
      • 20 new Themes were made live.
      • 721 Theme updates were made live.
      • 0 more were approved but are waiting to be made live.
    • 14 tickets were not approved.
    • 0 tickets were closed-newer-version-uploaded.

Note: These stats include both the new theme tickets and updated theme tickets as well.

Number of reviewers: 5 (@acosmin@kafleg@fahimmurshed@vowelweb,@bijayyadav)

BlockBlock Block is the abstract term used to describe units of markup that, composed together, form the content or layout of a webpage using the WordPress editor. The idea combines concepts of what in the past may have achieved with shortcodes, custom HTML, and embed discovery into a single consistent API and user experience. themes status:

  • 22 Block themes are currently being reviewed
  • 5 The Block theme has been live for the last 7 days

Currently, we have 86 themes under review. More information on weekly updates is here.

2. SEO Keyword stuffing in the theme name

While reviewing themes or checking the themes repo, we found some themes’ names is not like a name but more SEO keyword stuffing.

Theme name like `SEO Specialist Agency` is more like keywords, not name. During the meeting, @williampatton said, “That does seem kinda keyword loaded to me but I don’t know if it violates any rules”. @heatheracton added, “Given these themes are meant for wide use, it could be suggested they change to “Specialist Agency”. “SEO Specialist Agency” seems pretty niche? Maybe could add something to the theme developer handbook, recommending generic names?”

Aslam Naik said, “If an author persistently submits themes which are obvious keyword stuffing, we can suggest them. If they are using long-tail keywords we can suggest or request changes, I think once they know reviewers are aware of this issue, they will automatically deter”.

@kafleg summarized that to reduce such name by,

  • Check the name of the theme and if the name seems Keyword stuffing, inform the theme author to change it.
  • Suggest some good name ideas.
  • If they repeatedly do, again ask them to change.

During the meeting, we agreed to follow this and then see how it will work in coming days.

3. Twenty Twenty-Five theme testing

Testing the TT5(Twenty Twenty-Five) theme is also a good way to contribute to the WordPress project. You can test PRs or the entire theme with current and previous versions of WordPress, as well as in different PHPPHP PHP (recursive acronym for PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor) is a widely-used open source general-purpose scripting language that is especially suited for web development and can be embedded into HTML. https://www.php.net/manual/en/preface.php. versions.

During the meeting, @heatheracton shared, “Just wanted to share that I’m submitting my first ever Issue after testing the TT5 theme.”  

We love to see your active contribution to testing the TT5 theme. Also, the RC1 of 6.7 is released.

4. Open Floor

During the open floor, @kafleg shared that, KafleG, @shivashankerbhatta and @ohia talked with the Contributor Mentorship Program themes team mentee and it was a nice talk.

Matias is looking for reviewers who can review PRs for the theme check pluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party.

See you everyone at the next meeting! Mark your calendar for second Tuesday of November.


#meeting-notes, #themes-team