Some important changes to the WordPress.org theme review process were recently announced. The review now focuses on four key areas: security, licensing, “malicious or egregious stuff,” and content creation. Themes will be spot checked once they are live in the theme repository for any additional violations.
This is a response to the way the old review process created a bottleneck with a long queue of submitted themes waiting for reviewers. Instead of placing the burden on theme reviewers, it has been shifted to “mak[e] theme authors more responsible” for compliance with theme review standards.
The impact of this new policy is no new theme review tickets older than four weeks, according to Justin Tadlock. Justin noted on Twitter, “It’s definitely a far cry from the 1,000+ the team had at one point.”
