Alex de Borba

Mike McAlister may have acted hastily by announcing his theme’s inclusion in the WordPress directory before actually submitting it and considering the possibility of its rejection.

I have developed a block theme called Séance, which delves into the history of the Fox sisters. Given its distinctive content, I am unsure if the Themes team would easily accept it into the directory.

My subsequent theme, Aegis, is specifically designed for academic publishing and WooCommerce, and it includes an onboarding feature. However, observing the challenges Mike McAlister is currently facing, I am hesitant to submit Aegis to the directory at this time.

It is intriguing to note that block themes with onboarding features are already present on WordPress VIP. And contrary to what some might think, these features are not added through an additional plugin. The approach taken is similar to the method Mike McAlister adopted with his theme on WordPress VIP.

As far as I am concerned, I find it ironic that a block theme which includes onboarding is facing such obstacles, especially when there are hundreds of classic themes on the Themes Directory which are laden with upsells. These upsells, in my view, seem more intrusive and aggressive towards users and are less community-friendly than a feature that aids users in rapidly setting up their site.

The manner in which this situation is being handled does not inspire much enthusiasm or motivation for theme developers to submit their creations to the directory. If this trend persists, many developers might choose to self-host and distribute their own themes independently, making the theme directory increasingly scarce when it comes to Block Themes.

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