As far back as the summer of 2022, when the initial TwentyTwenty-Three theme was under development, several people within the community were chatting about creating a community themes initiative. The idea has floated around in various forms well before that too.
Technically, the launch of TwentyTwenty-Three itself was a form of this initiative. In total, 19 designers from 8 countries came together to build 38 style variations for it. From that pool of designs, 10 variations were chosen and shipped within the TwentyTwenty-Three theme and bundled with WordPress 6.1.
This announcement is the proposal of a new community themes project. The goal is to bring together a squad of people to build block themes all year around the same way the default themes are built.
Why a community themes project?
Is there any reason necessary other than having a lot of fun building themes?
In all seriousness, the following are the primary reasons for this proposal:
- Increase the number of quality block themes in the theme directory
- Add variety to the existing block themes in the theme directory
- Serve as a reference for coding standards that others can follow
- Foster community collaboration and empower new contributors to participate and learn how to build block themes
- Keep the momentum going when no default theme is being actively developed
- Onboard people who are not familiar with development but can still build themes this new way
- Create a continuous feedback loop to Gutenberg whenever bugs are found, or solutions are needed that can’t be built with the current tools
How will the project work?
All community themes will live in the WordPress Community Themes GitHub repository and be submitted to the theme directory through the WordPress username. Contributors will collaborate through design, code, and/or reviews.
Join the conversation
Join us for a casual conversation covering the purpose and goal of the community themes initiative and ways that anyone, regardless of skill level, can contribute to the effort.
A hallway hangout-style discussion will be held on Tuesday, March 7, 2023, at 10:00 AM EST. A meeting link will be shared through the Learn WordPress meetup group. RSVP for the event to access the link.