Is this project dead?

[eddieali]

I was just wondering if this project still active or dead. There are no updates for almost a year now.

[philiparthurmoore]

See #1369 and #1363 and #1369 (comment).

In short: yes, until someone from the team of maintainers takes lead on either reviving the theme or creating a new one for Gutenberg, which I believe is already happening.

I would avoid making opinionated decisions about development based on _s code right now. You're better off looking at Twenty Twenty and/or Automattic repos for code guidance right now.

[dingo-d]

Since _s cause more harm than good (looking at the reviews we get on .org), would it be a good idea to add a big notice in the readme that people shouldn't use it as a reference for building themes?

We often get incomplete themes built on _s, and there are tons of issues that harm the review process.

[philiparthurmoore]

looking at the reviews we get on .org

Could you link the theme page for _s and review page for _s here? I am having trouble finding it.

[dingo-d]

We didn't review _s, but themes that take it and then work on it.

But _s doesn't handle wp_body_open, and I'm not sure about what's the status of keyboard navigation of _s.

There is a lot of extra functionality that most themes don't really need or utilize. So all this just creates an overhead for a reviewer.

[philiparthurmoore]

Got it. Sorry for the confusion. Then yeah it probably needs a notice in the readme file. Again, maintainers need to work on this. Happy to yolo merge in whatever changes you propose if it's related to the readme file and Underscores website though.

[philiparthurmoore]

Last commit was over a year ago - if you need an official notice in the README then submit a PR and I'll merge it. https://github.com/Automattic/_s/commits/master

[smpeters]

But _s doesn't handle wp_body_open, and I'm not sure about what's the status of keyboard navigation of _s.

As mentioned in #1369, maybe merging #1350 would be the bare minimum that could be done.

[lancewillett]

The project isn't "dead" at all, based on all the activity I see. Comments and pull requests coming in.

That means it's still useful.

However, being "dead" might refer to this more specific question: "Is the original team still reading this repo, and acting on our suggestions?"

Likely not.

But, that doesn't mean there isn't an active community here that can pick up where the team left off, keep the ball rolling, and improve the code by accepting patches.

[jrfnl]

@lancewillett Not unless someone of the original team gives the interested people push access to the repo or someone forks the repo and actively starts maintaining that fork as the new canonical.

Unless merges start to happen again, this project is effectively dead.

[lancewillett]

@jrfnl Please check your email, and thanks for the nudge.

[jrfnl]

@lancewillett Thanks for your willingness to accept outside committers. As per my email reply, I'm not the right person for this though as I'm not a theme builder, nor have interest in becoming one.

I suggest you reach out to the Theme Review board and ask them for volunteers/suggestions for people to add.

[lancewillett]

gives the interested people push access to the repo

I'll await further pings for folks reading this thread that have the interest and skills to bring even small improvements that might be blocking people from using _s.

We cannot promise much attention to it from the Automattic team.

Long live _s!

[philiparthurmoore]

@lancewillett The last time I tried to pick up the ball on this and roll with pushes and merges I was effectively scolded and told not to do anything.

If Automattic is willing to let this turn into a community project without a ton of oversight and asking for permission then I think it could be revived.

It's been effectively dead for quite some time now - a graph of commits over time isn't hard to see that.

If your stance is that the project will accept merges and patches from outside contributors moving forward then I think it may have a future.

[philiparthurmoore]

Code frequency flatlined.

[lancewillett]

Yes! Loud and clear that outside contributors should be encouraged.

@philiparthurmoore If you want to suggest specific recently active people here that could help, I'll be glad to invite new folks and grant write access.

[philiparthurmoore]

Thanks thanks. Let me finish some Gutenberg stuff and then do a dive into these issues to see who's still interested or either wants to help fix this up. Not a critical issue at all but it's something I'll make some time for after I clean up my themes for Gutenberg. 🤝

[dingo-d]

Also, do take in the considerations of both themes handbook and theme review handbook. Anything that _s is doing that is not in line with these handbooks hurt both reviewers and theme authors in the long run (because the same mistakes are repeated over and over and over)...

[philiparthurmoore]

If the theme review team has issues that _s needs to fix then I suggest opening Issues or PRs for them. If people are still using _s to build themes then it'd be cool to know recurring issues that keep popping up to tackle them.

To be clear, I'm not volunteering to lead _s, just making note that I'm happy to spend some free time triaging and bug hunting from time to time as I've always done from the beginning.

[arnabwahid]

Nice to finally see some activity here. I'd be willing to contribute regularly to keep _s alive and well.

[lancewillett]

@arnabwahid Thank you; email invite sent.

[Ismail-elkorchi]

@lancewillett Thank you for helping the project to move forward. I'd be happy to maintain and contribute to _s.

[eddieali]

Thank you, everyone, and I really appreciate contributors, members, and collaborator's responses. It is a great project, and hopefully, we can keep it alive. I can also spare some time and contribute to the project. Hopefully, Automattic will keep it alive or let the community take the lead so it won't go to waste.

[lancewillett]

@Ismail-elkorchi Thank you; email invite sent.

[gauravyadav26]

I'm willing to devote some time to this project, mainly in resolving reported issues.

[ghost]

If the project ends up being left to die out, perhaps a note on the underscores.me website would be useful to prevent people like me using it as a base for a theme.

[robwent]

New automattic block-based theme: https://github.com/Automattic/themes/tree/master/seedlet

Not specifically a starter theme but you can just change the name or make a child theme.

[adriacobo]

New automattic block-based theme: https://github.com/Automattic/themes/tree/master/seedlet

Not specifically a starter theme but you can just change the name or make a child theme.

Did you mean https://github.com/Automattic/themes/tree/master/seedlet-blocks ??

[robwent]

@adriacobo I'm not totally sure :)

I was just reading about it and that there are 2 versions, a theme and a 'totally block-based theme'.

I had a quick look and the theme seems to be a better starting place at the moment since it has a header and footer. Wouldn't the block only theme require the upcoming full site editing to be usable?

EDIT: Maybe that's the point and you just add your own header and footer and any other layouts you need.

[adriacobo]

You're right! At this moment is a weird moment to start with the upcoming full site editing so near.

[ianstewart]

There's also this Gutenberg Starter Theme …

https://github.com/WordPress/theme-experiments/tree/master/gutenberg-starter-theme-blocks

[fabio-blanco]

@Ismail-elkorchi Aren't you interested in maintaining the project _s anymore?

[ClarusDignus]

Generator for starter block theme for full site editing:

https://fullsiteediting.com/block-theme-generator/