# Theme-components category

**URL:** https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091
**Category:** Site feedback
**Created:** [July 17, 2022, 11:23am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091 "2022-07-17T11:23:31Z")
**Posts on this page:** 9
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Canapin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/canapin/32/119591_2.png) [@Canapin](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Canapin)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2022, 11:23am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091/1 "2022-07-17T11:23:32Z")

</div>

I like that they have their own category now.

However, the category’s name is plural (#theme-components), whereas it’s singular in any other category: #Customization > Theme, #Customization > Plugin, etc. Except for #releases for some reasons.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![JammyDodger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jammydodger/32/254611_2.png) [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [July 17, 2022, 12:02pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091/2 "2022-07-17T12:02:45Z")

</div>

I spotted that as I was going through them. I’ve not decided yet whether to pluralise the others, or to make the new one singular. I’ve put a pin in it while I add all the new #official component topic headers. 🙂

It feels more natural to have them as plural, but I’ll see what everyone else thinks first. 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Decorbuz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/decorbuz/32/235124_2.png) [@Decorbuz](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Decorbuz)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 1:27am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091/3 "2022-07-18T01:27:34Z")

</div>

> [@Canapin](#):
>
> I like that they have their own category now.

Yeah, I’m glad that this change has finally been made. It’s something that I asked for a while back.

> [@"theme-component" should be a subcategory instead of a tag](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-component-should-be-a-subcategory-instead-of-a-tag/223862):
>
> In my opinion, I think that the #Customization > Theme component tag would serve its purpose better as a subcategory. At least for me, they’re easier to find compared to tags, and in recent years, theme components have become more and more significant in contrast to their #Customization > Plugin counterparts (many of which are being converted to theme components for easier use). For lack of a better term, they deserve… “equal” treatment. After all, they’re extremely popular and are very much an in…

I wonder why it isn’t a subcategory though? 🤔

> [@JammyDodger](#):
>
> It feels more natural to have them as plural, but I’ll see what everyone else thinks first. 🙂

If you’re going to make it plural, you should also make #Customization > Theme, #Customization > Plugin, etc… plural.

You should also consider removing the line in between “theme” and components" since categories aren’t limited in the same sense as tags.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![JammyDodger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jammydodger/32/254611_2.png) [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 5:35am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091/4 "2022-07-18T05:35:33Z")

</div>

> [@Decorbuz](#):
>
> You should also consider removing the line in between “theme” and components" since categories aren’t limited in the same sense as tags.

It actually started off without one, but then it looked like a second theme category with a ‘components’ tag, so the hyphen was popped back in to be more visually intuitive:

 ![category hyphen](https://global.discourse-cdn.com/meta/original/4X/5/8/7/58793e6c71d9592665e23df1b61d630082df2a64.jpeg)

> [@Decorbuz](#):
>
> I wonder why it isn’t a subcategory though? 🤔

I wanted to give them equal parity with plugins and full themes, as well as provide two separate lists without the topics being mixed together.

> [@Decorbuz](#):
>
> If you’re going to make it plural, you should also make #Customization > Theme, #Customization > Plugin, etc… plural.

Yup. 👍 Or make the new one singular. As per:

> [@JammyDodger](#):
>
> I’ve not decided yet whether to pluralise the others, or to make the new one singular. I’ve put a pin in it while I add all the new #official component topic headers. 🙂

From a descriptive point of view I still think plural sounds more apt (it’s a list of theme components after all), but prior style counts so singular could still win out. 🙂

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![Jonathan5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jonathan5/32/197134_2.png) [@Jonathan5](https://meta.discourse.org/u/Jonathan5)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 6:38am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091/5 "2022-07-18T06:38:44Z")

</div>

It’s good to have this category. Thanks.

It would be nice to have it listed alongside plugin and theme in the category list.

Is there any way of changing the topic list to show the topics without the screenshots? It would be easier to read on narrow mobile screens. And the current screenshots aren’t much use for a topic list anyway.

I always liked the singular when looking at a topic (eg something looks like it’s been labelled as a “plugin”) but plural would make more sense for them all when looking at the category list.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![manuel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/manuel/32/468169_2.png) [@manuel](https://meta.discourse.org/u/manuel)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 8:57am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091/6 "2022-07-18T08:57:55Z")

</div>

Thanks for the change, really improves the structure!

One suggestion: I think the gallery grid view works great for themes. But for the components I find it difficult to browse. There’s many more components and their images are often not so helpful or descriptive of them. Maybe a list view with preview images would work better? Or with previews and excerpts?

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![JammyDodger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jammydodger/32/254611_2.png) [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [July 18, 2022, 9:16am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091/7 "2022-07-18T09:16:36Z")

</div>

> [@Jonathan5](#):
>
> Is there any way of changing the topic list to show the topics without the screenshots? It would be easier to read on narrow mobile screens. And the current screenshots aren’t much use for a topic list anyway.

> [@manuel](#):
>
> One suggestion: I think the gallery grid view works great for themes. But for the components I find it difficult to browse. There’s many more components and their images are often not so helpful or descriptive of them. Maybe a list view with preview images would work better? Or with previews and excerpts?

I think these are great suggestions. 👍 For the initial ‘slide across’ I tried to mirror all the category settings from #Customization > Theme for simplicity, but there’s definitely scope for further tweaking. For the tiled view, I think having the right first screenshot for each could help give them a more consistent look in the category view, though you’re right that there may not be a ‘perfect’ one for each component/theme/plugin. If you filter by tag (including ‘no tags’) then they flip back to a regular topic list view. I prefer the list style layouts personally as they include the tag info, which I think may be useful.

**Update:** I’ve changed them to the listed view like the plugins. 👍

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![JammyDodger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jammydodger/32/254611_2.png) [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [July 19, 2022, 6:43am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091/8 "2022-07-19T06:43:37Z")

</div>

> [@Canapin](#):
>
> However, the category’s name is plural (#theme-components), whereas it’s singular in any other category: #Customization > Theme, #Customization > Plugin, etc. Except for #releases for some reasons.

~~We have gone plural. 🥳 🙂 Well, at least for #themes and #plugins, to match #theme-components. It will be on a category-by-category basis, so there is scope to tweak a couple more if the mood takes us. 🙂 👍~~

* * *

And they’ve been reverted… 🙂

Someone has kindly pointed out that pluralising them would cause a name-clash with the existing #plugins and #themes tags. I have rolled back the changes while I reconsider the options. 👍

* * *

And another pertinent example for the ‘singular’ camp:

> [@Is there any spellchecker?](https://meta.discourse.org/t/is-there-any-spellchecker/233283/4):
>
> If you looking into developing a new #theme-components, there are many JS spellchecking projects on the wild, like [https://www.javascriptspellcheck.com/](https://www.javascriptspellcheck.com/).

---

<div class="post-metadata">

### Author: ![JammyDodger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/jammydodger/32/254611_2.png) [@JammyDodger](https://meta.discourse.org/u/JammyDodger)
#### Post date: [July 22, 2022, 9:21am UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/theme-components-category/233091/9 "2022-07-22T09:21:48Z")

</div>

I have caved and gone with #Customization > Theme component 🙂 I was holding out as I thought having eg #Customization > Plugin and #plugins as a category and a tag was still too similar to be ‘neat’, but I think having consistency in the short-term wins out. 🏆 🙂
