Use these guidelines when making the final approval decision for a theme submission. The public Theme Guidelines still apply; this document is for approver judgement when a submission passes the automated checks.
Prefer themes that clearly represent the submitted movie, show, game, collection, or franchise.
Open the theme only from the youtube_theme_url row in the latest LizardByte-Bot comment table, not from the original
issue body. The bot comment contains the canonical URL that will be written to the generated JSON files. Prefer using a
private or incognito browsing session so YouTube does not adjust personal account recommendations based on reviewed
submissions.
- Themes should be representative of the movie, show, game, collection, etc.
- Fan-made themes should be avoided but can be accepted if there are no other alternatives.
- Trailer music should be avoided but can be accepted if there are no other alternatives.
- TV show themes should not be season-based, but can be accepted if there are no other alternatives.
- Collection and franchise themes should be representative of the entire group, not just one item in the group.
- Theme videos should not be an actual scene from the movie, show, or game.
- Themes should ideally not be from the opening sequence of the movie.
- Theme songs should not have extra sound effects other than what is in the song itself. In rare cases, themes with sound effects can be accepted if there are no other alternatives.
- Theme songs should not contain racial slurs.
If a submission relies on one of the exception cases above, check for better alternatives before approving it. If the available choices are all imperfect, use the theme that best represents the item and leaves the fewest quality concerns.