I released this crossword on my SPORCLE account as well, and it's actually a themed puzzle with a SPORCLE-related theme. It has to do with the ends of the four long Across answers (Sporcle Orange is basically a premium membership, the Sporcle globe is the site's logo, a Sporcle Editor is a user who can select quizzes in a specific category, and Sporcle badges are just an achievement system)
That pair of clues is meant for solvers who know at least some “crosswordese”, ie those short or vowel-filled answers that are sometimes needed to “glue” a grid together. If you haven’t seen ORO (Spanish for gold) or ETE (French for summer) enough times, I can see those clues being very tough.