On Sponsored Themes
Matt Mullenweg 
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Thanks to posts here on WLTC and around the blogosphere, the topic of “sponsored themes” is at the top of everyone’s minds. I thought this would be a good time to share my thoughts on the ramifications of sponsored themes, and what it means for our community.
For those who are new to the topic, in the past yew years a market has developed around advertisers that pay money to websites to have plain-text links back to their properties so they can rank better in search engines like Google for the text in those links. At some point the people gaming Google realized instead of buying links from dozens of individual sites, they could pay theme authors to bundle their links with their download and get hundreds or thousands of sites with their link for a small fraction of the cost. This is politely referred to as “theme sponsorship.”
Sometimes theme authors do this without telling their users it’s a sponsored theme before download, or use CSS or PHP tricks to hide the links or other ads in the template so most people will either never notice or not know how to remove the ads. I’m not going to talk about these folks, because they’re obviously unethical and should be banned in every way possible.
However there is another class of themes that disclose up front they’re sponsored, and generally appear on the up and up — what about those? I think there are three main issues we need to keep in mind:
- Google penalizes sites that promote things Google considers spam. Because of the trend of paid links, even on respected sites, Google has publicly stated that they have taken measures to diminish the effect of these links by lessening the value of where they’re coming from. I don’t claim to know their internal rankings, but I believe this is related in some way to Trustrank — if you link to untrustworthy places your Trustrank goes down. (Just like if you kept recommending crappy movies to your friends they’d stop taking your advice.) I’d be the last to recommend any of us should tailor what we do to please Google or any other search engine, but at least on my blog it accounts for 60% or more of my traffic, so I’d rather stay on their good side. Once someone understands the ramifications they are welcome to make a link ad decision for their own site, but it bothers me when theme authors are making the decision for others.
- Many users of WordPress probably don’t understand the above point or are not able to properly modify their templates to remove the bundled ad if they did. In fact, the economics of theme “sponsorship” depends on most site owners not touching the link. When advertising or something else unwanted is bundled with a desktop application and relies on most users not removing it we have a word for it — adware. (Sometimes malware.) It’s not illegal, and it’s certainly one way for software authors to get paid for their work, but it’s ultimately disrespectful toward the user and reputable download directories like Download.com ban it.
- Finally many of these themes try to legally disallow you from removing the advertising link by claiming it’s part of the Creative Commons attribution to leave it. This is almost funny, because these themes are on shaky legal ground themselves. WordPress is Free, meaning you’re free to do pretty much anything you like with it. It’s under a license that encourages user freedom called the GPL, which says if you distribute something that links internal functions and data structures of a GPL program (like themes do with WordPress) that also needs to be Free. At best, theme authors claiming you can’t remove the link are ignoring or ignorant of the license issues, at worst they’re actively exploiting the work of thousands of volunteers that have poured their blood, sweat, and tears into WordPress.
There are other issues, such as a proclivity of some ad-bundled theme designers to value quantity over quality, but I don’t think those are as important.
Themes with bundled and embedded advertising will always exist, and it’s perfectly within the rights of the GPL for people to create them and even sell them. I also bear no ill-will toward theme authors who’ve succumbed to the attraction of the money, I disagree with their decision but people make mistakes and it’s not a personal thing. However as a community we should decide whether the slippery slope of bundled advertising is a behaviour we want to encourage and promote on our official resources such as WordPress.org and the Codex, and even on community hubs like Weblog Tools Collection.
I’ve seen some designers claim if we discourage bundled advertising with themes we’re taking away their livelihood and saying they should work for free. (Conveniently ignoring the fact that WordPress was built “for free.”) However just because you can make money from something doesn’t mean you should. Something doesn’t have to be illegal for it to be wrong. There are more important things in life. At every conference I go to I meet dozens of people who make their living with WordPress and manage to do so in a way that doesn’t exploit users or cross ethical lines, so I find it hard to believe that the lack of sponsored themes will hurt the WordPress ecosystem. Authors could also monetize their own sites with ads, instead of putting them on yours.
Finally, no one is forcing these people to make themes. In fact I would posit that it’s better not to release anything at all than to release a sponsored theme. Our design and theme community thrived before themes with embedded ads came along, and it will continue to thrive long after their gone. Embedding ads in themes is disrespectful to users, and creates confusion and uncertainty about which themes people can trust.
Two years ago I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life when I made a decision to accept a “sponsorship” on WordPress.org without considering the ramifications it would have for its users, our community, and the web as a whole. It pains me to see others going down a similar path. We should think about how these people are trying to exploit the WordPress community and good name instead of looking the other way because they’re paying.
Once you’ve had time to mull over the social and ethical issues of ad-bundled themes, I encourage you to vote on this WordPress Idea to remove sponsored themes from WordPress.org, rating it 5 if you agree and 1 if you don’t. Thanks for your time, and happy blogging.
(130 votes, average: 4.08 out of 5)
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[...] ich letztens schon geschrieben hab schaukelt sich das Thema immer weiter hoch, jetzt hat Matt bei WLTC einen Artikel geschrieben samt einer Abstimmung auf wordpress.org um die Frage (zumindest aus Sicht [...]
Wow, I was surprised to see Matt’s name here.
Voted and commented at WordPress.org. Good to see the issue being raised.
Well put, but am surprised Matt chose to voice his concerns here and not on his own blog (which links here)?
I guess wltc has simply more disscussion-potential than his own blog. 4k feedreaders who are only interested in wordpress themes, quite something.
amazing write-up matt, I really appreciate one of the big boys bringing this up. As a designer myself I have been really annoyed by the flood of low quality and spammy themes released on the themeviewer, since those themes are usually not “new” designs, but only css templates or old designs by other quality designers that were ported. you definitely have my vote to remove those sponsored themes!
thanks again, jez
Nice to finally hear Matt’s take on this issue.
Hope this “sponsored themes” trend will decline.
thanks for this summary. How do I find out if there are hidden sponsored links in the theme?
Finally, no one is forcing these people to make themes.
On the flip side, no one is forcing end users to download and use these themes either. As you pointed out, the WP theme community was thriving before sponsored themes and there are literally hundreds if not thousands of themes out there for the end user to choose from, many of whom do not have any sponsored links besides their own on the template.
I’m not sure I understand your third point about the GPL. Are you saying that all themes created for WorPress should be free because of the licensing, including themes I create to sell in my web design business? One thing I would like to point out is that Joomla is also an opensource platform however in that community you have to pay for the addons more often then they are available to download for free.
As for the point about the GPL, I personally don’t think doing a theme for a client requires you to release that theme to the world. Also, even if you decided to make them GPL, you’d still be able to charge for them. There’s nothing wrong with charging for something.
@nchenga nchenga: to be sure read through your source code (ctrl+u in firefox windows) and see if you find any links that you did not add.
If there was a clear policy of disclosure, this’d be a valid point, but many sponsored themes make no or vague mention of their sponsorship.
If someone creates a great theme then I say that they are entirely entitled to charge for it, if they feel the need to. Adding advertisnig to it is making an indirect charge so it is misleding to suggest it is actually free and it should not be promoted as such.
On that basis I think they should be removed from the wordpress.org site and have voted to that end.
Surely it is legitimate for a theme to contain a link to the theme creator’s site?
What about links to more than one site that belongs to the theme creator - as my themes do?
I do not like spammy sponsored themes, so i am considering dropping the links from my themes because I do not want to be associated with the sort of people doing it now. Things have changed since I did my first theme in January last year.
Finally, the argument that Wordpress themes must be GPLed is dubious. See this article by a lawyer on why plugins are not derivative works.
(Also posted on Wordpress.org)
Matt,
Though I’d like to elicit a strong emotional reaction in favor of banning themes, I don’t believe it will solve the problem. In fact, it may exacerbate it.
If a ban went into effect, and I were a theme author who was currently selling sponsorships and admitting it, I’d simply change my methodology such that the new themes always appear to be coming from the sponsoring client.
At some point, the waters become so murky it’s almost impossible to tell which themes to ban and which to allow.
I would suggest the following as alternatives:
- Sponsored themes, with NO hidden content, should be allowed to remain - so long as initial disclosure of sponsorship is made - but should be labeled as carrying advertisements. Call them AdverThemes or something like that.
- High quality themes, with high quality sponsors, could theoretically still be valuable to users. While I personally would not take the risk of linking to unknown sites, some people have a higher risk tolerance. I do not have the right to prevent them from taking this risk any more than I could stop them from gambling in Vegas.
- Any theme - sponsored or otherwise - containing hidden information should be banned. There should be a ZERO tolerance policy in effect as the ramifications for users can include being banned from search engines. Knowingly allowing themes that cause real damage would be tantamount to supporting it.
- Themes submitted without full disclosure that are later proven to be sponsorships should be banned as well.
- Someone(s) fairly prominent and with a pristine reputation should issue a fair and balanced educational message conveying both sides of this issue which should be referenced for people to learn and evaluate.
- Plugins should be evaluated identically. Sponsorships should be disclosed and labeled, and hidden anything should be banned. For example…
I therefore have to vote “no” to the general ban concept.
John Pozadzides
Founder, http://HTMLHelp.com
Personal, http://OneMansBlog.com
I say slap a “nofollow” tag in the link and that’s the end of that.
I dont mind sponsored themes as long as :
i) There is a clear disclosure of that fact
ii) The link itself isnt objectionable.
iii) Users are free to remove the link, and the link isnt being hidden etc.
Matt, I respect you and your work and I think you have made some good points here—certainly better than the knee-jerk reactions in some of the other articles I have encountered over the past few days—but I do disagree with some of your points. A thorough response would take longer than I have at the moment, but I hope this fairly brief one can still provide a few things to think about.
I do not like the idea of theme authors including advertising when it is not disclosed and especially when it is hidden through some kind of trickery, but simply including advertising does not constitute making the decision for anyone to have or not have that advertising on their blog. Blog owners can choose to use or not use a theme; as long as they have not been misled, the choice to use or not use a theme is theirs, so the choice for any disclosed advertising to be on their site or not is also theirs regardless of whether they leave the theme intact.
I think it is important to keep in mind that advertising in themes takes different forms. The default theme for WordPress includes both a link at the bottom of the page and a request in an HTML comment—not a requirement, true, but still a request—that the link be left in place:
“If you’d like to support WordPress, having the “powered by” link someone on your blog is the best way, it’s our only promotion or advertising.”
So there you have it in the words you have chosen to distribute: WordPress *DOES* include advertising in its default theme. And that is not even considering the blogroll links you pre-fill the database with. And you do both of those things without disclosing them to blog owners before they downloads WordPress. By your own descriptions, these actions seems to make WordPress “adware” and “it’s ultimately disrespectful toward the user”. Do you really consider yourself so disrepectful toward users, Matt? You seem like such a nice guy.
Of course, there is a significant difference between selling advertising for Web sites that are unrelated to the software and including plugs for the software’s own Web site or even those of its creators, but don’t pretend that you oppose advertising in general being included in free software or even undisclosed advertising being included because *YOU DO IT YOURSELF* and you and your company benefit from all of the traffic that these advertisements send you. Clearly, your actions (excluding even your own famous advertising scandal) demonstrate that you condone some kinds of advertising: specifically, advertising the Web sites of software and people associated with that software; it would be nice if your writings on this topic would be clearer about the differences.
There is a lot more I could write about the topic, but I have many other things to do at the moment, so I will leave you with one small correction: many download sites, including download.com, definitely have included advertising-supported software in their indexes. Have you ever played Diablo on Battle.net? Did you ever try the Opera Web browser when it was available in both paid and advertising-supported versions? Have you ever played a game demo (Diablo or otherwise) for a commercial game, which was itself an advertisement and included blatant pitches for you to buy the full game? The trial version of Halo is a great example of this: instead of the static screens, a game character actually gives a pitch like a television advertisement yet it is Download.com’s top result for “Halo” even now. Have you ever seen a game that advertises other games from the same publisher? Have you ever seen free software that pitches a deluxe commercial version? These kinds of things are all different forms of advertising-supported software, whether they have been including advertising sold to others or advertising for other versions of the same products (e.g., full versions or deluxe versions) or advertising for other products from the same companies, and they have all been listed at Download.com and in countless other download indexes.
Daria, I don’t think anyone is forcing people to download themes, but when ad-infested themes are mixed with the clean ones on our official resources like the Codex, I think people don’t know what to trust and it creates a bad user experience. That’s why I’m suggesting we shouldn’t host or promote them.
Okay, now I understand more clearly where you are coming from.
I didlike bundled, hidden advertising intensely. However, the theme I presently use has two links remaining it it which are perfectly all right by me: one is to the download site where the theme can be accessed by anyone wishing to use it, and the other is to the designer’s site with more designs and information. I see no harm in this form of personal advertising where it brings other people in contact with good themes or good designers.
Pi.
On sponsored themes…
Matt Mullenweg has written an essay on Sponsored themes for Weblog Tools Collection, which I think everyone should read.
I did have two themes with sponsored links, but I removed the links after a month. - I did never require people to keep the links, …
[...] all the sponsored themes discussion all over the WordPress Sphere. Just a clear statement from my [...]
From what I have seen, many of the theme sponsors are reputable businesses and websites, so this thought of being banned is about as likely as being banned for a link through to the original theme designer who most likely, to replaced his lost income, will have his site covered with text links and affiliate links.
Hmm, actually the vast majority already do that.
In don’t think it worth going into the legal issues, they are easily sidestepped.
Whilst the theme php files might in some circumstance be problematic, themes will end up being just a list of wordpress functions with php includes and there isn’t any function calls in CSS.
It would also be fairly easy for someone to knock together a theme framework that is licensed as LGPL.
Those same Google guidelines would make aspects of Wordpress’s own linking dubious, not just the default blog roll and the request to leave the link in that appears as an HTML comment, but also how Wordpress.com is structured.
http://wank.wordpress.com has some great counter arguments as well
I do use lots of free themes, and leave the links in in most situations.
I predict a huge increase in “Designed by XYZ Published By ABC” type links which is totally legitimate if the publisher is also providing the distribution. That isn’t sponsored, it is commissioned and they are kind enough to still include a link to the designer.
[...] sujet a d’abord été abordé par fran6art suite au coup de gueule de Small Potato et depuis Mat Mullenweg s’est exprimé et a lancé un sondage sur le [...]
[...] bzw. entfernbar sind. Matt Mullenweg (Weblog Tools Collection) hat dafür die Initiative ergriffen: On Sponsored Themes (12. April, Blog-Eintrag), inklusive Abstimmung: Idea: Remove Sponsored Themes from WordPress.org. [...]
I know this might sound silly to many out there, but I think Google and its “Almighty Page Rank” is quite overrated. The results they spew when searching are too full of irrelvant hits. I was, and still am a Yahoo user. I think Google has become the center of the “Spam Universe”. Their “AdnonSense” has created a flood of spam to be sifted through on popular websites I loved. What traffic you get to your weblog is shakey at best. They come, and then they usually go. I still say that the most worthy traffic is those that read your comments, like what you have to say, or are interestd in your thoughts, then click your link on the comments to go take a look at who you are and where you are! If they are willing to click on your name, (like here) then they actually have a genuine interest, and will more than likely enjoy their time spent at your weblog then they will just panning through the barage of links from Google. Being an “interactive” member of the blogosphere is a much more credible way of getting traffic than any other way that I have ever found! Quality of traffic always outweighs the quantity of traffic I always say… Maybe I am wierd, but I simply enjoy seeing comments on posts, or comments left to me through a contact form! I may not get billions of hits, but the few I do, that want to speak about what is important to them, makes me feel good that I have created a time for them to actually think about something, and want to share.
You have still failed to address the question of why, if sponsored themes are so wrong and would be better off not being made at all, you have chosen to use a number of such themes at wordpress.com (albeit with the offensive links removed). If such great work was being done without the help of sponsorship, why couldn’t you just use those themes, as opposed to sploggy stuff like the Vermilion Christmas theme? How about actually making a donation to the people whose themes you adopt for wordpress.com? Yes, it would be a drop in the ocean, but wouldn’t it help to mitigate the perceived need for sponsorship and encourage people to produce better quality themes? Rather than abusing people for not being willing to work for free, wouldn’t it be a little more gracious to acknowledge that you’re financially profiting from the work of themers just as they’re profiting from yours?
You have also failed to address the question of why it is acceptable for you to include vanity links in the default blogroll, embed an ad for your commercial site in the widgets plugin, put your Google ads on people’s wordpress.com blogs without warning them of the possibility when they sign up, yet unacceptable for anyone else to embed ads in their themes or plugins. If you’re going to lay down rules about how the rest of us should behave, please abide by them yourself. If adware themes should be upfront about what they are, so too should adware bloghosts.
The truth is, you judged the sponsored themes on wp.com as themes, and used them because you thought they were good themes. Whether or not the designer had resorted to inserting ads was irrelevant to the quality of the theme. Please credit your users with the ability to do the same thing. Please stop treating them as incapable of seeing a sponsored link and making their own decision about whether or not they are comfortable with it.
Maybe you should reread the essay? That was the whole point. Embedded ads take advantage of people who don’t know any better than remove them, spam search engines, and risk getting their users penalized in Google.
“You have also failed to address the question of why it is acceptable for you to include vanity links in the default blogroll,”
Again, those links were not sold to people hawking casinos and viagra pills. If I were to sell links there it would probably bring in seven figures, but that wouldn’t make it right. But what does this have to do with ads embedded in themes except you continuing your permathread of trying to attack me? I honestly can’t believe you’re defending spammers.
“embed an ad for your commercial site in the widgets plugin,”
I suppose you’re referring to the link to WordPress.com meta widget, which is just a bug because the widget was written on WordPress.com and then given back to the community. I’m sure when Andy has a free moment he can fix it.
[...] Update (4/12/07):Â Matt checks in on the issue of sponsored themes. [...]
I don’t think Matt is trying to stop sponsored themes from being produced, what I think he is saying is that Wordpress.org should not be supporting these sponsored themes by having them as part of the Wordpress.org website, especially if the sponsotship isn’t publically disclosed.
I have no problems with sponsored themes, I have used a number of them previously, but when themes are sponsored, but the sponsorship is not publicly disclosed, I will not use that theme. If the sponsorship is disclosed, and I have the choice of whether it appears on my site or not, I’m quite happy to leave it, as long as the site is remotely relevant.
this seo guy offered me $50 to put his links on a theme. that probably don’t sound much to you mr web 2.0 san francisco startup guy but to me it makes the difference between a really crappy host and one that is just crappy. you think the people who use my theme would give me $50? hell no not even between them. not even if i asked for donations for a year. i’d be lucky to get $5. so what, i should just give up? yeah, maybe i’ll have to.
Matt, you’ve confused the GPL with the FSF’s GPL FAQ. The GPL says nothing about linking, and section 0 paragraph 2 of the GPL makes it clear that a WordPress theme or plug-in does not have to meet the GPL’s terms:
I say keep only GPLed themes on WP sites, spammy or not. That way, anyone is free to take whatever malware the designers use to monetize their creations. It’s only fair, as they’re basing their work on GPLed code.
Free as in freedom, but not necessarily as in free beer.
Just ban them.
Matt wrote:
Matt,
I’m a former Marine, and a Texan, so generally speaking I advocate the electric chair for spammers.
I also believe we are in agreement with regards to the philosophy on this matter 100%. Unfortunatly the world we live in is not a purely philosophical one. There are practical matters to consider regarding enforcement of rules, and I cannot advise you to implment a rule which is unenforcable.
Clearly this is not my decision to make (thankfully). But I have to question why it would be deemed necessary to take such a radical stand as to attempt a complete ban before the more moderate steps which I suggested?
This issue has only recently come to light as having visibility within the community so why escallate it into a polarizing matter that could leave a bad taste in some people’s mouths?
If there are demonstrable, irrefutable, examples which require you to take such a harsh stand - then by all means do so. But I don’t see that sort of evidence presented in the dialogs I’ve read so why not give people an opportunity to first police themselves with voluntary disclosure?
As far as the “hidden” links are concerned. Ban them, like… yesterday!
Take care, and good luck with your decision.
John
http://www.sassylawyer.com/200.....ess-themes
A lot of people are advocating requiring the themes to be labeled, and I think that’s fine, and I think the best way to label them would be for them to be available on someplace other than our WordPress.org site. If they really are that much better, as people claim, then they’ll have no problem getting traffic and users to their advertising-only theme directory.
I understand and have myself seen themes that are sponsored being copied from other themes or are just plain ripped from other themes.
But what about theme designers that make totally unique theme and got a sponsor on board so that both the designer and sponsor could benefit?
I do release themes on my site (wpthemesplugin.com) and all my themes are sponsored by a single sponsor, i beleive it makes the theme looks cleaner,plus i also always announce to the users that my themes are sponsored.I really think that “sponsored themes” has increased theme releases for the wordpress community, while some themes are blatant copy the majority are unique, and i think this benefits wordpress users too who now have a long pool of designs to choose from, it also helps designer and coders if you just look around forums like digitalpoint,sitepoint and talkfreelace where there’s an increase in demand for such designers/coders.
[...] Matthew Mullenweg the famous Matt behind WordPress has written about his dislike of sponsored themes and has written an essay about it here on Weblog Tools Collection. [...]
Why not simply require sponsorships to be disclosed with accompanying instructions for their removal should the user so choose? That way people could sell the sponsorships, but their value is minimized because users are given direction on how to remove the ad.
Personally - sponsored themes come off as spammy adware. With a program as vastly popular as WordPress.. you would think the WordPress core sites (.com, .org.., the codex, etc) would want to distance themselves as far away from even the inference of spam as much as they possibly can.
Spammy themes hosted by the WordPress brand may give off a public perception that WordPress is spammy. When, reality is, Matt and the WordPress team do so much to combat spam tactics in every other way…it would be a real shame to see WP support themes with viagra links sold within them.
Just say no.
Hmmm.. why not make a paying section for the themes? And charge people to host themes in that section? Proceed with the ban as well but provide a legit way to reward designers and encourage them to be open instead of trying to earn money in sneaky ways.
That is true, Matt and team has worked hard, however not ALL sponsored themes are sponsored by spammy sites, for example Bloggingpro’s “insense” theme that was sponsored by Hostgator, would be a shame to ban such a beautiful theme.
[...] The “Sponsored Themes” Posted by: Moses in Themes, Wordpress Matt Mullenweg posted on WTC today regarding “sponsored [...]
Here here. I agree 100%. I think all themes and plugins should have to be GPL, for that matter.
I already posted it on the previous post, and I hope someone at WP is taking notice, it would be really important for bloggers to be made aware of the terms under which they can use the themes. Sure everybody can google GPL and CC and find out for themselves but most have no clue on the whole «link» subject.
[...] interesting thing in the whole adware themes discussion is the people claiming if we require GPL it’ll kill the number and quality of themes out [...]
[...] days. A lot of famous blogger blog about this. Even wordpress creator Matt Mullenweg, blog this at Weblog Tools Collection. Why I care about this [...]
There are link ads at the bottom of this very page - I don’t understand why everyone hates them. I, for one, hate them less that the google adsense ads which are much more in your face and irritating.
The link ads adversely affect google’s business. The kinks in a search engine(which is a for-profit giant) are not a problem we should solve - it is a problem the search engine should solve. Let us leave it at that. I don’t see why everyone’s got their panties in a bunch over someone else’s business. If Google is any good, they will improve to where they don’t count these link ads, and then there won’t be many folks to buy link ads - problem solved.
This reminds me of the “no-follow” debacle, which fixed nothing, expect google’s own problem. As end users of blogs, and readers of blogs, we still have to wade through spam and fight it.
Let’s try and stop pushing Google’s envelope, shall we?
Thanks for the helpful tips, I think I have found the answer why my site fluctuated in Google for half year, most probably Google has started to not trust my site due to some backlinks.
[...] propio Mullenweg explica los motivos de su propuesta en un artÃculo en Weblog Tools Collection, en el que también invita a la gente a participar en la [...]
Sponosored or otherwise, I hope themes available for download on Wordpress.org are labeled appropriately. Folks downloading themes will, then, know exactly what they are getting. Unfortunately, Wordpress.org can’t do much about themes distributed on other sites except, perhaps, having some kind of a warning to alert visitors (to Wordpress.org) to be aware of “sponsored” themes.
Thanks, Matt, for your thoughts.
Alan you have a 4 year old domain in a very competitive niche that has hardly any links going to it, and very little content that people will be inclined to link to, especially quality link from high ranking sites in your niche.
It just looks like a MFA site with absolutely no personality.
Matt, the article I linked to is by the general counsel of the OSI. It appears that lawyers disagree about this. It probably needs a court ruling to settle it, and it is the sort of thing that could easily lead to different rulings in different countries (because it depends on the definition of derivative work in the law, which will vary).
The wording FSFs FAQ on this subject also suggests there is doubt, and admits there are grey areas.
I also hope that this interpretation is wrong, because it also makes plugins for proprietary software derivative works of it (to say nothing of software that calls proprietary libraries). If merely calling functions creates a derivative work then sure that means that spreadsheets are derivative works of the spreadsheet software….
[...] Matt Mullenweg himself acknowledge our post on the hidden evils of the Sponsored Link Theme in his Sponsored Themes Essay posted at WebLogToolsCollection.com. Digg ThisPowered by Gregarious [...]
[...] Source: http://weblogtoolscollection.c.....ed-themes/ I’ve seen some designers claim if we discourage bundled advertising with themes we’re taking [...]
[...] emerging in the Wordpress community. You can read all about it at Matt’s place, and at Weblog Tools Collection. You can also vote on banning or keeping sponsored themes from Wordpress.org at WP Community [...]
Btw Matt, does removing sponsored themes from wordpress.org also constitute removing them from wordpress.net?
From what I see, almost all the sponsored themes are using wordpress.net for hosting, i.e. they pay no money to host their own work, but reap in the benefits for their design services.
Come on Ajay, cost of hosting isn’t a consequence, and the theme authors are linking through to Wordpress.net
Before the theme directory, a number of advertising sponsored sites provided a similar service, using their own bandwidth quite often, or drove the traffic directly to the theme authors.
[...] has really hit the head on the nail in this matter with these two articles: On Sponsored Themes and Plugin Authors Get No [...]
[...] Read the full essay on weblogtoolscollection. [...]
WordPress has long had a history of being a proving ground for new designers and coders, turning their experiences into a career in web design and programming. Some who started with WordPress are now employees of Automattic. Others have full time freelance work or have been hired by companies for their expertise learned within the WordPress community. I think of it as an internship and apprenticeship program.
For those who want to make money with their efforts, it turns them into businesses. A business must act like a business and be professional. Promote your own work and sell it for an appropriate fee. Embedded “hidden” or even blatant advertising links beyond a link back to you as the author is up to each person and reflective of the quality of business they run.
Should WordPress promote and offer such “professional” Themes and Plugins? If handled professionally, I’m sure that WordPress would be willing to set up a separate “store” for selling Plugins and Themes with some money going back to the foundation that keeps WordPress alive. No different than a museum or other non-profit selling products to support their services. That decision is not up to me, but merely a suggestion for the future worth considering.
Until then, I vote for keeping WordPress the proving ground for your skills and not including paid, sponsored, or ad filled Themes or Plugins in the official WordPress lists. Let the work you contribute to the WordPress Community be your business card that proves your reputation. Think of the Plugins and Themes you offer freely as your corporate “good will” gesture, which can return back many-fold.
[...] By the way, in case it isn’t clear from my previous post about hidden links and disclosure of paid links, I agree 100% with Matt Mullenweg’s post about sponsored themes in WordPress. [...]
If theme sponsorship is “wrong”, is it also wrong to gain links by building themes yourself? What about paying a theme designer to release themes under your own name?
[...] By the way, in case it isn’t clear from my previous post about hidden links and disclosure of paid links, I agree 100% with Matt Mullenweg’s post about sponsored themes in WordPress. [...]
The only link that should be embedded in a theme is the link to the site that created it. Period.
[...] Google wird auch in Zukunft versuchen versteckte Links zu finden und die Seite zu bestrafen. Ein ganz krasses Beispiel sind die versteckten Links in WP Themes. [...]
I am in 100% agreement with this .. I don’t mind sponsoring the designer, but not the designer’s sponsor. What’s the big deal? If the designer is getting lots of links back to him anyway, why can’t the designer just put their sponsor’s link on his/her own pages?
I ran into a template last fall that had a link in the footer, but it was encrypted and looking at the template I couldn’t figure how to identify where it was or even what to delete - then I figured out what to delete - the template. Now these links are not only quite visible and sometimes even ‘cute’ - it’s wrong, and I’ve voted 5 against. What - wordpress.org should advertise and promote these themes as well? Some designers got all the nerve imo! Remove their links!
[...] have the lion’s share of the search market. Even Matt Mullenweg is scared to piss off the Google borg: I’d be the last to recommend any of us should tailor what we do to please Google or any other [...]
So if someone spends $200 and has a nice theme designed and tries to make $300 off it by selling links they should be regarded as spammers? Ridiculous.
How about plugins? Do you have any comment from spammy plugins?
[...] I really don’t get why Matt Cutts or Matt Mullenweg have beef and are speaking out against sponsored themes. Sure if it was themes that were malicious [...]
Who profits from the ads on webtoolscollection.com? Does the money go back into Wordpress 100%?
Seems to me that if you are one of the few privileged bloggers to get into everyone’s dashboard, you’re taking advantage of Wordpress’ userbase to draw traffic.
Now I’m not saying this site isn’t useful, but that’s the point behind some of the sponsored professional themes. Who decides who makes money off of Wordpress?
If WP is going to remove sponsored themes, I would also like to see them remove sponsored blogs from the dashboard and implement a notification system that relies on an ad free blog.
Don’t climb halfway to the high ground.
[...] Matt Mullenweg has come out against advertiser supported themes for WordPress here. [...]
[...] By the way, in case it isn’t clear from my previous post about hidden links and disclosure of paid links, I agree 100% with Matt Mullenweg’s post about sponsored themes in WordPress. [...]
[...] ellátva (Sponsored by…) ingyenes sablonként terjesztik, Matt, Ãrásában hivatkozva Matt Mullenweg ezen publikációjára, teljes egyetértésének ad hangot. Hát kiváncsi leszek mi a Romow [...]
I can hear the YPN and Adwords departments cheering you on right now…
We lose, they benefit.
I can’t wait for the day when Search Engines provide > 25% of everyday traffic. With blogs, del.icio.us, digg and others this is slowly becoming a reality.
Search Engines don’t own the web or it’s resident business models.
[...] a free theme from the Wordpress theme viewer. Before downloading one, however … read this and this and understand that there are themes out there that serve no other purpose other than to promote [...]
[...] Check out the discussion on On Sponsored Themes Thank you for reading this post. You Can now Subscribe for similar posts You can also [...]
[...] [Entrada traducida. Original] [...]
[...] Cutts has been speaking out saying he agrees with Matt Mullenweg on Sponsored Themes. A company is paying a theme author as a subcontractor to create and maintain a Wordpress theme, [...]
[...] when I checked here on Weblog Tools Collection about sponsored themes, it says: …many of these themes try to legally disallow you from [...]
[...] those who my have missed it, Matt Mullenweg has posted an essay on Weblog Tools Collection discussing the merits of sponsored themes. There is also a WordPress Idea about the [...]
Wonderfull post, I must admit I didn’t really understand the Sponsored Themes before reading this post
[...] Matt Cutts agree 100% with sponsored themes in WordPress are bad. [...]
I agree that it is unethical to include links in themes… but how about THIS site, and the DASHBOARD SPAM that EVERY Wordpress user gets from this site weblogtoolscollection? It is extremely unethical because it’s bundled in the code, and this site is not a non-for-profit, as it is chock full of Google Ads. You are doing the same and worse, you spam in the very Dashboard of Wordpress! Do you kick some money back to WP?
Also, how about the time (widely reported) when Matt the creator of WP was caught hiding keywords in the “flagship” site Wordpress.org? How about that?
So I agree spammy links are a very bad idea, but that includes this site, and Matt’s infamous hidden keyword stuffing debacle.
[...] fulgte Cutts opp med en artikkel som lenker til Weblog Tools Collection og deres artikkel om sponsede lenker i themes. Dette handler om annonsører som plasserer en lenke i for eksempel et WordPress-tema ved å betale [...]
[...] a series of articles covering such link-building techniques as hidden links, sponsored links in WordPress themes and paid links he’s finalized with the post describing the way to report these links to Google: - [...]