If designers stop and think for a moment about all the different ways they can ethically monetize their design efforts, loosing the ability to release sponsored themes at major venues is only a minor set back. IMHO, by pressuring designers to not include sponsored links it will actually help their image and add to their credibility as they release themes that are fully compatible with the GPL (i.e.: no encrypted PHP strings that end users cannot edit).

I know all to well what it is like to face criticism in the face of doing what is right. My hat is off to you and you have my full support.

People out there writing software with hidden links…. shame! There is nothing smart or intellegent about deceiving unsuspecting people. There is no honor in what you do.

Power to free (and honest) speech.

I’m pretty sure sponsored themes won’t stop though and it may be best to suggest to those who have convinced themselves that it actually is a good idea to go find or develop their own channels online instead of taking an elitist stand on the issue. There’s plenty of room for us all.

If someone wants to put a link back to their site within a theme, thats perfectly ok with me. But putting sponsors on a theme that I use without the ability to remove them is just plain stoopid.

I am usually more than happy to donate to someone who creates a product and puts it out there for all of us to use. I have spent money on plugins, themes and other packages because they are good quality products. If you try to force something on me, more than likely I will re-create a similar product and put it out there beside yours with NO forced sponsorship links or anything else. And I will advertise it as such.

So Matt, Mark et al… thank you.

Credit should be given where it is due. I think that it is an issue for both sides, a problem that comes from both users and developers. I personally think that the happy medium would be if the only link backs were put into the theme header (like most themes have) and to leave it out of all other places in the theme/plugin. This would still give the credit of the theme/plugin author and give the end-user control over link-backs and ads, etc.

why people delete credit links others set hidden links = both is unethical

to delete credit links is unethical as set hidden affily links..

but “nobody” is writing articles about the unethical of delete credit links..

this is an imbalance in most of this articles -

regards
Monika

What some people don’t realize is that you are providing free listings here. Make that free bold. If they want to make some business out of themes go find some distribuition platform that allows them to do so or pay google or someone to publicize them.

I don’t know the details that were taken into consideration when they made this decision, but I would think that it was a hard one to make. There are some themes where the only “sponsored” part would be a link in the footer. There are also those who put it all over the place, not to mention those that have adsense and the like put in there. To me there is a huge difference between the two, but I could also see how it would just be easier and less of a hassle to say no “sponsored” themes/plugins across the board. These guys would have to look at each of them individually, etc. Sometimes you just have to bite the bullet and generalize a little in order to avoid singling out people on a defined scale. You can see how all this has been taken on the general scale it is on now, just imagine how it woudl be if they said that some sponsored themes/plugins are allowed, but not those who do or have this or that, etc. Does that make sense? I may be reading into all this incorrectly, but thats what I get from it all.

No reply.

On March 2nd 2007, we requested Matt Mullenweg to investigate into the same issue.

http://i71.photobucket.com/alb.....gemail.gif

No reply.

On the same day, I contacted a friend from Technorati to help us, and he suggested we pitch the scam story around to some high-profile blogs in the technology, software field with a big bunch of audience. So I contacted you (Mark Ghosh) at that time and I am most thankful to you for your prompt responses and willingness to help us always, unlike Michael Hancock, (the WordPress.org moderator who showed absolutely no interest in the report of copyrights violation provided to him).

On 18th March, we contacted the Undersigned once again and as everyone knows, the rating system was out immediately.

http://s71.photobucket.com/alb.....mail-1.gif

As if downrating and theme ripoffs was not enough for us to go through, one fine day, you labeled all sponsored designers as “unethical”. Had you written that on http://www.mindfulmusings.net, I wouldn’t care, I would have taken it as normative and I would be fine with it. But I think you have a bigger responsibility when you write on WLTC and I was taken aback to see how someone of your stature made a generalized statement, followed by Matt. “Unethical” is a big word. Can’t you see the efforts we have consistently put in building good themes for the past one year? When we were at the receiving end of the stick, no one helped us; instead of punishing those who wronged us, the rating system got removed. We have worked hard with a high level of dedication, and we have real users’ real testimonials on our sites which speak about our service, we don’t need any rating system to prove our worth. Our honesty is our pride and we do not want anyone to insult our intelligence. If you have an opinion, so do we.

As far as favoritism is concerned, the fact that you discriminate between themes based on footer links and not based on the design is favoritism in itself, (in my opinion), you may think otherwise. Inspite of knowing about 32 links in Jez’s themes, inspite of knowing about his aliases, you listed his theme recently on top of your blog without mentioning “Contains 32 links”. When I see such discrimination, I lose faith in the system and those who run it.

I want to thank you for taking back the generalization in this blog, it does mean a lot to us.

I think you may have misunderstood me… What I meant was that people should leave the credit/backlinks that are in the theme’s header sections, etc. If someone changes a theme dramatically and removes that info, then they should at least give credit. What I think most people don’t like, myself included, is having links or ads all over the site that weren’t directly added by the site’s owner, etc. For me, if I am going to post an ad or link then it is going to be because I want to. When you post a link or ad like that you are basically endorsing that site, product, service, etc. I hope that makes more sense…

Thanks,
Kahil

….is about are two separate things, though they are similar.

WP Theme Blank:(texto . de) > 20K downloads ~ 107 Backlinks!
thats the reality.

You wouldn’t promote plugins or themes with sponsore links or publisher code if hidden or not - I think this absolutly correct.
You must not make an excuse for the wp community for your arbitration (?)to do this.

If I read this article it sounds like: please understand me, don’t be angry with me.

To take firm stand is always the better way.

I hope you would like to promote themes without “creative html” and creative css hacks…
this is one of my daydreams if I read all the “help me” threads at our wp support forum.

have a nice day
regards
Monika