About Wordpress Theme Sponsorship

Interesting Discussions about Sponsored Themes

http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2007/04/12/on-sponsored-themes/
http://www.headsetoptions.org/2007/...ew-–-a-designers-opinion-on-sponsored-themes/
http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=553


The “sponsored themes” trend will decline?

 

This is open to voting, so please, if you want Wordpress sponsored links to continue, than vote 1 star here: http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=553

Voting there will have an effect, so please help save theme sponsorship. Many of the best themes out there are made and released free of charge thanks to sponsorship! Vote 1 star!

 

without sponsers, no one will publish good themes for free.
it's a bad idea.
I voted 1 star.

 

We're losing the vote!

As the poll stands right now SPONSORED THEMES WILL NO LONGER BE ALLOWED ON ANY OFFICIAL WORDPRESS SITE!

If you want to stop that from happening, PLEASE take the time to vote 1 STAR and save sponsored themes! VOTE HERE: http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=553 (Click on 1 star to vote, you will need to be logged in)

 

Thought that was pretty funny that they singled him out

 

I didn't see the comment which Col made , so I wouldn't comment on why he was singled out.

But how is his blog offer related to WP theme sponsorship ? Manipulation of SE's?

 

They are talking about CheapSEOServices (link)

 

as for me. i have no objection on wp theme sponsorship..
basically the whole concept was bring up when one user love the theme they
saw but hate the sponsorship and wanted to put their own link..since the cc rules didn't allowed them to do that so they choose to protest to gain free theme without any link that was not from him/herself.

well so to speak..that's just my personal opinion.

couple of theme developer were shout out and they were pissed with some themers demand their own personal theme without any backlink.....the question should asked is if they want a personal no link themes..should they consider ordering a custom theme for their site rather than pissied off couple of our dedicated theme designer....

in any case if wp decided to banned to sponsorship links then i guess there'll be less variety of theme will be uploaded by users and more free no sponsorship link for the one causing this havoc..lol

putting my 1 precious vote in the box....

 

One of the points I cannot understand is how they say that theme sponsorship is against the ethos of WP.

I have seen it levied in an argument elsewhere that designers who use sponsorship as a form of payment for releasing FREE to use blog themes out to the wider community are somehow exploiting the free use of wordpress.

The part of this argument that I do not understand is HOW can including sponsorship links on a theme be exploiting the free use of Wordpress and being paid to design a unique theme for an individual or company to use exclusively not be when it uses the same coding?

Surely designing a theme for open and free use (all be it sponsored by others) is less exploitative of wordpress than being paid to create an exclusive template for use on the wp system. What benefit does wp gain from this exclusive design? None I would say.

I have even seen pro bloggers post about and encouraging WP's point of view with adverts for linkads on their site

Is this a case of all bloggers are equal just some bloggers are more equal than others?

 

What is considered sponsored though? If I create my own theme and put one of my links on the bottom - is that no longer allowed? I would have no desire to create one then. And if that's still allowed, how do they know whether I put my own site there or a sponsored one?

-Matt

 

They don't. And you can also rule out linking to each designer when 2 or more designers work together on a theme.

 

Lots of people download the themes and edit them out anyway...

 

From the voting, it looks like sponsored themes are going to be banned. Please vote against the idea here: http://wordpress.org/extend/ideas/topic.php?id=553

Vote 1 star!

 

I voted 1 star yesterday. Themes will loose a lot of quality without sponsor links.

 

I voted a 1 because i sponsored some theme. However,

It is true that some Noobs doesn't know how to change the link (or knowing the link existed) so they are linking to bad site (Porn gamble whatever)

Also, more and more low quality theme (similar to other) being submit cause it is profitable (It is around $100 per link now)

many of the best theme are without sponsors, they don't do it for money

They hate spam blog i guess

 

Or maybe the increased number of quality themes available as a result of the sponsorship of templates has negatively impacted on the number of downloads the already established themes are now receiving and so steps have to be taken to halt this trend.

 

Yeah...It was real clever of him to comment about my comment without showing anyone what my comment was. He said it was a personal attack. It wasn't in no way personal. I went in to bat for the designers of WP Themes, that's all. Saying it is a bad idea to cut them out of making some money.

Ahkip,

Are you stating my blog/s are spam? I certainly hope not!

Col

 

I voted for yes... I don't like when my competition uses these kind of tactics...

 

Who is making multiple accounts there & spamming the %'s that's really bad form and whoever you are you should realized that.

They are talking about the members here though, as there has been a link back to this thread submitted (bottom of page 6 I think).

LOL, fantastic reasoning... if it were up to people like you there would be no advertising. What happens when your vote wins? Then what happens when your competition votes against whatever ad campaign you use and wins...and so on and so on...

As I rely on word of mouth to get the word out about my site I've recently started a petition to ban url submissions to Google. I also support the nofollow on WIKI and pray each night before I go to bed that DMOZ gets shut down.