Sponsored themes are themes with bundled and embedded advertising in the theme that the theme author got paid for, often aimed at gaming search engine rankings. It is confusing users.
It's perfectly within people's rights to do this, but we should discourage WordPress.org resources to be used for these types of adware themes.
I explain these points in more detail in this essay, and I'd encourage you to read it before voting.
and, unless i'm missing something, shouldn't the status be set to "implemented"?
Prominently labeling sponsored themes as such would be appropriate, but I don't think excluding them altogether is fair.
sponsored themes Idea, definitely gives developer a better interest in making good themes for people to use. The theme viewer is an open place, and there are thousands of unsponsored themes out there as well, let the people decide wether they want to use sponsored theme or not.
Give me one good reason Why people should not be allowed to do that?
I agree with marky, excluding sponsoring themes from WordPress.org is not good way
On Default installation WordPress.org we got some sponsoring blogroll too, such as:
* Alex
* Donncha
* Dougal
* Matt
* Michel
* Mike
* Ryan
We don't have any configuration, how to disable this blogroll list on installation ^_*
So, keep sponsoring themes on WordPress.org is good. :)
I have made my case on my site, we are not in the fly-by-night theming for profit business, we actually provide a service, if y’all have any doubt, check the thousands of WP support questions we have answered on my site!
I just deleted a comment with a personal attack and one from "CheapSEOServices" (I wish I was kidding). On his site he advertises "US$100 = We write the article and submit to 200 blogs. (68 ip's)" He voted this idea down.
ektz, we're not saying what people can use or not, they can do whatever they want, we're just choosing what we want to promote here on WordPress.org.
fitriarich, no one paid to be on the blogroll. People pay to embed ads in themes. You can also edit them through the interface without editing any files.
I am in favour of banning sponsored themes for all the reasons you stated in your article, Matt. Wordpress IS free and anyone making financial gain from your work is cheating, somehow.
I came up against a similar argument (and lost) which was almost the reverse of the current situation, when I was making themes for an app which shall remain nameless (its pretty much fallen into disuse anyway by most people)... many of us spent long hours beavering away at our themes which we released for free, and then the creator of the app bundled them with it as a selling point - without the themes, the app had no pizazz. Was he right to do this? I don't think so. And likewise I don't think anyone should be making money by stealth in the way described.
To the individual who objected to the default blogroll... why on earth should the people who created and who have put soo much into Wordpress NOT be permitted to have their links there? geez!! Delete them if they don't fit your site... but don't complain about that, for heavens sake.
Do you really think removing sponsored themes will benefit bloggers? This is not a sensible idea at all. Sponsored themes are generally much better quality themes as designers are motivated to deliver such quality to solicit sponsorship. Bloggers have every right to choose whether to use such sponsored themes. Let them decide! instead of you deciding what's better for them (obviously a wrong decision)
I say they can get those themes anywhere, let the creators host their own themes. If people want to have them (if they are good enough), they can, but why should Matt and co host them, pay for the space, and let others make money off of them, which is effectively what they are doing.
I dont think Matt is saying there can't be sponsored themes, just that they shouldnt be on wordpress.org. And I agree with him.
[edit] Additionally, the non-sponsored themes are also very good, so lets not get carried away with thinking just because there's money involved, that somehow they are better or more worthy. They aren't.
xmodulo, I find the suggestion that ad-bundled themes are somehow better very insulting to the many designers who have put tons of time and effort into themes without sneaky SEO ads, and to the developers of WordPress who have done the same.
Finally, we're not banning sponsored themes and people can still make them and distribute them --- even sell them! I just would rather it not be in our collective backyard here. They're welcome to do it on their own site, or if their themes are really that much better create a site with nothing but sponsored themes.
[edit] Looks like kyte and I said almost the same thing.
GTMA and all that stuff. I'm very sensitive about themes and making money, even though in this case its the reverse of my previous situation.
I'm very much against people being taken advantage of, just because they don't know better. New blog owners won't know to remove those links, and almost certainly wouldn't insert those links by themselves.
I have no problem giving credit to authors, but this isn't fair.
I believe they should only be permitted with a) full disclosure b) the option to remove them.
Themes that do not disclose their sponsorship and tell users how to disable the sponsorship link shouldn't be allowed on here.
A warning would be fair, but as has been said, many people won't know what to do about a sponsored theme. So an outright ban strikes me as fairer still. The theme authors will still be free to place them elsewhere for download.
This is pretty silly.
First, remove all the self-serving, Google-juicing default links from built-in themes. Until then, this proposal can't be taken seriously.
I don't understand how someone who's presumably going to rake in millions from WordPress.com (on the backs of others, mostly) would waste time on proposals that attempt to penalize theme authors.
it was so clear that hso was voting this down, don't be silly. sponsored themes are simply taking the piss. there are so many other ways to make money than by selling backlinks. problogger tells you how. my vote for removing sponsored themes (nothing by the author's link).
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This idea's been implemented!
