Sponsored WordPress themes are lame because they are a bad user experience. End of discussion.
Sponsored themes include ads embedded in them, most often the license telling you the ads can’t be removed.
Sponsored themes are a bad experience in two important ways:
- A sponsored link that I will click thinking it relates to the site, or the software or the design of the site.
- Influences search engines to give more weight to the sponsoring site without relevance, meaning worse results when I use search engines.
i’ve seen better arguments against sponsored themes. by that argument, designer links, “powered by” software links, and developer links are also given weight without relevance.
i wouldn’t comment if ‘end of discussion’ was at the end of the post. it’s also disingenuous to leave the comment form open after said comment.
i think theme “sponsorship” has lead to some undesirable, albeit predictable ends.
i’ve tried to stay out of “tending other people’s gardens”, but this post is just as guilty of that, so i’m butting in here. it’s matt’s call to say that the themes aren’t welcome on the theme viewer. it’s mark’s call to say that they’re not welcome on WLTC. posts like this are purely directed at other people’s gardens.
Adam, I don’t think there is a better argument than experience. It is a shame when money financial goals contribute to a bad experience.
The software and design is relevant to me, maybe not enough weight to many people.
Much of it predates any financial influences, and I often consider it part of the experience — the grass roots work done with no benefits in site.
Don’t take “end of discussion” so seriously
I completely agree that theme “sponsorship†has lead to some undesirable, albeit predictable ends — there is nothing wrong with making a living.
What lead me to write this post actually was nothing to do with those gardens, though I celebrate those leaders and their communities’ decisions in these matters.
I was reading a brilliant open source developers blog, enjoyed the theme, and clicked the link to what I had hoped would be more information about the theme.
Instead I ended up at an online flower shop a little annoyed with the blog author. Like PayPerPost, text link ads, and Kontera, sponsored themes are a bad experience.
I am sure there is a way to do sponsored themes with class, just like any form of advertising, but I haven’t seen it.
experience is powerful, it’s one of the 3 reasons anyone believes anything (along with authority and reason), but the importance of your experience to anyone else depends on its ability to be reproduced.
i can’t imagine expecting to find a relevant link in the footer. unless the blog is entirely custom, i would expect to see a link to a license (unless the author can afford a lawyer), a link to the software that powers it (unless the author can afford a developer, or a license that allows them to remove the link), a link to a designer (unless they can a afford a custom design), and maybe a link to a sitemap.
there’s a good reason google ignores the footer when it can.
speaking of predictable ends, i have a hard time imagining forcing themes to be GPL (on the theme viewer) will do anything but lead sponsored link designers to start ceding copyright to sponsors (since the GPL protects copyright in stronger language than CC licenses do, something that’s been ignored in this whole debate), rather than just adding links to sponsors.
you’re right, i’ve seen very few tasteful sponsored links. the first few themes blatantly stated that the links were sponsored. that was nice. as always, i’m a fan of disclosure, both to the theme user, and the blog reader.
Adam, can’t imagine?
I respond to hundreds of emails each month sent to “report a site bug” “for WordPress.org the website problems, not WordPress the software that you download support, nor WordPress.com service support.” each month related to support requests for WordPress the software and complaints about sites powered by WordPress.
Imagine it. Imagine how many more read what that page says and explore alternate solutions.
I actually encourage people to explore headers, footers, sidebars, navigation, and about pages to better understand who’s content they are experiencing and the context of the conversation. Like you said, disclosure.
hmmm, i had forgotten that some people do that. i suppose i am not everyone.
Well, when I first installed Wordpress (well before 1.0) I was turned off by the pre-filled blogroll. That seemed a little like SEOing to me.
Ian, many people express similar sentiments, and it is a valid complaint.
I am comfortable with it, because it really does predate the success of WordPress, and even that model of search engine manipulation being exploited. I imagine it was very relevant to participants in the early days.
Regardless, Matt has numerous times made it clear that he has no intention of removing or updating it (at least for now), although many regularly participants are either indifferent or passionate about having it removed or updated to be the most useful links related to WordPress.
Again, I like that it is real people that made WordPress.
I like that WordPress isn’t built by consensus, that it is opinionated software, built towards a vision. That lends itself to consistency, and is a big part of the experience of WordPress for me.
Having said that, there are so many ways to contribute without worrying about the color of the “blogroll” bikeshed. Matt, myself and others often post to the mailing lists requesting help with interesting problems, but they mostly go unanswered. (If anyone is looking to participate, of course, feel free to contact me directly.)
Lloyd, I had no idea the default links were still in there. I’d assumed Matt had learned from his mistakes (like his ill-fated secret advertising on wordpress.com debacle).
When it comes down to it I don’t think it really matters. I don’t think it’s worse or better than putting a default link in a template, and its obviously far better than requiring that link to remain in a template’s license.
Free Software by consensus never works. That’s never been a model put forward by real participants in the movement. All of our success stories have been when one or two individuals have an idea and run with it. After all, who needs consensus when you can just fork?
Ian
PS: forking is good.
Ian, not sure why you continue to be so focus on that event. Do you disagree with my response last time? Do you continue to measure a person always on the same events? Matt has shown his colors over and over again not be green. He made a mistake and owned up to it.
Forking is good, but not as good as merging.
I think that event was a great example of someone making a mistake and learning from it. It’s just my best (or only?) “Wordpress is evil” example
I’m not sure I believe in merging. I’ve never seen it actually happen. I’ve seen many announcements of “projects merging” but I’ve never seen anything come of it. Often it kills both projects. I love to see competing open source projects stealing ideas (and even code) from each other while each maintaining a unique philosophy, approach or user-base.
Do you have an example of a successful merge? I might just be blanking on it.
Ian
the classic example is egcs – gcc2
I can give you plenty of examples of WordPress is evil
Adam can too; he “hangs out” with the WordPress critics including wank.
Merges of products? Not no such. When I think of merges I think of re-used GPL’d code. Merges between different products, distributions or upstreaming, all the time!
I share my thoughts on forking, merging and the GPL in my recent post GPL Encourages Collaboration
Lloyd,
For users yes, I totally agree with you.
For Sponsors, it can be a good way to build link backs…
Thanks
I guess that if you don’t want to get a free blog theme with a sponsored link on it you can always pay a programmer to make one for you. It is a tradeoff, you get a free theme and you give a backlink. The alternative it to make one yourself or pay a designer to build a custom one.
well sponsored ads can earn some money for the designer and i totally agree that those links really sux. Even the wordpress has some preinstalled links on the blogroll.
sponsors pay a huge amount of money to get a link on the template as it increases the backlink for their site be it from irrelevant blogs.