[theme-reviewers] Lite Themes

Thu Oct 2 10:56:16 UTC 2014

> But: If names are not policed anymore, than it's hard to prevent that, isn't it? 
> Basically when I release a theme with "Theme Name", everyone can release "Theme Name Lite" afterwards with the same result… 

Yep, not only „Theme Name Lite“, but also „Theme Name Better“, „Theme Name Smart“, „Theme Name Blue“, „Theme Name Green“, „Theme Name Fantastic“, „Theme Name Optimized“, „Theme Name Perfect“, etc….

Now imagine you have created a wonderful theme which gets good reviews, people writing blog posts about it, etc…and you are getting quite successful with it and are building a business around it. And it seems this is exactly what you are doing with ThemeZee. Now for some reason several other themes with similar names (slightly different) will be released and in the end users aren’t really aware anymore what the „original“ theme is. Or even think of the effects when it comes to Google searches, and suddenly a theme with „Theme Name XYZ“ ranks above you for some reason and the users who have read good things about your work and want to grab your theme are misleaded by all those different versions. 

Things like that will cost you downloads and in the end also sales. I don’t think that names are unimportant and I also think that building a brand is essential when you want to run a successful business. But that is the decision everyone can make on his own, it should not be affected by guidelines on .org. When we really want to have this freedom regarding names, then it probably won’t take long until we see „Twenty Fourteen Awesome“ or similar rip offs.

Only think about how often the Avada theme on ThemeForest has been „copied" so far. What if ThemeForest would allow names like „Avada great“, „Avada cool“, Avada simple“…. This would destroy the whole ecosystem and in the end it would make things very complicated. Wouldn’t it be better to keep things simple? Regulation in some form is good, but stupid regulation will only cause trouble. I don’t think it’s a good approach to not police names, at least when it comes to obvious rip offs. But in the end it’s a general decision and we all have to live with it, and with the consequences.

Am 02.10.2014 um 12:24 schrieb Thomas from ThemeZee <contact at themezee.com>:

> I was actually not really concerned about theme brands and protecting them. I'm perfectly fine with "Apple Sweet", "Apple Blue" etc.. I have also moved away from naming my themes "zeeName" for my newer themes, because despite the fact these were branded names it also were ugly names and I do not longer think that names are so important. In case anyone wants to release a (child) theme named "zeeDynamic Blue", feel free to go :)
> 
> However, I honestly do not fully understand the name policy anymore. There were several changes and I am confused. So now everything is allowed except theme related words in the name (e.g. Theme, Blog, etc) ?
> 
> I thought that releasing "Theme Name" is not allowed when "Theme Name Lite" is already used, because of the simple reason that it would certainly cause user confusion. And I would like to avoid getting a lot of emails from confused users ;) The "Lite" in the name just implies that it is a downgraded version, and not a entirely different theme.
> 
> But: If names are not policed anymore, than it's hard to prevent that, isn't it? 
> Basically when I release a theme with "Theme Name", everyone can release "Theme Name Lite" afterwards with the same result... 
> 
> 
> 
> 2014-10-02 11:24 GMT+02:00 Michael Hebenstreit <michael at mhthemes.com>:
> Or when the shop is called „GS Themes“, then a theme name „GS Fantastic“ is prohibited?
> 
> 
> Am 02.10.2014 um 11:21 schrieb Michael Hebenstreit <michael at mhthemes.com>:
> 
>> Hi Ulrich,
>> 
>> sorry - not sure if I fully understand what you mean. The guideline says:
>> 
>> "Themes are not to use related Theme names (e.g. WP Theme Name, Theme Name WP, The Theme Name, etc.) in their name.“
>> 
>> So when your theme shop is called „Great Shop“ and you release a theme „Fantastic“, then you may not name it „GS Fantastic“?
>> 
>> The guideline also says:
>> 
>> Themes may use the WP acronym in the Theme name, such as WP AwesomeSauce.
>> 
>> So „WP Fantastic“ would be fine? But „GS Fantastic“ is not allowed?
>> 
>> Thanks,
>> Michael
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> Am 02.10.2014 um 11:00 schrieb Ulrich Pogson <grapplerulrich at gmail.com>:
>> 
>>> @Emil - Your note is directed to theme authors and not theme reviewers. I don't think the mailing list is best place for this note. A better place would be the guidelines or a blog post.
>>> 
>>> This note is not consistent with the theme review name guidelines.
>>> >"Themes are not to use related Theme names (e.g. WP Theme Name, Theme Name WP, The Theme Name, etc.) in their name."
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 2 October 2014 10:39, Michael Hebenstreit <michael at mhthemes.com> wrote:
>>> Emil, actually, when I first read your email this morning I really couldn’t believe it. I thought I still am dreaming and it’s only a nightmare. :-)
>>> 
>>> But I thought let’s see what the reactions are on this because I thought maybe I just don’t get it and it’s a misunderstanding. But now that I read that Thomas has the same thoughts, I’ll also want to give my 2 cents.
>>> 
>>> Are you sure that no longer police theme names at all is a good approach for the theme directory? Because I’m not sure on this and there is a pretty good change that this becomes quite a spammy battle. In the end a lot of us are running a business and we all have to pay our bills. Developers on WordPress.org provide free themes for users, many of those free themes have even premium character and did cost countless hours of development time. But we’re still have to pay our bills and it doesn’t mean that everything is for free. So there must be a fair way to monetize our efforts. 
>>> 
>>> In the end there is also competition, but as on the free market, there have to be some rules to keep it a fair game. I’m also not a fan of policing everything and the rules and guidelines on .org are getting quite heavy…sometimes it’s a bit too much in my opinion (no offense). But when it comes to naming policy, there suddenly seem to be no rules at all, which I actually don’t understand. Especially not because it’s a very important thing to protect your brand and products. I’m fine with not policing names at all, as long as there are no collisions that have the goal to harm developers. We’ve seen a lot of rip offs recently from developers who are just copying themes to have a few minutes of fame (until their themes get removed…) and there is a pretty good chance that we are getting similar issues with names, especially when successful themes are getting ripped by those guys who have no creativity and honor at all.
>>> 
>>> For example if a developer chooses a generic name, he must be aware that also other people could us it. For example if he chooses „Apple“ then I think it’s fine when someone else uses „Apple sweet“, „Apple blue“, Apple green“, etc… That's the disadvantage of a generic name and you can’t really protect it. Developers must be aware that choosing generic names might not be a good idea, especially when it comes to issues regarding naming policies. A generic word usually can’t be a brand. Ok, I see, my example with Apple was a bit stupid! :-D But I think you get what I mean.
>>> 
>>> But I think it’s something else when a brand is involved. For example Thomas has a theme called „zeeDynamic“ as „ThemeZee“ is his brand. I don’t think it should be allowed to upload a theme „zeeDynamic better“ for example. This just would be ridiculous. It’s the same with other brands. If your brand is „AB“, and you release a theme „AB Wonderful“, than it should not be allowed to release „AB Wonderful with stars and strips“ or similar. Just „Wonderful“ would be fine in my opinion (if „Wonderful“ itself isn’t related to the developer / theme shop), but developers should not be allowed to use the brand of other people to push their own stuff.
>>> 
>>> Imagine you release a theme called „Emil News“ which is very successful and then someone else releases a theme called „Emil News Theme“. Wouldn’t you want to have a serious conversation with this guy? His name is probably not „Emil“, but just „Idiot“. He uses your name to push his theme, this shouldn’t be allowed, at least when it comes to names of theme shops or brands. 
>>> 
>>> As you see, this is much more complicated than just saying „names are not policed at all“ and we might want to discuss this further as this is unacceptable from a business point of view.
>>> 
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Michael
>>> 
>>> Am 02.10.2014 um 10:03 schrieb Thomas from ThemeZee <contact at themezee.com>:
>>> 
>>>> Well, it was perfectly fine for theme developers to name their themes with "Lite" or "Pro", because nobody could take the name with the old guidelines.
>>>> Now names are no longer policed, but a lot of developers have named all their free themes "Theme Name Lite" and it will be confusing to change that for existing users.
>>>> 
>>>> And what is about the other way around? Some developer releases "Theme Name" and after that another developer comes up with "Theme Name Lite". Allowed or not? It has basically the same result that there are two different themes with nearly the same name. When names are no longer policed in any way we will soon have a lot of different themes with similiar names.
>>>> 
>>>> And my final question: Can I release a dummy theme "Theme Name" in addition to "Theme Name Lite", which I'll unapprove right away? Basically can I block theme names? Since names are no longer policed it seems the only way to prevent the case you have mentioned.
>>>> 
>>>> 2014-10-02 3:56 GMT+02:00 Sakin Shrestha <info at sakinshrestha.com>:
>>>> Yes, really hard to understand it. This type of naming will simply undesirable. Especially lite, pro of already approved theme. Can we discuss about this in coming theme review meeting and have a fixed review rule for names.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 7:37 AM, Srikanth Koneru <tskk79 at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> Hard to keep up with TRT policies, so if someone submits destro pro/lite/uno/prime/donkey, it will be allowed since names are not policed ?
>>>> 
>>>> On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 7:14 AM, Edward Caissie <edward.caissie at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 8:10 PM, Emil Uzelac <emil at uzelac.me> wrote:
>>>> If you submit a theme called "Theme Name Lite" you are leaving the door open for anyone else to submit a different theme under "Theme Name" only. 
>>>> 
>>>> This is true of any theme name using more than one "word" ... see my example of "Opus Primus" and someone submitting "Opus" months later.
>>>> 
>>>> 
>>>> Edward Caissie
>>>> aka Cais.
>>>> 
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