Have you read the <a href="http://codex.wordpress.org/Theme_Review#Credit_links">Theme Review guidelines regarding credit links</a>?<div><br></div><div>As for the reasoning: this is an area that we have all agreed that we must make the guideline as objective and "bright-line" as possible, so as to ensure fairness to everyone. The question of degree of "SEO-spamminess" of any given link is clearly subjective. If we leave too much gray area in this regard, then we increase the likelihood of getting false-positive (rejecting a non-spammy link) or false-negative (allowing a spammy link) review comments. So, to make it easier and as fair as possible on everyone involved, we have established intentionally strict guidelines for credit links.</div>
<div><br></div><div>That said: you really should read the link above. It answers your questions in more ways than you might otherwise expect.</div><div><br></div><div>Chip<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Wed, Nov 10, 2010 at 12:40 AM, Syahir Hakim <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:khairulsyahir@gmail.com">khairulsyahir@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
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<font size="-1"><font face="Arial">I've a query regarding the
current rule that a theme may only have 1 credit link. What if I
have a theme that is designed (voluntarily for free) by a web
design studio, which then pass it to me to develop it into a
full-fledged Wordpress theme. In this case, wouldn't it be
justified to include 2 credit links, one for the design and
another for the development? It would be something like "Theme
Foo is designed by Bar and developed by Foobar", with Bar being
a link to the design studio who designed the theme for free and
Foobar a link to the developer. And by extension, why can't Foo
be a link to the theme's page.<br>
<br>
I find the requirement that there can only be 1 credit link a
bit restrictive, since after all the link to the theme's page is
not necessarily a credit link - it doesn't give credit to
anybody, but just point the theme's user to where to get support
and description and stuffs. I think in an environment where
people come together and volunteer to do things for a community,
the least we can do to reward them is to allow their work to be
credited to them. In the example I gave above, it's not
difficult to think that the design studio who designed the theme
for free would insist on the design of the theme be credited to
them. Getting a professional design studio (or designer) to
design a website for free is difficult enough. Getting them to
do it without any credit to them whatsoever would be nearly
impossible.<br>
<br>
Having said that, of course I disapprove of links that are
blatantly for SEO purposes. But what I'm talking about above is
just plain good 'ol give credit where credit is due, especially
for high-quality themes where countless hours of development
efforts have been poured into.<br>
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<pre cols="72">--
Regards,
Syahir Hakim
Contact:
<a href="http://www.khairul-syahir.com" target="_blank">http://www.khairul-syahir.com</a>
+64(21) 0333 649</pre>
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