I believe credit link is just a credit to the theme author. We should go too far on the policy. For example, one of my user contact me today for support. I checked their website. I realized that both credit links for WordPress and my theme are replaced with a computer dealer. I have no problem removing credit link. If the users ask, I will let give them instruction to remove it.<br>
<br>As I said, credit link is just a credit to theme author.<br><br clear="all"><div>Stephen</div>
<br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Mon, Feb 18, 2013 at 9:31 PM, Bryan Hadaway <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bhadaway@gmail.com" target="_blank">bhadaway@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div class="im"><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)">"<i>The theme has more than a dozen options and there is no option for the
user to change/remove the Cyberchimp logo at the footer correctly
without knowing code. If the user who does not know any better deletes <br></i></span><pre><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)"><i><?php do_action('cyberchimps_footer'</i></span><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)"><i>); ?> <br>
</i></span></pre><span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)"><i>in
footer.php, it will delete the logo of Cyberchimps as well as delete
the block where the user can configure copyright information.<br><br>While welcoming to theme designers/developers, isn't the theme review team there to protect/help the users as well?<br>
<br><br>Mercime</i>"</span><br><br></div>This whole thing is irrelevant. I would say 99% of all the free repo themes have a credit in them (which is an encouraged standard). I would say 99% of that 99% don't have any special feature that allows the user to turn off the footer credit no matter how many options they've packed in there. In fact, I don't know of any free themes that have this option and almost all require the user to manually hack the theme to remove a credit, this is pretty common.<br>
<br>In fact, most would argue that it's frowned upon that users would remove the footer credit (sometimes even replacing with their own) when they're getting a theme for free in the first place. I personal don't care free or premium, when a user/customer gets a theme from me, I encourage them to hack up the theme however they like regardless of the GPL (which gives them that protection/freedom in writing). That's just basic decency.<br>
<br>The only reason a lot of premium themes have an option to remove the credit in the first place is because it's a pretty obvious obligatory thing. If they're paying they should be able to white label the thing. That's the correct thinking. It's not that developers are trying to coax users to buy pro by hiding credit removal behind a paywall or anything so devious.<br>
<br>And hey, if there are free theme authors out there that offer an option to remove their credit or heck, don't even credit their work to begin with, that's great, that's their option as is it the option of the majority of other authors to hard-code a credit in, like signing a painting.<br>
<br>There is no ethical gray area here, it's all just fine. Ever even leaning towards having to provide some setting to remove a credit in a free theme is just silly, especially when many themes don't have options to begin with. But, because some do (which can be considered doing more for the user already), they should provide an additional feature to remove the credit of their work? Doesn't make any sense however you shake a stick at it.<div class="im">
<br>
<span style="color:rgb(102,102,102)"><span style><br>"<i>Here's a point - How many option is too many?</i>"</span></span><br><br></div>Hah! As far as users and customers are concerned there can never be too many. I constantly have the difficult task of explaining why we won't be adding the checkbox option for magical ponies cause we can't over bloat the given theme with too many options that aren't going to benefit the greater majority of what's wanted in a theme by the rest of the community.<br>
<br>If we lived in a world full of genius web designers/programmers the answer would be 1. 1 option is too many, get in there and do it manually, all of it! Not the world we live in though. Thank goodness too, because a lot of us would be out of work if that was the case :(.<br>
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<br></blockquote></div><br>