<div style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 13px;">Fairly new here but I’m gone chime in either way.<div><br></div><div>I think it’s important that we/wordpress.org/the theme review team remains as independent and unbiased as possible. </div><div>The featured themes should be selected for their features/design/whatever but certainly not because the developer or shop payed off (that’s kinda what it feels like to me) the reviewer.</div><div><br></div><div>My 2 cents anyway...</div><div>/J</div></div>
<div><div><br></div><div>-- </div><div>Jan Henckens</div><div>Sent with <a href="http://www.sparrowmailapp.com/?sig">Sparrow</a></div><div><br></div></div>
<p style="color: #A0A0A8;">On Wednesday 29 January 2014 at 15:44, Chip Bennett wrote:</p>
<blockquote type="cite" style="border-left-style:solid;border-width:1px;margin-left:0px;padding-left:10px;">
<span><div><div><div dir="ltr">For the sake of discussion: how is this any different from commercial Theme shops paying their employees to perform Theme reviews, with the expressed intent of ensuring that one of the Theme shop's Themes gets listed as featured?<div>
<br></div><div>In other words: why is it acceptable for commercial Theme shops to engage in this sort of financial transaction to gain a benefit from <a href="http://WordPress.org">WordPress.org</a>, but not for non-commercial developers?</div><div><br></div>
<div>I don't have a preference, but I do think we should handle things consistently.</div></div><div><br><br><div>On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 9:16 AM, Otto <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:otto@ottodestruct.com" target="_blank">otto@ottodestruct.com</a>></span> wrote:<br><blockquote type="cite"><div><div>On Wed, Jan 29, 2014 at 8:12 AM, Chip Bennett <<a href="mailto:chip@chipbennett.net">chip@chipbennett.net</a>> wrote:<br>
> IMHO, as long as the relationship is disclosed, there's nothing wrong with<br>
> it.<br>
<br>
</div>Yeah. I'm not as forgiving as Chip.<br>
<br>
If you tell me who they are, then I will happily ban them from our<br>
systems, permanently.<br>
<br>
Or, if you want to be a bit more subtle about it, you can tell them<br>
that I said exactly the above and that they should damn well stop it.<br>
<br>
If there is any financial transaction of any kind to get any seeming<br>
benefits on <a href="http://WordPress.org">WordPress.org</a>, then I will *end* it. Understood? This is<br>
not a pay-to-win system.<br>
<span><font color="#888888"><br>
-Otto<br>
</font></span><div><div>_______________________________________________<br>
theme-reviewers mailing list<br>
<a href="mailto:theme-reviewers@lists.wordpress.org">theme-reviewers@lists.wordpress.org</a><br>
<a href="http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers" target="_blank">http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers</a><br>
</div></div></div></blockquote></div><br></div>
</div><div><div>_______________________________________________</div><div>theme-reviewers mailing list</div><div><a href="mailto:theme-reviewers@lists.wordpress.org">theme-reviewers@lists.wordpress.org</a></div><div><a href="http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers">http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers</a></div></div></div></span>
</blockquote>
<div>
<br>
</div>