[theme-reviewers] Themes and Favicons

[Otto]

2010/10/19 Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net>:
> Well, if that's the case, then there's less to worry about.
> However, I do know that *some* Themes are modifying favicon.ico, because on
> a clean WP install, it has been changed. :)
> I guess my underlying question is: does a Theme have any business changing
> the favicon? It's rather like changing a Site Name, or Description - or even
> a user's Gravatar/Avatar. The favicon is unique to the site/owner, not to
> the site Theme.
> That's really what I was getting at...

Are you sure the theme isn't just inserting the favicon meta info into the head?

A theme has no business modifying files outside of the theme directory
(with the possible exception of the uploads directory, for themes that
allow file uploads of various sorts), however the more usual way of
modifying a favicon is to add meta rel=icon tags into the head section
of the HTML. This strikes me as fine, being that core has no real
support for it as such.

-Otto