[theme-reviewers] Why the double standards and why Pagelines gets special treatment?

[Trent Lapinski]

Otto,

I'm confused.

You told me that you are the only person who decides if a theme can be featured or not? I e-mailed you several weeks ago about getting one of my new themes featured and didn't even get the courtesy of a reply.

Yet now apparently there are "theme review admins" that determine if a theme can be featured? Who are these "theme review admins" and what criteria do they use to get a theme featured?

I do not understand why we can't as a community define what the criteria is to be featured on WordPress.org? It only seems fair that any theme, and any theme developer should have a fair chance at getting a theme featured.

As for PageLines, while they claim to confusingly release their software under the GPL, yet it is well known their support for the GPL is questionable.

I raised this issue when PageLines was first featured, and it has been brought up repeatedly by others in the theme community: http://wordpress.org/support/topic/why-are-you-promoting-pagelines-while-its-not-full-gpl

Considering PageLines founder Andrew Powers has lied to the theme review team in the past including what happened when Andrew lied to get iFeature removed from WordPress.org I really see no logical argument as to why we should believe anything Andrew or PageLines says, including their confusing support for the GPL.

PageLines is a commercial entity who's sole purpose is profit, and their founder has a history of being dishonest with WordPress.org, and has repeatedly raised serious questions concerning their understanding of the GPL.

Again, I understand from a technical standpoint that the new PageLines theme does something unique, but just because PageLines can hire a talented developer doesn't negate their past or current questionable practices as a company.

It is one thing to make an exception and allow them to have a few extra features, but it is another thing for WordPress.org to openly feature and support them.

PageLines should be removed from the featured list on WordPress.org, and the featured list on WordPress.org clearly needs to be rethought, and a criteria clearly needs to be defined.

--Trent Lapinski
=============
CEO of CyberChimps LLC
trent at cyberchimps.com
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Twitter @trentlapinski
http://CyberChimps.com

On Mar 23, 2012, at 12:37 PM, Otto wrote:

> On Fri, Mar 23, 2012 at 1:40 PM, Satish Gandham <satish.iitg at gmail.com> wrote:
>> You don't even care to check these while adding it to featured themes list,
>> yet you take special interest in digging into my site to find faults with my
>> theme and license.
> 
> Furthermore, I want to clarify this point.
> 
> I'm quite busy. I have many other things to do than to police the
> friggin' themes directory all day. What *actually* happened was that
> you changed your theme to be "Swift Basic", and that name change
> caught the eye of one of the reviewers. They noticed the problem
> (namely, that your up-sell "Swift" theme was not available under the
> GPL) and reported it to me.
> 
> I didn't "dig into" anything. One of the theme reviewers found the
> issue and reported it.
> 
> If you don't like our terms and are not willing to discuss them in a
> civilized manner, then you're more than welcome to not submit your
> theme to the Themes Directory. We don't mind.
> 
> -Otto
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