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

Sat Mar 24 19:43:04 UTC 2012

The facts:

Andrew the founder of PageLines lied to the theme review team, http://themes.trac.wordpress.org/ticket/3443, and Mark Jaquith had to step in to unban my WordPress.org account, and allow my theme to be reviewed. No repercussions were brought against Andrew or PageLines for lying to the theme review team.

Furthermore, even if I had used code from PageLines, which I did not, I could have had I credited it properly since supposedly PageLines themes are released under the GPL. This is further evidence that Andrew Powers the founder of PageLines does not understand the GPL.

The new PageLines theme was developed by Simon Prosser who was hired by PageLines after Andrew Powers lied to the theme review team. Simon Prosser is an admin on WordPress.org, and coauthor of the theme check plugin.

The PageLines theme fails the theme check plugin that Simon helped coauthor. It has a required, several recommended, as well as dozens of other info based issues.

"Special" permission was then given to PageLines so that said issues were excused.

PageLines Terms of Service are contradictory to the GPL (http://www.pagelines.com/terms-of-service/), are poorly worded, and would likely not be accepted by any other theme author and would typically result in that theme authors theme to be removed from WordPress.org. Even Otto himself has determined that the terms of service is poorly worded.

PageLines was then featured on WordPress.org. It was one of the first upsell themes to ever be featured on WordPress.org, and the criteria of which was determined to be that Otto simply decides what themes should or should not be featured.

Please someone correct me if I'm mistaken?

Again, I am not accusing anyone of anything, but this series of events is rather unfortunate.

I still believe it is a conflict of interest for PageLines to be featured, and it is not in the best interest of WordPress.org or the WordPress community due to the issues I have raised above, and I'm not sure why this has be brought up time and time again by so many different people to be taken seriously.

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

On Mar 24, 2012, at 12:02 PM, Simon Prosser wrote:

> What has Theme-Check got to do with this?
> We both contributed code to THE most useful theme tool for wp.org I
> think im also right in thinking Otto also enjoys a drink so there you
> go more evidence!
> 
> On 24 March 2012 18:57, Satish Gandham <satish.iitg at gmail.com> wrote:
>> What special cases?
>> 
>> Whats the need for a top level admin menu?
>> What is the need to have fav icon enabled by default?
>> What is the need to have their logo on user blogs?
>> What is the need for their logo in the footer of user sites?
>> 
>> 
>> Why do you think that you should give them exception and let them use
>> WordPress to build their brand image at the expense of theme users brand
>> image?
>> 
>> 
>> 
>> "I'm not sure how you define "associated". I've met him. That's about it."
>> 
>> 
>> He is the co author of the plugin called Theme Check.
>> 
>> *****The theme was considered by the theme review admins, and
>> granted a special-case exception to the normal rules because of the
>> unusual and different store system contained within the theme.******
>> 
>> Were all the theme admins in this decision?
>> 
>> ******Secondly, instead of spending time searching out and criticizing other
>> themes, it would be a matter of minutes to fix your own terms of
>> service to adhere to the guidelines. All you have to do is to make the
>> CSS & images GPL'd as well.*****
>> 
>> 
>> Firstly, I'm not criticizing the pagelines theme or anyone here. I like
>> their themes. If I didn't develop my own framework, I would probably be
>> using theirs.
>> 
>> I'm asking about the double standards, and why the special treatment, which
>> you never answered completely.
>> 
>> You *were* informed, by me, via email. I gave you more than enough
>> time to remedy the situation. You have failed to do so.
>> 
>> All you have to do is to make the
>> CSS & images GPL'd as well.
>> 
>> 
>> Its not as simple as you make it sound. This decision can kill our entire
>> business, as our motto is to build themes that do not require support or
>> user guides.
>> 
>> Anyway, we decided that having more users using our theme is more satisfying
>> then the money. Updated the TOS. Please add the theme back.
>> http://swiftthemes.com/terms-of-service/
>> 
>> 
>> Satish Gandham
>> 
>> _______________________________________________
>> theme-reviewers mailing list
>> theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
>> http://lists.wordpress.org/mailman/listinfo/theme-reviewers
>> 
> 
> 
> 
> -- 
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