[theme-reviewers] WordPress Themes Download Statistics Counter

[Bryan Hadaway]

Yeah, you'd have to use an IP switcher with iMacros for every single
simulated click (which would consist of obvious spam IPs mind you). It
would be tedious and difficult to say the least. Besides ethics obviously,
would it even be worth it?

First, the only people that would use this method are those that aren't
able to create themes of much popularity or value in the first place, hence
the need of artificial boosting. That, combined with a crummy theme all of
a sudden dramatically rising in the ranks would be a huge red flag.

The stats would show 25 downloads a day to an abrupt 1000 a day (or
whatnot) and the admins would be all over that like rats in a grain
factory, banned!

The difficultly : outcome ratio (removing ethics from the equation) only
equals moron who's going to get their account and theme banned from wporg.

So bottom line, sure, it can still be spoofed, but you can't remove the
human element so it's just going to backfire on anyone who tries it.

All in all, I think the stats are accurate enough to have some value, but
like I said, I'd doubt it being anywhere near 100% accurate as there are
simply too many flaws and variables that might not be solvable no matter
what you did to enhance it.

*However*, dun dun dunnn. Someone could use this method to attack other
themes in the repo to try and get them banned. That scenario could also be
used as plausible deniability, which does create an impossible situation.

At the end of the day, we can only hope that most people in our community
are good, kind and ethical people. That even if they have monetary motives,
which there's nothing wrong with that, so long as they play by the book,
respect the GPL and it's protection of their user's freedoms. In other
words, having a bottom line is okay, so long as you *also* care about
people.
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