[theme-reviewers] Theme promotion in dashboard

Mon Feb 10 20:16:01 UTC 2014

If any promotion is to continue to be allowed then I hope that those with the power to make the decision keep it confined to the upsel of the currently installed theme and nothing else. Any other business outside the current theme belongs on our own websites/online shops and our marketing skills.

As it has been stated many times - the end user's Admin area is not a billboard - lets respect that.

Further more, the stance that WordPress.org space is not open to advertisement should be extended to the WordPress Admin area, and that should hold true to both Themes and Plugins alike.

+1 to what Chip wrote.

Date: Tue, 11 Feb 2014 01:27:36 +0530
From: tskk79 at gmail.com
To: theme-reviewers at lists.wordpress.org
Subject: Re: [theme-reviewers] Theme promotion in dashboard

I am arguing that upsell info in theme options page actually serve's end user's purpose as in it saves valuable time and effort for end users since they don't have to visit theme author's site, search and go through sales literature and figure out if the pro version is a good fit for them.

Having ugrade options in lite versions make a good user experience.

On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 1:19 AM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:

Without commenting on much of the rest, I do want to say:

Themes submitted to the WordPress Theme Directory are *contributions*, in the spirit of an open-source, free software project. So, yes: generally speaking, Themes *should* be submitted "out of the goodness of your heart". If Themes are submitted *primarily* for any other motive than to contribute to the WordPress community, then that motive seriously needs to be reconsidered. There are commercial marketplaces for those for whom their *primary* motive is commercial in nature.

(Please note the emphasis on *primary*. There is absolutely nothing wrong with commercial motives, and we welcome Themes from commercial developers. But in ALL matters, when the commercial developer's purposes are at odds with the end users' purposes, decisions made regarding the WordPress.org Theme Directory will fall on the side of the end user.)

On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 2:40 PM, Srikanth Koneru <tskk79 at gmail.com> wrote:

Lets not invade their website with a credit link either. Do themes out of goodness of your heart and also make it mandatory to provide 24 hr turn around for support tickets in WPORG theme page.

On Tue, Feb 11, 2014 at 1:07 AM, rabin shrestha <sun_ravi90 at yahoo.com> wrote:

I think promotion of premium themes shouldn't be allowed outside the theme option page. This whole discussion is being created because we are allowing to advertise outside the theme options page. And I know this discussion will always arise whenever any theme author tries to go one step ahead in theme promotion. Let's stop this, before this gets out of hand and whole WordPress theme dashboard becomes a place to advertise. Let's add a guideline allowing theme authors to advertise only in their theme options page and if they don't have one then they can create a menu under appearance and promote it. But let's stop having multiple menu under Appearance.

Also, I think author should only be allowed to promote upsell version of current theme. Since authors are allowed to keep upsell links users will automatically be going to your theme shop site and searching other themes if they feel your theme is good. We don't need a dozen of themes being promoted in secondary menu and your theme options menu.

I have seen this things growing and getting out of hand. Just a year back we were afraid to even have a twitter link and a single promotion link in theme options page and now with every discussion authors are being given power to cross one step ahead of the line and new line is being drawn every time. This should be stopped and strict steps must be enforced by adding this things clearly in guidelines.

These are simply my views and I am hoping to see some positive changes on this matter.

Regards,

Rabin

   On Monday,
 February 10, 2014 11:02 PM, Chip Bennett <chip at chipbennett.net> wrote:
    We currently allow developers to add a second page to promote other Themes from the developer, so I would say that fits under that allowance.

But I really question if that second page isn't a step too far.

Maybe Cais is onto something: we add a guideline that Themes are *recommended* not to display any upsell/commercial advertising in the Admin, and then have the discussion, and let the community pose an argument for why the practice should be allowed - or, from my perspective, why the developer's need to do such advertising in the user's Admin outweighs the user's need not to have advertising in their Admin.

On Mon, Feb 10, 2014 at 12:12 PM, Ola Łączek <ola at bodera.com> wrote:

I totally agree with the rule about ads only on theme options page, but what if theme doesn't have one? In that case adding Page under Appearance menu is still unacceptable?

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