[theme-reviewers] Lite Themes

Thu Oct 2 11:28:22 UTC 2014

@Otto: Didn't see your answer until now, thanks for clarification. I
already had a strong hunch that blocking theme names would never be allowed
and I do not really intend to do it ;)

2014-10-02 12:24 GMT+02:00 Thomas from ThemeZee <contact at themezee.com>:

> I was actually not really concerned about theme brands and protecting
> them. I'm perfectly fine with "Apple Sweet", "Apple Blue" etc.. I have also
> moved away from naming my themes "zeeName" for my newer themes, because
> despite the fact these were branded names it also were ugly names and I do
> not longer think that names are so important. In case anyone wants to
> release a (child) theme named "zeeDynamic Blue", feel free to go :)
>
> However, I honestly do not fully understand the name policy anymore. There
> were several changes and I am confused. So now everything is allowed except
> theme related words in the name (e.g. Theme, Blog, etc) ?
>
> I thought that releasing "Theme Name" is not allowed when "Theme Name
> Lite" is already used, because of the simple reason that it would certainly
> cause user confusion. And I would like to avoid getting a lot of emails
> from confused users ;) The "Lite" in the name just implies that it is a
> downgraded version, and not a entirely different theme.
>
> But: If names are not policed anymore, than it's hard to prevent that,
> isn't it?
> Basically when I release a theme with "Theme Name", everyone can release
> "Theme Name Lite" afterwards with the same result...
>
>
>
> 2014-10-02 11:24 GMT+02:00 Michael Hebenstreit <michael at mhthemes.com>:
>
>> Or when the shop is called „GS Themes“, then a theme name „GS Fantastic“
>> is prohibited?
>>
>>
>> Am 02.10.2014 um 11:21 schrieb Michael Hebenstreit <michael at mhthemes.com
>> >:
>>
>> Hi Ulrich,
>>
>> sorry - not sure if I fully understand what you mean. The guideline says:
>>
>> *"Themes are not to use related Theme names (e.g. WP Theme Name, Theme
>> Name WP, The Theme Name, etc.) in their name.“*
>>
>> So when your theme shop is called „Great Shop“ and you release a theme
>> „Fantastic“, then you may not name it „GS Fantastic“?
>>
>> The guideline also says:
>>
>> *Themes may use the WP acronym in the Theme name, such as WP
>> AwesomeSauce.*
>>
>> So „WP Fantastic“ would be fine? But „GS Fantastic“ is not allowed?
>>
>> Thanks,
>> Michael
>>
>>
>>
>> Am 02.10.2014 um 11:00 schrieb Ulrich Pogson <grapplerulrich at gmail.com>:
>>
>> @Emil - Your note is directed to theme authors and not theme reviewers. I
>> don't think the mailing list is best place for this note. A better place
>> would be the guidelines or a blog post.
>>
>> This note is not consistent with the theme review name guideline
>> <https://make.wordpress.org/themes/handbook/guidelines/license-theme-name-credit-links-up-sell-themes/#theme-name>
>> s.
>> >"Themes are not to use related Theme names (e.g. WP Theme Name, Theme
>> Name WP, The Theme Name, etc.) in their name."
>>
>>
>>
>> On 2 October 2014 10:39, Michael Hebenstreit <michael at mhthemes.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> Emil, actually, when I first read your email this morning I really
>>> couldn’t believe it. I thought I still am dreaming and it’s only a
>>> nightmare. :-)
>>>
>>> But I thought let’s see what the reactions are on this because I thought
>>> maybe I just don’t get it and it’s a misunderstanding. But now that I read
>>> that Thomas has the same thoughts, I’ll also want to give my 2 cents.
>>>
>>> Are you sure that no longer police theme names at all is a good approach
>>> for the theme directory? Because I’m not sure on this and there is a pretty
>>> good change that this becomes quite a spammy battle. In the end a lot of us
>>> are running a business and we all have to pay our bills. Developers on
>>> WordPress.org <http://wordpress.org/> provide free themes for users,
>>> many of those free themes have even premium character and did cost
>>> countless hours of development time. But we’re still have to pay our bills
>>> and it doesn’t mean that everything is for free. So there must be a fair
>>> way to monetize our efforts.
>>>
>>> In the end there is also competition, but as on the free market, there
>>> have to be some rules to keep it a fair game. I’m also not a fan of
>>> policing everything and the rules and guidelines on .org are getting quite
>>> heavy…sometimes it’s a bit too much in my opinion (no offense). But when it
>>> comes to naming policy, there suddenly seem to be no rules at all, which I
>>> actually don’t understand. Especially not because it’s a very important
>>> thing to protect your brand and products. I’m fine with not policing names
>>> at all, as long as there are no collisions that have the goal to harm
>>> developers. We’ve seen a lot of rip offs recently from developers who are
>>> just copying themes to have a few minutes of fame (until their themes get
>>> removed…) and there is a pretty good chance that we are getting similar
>>> issues with names, especially when successful themes are getting ripped by
>>> those guys who have no creativity and honor at all.
>>>
>>> For example if a developer chooses a generic name, he must be aware that
>>> also other people could us it. For example if he chooses „Apple“ then I
>>> think it’s fine when someone else uses „Apple sweet“, „Apple blue“, Apple
>>> green“, etc… That's the disadvantage of a generic name and you can’t really
>>> protect it. Developers must be aware that choosing generic names might not
>>> be a good idea, especially when it comes to issues regarding naming
>>> policies. A generic word usually can’t be a brand. Ok, I see, my example
>>> with Apple was a bit stupid! :-D But I think you get what I mean.
>>>
>>> But I think it’s something else when a brand is involved. For example
>>> Thomas has a theme called „zeeDynamic“ as „ThemeZee“ is his brand. I don’t
>>> think it should be allowed to upload a theme „zeeDynamic better“ for
>>> example. This just would be ridiculous. It’s the same with other brands. If
>>> your brand is „AB“, and you release a theme „AB Wonderful“, than it should
>>> not be allowed to release „AB Wonderful with stars and strips“ or similar.
>>> Just „Wonderful“ would be fine in my opinion (if „Wonderful“ itself isn’t
>>> related to the developer / theme shop), but developers should not be
>>> allowed to use the brand of other people to push their own stuff.
>>>
>>> Imagine you release a theme called „Emil News“ which is very successful
>>> and then someone else releases a theme called „Emil News Theme“. Wouldn’t
>>> you want to have a serious conversation with this guy? His name is probably
>>> not „Emil“, but just „Idiot“. He uses your name to push his theme, this
>>> shouldn’t be allowed, at least when it comes to names of theme shops or
>>> brands.
>>>
>>> As you see, this is much more complicated than just saying „names are
>>> not policed at all“ and we might want to discuss this further as this is
>>> unacceptable from a business point of view.
>>>
>>> Kind regards,
>>> Michael
>>>
>>> Am 02.10.2014 um 10:03 schrieb Thomas from ThemeZee <
>>> contact at themezee.com>:
>>>
>>> Well, it was perfectly fine for theme developers to name their themes
>>> with "Lite" or "Pro", because nobody could take the name with the old
>>> guidelines.
>>> Now names are no longer policed, but a lot of developers have named all
>>> their free themes "Theme Name Lite" and it will be confusing to change that
>>> for existing users.
>>>
>>> And what is about the other way around? Some developer releases "Theme
>>> Name" and after that another developer comes up with "Theme Name Lite".
>>> Allowed or not? It has basically the same result that there are two
>>> different themes with nearly the same name. When names are no longer
>>> policed in any way we will soon have a lot of different themes with
>>> similiar names.
>>>
>>> And my final question: Can I release a dummy theme "Theme Name" in
>>> addition to "Theme Name Lite", which I'll unapprove right away? Basically
>>> can I block theme names? Since names are no longer policed it seems the
>>> only way to prevent the case you have mentioned.
>>>
>>> 2014-10-02 3:56 GMT+02:00 Sakin Shrestha <info at sakinshrestha.com>:
>>>
>>>> Yes, really hard to understand it. This type of naming will simply
>>>> undesirable. Especially lite, pro of already approved theme. Can we discuss
>>>> about this in coming theme review meeting and have a fixed review rule for
>>>> names.
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 7:37 AM, Srikanth Koneru <tskk79 at gmail.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>>> Hard to keep up with TRT policies, so if someone submits destro
>>>>> pro/lite/uno/prime/donkey, it will be allowed since names are not policed ?
>>>>>
>>>>> On Thu, Oct 2, 2014 at 7:14 AM, Edward Caissie <
>>>>> edward.caissie at gmail.com> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On Wed, Oct 1, 2014 at 8:10 PM, Emil Uzelac <emil at uzelac.me> wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> If you submit a theme called "Theme Name Lite" you are leaving the
>>>>>>> door open for anyone else to submit a different theme under "Theme Name"
>>>>>>> only.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> This is true of any theme name using more than one "word" ... see my
>>>>>> example of "Opus Primus" and someone submitting "Opus" months later.
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> Edward Caissie
>>>>>> aka Cais.
>>>>>>
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>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>
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>
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