Theme sponsorship hurting our blogs?
-
I am new to wordpress blog and wanted to sign up, and has done so because I look the look of WP. But I’ve read this and am a little concern. Is anyone concerned about this?
Please read: http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2007/04/12/on-sponsored-themes/
It reads:
For those who are new to the topic, in the past yew years a market has developed around advertisers that pay money to websites to have plain-text links back to their properties so they can rank better in search engines like Google for the text in those links. At some point the people gaming Google realized instead of buying links from dozens of individual sites, they could pay theme authors to bundle their links with their download and get hundreds or thousands of sites with their link for a small fraction of the cost. This is politely referred to as “theme sponsorship.”Sometimes theme authors do this without telling their users it’s a sponsored theme before download, or use CSS or PHP tricks to hide the links or other ads in the template so most people will either never notice or not know how to remove the ads. I’m not going to talk about these folks, because they’re obviously unethical and should be banned in every way possible.
Many users of WordPress probably don’t understand the above point or are not able to properly modify their templates to remove the bundled ad if they did. In fact, the economics of theme “sponsorship” depends on most site owners not touching the link. When advertising or something else unwanted is bundled with a desktop application and relies on most users not removing it we have a word for it — adware. (Sometimes malware.) It’s not illegal, and it’s certainly one way for software authors to get paid for their work, but it’s ultimately disrespectful toward the user and reputable download directories like Download.com ban it.
-
-
While this is an interesting topic, I can’t see WordPress.com allowing ‘sponsored themes’, especially without disclosing that to the blogger prior to allowing him or her to choose the theme. The only sponsorship I am aware of are tiny blurbs for the creators of the various themes but I am one of those people who is not all that familiar with CSS and the technical side of theme modification and creation, so I can’t comment much beyond that.
As it is very little advertising is permissable on WordPress.com (I think Google AdSense ads may be the only permissable ads a blogger can put on his or her blog). I suppose if you’re using WordPress.org, ‘sponsored themes’ may be more of a problem. But to use WordPress.org you have to set up some kind of hosting somewhere and download the software and generally be more technically proficient (unless you hire someone to do the tech side of maintaining your blog for you).
I do understand your concern and like you I would rather not use a theme that has ‘hidden ads’. I came to WordPress.com because I don’t want to monetize my blog and most other blogging applications either force you to run ads or prefer if you do so. But I just don’t see that being a problem here, at least not anytime soon.
Anyway it will be interesting to see what the admins have to say about this.
-
My concern is the issue of trickery and I was planning to create a blog to promote certain sites. I don’t want these sites to be in the same neighborhood as these “hidden” sites, some inappropriate, some unrelated. I don’t want the “hidden” links to hurt my blog in the long run. Have you read the whole article? It’s also on MattCutt’s blog about this. Is WP doing anything to make sure these theme designers are “ethical” in their codes?
-
Your profile reveals that you became a wordpress.com member 33 minutes ago. Yet rather than starting a blog you have set this as a priority. Somehow I don’t get the impression that you’re a blogger at all … but the word agitator does come to mind.
Most certainly you know how to contact Matt Mullenweg directly so – go for it!
You have not posted a support question and that is what this forum is limited to.
At wordpress.com we do not discuss policy on these forums. -
wow, you’re gorgeous vdovault!
they say one way to check if there are any hidden links in your blog is to view the source codes and see if there are any links (beside the footer one) that you didn’t enter yourself. Those are hidden links from the css file or other method by the theme designer.
-
Um, TT reading the first two lines of the poster’s first post explains why he or she is posting first before setting up a blog.
You getting mistaken with regular wordpress over at wordpress.org and the setup that exists here at wordpress.com. You’ll note in that article it mentions ‘WordPress.’ When you see that, they mean the other site and that software. Heck, it even says wordpress.org in the article.
-
If timethief is correct and you are a sockpuppet, the correct location for ballot-stuffing is here. I would have thought you’d have got that link from the article you quoted.
If, however, you are a genuinely concerned blogger, you need to read this post explaining the difference between wordpress.com and wordpress.org. Briefly — we can’t install our own themes here anyway, and those that we have are vetted by the guy who wrote the article, so this debate need not concern you.
-
timethieft, thanks for the criticism. yes, I did say in my original message that I did sign up for WordPress. I had blog on other sites and want to switch to WP because of the look. I’ve done a lot of research on which blog to use. AND in order for me to post a note in this forum, I had to become a member. Why would I want to contact Matt Mullenweg? I read the post originally from Matt Cutt’s blog. I wanted to get WP’s opinion on this matter. How would you know that I am not a blogger? Don’t judge or say mean things if you have nothing good to say – a wise person once told me.
-
-
drmike, thanks for the clarification. to my understand, i thought .org owns .com and i thought themes are the ones you pick from for your blog (ie. vanillamist, beccary, etc…). so basically if I am on .com, there’s no worry for hidden links? TT, wait and see what my blogs will be about. (sorry drmike, I had to put that message)
-
drmike, just so you know, i did do a search for “theme sponsorship” before I posted this message. i didn’t find anything. very opininated writers on this site – good to know!
-
I came to WordPress.com because I don’t want a monetized blog. Like you I do not wish to use a theme that has any ‘hidden ads’. However, as wank said: “… we can’t install our own themes here anyway, and those that we have are vetted by the guy [Matt Mullenweg] who wrote the article, so this debate need not concern you.”
Happy Blogging!
-
Both the *.org and the *.com are owned by Automattic but they are two different sites, two different bits of software, and are dealt with seperately. There are many differences between teh softwares and the sites.
As the the search, not a problem. I just wanted to point out where a followup rto your concerns had been posted about. That’s why i was asking for your specific concern and if it related to wp.com or wp.org
-
alright case closed! thanks for the quick answers (wow, i am impressed) and i am not concerned about hidden links on wp.com.
-
Do note that it is the theme designers themselves putting in those links and uploading the files to themes.wp.net and elsewhere. The developers for wp have nothing to do with them.
I, for one, don’t mind a link back to wp.com or wp.org or even the developers site.
-
(1) I have no issues with link back in theme to the designer or to wordpress.com or wordpress.org.
(2) I have no issues with designers having sponsored links in their themes, provided the existence of these links is boldly declared in an up front way and the links are not “hidden”.
(3) For a designer having the theme available on wordpress.com is such good advertising, that it would be assinine to argue that any sponsored links not be removed. They have been removed form wordpress.com adapted themes in the past and IMO they will continue to be removed in the future.
(4) That being said, if I am wrong and the situation changes so that sponsored links are not removed from wordpress.com themes then no matter how much I like a theme, if it has sponsored links I will not choose to use it.
- The topic ‘Theme sponsorship hurting our blogs?’ is closed to new replies.
WordPress.com Forums 