[wp-forums] We are not the theme police

[Borko Livic]

I understand that only WPORG themes are supported on the forum (and i agree
with the policy). I just wanted to point out that it happened (quite a few
times) that a user asked a CSS related question and a mod forwarded him to
the theme author. After that, i really don't want to step on mod's toes and
answer anyway, even though the question wasn't theme related (for
example,how to change the bg color of an element). I always encourage
people to inspect elements (or use Firebug) but we all know there will
always be a bunch of people that won't (or can't) handle such tasks,no
matter how simple it seems to us.

Regards,

Media X

Sent from outer space
On Aug 23, 2013 2:14 AM, "Chris Olbekson" <chris at c3mdigital.com> wrote:

> The reason I brought this up is because we as moderators should not be
> making judgements on how or where someone acquired a theme or plugin.  I
> didn't link to the specific topic or even mention who respond ed because I
> was speaking generally not specific.  When you say "We do not support
> stolen themes" you are telling someone they are using a "stolen" theme.
>  You may not be directly accusing them of "stealing" it but you are
> implying that they are doing something wrong.
>
> The reason I mentioned the GPL is because when using GPL software there is
> no such thing as stolen or theft because the author of the code has given
> everyone and anybody permission to do what ever they want with that code
> (except re distribute it under a different license).  Now whether the theme
> in question is GPL or not doesn't matter because again it is not our place
> to even find out if it is.
>
> And in my opinion the question was not theme specific.  The user wanted to
> know how to make their site responsive and the answer could have been
> "Remove the fixed width from the content tag and change to a percentage".
>  Now if the user came back and said "How do I change the css, I looked in
> the style.css file and there is nothing there"  Now the question becomes
> theme specific and we can politely tell them they need to get support from
> the developer via the themes support system at www.premiumthemesupport.com
> .
>
> There is no need to say we don't support stolen themes and tell them they
> need to legitimately purchase it. We don't know how they acquired it nor
> should it matter.
>
> The only reason I bring this up to the list is because I care about our
> forum users experience and feel very strong about treating anyone that
> comes to the forums for help with respect and dignity.
>
> my .02 thanks for reading.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
>
> On Aug 22, 2013, at 3:31 PM, Andrew2.Nevins <Andrew2.Nevins at live.uwe.ac.uk>
> wrote:
>
> > Ø  One of our moderators accused a user of "stealing" a theme
> >
> > That is your interpretation of what I said. I didn't actually say or
> accuse that.
> >
> >
> > Ø  basically told the user "we don't support stolen themes"
> >
> > Bingo.  We don't.
> >
> >
> > Ø  We are not the theme police and shouldn't be judging or even
> questioning people on how they acquired a theme or plugin
> >
> >
> > I did neither. There was literally now talk as to how the person
> acquired the theme.
> >
> >
> > Ø  Stealing and GPL shouldn't even be used in the same sentence
> >
> > Both "Stealing" and "GPL" were never used in that thread.  You are
> referring to things that I never wrote.
> >
> >
> > Ø  The question was really a CSS question and could have applied to ANY
> theme or website
> >
> > No. CSS questions are theme and site specific. If we actually want to
> provide some useful information then we need to be supporting the user's
> particular theme. As Mika mentioned, you can provide all the
> non-site-specific CSS you want but eventually the user will need to
> implement it into their theme and then you can run into troubles with the
> theme doing things weirdly. I've offered plenty of CSS support for
> WooThemes, for example, and people just cannot implement the CSS because
> WooThemes handles CSS specially.
> >
> >
> > Ø  If you don't want to answer a question move on and let somebody else
> answer it.
> >
> > What does the OP really want? In my opinion the OP wants the answer
> regardless of the source it comes from and what better than to ask the
> theme's author?
> >
> >
> > Ø  I normally don't step over other moderators but I edited the response
> even though it was too late and the user saw it.
> >
> > If that person didn't know that their theme's vendors distribute stolen
> themes then I am glad that the person does now. That person can make a
> judgement for him/herself as to whether to continue using it .
> >
> > ~
> >
> > Since I edited the original post and removed the theme's vendors pretty
> much as soon as the thread was created, I'm just surprised that you do not
> 'trust' moderators to make these judgements (not a dirty word) fairly.
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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