[wp-hackers] Text ads in themes

[Matt Mullenweg]

Podz wrote:
> I can see that author's want reward for creating a theme - that isn't
> the problem. But they are getting bloggers to pay for that reward
> unwittingly. But then spammy crap like Indigo is almost there _just_ for
> the sponsor cash.

If people want to run these types of ads on their own site, that's their 
own business.

The core of what's bothering me here is themes are being used as a 
trojan horse to get thousands and thousands of links across unknowing blogs:

http://technorati.com/search/digitalflowers.com

Everyone has their own reasons for what they do, and I'm not saying we 
should attack anyone. The real question is: As a community, is this the 
type of thing we want to encourage in the future? My gut says no. It's a 
slippery slope.

Some interesting suggestions have been brought up thus far:

* Up front disclosure if it is a "sponsored" theme
* Themes with ads, plugins with ads, etc should not be promoted on 
WP.org sites

(As an aside, I would love to see a way for more theme authors to get 
paid, and it's something I'm working on.)

-- 
Matt Mullenweg
  http://photomatt.net | http://wordpress.org
http://automattic.com | http://akismet.com