[wp-hackers] General consensus of "Premium Theme" concept

[Callum Macdonald]

Hey Glenn,

You might want to bear in mind that WordPress is not a "democratic" 
project. It's run by Automattic. They have built a business around it 
(they recently raised $29.5m[1]). So I don't think anyone can fault your 
ethics if you choose to profit from WordPress.

Additionally, the code that runs wordpress.com is not publicly available 
as far as I know. I realise it's based largely on WPMU, but to the best 
of my knowledge, many of the plugins and customisations applied are not 
publicly available.

> I guess it all goes back to what one's primary goal for developing under the
> WP platform is: money or contribution to the community.


Automattic's primary motivation, by definition of being a business, is 
to make money.

Cheers - Callum.

[1] http://gigaom.com/2008/01/22/wordpresscom-creator-raises-29m/

Glenn Ansley wrote:
> Thanks for the replies.
> I regularly take freelance jobs for clients that involve charging for theme
> / plugin development.
> The reason I asked this question was to get a feel for buisness models like
> wpremix_com, premiumthemes_net, or premiumnewstheme_com (of which I have no
> affiliation).
>
> Part of me wants to capitalize on such a model, the other part of me wants
> to avoid it altogether and generate revenue on donations or requests for
> proposals from the traffic.
>
> I guess it all goes back to what one's primary goal for developing under the
> WP platform is: money or contribution to the community. Maybe it's not so
> black and white, but thanks for the responses anyway.
>
> Glenn
>
> On Wed, Mar 19, 2008 at 8:36 PM, Jeremy Visser <jeremy.visser at gmail.com>
> wrote:
>
>   
>> On Wed, 2008-03-19 at 17:01 -0400, Glenn Ansley wrote:
>>     
>>> What is the general consensus among the members of this list concerning
>>> premium themes and plugins for sale? *
>>>       
>> Way to start a flamewar. :-P
>>
>> --
>> Jeremy Visser                                 http://jeremy.visser.name/
>>
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>>
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