UPDATE!!
OK, things have been explained a little more clearly and I see now where they are coming from. I spoke with Joseph Scott, and he explained that WordPress doesn’t “include themes with links to sites that break the licensing terms of WordPress, or sites that support them.”
He also mentioned that this is in fact listed on the theme submission requirements page:
All themes are subject to review. Themes for sites that support non-GPL (or compatible) themes or violate the WordPress community guidelines themes will not be approved.
Not being intimately familiar with the licensing terms, I didn’t understand what that meant until now.
So, a snit over nothing really, yes … but from now on I think I’ll choose my resources with a little more scrutiny.
The release of my newest theme has been delayed. I had submitted it to WordPress.org yesterday for inclusion in the Theme Directory, as I have done my other themes. This morning I received a very vague rejection email and initiated a discussion as to why.
The long and short of it, I’ve posted to the WordPress.org forums, but to be honest I don’t expect anything to come of it. I would however like to hear your thoughts on the matter.
My post to the forums:
I submitted a new theme yesterday. Because I have several other themes listed here, I am already pretty familiar with the requirements, but always give them a quick once over to make sure that I haven’t forgotten anything.
I was a bit dismayed today to get the following in an email: “Thank you for submitting the Black Hat theme, however it has not been selected to be part of the theme directory.”
That’s it. Nothing else explaining why my theme was rejected. That in itself is disconcerting, so I requested more information. I’m then told “Themes from sites (or links to sites) that support non-GPL WordPress themes are not included in the theme directory.”
My theme’s style.css clearly states that the theme is released under the GPL license; this is also stated very clearly on the theme’s URI on my website.
I explained this and was then told: “Go back and look at your credit links, both in theme description and the footer of the theme. Specifically http://www.rubiqube.com/corporate-sandbox/ which has at least 3 ads for sites that support non-GPL themes.”
My theme is based on the Corporate Sandbox framework. I linked to the site crediting its author — not required, but morally the right thing to do IMO.
So my question is this: Has the theme directory submission been changed? If so, this is not listed anywhere on the requirements page. And when did credit links fall under this kind of scrutiny?
I understand that there needs to be some serious cleanup for some of the themes listed here, but this is taking it a bit far, don’t you think?
The man I credited has ads on his site. How many others here to submit themes have similar ads? Or use a premium theme with a link back to its creator?
I understand that if that’s the way the rules are now, that’s that … but for Pete’s sake, list them in detail where theme designers can see it!!!
Mara
Damn. I think that’s really jacked up of WP, IMO.
Nicki
Yeah, so do I. I’ve emailed a couple more times, but have so far received no answer.
Last night I was pissed off to the point that I wanted all my themes be removed from WP.org — period. Now that I’ve calmed down a little, I think I’ll take a different approach.
Odzyskiwanie Danych
I hate how you sometimes stumble upon some completely unhelpful employee on those big websites and you just can’t get anything done even though you are providing them with content.
Nicki
I agree. I was tempted several times to ask “who is this?” in my emails just so I knew who was being the hardass. Now though, I think it doesn’t matter. I’ll try another approach today to see if I can raise a little awareness with other theme developers in the community.
Janette
Ah, so that’s what happened. (I admit that I only understand a portion of the problem.) At least now they’ve given you a SPECIFIC idea of what was wrong and how to correct it.
This whole thing could have been avoided if the first person would have taken a little more time with the initial rejection email.
Glad it worked out for you1
Nicki
Hi Janette, thanks! Yeah, I still don’t get the whole thing, but got the gist of what he was trying to tell me. Looking at it now, I can understand where they are coming from and see the need for concern.
Thanks for dropping by! :D
Giles
No offense, but even if your theme passed the tests – they still have right to disallow it. What new aspects of a theme do you bring to the WP community (JS colour switchers, rotating css etc.,). If the design is poor then they could be another reason…
Nicki
Hi Giles,
Thanks for dropping by. Actually, it was the licensing issue. WP is enforcing that more now than ever before.