Anyone want to help update an old theme?

  • Anyone want to work together to update an old theme that is not being supported anymore? It’s called The Stars. https://www.premiumwp.com/the-stars-a-free-premium-wordpress-theme/

    For awhile, the author offered a premium version, but then POOF, the entire theme disappeared.

    I use it on some sites for which is makes complete sense (www.stopcrime.org is an example), and would like to be able to use the newer 3.0+ features that the theme wasn’t made to use. I’ve started to make the upgrades myself, and have had SOME success…but would rather work with some people who are a little more experienced theme developers than I am. It still uses custom fields (bleh!).

    Anyone willing to take a look at this with me?

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)

  • It’s quite presumptuous to assume you can take over a theme simply because it’s not supported anymore. Even if it is GPL’d in some fashion.

    Have you contacted that site and asked?

    Did you read the boilerplate on the site?:

    All content, objects (including but not limited to applications, processes and software used to render objects) and other related materials belong to PremiumWP.com, unless indicated otherwise.

    Thread Starter Angie Meeker

    (@ameeker)

    @sdongdogtech – You don’t have to be rude about it. I’m not trying to resell this theme once updated. I USE this old theme, think it’s wonderful and want to be able to utilize the more 3.0+ features of WP like menus and featured images. All I did was ask for help updating it for that purpose. I’m not trying to be a smart-aleck at all… but if there is something wrong with that, please point me to it so I can read up.

    If it’s GPL, then it is absolutely acceptable to fork the Theme and continue its development. The original developer retains ownership of the original work – which is what copyright notices are for (see, e.g. style.css header information).

    And you would be fully within your rights to resell the Theme – modified or unmodified. That right is explicitly granted in the terms of the GPL.

    Of course, if it’s not GPL (or compatible), then you’d have to see what the actual license terms are.

    It is considered polite to ask the theme’s original developer first before publically asking for help in upgrading it.

    Thread Starter Angie Meeker

    (@ameeker)

    I emailed the author sometime last year asking if they would either make available again their premium version (which has the updates already made), or to help with the menu and featured images for the basic theme, and the answer was no… that they offered other themes I could use (except the stars magazine as it was then called, which was no longer available).

    I’ve tried – no luck.

    Best suggestion I can offer is to start working on the theme yourself but to keep the original author’s credits intact as the original source of the theme.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
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