WordPress ThemeViewer And The Politics of GPL

  • I recently ranted and raved and call Matt a few names I regret doing. I’ve had a chance to calm down and I want to address this issue openly with the public about why I was so upset.

    I really believe the issue with ThemeViewer’s Battle with Sponsored Themes was really just a move to switch fully to GPL ONLY Themes being pushed by www.ads-software.com based on WordPress’ own GPL License and Matt’s strong political beliefs in GPL.

    I don’t think this is right. But I wanted to put this out there for the community to voice their opinion.

    1. I was wrong for calling Matt a bunch of names. It was harsh,rude, and out of line.

    However, I do believe that Matt should have addressed the issue of Themeviewer not as an issue against and/or for Sponsored Themes but as a more transparent issue of a move to GPL Only Themes.

    2. Is GPL The Only Acceptable Theme License For WordPress?

    I’m not sure. What’s the communities take on this issue?

    Thanks for taking the time to fully digest this. And again I’m sorry for anyone I may have offended with my rant against Matt. It was wholly inappropriate. I hope my position is more clear now that I’ve got this off my chest.

    Here’s my post stating many of the same issues.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)

  • Has Matt yet stated that in fact the requirement for the theme viewer is now GPL only?

    Thread Starter davikrug

    (@davikrug)

    No, but he’s kicked out quite a few Creative Commons themes with NO sponsors. So it just ‘looks’ like a very strong lean towards GPL

    I am not surprised. So in fact there is an unannounced purge of non GPL going on disguised as a sponsored theme purge. All typical of WP under Matt.
    There is going to uproar about this. And rightly so.
    But since the Hot Nachos Spam Scandal nothing has suprised me.

    WordPress is under GPL, makes sense to me that the official theme viewer, the place most new users are likely to go, should be under GPL also.

    The internet isn’t exactly a small place sponsered themes, paid themes, the good the bad and ugly there is room for them all.

    But it seems appropriate that themes most specifically associated with the product share that products ‘philosophy’

    But then I believe in Net Neutrality too.

    Ill fall back to this:

    Who owns the domain?

    Even IF he were undertaking such a sinister task (oh my!1) he CAN do whatever he wants.

    I’ve said it before — the Internet is NOT a democracy, and anyone who believes so is naive.

    I question why anyone feels some sort of entitlement to have their work (or lack of) showcased, as it were, on another site, JUST because …

    —

    In a recent Google for something else I came across some threads on a very popular, well-known ‘webmastering’ forum, where links on sponsored themes were being auctioned off. In those threads, it was indicated where the themes would be made available for download. Most of the themes listed 4-5 sites.

    The ‘community’ is not lacking for places to locate themes, nor for places to display them.

    1. sarcasm.

    It continues to baffle me why people are so content to accept the wordpress sites as being Matt’s personal fiefdom rather than resources for the entire community. It seems to me to jar horribly with the open source rhetoric they use the rest of the time. But then I suppose it’s a fact, and useless to kick against.

    The ‘community’ is not lacking for places to locate themes, nor for places to display them.

    So why bother with wordpress.net at all? Once Matt’s reduced it to a collection of 500 Kubrick clones with unimpeachable licensing, it’s going to become an irrelevance anyway. His time would surely be more usefully spent implementing some of the stuff from the ideas forum for 2.3 and improving wordpress.com than pursuing these holy wars against themers.

    It continues to baffle me why people are so content to accept the wordpress sites as being Matt’s personal fiefdom rather than resources for the entire community.

    fiefdom? Please. I am content in the fact that its HIS, to do with what he wants. Nothing else, nothing more. What community pays the hosting bill? Or the extra bandwidth?

    So why bother with wordpress.net at all?

    My point exactly, and a message that ought to wring clear and loud with all the complainers.

    Here it is in other words:

    GO START YOUR OWN FRICKEN SITE IF IT BOTHERS YOU SO MUCH WHAT HE DOES, OR DOESNT DO. GO HOST YOUR THEMES ELSEWHERE.

    I’m no apologist, Ive railed against things hes done, and not done, in the past.

    Im simply pointing out the obvious.

Viewing 7 replies - 1 through 7 (of 7 total)
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