The ethics of designer links.
1 August 2007As anyone who has read this blog knows, I occasionally redesign the sites here at Digital Arcadia. If you have been reading in the last 6 months, you know I had issues with the redesign of this blog, which led to me abandoning my original theme.
Well, in the course of looking for a wordpress theme for an unrelated project, I happened to have come across an interesting couple of posts at WPDiva. They concern a drama laden debate about sponsored links, and giving credit where credit is due.
And, while the discussion is old, it kind of re-opened some wounds with me regarding wordpress. I love wordpress, but I think that, out of all the themes out there, only about 1% or 2% are really creative or interesting. And out of that 1 or 2 percent, only 1% are 100% functional. Of the themes out there that are nice looking, and more “general” or “average” in nature, they make good springboards into new stuff.
Which brings me to how I feel about this issue: just because I download your theme does not automagically entitle you to a *link* on my site. Period. I have zero issue giving credit where credit is due. But here is my issue with (not all, but a majority) theme designers who release “free” themes:
1) Your documentation skills suck. If you want to hold yourself up to professional standards, and wave the “I gotta eat” banner around, then you need to live up to the same standard as if you were releasing a commercial product, within reason. Obviously, I dont expect you to write a manual. But I expect at least a readme, with perhaps your .css defs fleshed out, so I dont have to hunt around for stuff I want to change. If I have to play slap and tickle with the structure of your code, and play hide and seek with an obfuscated bit of php, I will dump your linkback, and credit you in name only. When I do a project, no matter how insignificant, I have to document what I do. This is common sense. Comment your code. Period. This is non negotiable.
2) Trust me, I wont be using your custom graphics unless I see a layered .psd in the .zip file. Guess what else I wont be using? footer.php with your link. I’ll be happy to credit you by name, but beyond that, you are out of luck. Nothing worse in my eyes, than someone who creates and releases a theme where the main graphic elements are crucial, only to have no source with which to customize for your own needs. Again: if you are releasing something and you want to wave the “I gotta eat” banner, then, make the theme useful for me. Don’t restrict my options and call it “free”. Because it’s not. Hog tying me in regards to making things work for *my* needs will annoy me. I am glad it works for your site. Great. But, I dont want to run your site. If I did, I would happily display your awesome header graphic that says KiLLaH w0rdPr3ss. I want to run *my* site. It has its own title and branding.
3) You want to slap a link to an unrelated commercial organization on my blog? I better be getting a kickback from it. I don’t care how much they are paying you, they are not paying me. You deserve credit for designing the template/theme. I can live with that, but that does not entitle you to game the system. And it does not entitle you to use my blog to promote some other company you have no relationship to, other than as commercial entity who pays you for clicks. The exception to this would be: if you owned the commercial organization.
4) One thing alot of theme designers need to grasp, and grasp quick: nobody owns the idea of 1, 2, or 3 column formats. If you have a decent layout, great, spiffy. But, if I have to do more than 8 hours of work on your precious baby, because you didnt document things, or because all you did was use the same tired old format and spun the “Adobe Wheel of Color” when adding colors to a stylesheet…guess what? Not only will your link go from link to plaintext, I am also going to put “Based on…” before your name.
So, the long and short of it is: I can respect creativity. I cannot respect whining about issues that are largely of ones own making. Advertising clauses in licenses have killed their fair share of big projects. XFree86 comes to mind.
Fact is, a vast majority of theme and template designers could use a lesson in what “free” means in the software world. Yes, you deserve credit. No, you do not automatically deserve to use someone else’s bandwidth. Yes, you have rights. But those rights are not always absolute. Especially when someone creates a derivative work which is a valid new creation in its own right. You still have a right to credit, but how many lights I choose to put around your name, is my choice, not yours.
