Small Potato Is A Douchebag!
- Filed under: WordPress
After reading:
- Matt takes over http://themes.wordpress.net
- If I could walk on water, you’d complain I can’t swim
- wank.wordpress.com
I realized that I’m a complete douchebag. Whatever I thought I knew or believed about WordPress and its community went out the window. I don’t know where to start explaining to you how blind I’ve been.
Of course, I don’t expect you to understand what the heck I’m writing about right now. I think only 5% to 10% of everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) involved in WordPress or uses WordPress actually understands this post, which is a shame.
The three pages I linked to above are real eye openers. (I’m not saying you should believe in everything on those three pages.) However, those pages are only the tip of the iceberg. There’s so much truth to uncover and so much more that none of us could ever get to (unless, we were the ones involved), it’s sad.
The bottom line is the people that are actually helping others without ulterior motives should receive more recognition and rewards, not that they’re asking for it. Second, debates and everyone involved should be more transparent. Third, don’t trust everything you read. Fourth, don’t trust everyone you meet. Fifth, Small Potato is an uninformed douchebag.
@ Small Potato
I must admit, if everyone can be as open-minded as you, we will not be in this position at all. We learnt our lessons the hard way, we were undoubtedly the most ripped-off and down-rated designers on Theme Viewer Version 2.0, our struggle was unheard for most parts, until Thomas stepped in and saved our day by removing the rating system all together. We do not want anyone else on WordPress to have to deal with the bulls***, hence our decision to come out in public and write about it.
WOW o_0 thank you for opening my eyes wide open. This so totally sucks man. Damn and I was so excited abt the theme competition. I so confused now
.
This whole saga is so crazy to me. I think they are being hypocritical as well. I thought the whole point was to BUILD the community, not try to tear it apart? This is what happens when you are out of touch with your audience.
Typo in the href part of your link to wank.wordpress.com – it loads as wank.wordpresss.com
i don’t think you’re a douchebag, it’s great that you’re linking to the rest of the story. the headsetoptions/mandarinmusing posts were indeed eye-opening.
@arpit -
don’t worry about the sndbx competition. the situation is being dealt with as scott is being made aware of the issues. see his comments on the linked posts.
@adam … Thanks for the info … poor scott I don’t think he deserves this… I know he has put in a lot of hard work promoting and trying to get sponsors and even putting in 500$ from his own pocket. I hope the competition goes well.
@Sam – Thanks, I fixed the typo.
Douchebag, you are not! (That came out in a far too Yoda-like voice…) We all learn along the way and as you say, those articles above are a bit shocking. But it’s good to see what’s going on in the background, for I had no idea any of this sponsored link stuff was that important. Now I do.
I hope I fall into the 5% to 10% of the people that “get it” and I think I do. I think the larger issue, however, is not the question of sponsorship but rather theme rip-off. I’m a firm believer in giving credit where credit is due (I blogged about that this morning when I posted my thoughts on this topic). I make sure that each theme I use on each blog I create gives proper credit back to the designer from which I got the theme. I use one of Small Potatoes themes on my kid’s blog. The footer clearly gives proper credit back to this site and makes mention that I modified the colors. I find the idea that someone would take someone’s free theme, change the colors, stick in some links, and then submit it to the theme repository and call it their design completely unethical. In my opinion, the constant reference to theme sponsorship is confusing the real issue here.
[...] From WPDesigner – Small Potato Is A Douchebag! [...]
The internet is full of plagiarists and thieves so it is no surprise that themes are being ripped off. I like to modify a theme slightly as I haven’t found one yet that perfectly suited my needs but I wouldn’t dream of claiming it as my own unless I started from scratch. The basic CSS structure of thousands of sites is very similar but that is just a framework on which to build upon and give it an original look, so where does one cross the line into outright theft?
I’ve always thought you’re one of the most talented and generous designers in the WordPress community. The extent to which you’ve shared your designs and knowledge is, quite frankly, phenomenal. Just look at your countless themes and extremely helpful tutorial series. To my mind, the likes of you, Brian Gardner, Headsetoptions, Bharath Kumar and Michael Pollock – to name a few – are what makes the WordPress community such a thriving place. I remember when WordPress was first getting going and its themes were extremely basic. I think it’s the design skills of you guys and gals, and the plugin generosity of the plugin coders out there, that truly help to make WordPress the success it is. My take on sponsored themes is that, while sometimes I might not like a particular link, it’s the theme designer’s prerogative. There is no law or other rule against putting a link in a theme. If someone doesn’t like a particular link, then write to the designer and ask if you can use the theme without the link, but for a reasonable fee. That’s always struck me as blindingly obvious. Why can’t people see that they are, in any event, getting often superb designs for nothing or virtually nothing! Anyway, I, for one, thank you for all your hard work and generosity. Outstanding.
SP,
No lad, you are not an uninformed douchebag. You are an informed douchebag.
BTW, thanks for the tutorial. Ever thought about expanding it and getting it published as, say, WordPerss Themes For Dummies?
Thanks for clearing that up Alan. For Dummies is a bit insulting.
Beyond the jokes, I am working on a tutorial book, a more detailed and advanced version of my tutorial series.
@Richard – Thanks
I think your posts regarding personal themes were perfectly understandable. Its difficult to know what happens behind the scenes.
All of the arguing and bickering is what lead me away from WP for awhile. And I published many sites using TXP. I just didn’t want to risk my clients at any point having to see and possibly deal with the catfights, turmoil and rumors that were and still are constantly happening in the WP community.
Though I think its understandable that such happens in the large WordPress community. A community of its size should be expected to have issues. I just wish things were different. On one end we see Matt as a dictator ruling all with an evil iron fist. On the other he is the benevolent monarch.
FYI. I’m back using WordPress obviously.
hey SP, I am douche bag, too.
Yep, I asked both Thomas (of the Theme Viewer at the time in question) and Sadish for the story. Thomas couldn’t provide any direct information and Sadish did explain his side of the story, but was thoughtful enough to resign from judging in the comp to avoid any controversey, which I appreciated. All’s well.
Explaining things clearly is insulting?
No, thoroughness isn’t insulting. Just the phrase “for dummies.”
I want to be honest and tell you that the use of that term in your title for this entry was offensive to me.
But I still like you as much as I did before.
nada
Nice to see someone else coming around and realizing that things aren’t all they are cracked up to be in wordpress land.
-drmike
The former wp.com forum moderator