Aug.04.2007
Templates Browser Problem
- Filed under: WordPress
TemplatesBrowser.com/wordpress-themes/ is a WordPress theme download site, re-distributing hundreds of modified themes while piggy-backing the theme authors’ credit messages in the footer to link back to TemplatesBrowser.com.
Other than ripping off GPL and even Creative Commons themes, it isn’t safe to use themes modified by Templates Browser. They don’t simply link back to their own site. They also package encoded, hidden ads via the themes’
files.functions.php
Additional Readings:
Just a simple Q: How come not even one of the big WP players are participating?
Usually, they’re very slow to react. Wait a few days.
This is the sort of thing I’d like to see Matthew Mullenweg / WordPress / Automattic use their relationship with Google to penalise people who abuse the community. WordPress bent over backwards for Google with the nofollow comment tags which hasn’t reduced or stopped comment spam for me at all then I saw some people theorised that Google was behind the sponsored themes removal. Surely the WordPress designer and developer community could get more out of the relationship than just Automattic being allowed to host Adsense ads sometime in the future. Maybe I’ve mis-read how close they are.
It’s a pity. Templatesbrowser is not the only one, there are hundreds, if not thousands of users of WordPress themes who do the same.
Unfortunately, the WordPress community is divided. Most wouldn’t care much until their own ass is on fire. When our themes were ripped off, not a word was spoken before or after or even till date by the new-born saviors of WordPress!
In the midst of such hypocrisy, Small Potato is a refreshing change, and I wish you more success and popularity only because you have made it this far on your own with honesty and without the aid of the “free dashboard traffic.”
Thanks for stopping by and for the compliments Mark. I learned a lot from yours and hso’s post about the sponsored themes banning.
[…] and many other blogs wrote about how TemplatesBrowser.com re-packaged many authors’ themes with spam links, more than a month […]
All these guys have to do is add another link back to there site, keeping the original coder/designer credit in place.
Bunch of retarded morons