Wrong. Cutline was created as a sponsored theme for Tubetorial. It was Matt Mullenweg who changed the link at WP.com to Pearson’s personal site, against Pearson’s wishes (from what I understand).

Well, to re-quote myself:

You should be attacking the Wordpress users who have voted to have sponsored themes removed. If 4/5 of America voted to outlaw cowboy boots: we’d outlaw them. The problem is that you are at war with the very people you rely on.

You’ve made a point, not an argument.

First, define “sponsored” Themes. One link, even two links, may not qualify. Themes paid for by a company which include a link to the company and the designer, or one or the other, may or may not qualify. A Theme stuffed with inappropriate links and ads does qualify. We still do not have a clear definition of what qualifies as a sponsored Theme for inclusion on WordPress official sites.

Second, one Theme is not justification of the action. Your statement that the world is a better place with sponsored Themes does not mean anything. There are plenty of non-sponsored Themes which are brilliant and lovely, and others ugly (in my opinion) but people love them. There are all kinds of Themes so saying one particular one justifies a rule for all Themes doesn’t make sense. It’s opinion that judges “good” Themes. And this isn’t the issue of the debate.

Third, if this was such an issue for you, why didn’t you fight harder, publicize the issue more, and be more definitive in your support (I’m still looking for support for your argument in your writings - and I read them thoroughly) for inclusion of sponsored Themes while this was an open debate. After the decision is a tough way to get something changed. Participation in the decision process is when things change.

Again, I’m looking for calm, rational discussions on the issue that are supported by evidence and clear opinion. That is not an insult to your intelligence. Such a claim implies personal knowledge and experience. I have none. This issue is obviously personal to you and I know not why.

The members of the WordPress Community, especially the users, let Matt and others know how they felt about sponsored Themes and he made a decision, as is his right. I voted. Did you? The community voted, and while some countries don’t honor the vote, Matt is doing his best to make sure that it counts with WordPress.

Ryan, I’m pretty sure you edited your comment after I posted. You asked “Who exactly?” I responded with who exactly — the Wordpress community.

Elaboration: You are at war with the Wordpress community (they chose to ban sponsored themes). And the Wordpress community are the ones who make sponsored themes profitable. Hence, you rely on them.

The entirety of your arguments revolves around assumptions (that Matt is partnering with Google or Matt Cutts, for example), completely unfounded claims, and insults.

Blanket policies are often most fair. For example, speeding is illegal. It’s not illegal for some people: it’s illegal for everyone. Even though most roads are more than capable of handling higher speeds, especially in the hands of better drivers and high-performance cars.

Can you honestly come up with an argument that benefits the Wordpress community at large by using an absolute non-personal, non-biased scale? (What qualifies as “spammy”). We don’t post speed limits for what kind of car and driver you are: we post an absolute number.

To dismantle the “you’re motivated by money” counter-argument, let me just put it this way: I make over $6,000 per month. How much of that is from sponsored themes? Nothing. Zilch. I do sponsor themes myself. That’s true. But I make sure they are good themes before I sponsor them. But in the grand scheme of things I don’t make any direct income from sponsored themes. I work for a company that makes $500 each month off sponsored themes. But all of my arguments here are based on principal. I can assure you of that.

I don’t like blanket policies. I think they are for simple minded people. Especially when there are better solutions.

Here’s the solution:

Find volunteers (I’d be willing to help) to manually evaluate each theme that’s submitted (we’re only talking about a few each day) based on conditions of quality. Or even better, have the WP community vote on each theme (does it get to stay or not).

To me, it seems like a much wiser decision to discriminate based on theme quality.

No criteria for quality? Well consider how art studios select good art, or how dog shows pick best of the breed. While there’s a lot of subjectivity involved, when a community is working together to choose quality, they usually succeed.