Frumph 9:10 am on January 21, 2011

Obsolete – No longer active themes – Discussion

These themes have been processed by the Theme Review Team to be determined to be justifiable to suspend
from the repository for one of the following reasons

Splog links – links go to spam blogs
invalid license information that is not gpl compatible or font license not found (1) or non-gpl restriction with footer credits
not-working theme just not function with latest wordpress
missing completely, svn not associated to the post of the theme

Splog Links in theme/author uri or theme uri or SEO seeded or even hardcorded backlinks

https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/bluesky
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/happy-cyclope
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/gone-fishing
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/yb-auto
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/midnight-blue
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/the-knife-wp
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/studiopress
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/black-on-white-serif
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/flexi-blue
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/yb-light
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/nishita
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/descartes
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/chinese-love
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simple-blue
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/styleicious
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/jas-personal-publisher
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/rotate-text
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/diana
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/citrus-mix
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/clear-seo-blue-eng
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/kitten-in-pink
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/sharp-orange
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/baltimore-phototheme
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/citrus-mix
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/small-business-seo
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/deepblue
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/wp-bats-theme
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simple-blog-design
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/simple-blog-design-2
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/blog-design-studio-newblue
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/myblogstheme
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/spanish-translation-us
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/planetemo
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/contrast-style
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/shoot-it

Non-compatible Licenses

https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/jnb-multicolor-theme
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/superfresh
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/christmas-1
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/harvest
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/medieval
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/the-lord-of-the-rings

Theme has no svn

https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/thistle1

Unknown – possible copyright infringement on design /maybelist

https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/facebookwb

Broken Theme – needs updating

https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/keke
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/black-green
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/modern-blue

The pages we chose to review were based on the furthest updated, the themes are on the last pages found in the repository. There were a total of 120 themes checked, 104 of which were originally written as recommendation of suspension, clearing up the ones that were just no license information and other minor nuances made the list above.

The themes listed above represent only a small fraction of available themes on the repository that are outdated and way out of bounds for the guidelines.

This topic is to discuss the plans as such for obsolete themes that remain in the repository that do not meet even the minimal of guidelines that go against most of our opinions of what the free available themes in the repository should be representing as well as how to handle those.

Beyond this current list of those which are to be suspended, the time allotted to do both the theme reviews and verify older themes in the repository does not make it possible to functionally do both. Some of the review team have brought it up that there should be a time limit for non-updated themes, our general consensus is 2 or 3 major revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. of WordPress before suspension for not keeping themes updated. What this means that currently we’re on WordPress 3.0 previous to that was 2.9, 2.8 which is 2, 2.7 being 3 revisions previous, all themes that are prior to 2.7 (or 2.8) should be suspended as being currently obsolete.

Rahul Bansal 9:21 am on January 21, 2011

Question – If theme “thistle1” didn’t have SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/., how was it submitted?
And also in that case – won’t be adding its code into SVN be enough?

As theme developers we cannot do SVN IMPORT inside wordpress theme repo as far as I know. Right?
- Frumph 9:37 am on January 21, 2011
  
  It just means it’s a bug, the theme was probably removed without the post being removed due to some situation which warranted it.
  - Peter Westwood 10:01 am on January 21, 2011
    
    Indeed. I suspect if you go back through svn history you will find it there.
  - Rahul Bansal 10:40 am on January 21, 2011
    
    I am not aware of backend of theme repo. Hope its wordpress only!
    
    In any case SVNSVN Apache Subversion (often abbreviated SVN, after its command name svn) is a software versioning and revision control system. Software developers use Subversion to maintain current and historical versions of files such as source code, web pages, and documentation. Its goal is to be a mostly compatible successor to the widely used Concurrent Versions System (CVS). WordPress core and the wordpress.org released code are all centrally managed through SVN. https://subversion.apache.org/. HooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. can be used to automatically keep SVN & Repo in-sync. Just my $0.02…
    - Frumph 10:49 am on January 21, 2011
      
      It’s bbpressbbPress Free, open source software built on top of WordPress for easily creating forums on sites. https://bbpress.org. with svn, and they’re hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same. in place, this is just happen to be one that fell out of place, but the topic really is discussing the suspension of outdated themes
Peter Westwood 10:02 am on January 21, 2011

I guess we should contact all of these theme authors and ask them if they want to submit an updated version to resolve the issue (within an agreed timeline) or they are happy for us to remove them.

This ensures they know beforehand that they are being removed.
- Frumph 10:03 am on January 21, 2011
  Is that possible that we can gather emails together from a certain timeline for a form email to be sent?
  - related note, half of those do not have contact information; would have to get their emails from their registered logins –
- Chip Bennett 4:43 pm on January 21, 2011
  
  For particularly egregious issues (malicious code, spam links, non-GPLGPL GPL is an acronym for GNU Public License. It is the standard license WordPress uses for Open Source licensing https://wordpress.org/about/license/. The GPL is a ‘copyleft’ license https://www.gnu.org/licenses/copyleft.en.html. This means that derivative work can only be distributed under the same license terms. This is in distinction to permissive free software licenses, of which the BSD license and the MIT License are widely used examples. license/restrictions, the modus operandi has been to suspend first, then inform. Is there any reason not to do so in this case?
  
  Note that suspended Themes can be un-suspended if warranted, or a new version can be submitted and approved for the repository.
  
  But the things listed here really have no business being distributed via the official repository, and when found in on-off circumstances, are suspended immediately.
  - Frumph 4:51 pm on January 21, 2011
    
    ^ I’m in favor of the email first method, at least it gives us ‘reasonable attempt at contact’, which is a good in the eyes of people who are viewing our actions.
    
    I’m more concerned about the fact that this was a tedious task just to get these ‘samples’ of themes, which unfortunately we’ll never be able to do again to even remotely make a dent in cleaning up the archives of themes.
- Frumph 7:55 am on January 22, 2011
  
  Emails were sent out, Karen has kindly opted to give her themes up for adoption when the adoption program starts to developers who would like to take them over. Several other responses were all in the positive for the updating of their themes.
Edward Caissie 12:32 pm on January 21, 2011

The theme author emails are available from the repo admin, I can marry up a list of author emails to the above themes listing later today.
Otto 2:29 pm on January 21, 2011

Question: What is the licensing issue with https://themes.svn.wordpress.org/the-lord-of-the-rings ? I see no mention of license in the theme.

Ditto for:
https://themes.svn.wordpress.org/medieval
https://themes.svn.wordpress.org/harvest
- Frumph 4:07 pm on January 21, 2011
  
  Daniel noted those 4 including the christmas-1 to be: Licensed under CC-BY 2.5 in the notes so, unsure how she derived to that conclusion, again probably a good reason to have a blanket-by-date update your theme notice sent out.
  - Chip Bennett 4:21 pm on January 21, 2011
    
    Did you check Author URI, to determine if the Theme developer referenced license terms on her website?
  - Frumph 4:26 pm on January 21, 2011
    
    “I’m releasing this under the Public Domain so do with it what you please and enjoy! I would, however, love to hear from you if you do decide to use it.” is all she puts on the theme page for it.
    
    Love their latest post though “backlinking at no cost” to quote it “Give something away for free with a link to your website embedded in it, like an ebook, report, templates, themes, apps, etc.”
- Chip Bennett 4:36 pm on January 21, 2011
  
  See here: https://themes.svn.wordpress.org/christmas-1/2.0/style.css
  
  “License: This theme is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license so please leave the credit in the footer intact.”
  
  The other three by the same author, however, appear not to have any licensing information at all.
  - Karen 2:38 am on January 22, 2011
    
    looks like I have to change that…it’s not a big problem…I will do that this weekend and change the other 3 as well…after all this time, now I come to find out I still didn’t do things right? wow!
    - Otto 4:31 pm on January 22, 2011
      
      In general, you should avoid using Creative Commons licenses for software. That’s not what they’re designed for.
      
      See http://wiki.creativecommons.org/FAQ#Can_I_use_a_Creative_Commons_license_for_software.3F for more info.
Sayontan 6:41 pm on January 21, 2011

The author link on these themes directs to a debt relief site:
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/flora-relief
https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/dark-relief
- Edward Caissie 7:12 pm on January 21, 2011
  
  Thanks for the heads-up. These will be addressed, too.
Payday Designs 4:38 am on January 22, 2011

Why my theme all-green get suspended? What was the issue there…
- Frumph 7:10 am on January 22, 2011
  
  I am not seeing all-green on any of my lists for suspension, i’ll inform Cais or Pross to look into it.
  - Payday Designs 7:14 am on January 22, 2011
    
    Thanks friend… I also get amazed when i saw it suspended as I am learning theme development and feedback from you guys is really make my learning easy.
    
    Thank You again
    - Frumph 7:17 am on January 22, 2011
      
      No worries, I’m sure you’re answer will be handled very shortly the admins are incredibly good at what they do.
      
      Did you get an email from me or anyone concerning it? There were a few emails concerning some suspensions happening in the future as a notice to please update their theme
      
      Of course it’s way after midnight out here so might need to give them time wake up and get some coffee 😉
      - Payday Designs 7:18 am on January 22, 2011
        
        I havent received any email
      - Frumph 7:43 am on January 22, 2011
        
        I’ve got your answer for you, it was quite a debate on the theme-reviewers mailing actually.
        
        Cais the lead suspended it on practically everyone’s recommendation to contact you to update it and that it was a ‘mea culpa’ situation on the accidental approval in the first place. For you not being contacted and having the ball drop on that I do apologize; You are actually the first i’ve heard of this. However I do note that Cais requested someone to email you, apparently no-one did which now falls to me.
        
        The issue is that the functionality of all-green is that of twenty-ten, it’s basically a child-theme in the matter that all of your coding for the functions.php is that of the twentyten theme, the only thing that was changed was graphics. In these cases derivative works are not permitted on the repository if they are this close; to just being some style and graphic changes – which in all practical purposes makes them a child themeChild theme A Child Theme is a customized theme based upon a Parent Theme. It’s considered best practice to create a child theme if you want to modify the CSS of your theme. https://developer.wordpress.org/themes/advanced-topics/child-themes/..
        
        There is a fine line there however, if the theme added a different functionality to the theme even so minute to make it a clear difference from the stock twentyten that would be permitted, unfortunately as I look at this code – this theme does not – on a good note you did change the text domain.
        
        The suspension is only temporary until you make the theme a clear difference or change in functionality of the twenty-ten theme *otherwise* if you wait a little time you can re-upload it specifically as a child-theme which will be allowed for the theme repository coming somewhat in the future.
  - Payday Designs 7:54 am on January 22, 2011
    
    Ok Fine… I will make it different and will re-upload it… also I have submitted 2nd theme named beauty-dots … its still pending and haven’t received any reply. If it can be approved or feedback on that. I will also help me in my future learning. Thanks
    - Frumph 7:57 am on January 22, 2011
      
      Ah yeah, that one, since we have inadvertently made the mistake of not emailing you in a timely fashion or dropping the ball on the other one, if you go to the IRC channel I can talk up on there and give you a review and help you sort things out right away if you like.
      - Payday Designs 8:02 am on January 22, 2011
        
        ok i join there
Chip Bennett 2:30 pm on January 24, 2011

I haven’t yet seen any discussion of this point, so I wanted to highlight it again:

Some of the review team have brought it up that there should be a time limit for non-updated themes, our general consensus is 2 or 3 major revisionsRevisions The WordPress revisions system stores a record of each saved draft or published update. The revision system allows you to see what changes were made in each revision by dragging a slider (or using the Next/Previous buttons). The display indicates what has changed in each revision. of WordPress before suspension for not keeping themes updated. What this means that currently we’re on WordPress 3.0 previous to that was 2.9, 2.8 which is 2, 2.7 being 3 revisions previous, all themes that are prior to 2.7 (or 2.8) should be suspended as being currently obsolete.

To be clear, the Theme Review Team is formally proposing an obsolescence Guideline, that any Theme not updated within 2 (perhaps 3) major releases of WordPress be automatically suspended, until a current version is submitted and approved.

We very much want input and feedback on this proposal.
Payday Designs 2:50 am on February 15, 2011

My theme get approved… but not showing in list… Beauty Dots 1.0.6

Can any one help why?
- Edward Caissie 8:10 pm on February 16, 2011
  
  Sorry for the delay … seems it was a fat finger. You should see your theme in the Extend repository now: https://wordpress.org/extend/themes/beauty-dots