WP-Admin Theme Promotion

It has recently come to our attention that many Themes are using some…aggressive promotion techniques from within the WP-Admin:

  • Embedding videos and external IFrameiframe iFrame is an acronym for an inline frame. An iFrame is used inside a webpage to load another HTML document and render it. This HTML document may also contain JavaScript and/or CSS which is loaded at the time when iframe tag is parsed by the user’s browser. content
  • Redirecting to a Theme Info page on activation
  • Promoting the Theme (or an upsell commercial version of the Theme) via Admin Notices
  • Etc.

This sort of promotion is not appropriate. Adding a Theme info page is fine. Adding a Theme info page that promotes other of the developer’s Themes is fine. But redirecting to either of those pages on Theme activation is not. Adding an admin notice generated by the TGM PluginPlugin A plugin is a piece of software containing a group of functions that can be added to a WordPress website. They can extend functionality or add new features to your WordPress websites. WordPress plugins are written in the PHP programming language and integrate seamlessly with WordPress. These can be free in the WordPress.org Plugin Directory https://wordpress.org/plugins/ or can be cost-based plugin from a third-party Activation library, to notify users of companion Plugins that can enhance the Theme experience, is fine. Adding an admin notice to promote a commercial version of the Theme, or other Themes, is not.

Embedded or external content of any kind is strictly prohibited, due to potential security vulnerability and user bandwidth issues. Linking to those resources at ThemeURI from a Theme info or settings page is fine.

Please discuss in the comments, as it has just been pointed out to us that these issues impact a number of highly visible Themes. We need to ensure that we correct these ASAP, and ensure that we are handling them consistently when reviewing Themes.

#guidelines