Comments on: Should I release this WordPress theme?

By: Jordi

Jordi — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 17:10:25 +0000

I was wondering, would you ever release UB October, the current theme?

By: Elijah

Elijah — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 22:11:38 +0000

Great post.

Man, with Revolution going open source it really brings these questions to the table. To be honest, I’m torn between them. I think purchasing a developers licence for a theme that works for “you” is smart.. not only does it make building your own projects easier if you have a good grasp on that theme, but it also stimulates the “themes” economy allowing these great designers to keep doing what they do.

On the flip side, releasing an awesome premium theme open source/for free can also stimulate the designers wallet in the forms of traffic to their site, and giving them an opportunity to turn that traffic into sales and clicks via other revenue streams…

By: Jake Styles

Jake Styles — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 12:13:53 +0000

You know what would be really clever? Let someone else release it, then you get the publicity and they take any of the flak if it all hits the fan.

By: Underdogblogger

Underdogblogger — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 08:45:49 +0000

Good musicians borrow, great musician steal eh?
If only there were a magical formula of old theme + x hours = new theme. lol. I don’t think there is a theme developer out there (premium or not) who hasn’t borrowed heavily from a previous theme…or from some form of previous HTML layout….that’s why blog themes and styles (and web design in general) evolve from the earliest simple layouts through to more sophisticated magazine layouts we have now.

You could turn your question around and ask whether premium theme developers should be required to pay royalties to the themes, designs and inspirations they originally hacked up to create their “premium” layouts.

By: Jordi

Jordi — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 07:29:20 +0000

Yes, you should.

Your mod does’nt look like Thesis. In fact, it looks like the current theme at upstartblogger or moleskine (would you release the current theme, october?)

But, anyway, why don’t you ask DIY staff?

By: Josh

Josh — Sun, 05 Oct 2008 19:25:09 +0000

You’ve modified Thesis a lot. You’ve bought the developers’ licence, which allows you to do whatever you like with it. I don’t see what’s so risqué about it all. It seems like a perfectly ethical suggestion. Go for it.

By: John Miller

John Miller — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:36:07 +0000

Just release it, you know you want to and we know we want it so what’s the problem dude, just let us have it already. You paid for the developer version, you developed it, now release it!

By: Andrew Garret

Andrew Garret — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:33:48 +0000

Yes you should release it. With the exception of the brackets around the comments it’s totally different to the Thesis theme. I don’t see what the problem would be, especially since you coughed up the moolah for the developer license.

By: Christopher

Christopher — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 19:03:42 +0000

I struggled with the same question a while back, but in the end I decided that since WordPress is free, so should my themes be. I make a good living consulting and most of that work has come from the fact that WordPress is totally free, somehow I feel a little dirty charging people to download my themes etc.

By: wangjel

wangjel — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 13:21:57 +0000

ha good question,

i guess it is depend on the relations with the credit holder,
as we saw it so many times with the “hemmingway” theme and all the themes build on hemmingway.
In case of good relation everybody is happy thetheme is source of inspiration and credits can be shared some way.

By: Daus

Daus — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 11:50:04 +0000

Can I release my current modified Depo-Skinny theme as a standalone theme? ;)