Don’t Force Users to Run Your Ads, Please
May 1, 2008
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The other day I was on the hunt for a new theme for my personal site, due to the fact that I was going to use its installed theme (which I had paid for) on another blog.
I found one that I really liked and was able to tweak it enough to satisfy me. Then I got ready to modify the footer file in order to include the ads that run on the bottom of that blog, and I came across this:
“This file is protected by copyright, and any attempt to reverse engineer or decrypt the contents of this file is strictly prohibited.”
Following that was one heck of a long PHP string variable that just looked like gibberish. I went back to the site and found that there were already ads running on the bottom of the theme. So, I put my ad code underneath it all and checked again. They didn’t look like the ads that usually show up on that site, so I put the code above the original stuff and tried again. Same result.
The warning mentioned that I couldn’t reverse engineer or decrypt the file, but didn’t say anything about replacing it, so I stripped out all of the author’s stuff and inserted my ad code. Save, refresh, and have a look. There was something in that original code that affects the CSS, because now the page looks completely borked. Evidently the author is claiming that “you’re going to run my ads or you won’t use my theme”.
That’s fine. I won’t use your theme.
I can understand that some authors would like to be compensated for the work that they do on Wordpress themes, but I really think that a better option would have been to make a paid version of the theme and allowed the user to decide what they want to run on it. Seriously. I WOULD have paid for this theme. But now I don’t want anything to do with it.
I don’t mind if theme authors put a link to their own sites in the footer and then serve ads from that site, but if I’m going to use a theme, I get to configure it the way that I want, not the way the author says I have to.
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May 1st, 2008 at 8:24 am
BloggingNotes - Don’t Force Users to Run Your Ads, Please…
Finding out that a Wordpress theme creator has determined that you’re going to run their ads on your site for them or you won’t use their theme elicits just one respone from me:
Fine. I. Won’t. Use. Your. Theme. Ever.
I understand that autho…
May 1st, 2008 at 4:11 pm
Considering how many free-to-use themes there are on the ‘net, that’s a pretty arrogant move on his part…to put it nicely.
Dennis Edell’s last blog post..Don’t Just Sit on it - USE it
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:52 am
Dennis - I couldn’t agree more. It does kind of make you wonder why he didn’t realize that there would be better ways of handling this. Thanks very much for your comment.
May 8th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
Wow… that is really bold of that person.
I’m wondering if he is just hoping that somebody comes along that doesn’t know what they are doing and uses it anyway.
Still, I wouldn’t touch a theme like that with a 10 foot pole.
Grant’s last blog post..Buy Groceries with Your Economic Stimulus Check
May 12th, 2008 at 12:12 am
I don’t have anything to add to the comments above, but I wanted to stop by and say that I love the theme you’re using here. It’s a big improvement. Good job!
May 12th, 2008 at 1:53 pm
@Grant - That may in fact be the case. The fact that I needed to run ads exactly where they were running theirs tipped me off, though.
Thanks very much for the feedback.
May 12th, 2008 at 1:54 pm
@Ben: Well, thanks very much
Glad to see someone else likes it as well.