The problem now is that too many people are asking questions and there aren’t enough people to answer them. It’s free software and support is run by volunteers.

I try to search the forums and the web for answers before I post a new question on the forums – it’s sort of like a last resort for me.

Nicky Jameson´s last blog post – Want to Become A Blogger? Free Video Tutorials To Create Your Own Blog

You raise a good point. Perhaps the mods started out fine but were pushed to the negative point that they have reached. I just think they should stop offering support if they can’t do it without being snarky.

Being appreciated makes a big difference too. I feel really good when I answer a question and the person replies back and thanks me because the solution works.

Frankly I admired any one who helped out to the extent that some did (and remained civil) sometimes in the fact of a lot of insults and very little appreciation. I recall some heated arguments that often it was just best staying out of…

I did think that burnout was inevitable and that WP/Automatic/mods/whomever could have done more to support them, but that’s just me. I tended to cut them a lot more slack. There are only so many times you could tell people to please search. Even volunteers need some support and appreciation. I did feel that the WP forums degenerated somewhat when the original set of volunteers got fed up/burned out/”mushroomed” on one too many times.

In the end I left because I went to self-host my blog…Wordpress.org was more mature, but it was hard to navigate and often deserted, however I have to say I did get help I needed. The thesis forum and threads are marvellous… so much so that when I see the odd condescending post it really stands out. However I also feel Thesis attracts a more mature user than wp.com – and it shows.

Nicky Jameson´s last blog post – Want to Become A Blogger? Free Video Tutorials To Create Your Own Blog

So, if I had an ad for say Thesis on my site and I released a free theme WordPress wouldn’t list it in their directory. It’s really hard to believe.

So Joe Fischler’s excellent Aeros theme has also been suspended because he dared carry an ad on his site for Woothemes.

This smacks of trying to crush competition to their own plans to monetise GPL themes.

As you say, MT lost the community support and lost out massively. Whether that was a good business decision for them is a different thing – maybe it was, but I’m in no position to know that for sure. What I do know is that if you want to profit from GPL, which almost always depends on the goodwill and backing from a lot of people who came before, then you really really need to play nice.

Thanks for your support – I was worried I’d get a lot of flack for fighting on this subject but everyone’s been ultra-supportive so far :-)

David Coveney´s last blog post – WordPress.org Pull 200 GPL Themes

I just went and read your article before replying here. I am stunned. Did they pull all of the GPL themes from sites that also sell other themes? It’s understandable if there is a specific reason but a one sentence email is not acceptable. Especially after the entire theme partnership issue that you discussed.

If it weren’t for users contributing to the community they wouldn’t be where they are today. I also think that WordPress was very lucky when Movable Type started charging with version 3 I think. Prior to that WordPress was not as big. But Movable Type users got mad and moved to WordPress.

And WordPress isn’t even a great place to find quality themes anymore. Doesn’t make sense that they pulled so many out of their directory.