Comments on: WordPress Marketplace

By: Patricia Müller » On WordPress.com theme Marketplace

Patricia Müller » On WordPress.com theme Marketplace — Tue, 14 Oct 2008 08:57:44 +0000

[...] Matt says “theme developers will set the price”, and “there will be a pricing floor, probably $10-15.” I’m glad to hear that. [...]

By: Alex

Alex — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 16:41:00 +0000

I haven’t heard any updates about the Marketplace for a while. They are likely still working out the process and ironing out the kinks. Plus they’re working on version 2.5 of WordPress, so it’s possible that they’ll devote more resources to the project once that’s released.

By: Grant Glendinningof

Grant Glendinningof — Sun, 24 Feb 2008 15:30:40 +0000

Is the WP Marketplace been released yet? I keep reading threads about it from October-December 2007 on the matter but can’t actually find anything about it as of 2008 – any ideas?

Thanks,
Grant

By: Day 24: Golden Triangle Geeks – The Art of The Start – WordPress Marketplace for Themes | ReinventingErica.com

Wed, 02 Jan 2008 11:36:56 +0000

[...] mentioned the other night that WordPress is setting up a MarketPlace for Themes. Totally Groovy. I’m looking forward to contributing some of my own themes soon. [...]

By: Deuce

Deuce — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 18:06:17 +0000

I think, not only should the designer be able to set the price (with a cap of course), but also how many times it can be bought before it expires so that only maybe 10-15 people can have a design all their own.

Just a thought. I know that it could definitely be a way to add value to a design
when there may only be a few people that have it.

By: Vincent

Vincent — Tue, 06 Nov 2007 05:01:10 +0000

Alex — thanks! I’ll post over there, but figured since that was the thread of discussion here I might as well ask.

By: Alex

Alex — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:25:59 +0000

Hi Vincent, you make an interesting point. I do not know enough about the GPL to know how the pricing requirements would work out. My inference from Matt’s post was that by releasing it for .com, the designer was implicitly agreeing to also have it released via GPL for .org users. That is by no means definitive, and you should definitely ping Matt via his site for a proper answer.

By: Matt Mullenweg lance une plateforme de thèmes payants pour Wordpress.com

Matt Mullenweg lance une plateforme de thèmes payants pour Wordpress.com — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 07:01:16 +0000

[...] Alex Jones, de Silverspider.com [...]

By: Vincent

Vincent — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 06:49:49 +0000

Hi — sorry to intrude. I found this post through Matt's latest post on my WP Dashboard, and the comments here on the open nature of the theme marketplace got me thinking. If a theme designer builds and releases a nice theme through the marketplace, which requires that the theme be GPL, would he have to release the theme elsewhere free of charge? Does the GPL dictate that a piece of software released under the GPL must be released free of charge? Correct me if I'm wrong, but it seems to me that if a person releases a theme under the GPL (which explicitly allows GPL works to be sold at any price) to the Marketplace, and charges for it accordingly, the people that purchase the theme are purchasing (in addition to the rights to use the theme) the source code itself (given that it's CSS). So why would a person have to release his or her theme elsewhere free of charge? Sorry if I'm misunderstanding the GPL. If I released a theme to the Marketplace, I'd want to release it for free elsewhere as well, if for nothing else than to keep with the spirit of WP and the GPL...but I wouldn't have to if I didn't want to, right? Just saying, because this could possibly eliminate the worry of a backlash from .com users.

By: Alex

Alex — Sat, 03 Nov 2007 20:47:46 +0000

Thanks Jeff!

I agree that the difference in capabilities afforded the .com versus the .org folks is very intriguing and I’ve been debating how much, if any fallout will come from charging the WordPress.com folks while giving it for free to the .org folks, and I am currently of the mind that little will come of it.

The WordPress.com users have signed up for a free service, due in large part (I think) to their lack of knowledge and/or interest in Web development which is required to set up their own domain, purchase hosting and install and maintain WordPress. That’s a lot of effort for someone who just wants to write. It follows that many of those users don’t keep up on the standalone WordPress announcements or general Web Development news.

So, if my uninformed judgment is correct, there is only a small fraction of users who will know about the difference, and in many cases, it would be cheaper, and definitely less of a hassle for them to buy the theme and stay on WordPress.com compared to getting it for free and having to do all the work themselves. The effort involved is considerably higher than the likely average cost of a theme.

There may be a select few who rail against the idea, but they can always switch to host their own install, or as I expect a few people to do, some will try to hack the system by copying the CSS from the free version to paste into their account. Matt mentioned in the comments to his post that Automattic will reduce the feasibility of that type of hack, but again, I think those are pretty small numbers, so I wouldn’t expect too much from it.

So it’ll come down to awareness that there is a difference between the two services, which I bet is low, the value a new theme has and the effort required to either protest or steal.

I bet after a few initial adjustments, this will become just another service for WordPress.com users who have shown a willingness to pay for ease of use, stability and interesting features.