While I don’t normally write about WordPress.com happenings at WPTavern.com, the removal of Cutline for a new theme called Coraline is making headlines, and rightly so. The first reason why this is such a big story is because the Cutline theme was developed by Chris Pearson a few years ago. The same Chris Pearson that recently announced Thesis would be switching to a split licensed setup. Chris also has another theme on WordPress.com called Press Row which according to this comment by Matt, will be seeing a similar fate. Keep in mind though that his comment was made during a heated time period between Chris and Matt. Ian Stewart who is a member of the Automattic Theme team announced within the WordPress.com forums that licensing also played a role into its removal:
Cutline was sold a few years ago and had a more restrictive license placed on it. The original author of the Cutline theme has gone on to produce other themes with more restrictive licenses. Using Cutline has been seen as a promotion of that work and that’s not something we want to do–so, we made something better: Coraline! The state of the art in themes has advanced quite a bit since Cutline and we’re happy to make the switch.
*Note* David Peralty mentions in the comments that Cutline never had a more restrictive license and was always licensed under Creative Commons.
The second reason why this is a big story is the way in which the theme was introduced/switched. The post I linked to with Ian Stewart was created four days before the switch. The WordPress.com blog mentions nothing in the archive leading up to the switch that Cutline would be disappearing. Users of the service virtually had no time what so ever to transition to the new theme. It’s as if someone threw common sense out the window and felt that dealing with anger up front from users would be better than creating a smooth transition. There are plenty of ways in which this could have gone over better. For instance, at least give users thirty days prior to the switch. For those that don’t read the blog post, they could have written something that detected whether or not Cutline was activated as the theme in use and if so, display a custom Admin message within the dashboard with a link to the phase out post. A sticky forum post to go with the blog post would have been a nice touch. You wouldn’t be able to make everyone happy once the switch occurred but all of the information before hand would have softened the blow.
That’s the way I would have done it, certainly not the way it was done. The one pattern I’m beginning to take note of is the one in which drastic changes or decisions are made with little to no warning. There is always an uproar from those affected or upset by the change and after a period of time, life moves on without anything being done about the original decision. Happened with the removal of themes from the repository, the Capital P filter and now the removal of Cutline on WP.com. I suppose we can now expect the unexpected.
Hey Jeffro – The recent actions and comments made by Matt and others associated with WordPress and Automattic should make everyone sit up and notice. And even more, it should cause the Community to wonder what the hell is going on.
In my own humble opinion, I question whether the best interest of the community is even coming into any decisions or discussions taking place right now by WordPress.
I also hope the writing is not on the wall when it comes to perhaps the “chosen one” theme or framework. Is WordPress and another company attempting to take the position that there is only one theme or framework out there for WordPress. Surely, the utopia which is being strived for is not one where competition and innovation is squashed in favor of “the one chosen” theme or framework.
It is my hope and the hope of others this does not happen. The WordPress community will not be served by WordPress having a “one chosen” theme or framework. Competition by its very nature breeds innovation. It is competition that causes Headway, Thesis, iThemes and Press75 to continue to build and innovate. And this is what benefits the community.
As Seth Godin stated recently,
The actions of WordPress and those in charge lately causes one to worry if the competitive market place will no longer be in existence at WordPress. It surely causes one to be concerned if the community as a whole will suffer because of it. I fear we may be seeing the idea of a utopia get in the way of the free market driven innovation that has benefited the WordPress community for so long.
I hope I am wrong and that I eat these words.