Hi Jeffro,

Back when I started themesforge.com this was one of the first things on my hitlist to build. By the time I actually got around to looking at a few had popped up so I held off to see how they turned out - and since then a few more have popped up. Part of the reason I didn't jump on the bandwagon and throw yet another sorter/finder tool into the mix is because I think while it's easy enough to build one of these it's not very to build a really high quality one. And of what I've seen thus far, I don't think anyone has come really close to how is visualise a really good theme finder working.

I really think that the best place for such a tool would be on WP.org itself. WP.com is definitely going to down this route with the launch of commercial themes over there. You can already see the start of it on the WP.com themes showcase - http://theme.wordpress.com/

If they added a few more rating/commenting features to that and extended this to .org then I think the community would have the best possible home for such a tool. I ultimately think this will happen as the community will trust WP far quicker than an external site directing users to commercial theme shops with affiliate links. I also think that community contributions are essential for these tools to work and that central curation/control will not provide the transparency needed for success.

Another big problem is knowing what users want from a theme finder. I think 75% of the community use these tools just to find themes that look 'nice'. I think there's then a minority (but very vocal) who are aware of things like GPL, malware, security etc. who know not just to grab the first theme they think looks nice. I think there needs to be more awareness created about the potential pitfalls of crap/dodgy themes within these kind of tools so that users make better informed decisions about their themes while looking for them.

On the surface it looks like an easy business model, but I think it's going to be very hard for anyone to really do well when WP.org/.com inevitably goes this route eventually.

Ed.