OpenWebDesign update 2
Yesterday was an intensive day, as I posted a blog entry about the sponsored links on OWD that I mentioned earlier. I was staying out of the discussion for several days, but yesterday I ended up in a really unpleasant situation where I needed to do something to save myself from future problems - and I ended up doing something dramatic: I used my admin rights on OWD to remove my own templates from my user page.
That move did of course create a lot of reactions and emotions. In an effort to avoid angry comments, I was completely honest and admitted that I was selfish and that it was ugly of me to abuse my admin rights. Most people were supportive and positive, realizing that it was after all only a matter of me removing my own templates from my own user page - and for good reasons too. But as expected, not everyone was happy…
When I decided to do this, I had two things in my mind. The first was to quickly get out of a situation which was not very fun. A few template users that had downloaded some of my templates from OWD were under the impression that I had hidden spam links in the designs, and I recieved both angry messages and threats because of this. By removing the templates, I would make sure that noone would be tricked into believing this, and thereby avoiding more unpleasant e-mails.
The other thing was to make a point, in order to hopefully avoid similar unpleasant situations in the future. It was that this is all about such a simple topic as free website templates, not worth taking so extremely serious that you send out threats to people who try to do nice things.
I will write more about those things later. But for now, I just want to say that I have temporarily removed the previous post where I announced the removed templates, and of course all the comments that were attached to it. I will put it back again in a few days, but since this whole story resulted in more discussions, I will be able to put my templates back on OWD tomorrow - without the sponsored links that started the whole thing.
Comments
Comment from Carl Galloway
Time: November 30, 2006, 7:30 pm
Good approach, I think you don't need the extra stress that the previous entry would have given you. Hope things can settle down now.
Comment from G. Wolfgang
Time: November 30, 2006, 10:34 pm
I researched some more into hidden links, and found out that the link to Dubai Apartments is a hidden spam link! This is just awful and truly illegal, not only towards the authors, but towards the entire Internet ethics. Such ads are severly penalized by Search Engines, and users who find this in their templats get truly upset, and think the author puts those links in there.
Here is the link which is hidden in the footer in those templates that have hidden ads (I have added XX to link and image tags so that it is not registered as spam link here in the forum:
In other words, Shay included a spacer.gif file, which is unseen to the user, but which in the background is linked to Dubai Apartments in the country of Dubai.
Here are some popular templates where this was found today:
– Multiflex-2.1 by gwolfgang (until Nov. 28, 2006, then replaced)
– BusinessDesign by NOWdesign
– Internet Services by LanVacation
– and many others …
Comment from G. Wolfgang
Time: November 30, 2006, 10:39 pm
The spam link illustration got lost in my post, here a second try:
(Tag openings and closings have been replaced with XX)
XX a href="http://www.dubaiapartments.biz" target="_blank">
XX img src="spacer.gif" width="5" height="5" border="0"/>
XX a
Comment from G. Wolfgang
Time: November 30, 2006, 10:57 pm
I just now tried to validate some of the templates mentioned above by clicking the validation link in the footer, and truly, the validator said "3 errors", and all related to the hidden spam link at the bottom because it is not formulated in correct XHTML!
@Andreas — Thanks for living up to your ethical code for designers by bringing this OWD topic up in your forum! You deserve respect for this!
Comment from Hippocrates
Time: December 1, 2006, 12:20 pm
OSWD is alive again? Just got something on RSS Designologue from skettino. Still on the webpage no forum and no templates… It would be a real alternative to OWD…
Comment from eric hebert
Time: December 1, 2006, 5:24 pm
Andreas, pardon my french, but this whole situation is bullshit. I can't believe this kat thinks he can get away with doing what he's doing. I'm gonna help spread the word as much as I can. I have too much respect for you and others of the open-source community to let a fool take advantage of it.
Comment from Andreas
Time: December 1, 2006, 5:46 pm
eric: Thanks! But don't spread the word about this story, I'm doing everything I can to end the whole adventure today so that we can make things change for the better and see everything get back to normal again. This is not worth spending any more energy on…
If you want to help out, spread the word about the new site project that is planned on this forum instead!
Comment from Ruth
Time: December 2, 2006, 6:28 am
Andreas, I just uploaded one of your wordpress designs for my blog, was trying to figure out how to change a few things and came to your site from a link on the template. Your designs are great, but I'm confused as to why they are so difficult to change. It looks like I have a learning curve to go through. Thanks for your efforts; out of 67 pages of designs, I chose yours because it had a clean look, nice colors, and categories are above the fold.
Comment from funmeister
Time: December 2, 2006, 7:19 am
Im sure you already know that even if your items are Open Source that the actions of the SPAM LINKS being placed inside them WOULD actually violate the Terms of Open Source as well Copyrights. I also understand that taking action against those outside the US can be somewhat hard to do however there are still ways to put a STOP to them "Taking Advantage" of your hard work.
Comment from Andreas
Time: December 2, 2006, 11:57 am
Ruth: The theme you are using is based on one of my website templates, but the theme itself was built by someone else, Matteo Turchetto. I can not answer for him, since his coding style is completely different from mine. If you want to try a theme that I have made all by myself, then try WP-Andreas01 or 1024px on my WordPress themes page.
Comment from Madrock
Time: December 3, 2006, 3:32 pm
Hey Andreas;
I have to admit it was a little weird to see all the angryness put towards you because you (yourself removed the templates); I find it absolutely insane that these individuals seem to think that you owe them something or that your templates one uploaded become their templates, and that they have some form of right over you and your work.
At the end of the day… if you werent an admin, you would still have every right to have asked another admin member to remove the templates for you… and to be fair you would never have to release them ever again!!!!
[but that would be a shame… I have never actually used on of your templates for a website, but looking at the css/html of them has taught me an awful lot].
@funmeister: just because Andreas templates are on websites named OpenWebDesign and OpenSourceWebDesign, do not make them open source… this issue has long been disscussed on both websites.
Anyway back to the topic.. Andreas needles to say, you have my support and i hope you continue you work at OWD.
!
Comment from G. Wolfgang
Time: November 30, 2006, 2:41 pm
Andreas, I appreciate your open and honest attitude, and yet your humble and balanced approach when trying to find solutions for challenging situations. You have invested a lot in the open source community (for free), and we appreciate all you have done so far! Keep going!