I am slow in noticing and reporting what is suppose to be considered breaking news, at least amongst people like me who are suppose to be keeping an eye in the latest happening in the world of WordPress Themes. This happened more than a month ago and it is only now that I realized that Copyblogger has ditched the Thesis Theme in favor of Genesis the flagship framework by StudioPress.
What transpired before Brian Clark came to his decision to leave DIY Themes can be read in his interview by Aaron Brazell of Technosailor dot com. Though he tried to sound diplomatic about it, it was quite clear that the fallout was due to the recent GPL issue which caused quite a furor between Chris Pearson and Matt Mullenweg.
Personally I felt the debate did more harm than good FOR Chris Pearson’s reputation. He did sounded over arrogant and it sort of dented much of my respect for the man and his talents. He certainly did not sound like a guy who someone can easily get along with. Frankly, it was after listening to the debate that I made the decision to stop using the Thesis Theme and opted for the Frugal Theme instead.
With the departure of Brian Clark along with his usage for the Thesis Theme, coupled with another high profile blogger, Chris Brogan who also switched to the Genesis Theme at the beginning of this month, will the Thesis Theme take a beating?
Headway Themes was fast to capitalize on the issue, but I doubt competitors will benefit much from this incident. The Thesis Theme has become a brand name with it’s own community. As long as the community grows, so will the Thesis Theme sell.
The bad publicity, no doubt, does not augurs well for the company. Even if Brian Clark or Chris Brogan are the perfect gentlemen who does not say or mention anything negative about the Theme and the guy behind it, people will jump to conclusions. Especially when all this took pace after the debate.
New sales might be affected some but I think the DIY Themes is established enough to withstand the loss. If anything, we certainly will not see the desmise of the Theme in the very near future. The most we can expect might be a new owner.
I was really planning to buy a Thesis before, but after my some sort of research and investigation concerning this theme, I found out and read personally Chris Pearson’s comment in one blog who was actually a fan of Thesis and is in a way want to immitate the looks of the theme, because he can’t afford to buy it.
It was really like an eye opener to me that Chris is an arrogant man, a cyber bully, who was even profiting from his software whose mother software is free, WordPress.
THough I believe he should have a good pay-off from his work, I also believe that not only that thesis is overly expensive, it is also somehow or partly in violation of GPL. To which I believe Chris should be extra careful in his words and of becoming a cyber bully.
I already pledge myself not to buy anything from Chris Pearson’s company. I already dumped Thesis in my mind.
It is a beautiful theme, yes. But the owner’s attitude is simply a turn-off. I am thankful enough that I did not order it before I found out about his attitude.
Well Vince, that makes 2 of us.
Anyway I am using the Frugal Theme now and am real happy with my switch, With Frugal 4 coming out, it is going to way better than Thesis.