Darren Slatten

"Google rankings are based on many factors, some of which cannot be influenced by WordPress or any other content management system (e.g., inbound links, useful content, information architecture, usability). So even if you're hypothetically using "the best WordPress theme for SEO," you still have several major ranking factors to address. In my personal opinion, I think WordPress is fucking horrible for SEO. If SEO were the only concern, I'd never use WordPress." - Darren Slatten

"I take on new projects as long as the client pays up front and I don't have to talk to anyone." - Darren Slatten

"To be completely honest, I don't even like WordPress. I only fuck with it because that's where the money is. There's way better options out there though: MODX, Drupal, Django, etc. Those are "real" CMS's. WordPress is light years behind. Even for blogging, WordPress blows. Whenever I get around to writing content for darrenslatten.com, I'll be posting it through Git pushes to a GitHub repo. There's no database to fuck with--you build the entire site on your local machine and then upload it. Added bonus: GitHub hosts open-source projects for free, so I get free hosting. It's not for everyone though--mostly for uber-nerds who want to edit their websites through a plain text command line interface." - Darren Slatten

"Yes, I built seomofo.com on Thesis. But that was in 2009, before I knew anything about Thesis, WordPress, or even PHP. It took almost 3 years of frustrated research and hacking to build up my hatred of Thesis to where it is today. And keep in mind...one of the things I hate most about Thesis is that it completely locks you into a system that isn't compatible with any other themes. So moving to another WP theme at this point would require 100 years of work. I'll do it one day...just not today. Or tomorrow. You bastard." - Darren Slatten

"What a "liberal arts major" fuckin' response. You deserve Thesis." - Darren Slatten

"That just adds display:none to the RSS widget's container. Unfortunately, that doesn't change the fact that the DIYThemes RSS feed is still being queried and the content is imported during my admin dashboard's page load. So you're right...I could hide the widget fairly easily. But that doesn't fix the slower page load time." - Darren Slatten

"submitted by reddit to blog." - Darren Slatten

"I'm currently hosted with VPSLink and I've been having billing problems non-stop for over a year. I finally decided to see what else is out there, and I was seriously considering VPSLand. I searched Twitter for "vpsland" to see what people have to say about the company, and your link to this post was returned in the search results. The problems you describe are very similar to the problems I'm having with VPSLink, so naturally I scratched VPSLand off my list of potential replacements. Since you mentioned you're moving to Linode, I did a Twitter search for "linode" and saw hundreds of tweets--all saying good things about Linode. Anyway, I just wanted to thank you for the warning about VPSLand. As a token of my appreciation, I made sure to use your referral link when I signed up for 12 months of Linode's 512 service just now. :)" - Darren Slatten

"You mean it is alright if they throw up a debug trace? Or are we being selective here? SEE: "Nice try, slick. ... With *anyone* as the judge, Thesis loses." You lost me. Do they have to be compatible with WP at all, or are we being selective here too? What if they use these functions in good faith, then WP changes the behaviour of them? What if the powers that be offer a certification option at WordPress.org for any GPL theme (free or premium) that is compatible with WP fully? Free Themes: must always use core implementation. Premium: *may* use core implementation. If core implementation is flawed, *should* create custom solution (that doesn't produce PHP errors). If Theme is marketed as not having core flaws, Theme *must* create custom solution. Can you hear me now? ROTFLMAO. And I haven't stopped laughing. With this inane line of reasoning you paid $164 for a theme while: 1. You claim to know enough PHP to whip up an entire options framework. 2. You don't care for support. 3. You..." - Darren Slatten

"You mean it is alright if they throw up a debug trace? Or are we being selective here? SEE: "Nice try, slick. ... With *anyone* as the judge, Thesis loses." You lost me. Do they have to be compatible with WP at all, or are we being selective here too? What if they use these functions in good faith, then WP changes the behaviour of them? What if the powers that be offer a certification option at WordPress.org for any GPL theme (free or premium) that is compatible with WP fully? Free Themes: must always use core implementation. Premium: *may* use core implementation. If core implementation is flawed, *should* create custom solution (that doesn't produce PHP errors). If Theme is marketed as not having core flaws, Theme *must* create custom solution. Can you hear me now? ROTFLMAO. And I haven't stopped laughing. With this inane line of reasoning you paid $164 for a theme while: 1. You claim to know enough PHP to whip up an entire options framework. 2. You don't care for support. 3. You..." - Darren Slatten

"4. No...I've already discovered the source of the error, and it's definitely in Thesis's code. In case any Thesis users (or DIYThemes developers) are reading this and want to know more about this issue, I'll provide more details. The issue being referenced is the missing trailing slash on the home page link in the Thesis nav menu. The error is most likely present on your site if: 1. You use the Thesis menu (not the WP menu). 2. You installed WordPress in a sub-directory (e.g. example.com/blog/). The problem is caused by the Thesis function thesis_nav_default(), located in /lib/functions/nav_menu.php on line 33 (might be different, depending on your version of Thesis). echo "<li class="\"tab" tab-home$is_current\"="">$home_text</li>\n"; There are a couple of ways you can fix this: 1. Change get_bloginfo('url') to user_trailingslashit(get_bloginfo('url')) 2. Change your Theme." - Darren Slatten

"4. No...I've already discovered the source of the error, and it's definitely in Thesis's code. In case any Thesis users (or DIYThemes developers) are reading this and want to know more about this issue, I'll provide more details. The issue being referenced is the missing trailing slash on the home page link in the Thesis nav menu. The error is most likely present on your site if: 1. You use the Thesis menu (not the WP menu). 2. You installed WordPress in a sub-directory (e.g. example.com/blog/). The problem is caused by the Thesis function thesis_nav_default(), located in /lib/functions/nav_menu.php on line 33 (might be different, depending on your version of Thesis). echo "<li class="\"tab" tab-home$is_current\"=""><a href=\"" . get_bloginfo('url') . "\"$home_nofollow>$home_text</li>\n"; There are a couple of ways you can fix this: 1. Change get_bloginfo('url') to user_trailingslashit(get_bloginfo('url')) 2. Change your Theme." - Darren Slatten

"It does probably verbatim what WP does and even invokes all the WP standard functions (which has been my point throughout, in case you failed to grasp it, or shoved it aside as "irrelevant"). It is merely a proprietary wrapper around standard code. Wait...I'm confused...I thought *I* was the one arguing that Thesis is extremely expensive but not extremely better than free themes? You're saying that renaming WP functions to include the word "thesis" does in fact make it worth $164? If Pearson was really as SEO-savvy as you profess to be, he would have simply added this: remove_filter('pre_comment_content', 'wp_rel_nofollow'); ... with a check for post author. This would have worked just fine even in his "proprietary" framework. *gasp* Wow...is there no end to your knowledge of WordPress...stuff? Given that he isn't doing this is no crime (lack of smartness is not a crime, the last time I checked) No, but it's a crime to sell something to someone at a price point that is unjustifiably..." - Darren Slatten

"It does probably verbatim what WP does and even invokes all the WP standard functions (which has been my point throughout, in case you failed to grasp it, or shoved it aside as "irrelevant"). It is merely a proprietary wrapper around standard code. Wait...I'm confused...I thought *I* was the one arguing that Thesis is extremely expensive but not extremely better than free themes? You're saying that renaming WP functions to include the word "thesis" does in fact make it worth $164? If Pearson was really as SEO-savvy as you profess to be, he would have simply added this: remove_filter('pre_comment_content', 'wp_rel_nofollow'); ... with a check for post author. This would have worked just fine even in his "proprietary" framework. *gasp* Wow...is there no end to your knowledge of WordPress...stuff? Given that he isn't doing this is no crime (lack of smartness is not a crime, the last time I checked) No, but it's a crime to sell something to someone at a price point that is unjustifiably..." - Darren Slatten

"Ah, sorry - I didn't realize this post was meant to be a harangue on Thesis that brooks no moderation. LOL...wut? Based on your post on the WPTRT mailing list claiming "The post addresses real issues with a well-known commercial theme, and I think at least a few people on this list will find it very interesting", but I was mistaken in the intent of your invitation. I thought it might be prudent to point out aspects that are core WP issues in general, but I guess it wasn't something you wanted to know or you wanted your readers to know. No, I think you got it right. I wanted people like you to head over here and try to prove me wrong. Thanks for coming. I thought it might be prudent to point out aspects that are core WP issues in general... I'll try one more time to explain why most of your arguments are irrelevant. See if you can follow this: 1. Many WordPress Themes are free. 2. The free Themes on WordPress.org must adhere to the guidelines established by the WPTRT. 3. The guidelines..." - Darren Slatten

"Ah, sorry - I didn't realize this post was meant to be a harangue on Thesis that brooks no moderation. LOL...wut? Based on your post on the WPTRT mailing list claiming "The post addresses real issues with a well-known commercial theme, and I think at least a few people on this list will find it very interesting", but I was mistaken in the intent of your invitation. I thought it might be prudent to point out aspects that are core WP issues in general, but I guess it wasn't something you wanted to know or you wanted your readers to know. No, I think you got it right. I wanted people like you to head over here and try to prove me wrong. Thanks for coming. I thought it might be prudent to point out aspects that are core WP issues in general... I'll try one more time to explain why most of your arguments are irrelevant. See if you can follow this: 1. Many WordPress Themes are free. 2. The free Themes on WordPress.org must adhere to the guidelines established by the WPTRT. 3. The guidelines..." - Darren Slatten

"1. You can nitpick the specific details all you want. It won't change the fact that DIYThemes released an announcement called "Thesis 1.8.2 Brings You Full Compatibility with WordPress 3.2" that accomplished 2 things: fixed an admin panel that few people realized was broken (0 gain) and forced their blog feed into the single most visible space in the entire admin area, without providing any convenient way to remove it (net loss). And honestly, I'm not sure where you're getting the jQuery thing from. I do a full directory differencing with each new release, and I don't remember seeing anything new related to jQuery. Even if you're right about everything you said, I don't see how that changes my point. Thesis has basically been stagnant for almost a year. When the WordPress core goes through 2 feature updates and Thesis gets 0...that's just ridiculous. 2. Adding display="none" doesn't change the fact that my server is pulling in a remote XML feed that I didn't ask for. There's no excuse..." - Darren Slatten

"1. You can nitpick the specific details all you want. It won't change the fact that DIYThemes released an announcement called "Thesis 1.8.2 Brings You Full Compatibility with WordPress 3.2" that accomplished 2 things: fixed an admin panel that few people realized was broken (0 gain) and forced their blog feed into the single most visible space in the entire admin area, without providing any convenient way to remove it (net loss). And honestly, I'm not sure where you're getting the jQuery thing from. I do a full directory differencing with each new release, and I don't remember seeing anything new related to jQuery. Even if you're right about everything you said, I don't see how that changes my point. Thesis has basically been stagnant for almost a year. When the WordPress core goes through 2 feature updates and Thesis gets 0...that's just ridiculous. 2. Adding display="none" doesn't change the fact that my server is pulling in a remote XML feed that I didn't ask for. There's no excuse..." - Darren Slatten

"I appreciate your thorough response, but it's flawed in a couple ways: 1. It's based on your personal opinion regarding what does or doesn't affect SEO. 2. It ignores the fact that DIYThemes claims Thesis offers "airtight SEO." You see...I don't have to prove whether or not Thesis's SEO imperfections will have a major impact on SEO--all I have to prove is that the imperfections exist. When someone says something is "airtight," that means air can't get in or out--it doesn't mean "only a small amount of air can get in." Here's an analogy: DIY Chemical Warfare Depot: "Our competitors offer free gas masks, but they notoriously leak. If you're serious about not inhaling poisonous gas...you need the Thesis gas mask! It costs $164 more than the free alternatives, but the good news is...it's airtight!" Darren Slatten: "Well...that's a pretty steep price difference, but I certainly don't want to inhale any poisonous gas, so...SOLD!" [later] Darren Slatten: "It smells like mustard gas in here...." - Darren Slatten

"I appreciate your thorough response, but it's flawed in a couple ways: 1. It's based on your personal opinion regarding what does or doesn't affect SEO. 2. It ignores the fact that DIYThemes claims Thesis offers "airtight SEO." You see...I don't have to prove whether or not Thesis's SEO imperfections will have a major impact on SEO--all I have to prove is that the imperfections exist. When someone says something is "airtight," that means air can't get in or out--it doesn't mean "only a small amount of air can get in." Here's an analogy: DIY Chemical Warfare Depot: "Our competitors offer free gas masks, but they notoriously leak. If you're serious about not inhaling poisonous gas...you need the Thesis gas mask! It costs $164 more than the free alternatives, but the good news is...it's airtight!" Darren Slatten: "Well...that's a pretty steep price difference, but I certainly don't want to inhale any poisonous gas, so...SOLD!" [later] Darren Slatten: "It smells like mustard gas in here...." - Darren Slatten

"I didn't downplay it at all. I did state that the WPTRT does pretty good gate-keeping to keep the repository hosted themes clean. Maybe I should have said it louder, or written it bolder. After rereading it...yeah, I originally read it through opinionated eyes. I concede. Thesis' PHP is released under GPL. There is nothing that prevents an enterprising developer from using all of Thesis' PHP, cleaning up the notices, using it with home-grown CSS. It is a lot of work, but I am guessing a developer's license is normally bought by someone who isn't afraid to muck around in code a bit. I really don't want to open the GPL can of worms unless I have to. What you've said is true, however it doesn't change my point: in terms of licensing, WP.org themes are better, because they are 100% GPLed without any extra work required. Umm... I thought Thesis has a pretty good options panel - isn't that what people are mostly paying for? Of course, there are free themes that do more extensive options..." - Darren Slatten