WPCandy

Jeffro2pt0
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 6:27 AM

I think Weird sums it up pretty well. A shame that someone would spend so much money on something only to let it sit their and die. But Tung just showed the community that he is definitely trustworthy and I find it honorable that he kept his word.

mkjones
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 7:07 AM

Sad to say but SP sold out. And now he’s probably contractually bound not to re-enter the WP themes web community.

I miss his site and its musings but times have moved on.

We have woothemes, ewp, themeshaper and themehybrid to name a few. If anything the theme market is so swamped at the moment I can’t see the WPDesigner brand being worth even half of what was paid for it.

As for the buyer. He obviously had too much money and very little sense.

Unless it was some kind of tax evasion/money laundering scam.

Magnus
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 7:17 AM

I think he should take his $65k and run before “Hey, I’m the new owner…” wants a refund

Magnus
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 7:18 AM

Actually Elegant WP could well be Tung Do in disguise Very similar design style

Jesse Petersen
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 7:59 AM

I miss his new themes. He had some nice free ones out there and good premium ones, too. He’s insane if he signed something to stay out of the WP theme community. It’s one thing to start over and another to stay out.

Nouman Saleem
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 8:24 AM

WPDesigner has turned into a spam dump

Leland
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 8:41 AM

This is very very weird. Someone else left a comment on my site a couple days ago saying they received a refund as well. I wonder why he’s starting to refund now?

Chris Brandrick
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 9:09 AM

It’s a shame the site is what it is now, Small Potatoes create a wordpress theme posts were helpful.
Any idea on when the refund is due, as I joined up.

Brandon Cox
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 10:24 AM

It’s awesome to see someone trying to do something honorable. However, the site’s content and expertise alone were worth far more than $5. I don’t know if I’ve gotten a refund yet or not, but I don’t really want it. I think he deserves the club fees, especially in light of how much other theme clubs are charging. Nothing lasts forever - sometimes you offer a benefit for as long as a site lasts.

Adrian | Rubiqube
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 11:06 AM

I don’t get this: why ask for a refund? Ok, WPDesigner didn’t deliver as promised and this might seem like a scam, but I’m sure SP had good intentions. Even if this didn’t turn out right, his tutorials were great and are still very useful to so many people in the WP theme business.

I mean… I understand it’s a financial crisis… but $5? Come on! Can’t everyone think of it as a donation for all those great tutorials?

dinu
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 12:36 PM

Yes, I miss him I believe that he is still working with some wp designers around and will be back with a new rocking project soon !!

Jay
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 12:56 PM

My 2 cents

Why would anyone ask for their money back from him?

He did a lot for the Wordpress community.

I think it was worth the 5$ for the couple of themes we received not to mention the FREE THEMES and FREE TUTORIALS he produced.

I personally have a theory about the new owner. I think WPDesigner never sold it and this guy is fictitious. He prob just got burnt out and thought of this idea?

I like the idea of theme clubs but it’s ridiculous to have to pay $150!!!! for three months. What a ripoff. Take a look at rocketthemes for joomla. Some incredible templates and it’s $75 for a year. I guarantee it took longer to produce a the joomla templates.

Daxion
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 4:40 PM

@Adrian, Jay:

in fact, nobody really asked for the refund. SP stated long ago that he would refund the $5.

Jermayn Parker
Posted on October 23rd, 2008 at 8:55 PM

I agree with Jay and believe its all a scam. No one in their right mind would pay 65 thousand for a website.

He will get the website back…

Blog Design Studio
Posted on October 24th, 2008 at 2:22 AM

@Jermayn : Well, no one can demand the refund just like that .. isn’t it ? There was a business deal and if SP is not willing to buy it back.. then the new owner can’t sell it.

—-

Well, it definitely sounds bad that WPDesigner is getting wasted like this - coz I loved SP’s post (heck… who didn’t). I just hope that the owner gets back to this and at least replies to the email which are sent to him

Jordan
Posted on October 24th, 2008 at 10:29 AM

Contracts signed or not I would really love it if he were to come back into the community–whether on his own, or teaming up with sites already on their feet (eg: wpcandy.) He definitely added a lot to the community.

Small Potato
Posted on October 24th, 2008 at 6:25 PM

for people who can’t receive money, i’ve sent you an email. there are about 72 more refunds to go, but i’ll have to wait for bank money to arrive at my paypal account first. and of course with so many refunds being issued within a short amount of time, mistakes are inevitable. if you have any problem, i can be reached at: ttsondo at yahoo

@michael - thx again for posting this update.

@jeff - almost everyone tries to put their business on autopilot (payment subscriptions / automatic renewals). sometimes, life gets in the way and you’re not there to manage it. i think that’s what happened.

@mkjones - there was no contract or non compete clause.

@jermayn - i have escrow.com and bank records of the transaction. email me if you want proof.

to everyone else who still support me, thank you very much. recently, i collaborated with another wp developer, but it didn’t work out so well because of time constraints. so, i had to scratch that project. as of right now, i’m not working on anything, but you can definitely expect something from me in the near future.

Thássius V'
Posted on October 24th, 2008 at 9:25 PM

I also received my refund. Maybe Small Potato could become a WPCandy writer/contributor, Mike

Frank
Posted on October 25th, 2008 at 1:14 AM

@Magnus: Is that what he really paid for WPDesigner? $65k! Holy shit! Nice!

@Small Potato: Can’t wait to see what you’ve got planned!

Joni Mueller
Posted on October 25th, 2008 at 5:39 PM

@Daxion .. Were you living in the bottom of a well when this fiasco was going on? A lot of people were screaming for SP’s head on a platter and demanding their five bucks back. I thought it was ridiculous. Five dollars, get over it. If you got one or two themes and a ton of great info from SP’s site, it was worth it.

Personally I don’t need or want a refund and hope the money was used for SP’s purposes and not the new owner, whoever he may *really* be.

Yep, there are a ton of Premium Theme sites out there and it’s getting quite tiresome. They all rode SP’s coattails and were poised on the sideline to step in and take up where SP left off.

I am very glad to see that SP is a man of his word, tho, and anyone who thought otherwise should be ashamed of themselves.

SuperMario290
Posted on October 27th, 2008 at 10:40 PM

I’m kind of dissapointed to say the least, not that he sold it, but that the site is going down the path that it is. I just wish that everything would go back to normal, and we can enjoy the great free themes again!

g
Posted on November 1st, 2008 at 4:11 PM

I still want SP babies

Webmaster for Artist
Posted on November 1st, 2008 at 4:33 PM

I am new to all this but would gladly pay the $65K to get the site back working.
It could easliy make that money back in a year with some class programming.
It was really a great site…anyway I am here because I need some help.

I would like to start a wp blog for an artist site I designed but am not sure which
theme I should best use. I am a “creativity-challenged” site designer

The site is:
http://www.bernardorios.com

If anyone can suggest a theme please write to me.
I want the blog up for him by next year.
All help appreciated.

Many thanks for your suggestions.

Webmaster

g
Posted on November 1st, 2008 at 7:53 PM

@Bernardo Rios/Webmaster for Artist: Hi, Small Potato has one that looks very good for that, it shows four images in the home page, I forgot the name but it was one of the four Small Potato managed to release for the themes club, send him a mail, it’s in one of the comments.

clarklab
Posted on November 10th, 2008 at 12:23 PM

SP was the man. Plain and simple. He released a ton of awesome themes and posted lots of helpful info in his blog. Shame this new owner is such an idiot.

Can’t wait for SP’s new project.

nomad-one
Posted on November 14th, 2008 at 11:03 AM

SP is one of the people who influenced me to take the dive into wordpress a while back and I learnt alot from his site and themes. I did however find that at some point things went odd, with some crazy fights which he had with premium theme guys and having criticised people heavily left right and centre.

I’d say it would be good to see SP make a comeback and make a more mature contribution to the wordpress community.

Where is SP?