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this is a great idea~!
love it. some of us may be theme designer but we are not trained css programmers. So it would be a great place idea to help make better themes.

Looking for ideas check out this website. Alot of very good css examples.

http://oswd.org/browse.php

OK, let me just put my foot down here. ThemeForge idea is already been thought of, but we werent sure about the willingness of the community to participate in this structurally. But, seeing the livelyness of this thread, I think we just might do this . I've discussed this with StudioC and Philou before, but for this I'll stat a new thread tomorrow (have family business to do today). But I need a team who will organise and set this up for me

As for the contest and the criteria:
Because this theme will be distributed with EVERY XOOPS install, the standards need to be VERY high. It needs to show that we care about (international, open) standards, about customisation, documentation and ease of use. Hence my list. I do NOT want to make it less strict for this category.
However, we can have more categories of course, but I still feel that there are some minimal requirements EVERY theme should stick to.; And they are both technical and artistic:
- valid xhtml 1.0 transitional;
- proper user of CSS classes (like Mithy's example);
- Original;
- Creative.

If it meets these criteria, we'll judge it. If not, then it's not good enough for this contest. For those who say 'so what if it doesn't validate, a lot of sites are that way' I say that we have to show the world that XOOPS is a quality system. You're free to use any kind of theme, crap, bugged, horrid or otherwise on your site, but this is a showcase contest.

Now, which categories should we have? And please don't make a list of 20 cats, as we'll need a sponsor for the prize for every category. Suggestions on those (prizes and sponsors) please as well.

Herko

i think we need a category for both dynamic themes and fixed width themes.. which would also be gr8 too if in the new themes dev site and even on this site itself i think themes could be split into 2 category's having a fixed width and dynamic width..

I'm not sure who we could get for sponsorship, and I'm not so sure that we need prizes (as mentioned before, the ego boost and satisfaction of contributing to XOOPS should be enough), but I do have a few suggestions on categories..

Artistic Impression: Emphasis on artistry, uniqueness, graphic design, and creative use of CSS. Themes *should* still be XHTML/CSS compliant and cross browser compatible. Lower penalties for large file size and resolution limitations.

Technical Proficiency: Emphasis on standards compliance, documentation, cross browser compatibility, 800x600dpi min. compatibility, and clean, uncluttered code. Must include matching template set. Lower penalties for plain appearance, but should still be aesthetically appealing.

Rising Stars: Emphasis on newcomers and best effort. Themes *should* be XHTML/CSS compliant (consideration is given to good themes that are close, but not quite compliant) and should not be submitted by anyone who has already submitted under the other two categories (this is just fair). Extra points are awarded to those themes that meet any of the criteria specified under the other two categories.

Common to all: Themes MUST be original! Penalties for "hack" jobs. Themes must be 2/3 column compatible. Themes must come from 1 individual (no team projects).

Well, that's all I can think of for now. I hope this gives the powers that be some ideas.

/2 cents

Why a matching template set? To which modules?

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The default XOOPS Modules of course.

To answer the why.....
It's not all that difficult to code a standards compliant theme. It can be done in just a few hours if you have a good grasp on standards and basic XHTML/CSS coding. A real challenge of technical proficiency would be to have the coders provide a matching template set (for XOOPS default modules) that showcases their skill beyond themes alone. This would also ensure that more theme developers would take templates into consideration.

A good example of why this is important is one of my mistakes. When I coded the 2cnt theme, I didn't take into consideration the template sets. Therefore, the theme breaks on some default modules and core components (i.e.: notification options). I attempted to address this issue, but have yet to fully solve the problem.

Perhaps clarification on what I mean by technical proficiency is in order....

I'm not suggesting merely functional themes that do things the way they've always been done. I'm talking about taking XOOPS themes to the next level of technical acheivement. Pushing the boundries of what can be done with XHTML and CSS in regards to Xoops.

Perhaps template sets could be an area where extra points could be awarded. If the coder demonstrates that they can code a standards compliant theme AND a custom template set that enhances their theme, then I would think that the coder would certainly deserve higher marks.

Just tossing out ideas for consideration.

Geesh! I didn't mean to kill the thread. I was only making suggestions.

I'll go crawl back in my hole now....

Hi Jmorris,

I aggree that it would be a good idea to include a template set in there somewhere. However, I don't think this should be a "must have" but rather a bonus situation. The amount of people I know of that would be likely to enter this content that I would say can code CSS and create templates to a trully professional level, with the artistic capabilities to boot can almost be counted on one hand. We don't want a contents that nobody enters now do we .

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned anywhere is a timeline. Am I missing something, or hasn't this been brought up? Are we intending this to coincide with an XOOPS 2.2 release, or is this to be before/after that? Trully professional and polished themes don't grow on trees is all, and we want to make sure we give ourselfs ample lead time. I for one know I'd have to do a LOT of reading if I were to think of entering .

Well i can arrange for a 100MB CPANEL, PHP, MYSQL....blah blah hosting space, for qualitative themes.
Just let me know about it.