Maybe a theme design team is not the answer... I mean what is to be the end result, to make everyone happy? Damn, I wish it were possible... LOL

Maybe a better idea would be to put together a theme template programming team. A team that could put together a complex (on the inside) tool (online, module or downloaded program) that could add/adjust every thing you ever wanted to about a theme... Now do not get me wrong, I know that everything can not be accomplished - but how many people are actually going to be satisfied unless you take the time to design an exact theme for every one of them?

To be honest I have not been all that impressed with the variety of themes, but the quality of the ones I have seen have been great. I have seen the bashing threads on not enough themes - and there never will be public satisfaction - it is an utter imposibility. Give the man the tools and let them go from there... I mean I know some wonderful layout designers and flash designers - but they could not tell you CSS from the hole in thier ars... LOL - we lose out on that croud (theme wise) due to no tool to help them do what they do best.

The old saying goes... Give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach a man to fish and he eats for a lifetime...

Rodger
http://www.regionaloperations.com
http://www.rpgamestop.com (inwork)

Mmm I wish I could help, but currently I have too many projects running on. The idea is good anyway, I think that the critic about the themes being "difficult to create" can be aimed to the fact that every module has their own template, and it´s tedious to modify every one to match the whole site.
Back to the topic idea, I insist that the first theme that must be updated must be this one. XOOPS needs a new front to match Mambo's and Drupal's more agressive sites.

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EXACTLY! Many of us code themes for fun and contribute them back to the community out of the hope that someone might find it useful. It would be nice if we could please everyone, but that will never happen.
When community members start demanding themes (which happens all too often), it really takes the fun out of designing themes for me. I have about 10 different themes slated to design as soon as I have time, but it's really hard to "find" time when people just complain the a theme I write doesn't fit x or doesn't do y, etc. Where's the fun in that?

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Isn't that the truth! There are some module developers out there that can code PHP to do virtually anything you could ever want it to do, but they can't code valid HTML and CSS to save their life. I wish I could think of a way for XOOPS to move away from the templates+themes system and have just the themes take care of the presentation elements, but to date, I haven't come up with any bright ideas on this yet.

It hasn't been too long since XOOPS.org's last facelift, but I do agree. It could benefit from a freshening up. I may be mistaken, but I have a suspicion that the Admins are waiting until they upgrade the site to the 2.2.x platform. I could be wrong though.

Best Regards,

James

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This is true, and when the next XOOPS version comes out - it would be a good time to do so...

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Agree.
I am thinking of a dedicated donation to a "XoopsDressUp" project.
Hope it would interest XOOPS designers, XOOPS managers and XOOPS users.

I'm working on preparing 2 activities that have to do with this:

- XOOPS.org redesign and restyling
- XOOPS 2.x default theme(s)

The first consists of 2 projects that need carefull planning and preparation: a new corporate idenitity for the XOOPS.org project(s) and the redesign (content) and restykling (look and feel) of the whole site. For the first part, we're hiring a profressional designer, and for the second part I'll need lots and lots of help. At the moment I'm writing a document detailing the redesign (navigation, wireframes, content placement etc.). I'll keep you all posted on the progress. At the moment I'm at 20-30%.

The XOOPS 2.x default themes. I'm trying to get a really cool prize for this, as this should be a real community (inlcuding the international local support communities!) contest! A set of themes for specific puposes as well as general purposes to be distributed with every XOOPS package. Themes that provide insight into the power of XOOPS, explaining how to use the features available.

More info soon, but please comment on these as well

Herko

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DHTML. A little Java mixed with some CSS. Let me know what I can do.

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Well, thats exactly my point. Currently every module has its own template and in fact, they act as a small individual script attached to the main core.
Thats good because every module can be as powerful as their creator want, BUT if the default template don't look good with your customized css, you might start to find some problems. Not only you must change every module template, but sometimes this changes must be addressed inside the php code (for example, to get rid of "create pdf" option, etc).
That's a little away to the concept of "create a theme for xoops" but perhaps some people feels overhelmed by that.

@Herko: again, glad to heard that. Seems that you folks are moving in the way I feel is the correct one. Sorry if I sound a bit self-confident, but its because I feel that your work is beign despised by thouse small facts.

To the people who want to join the team:
Thanks alot for the effort you are putting in this matter. I would be pleased if you could kindly pm me as well, so that I can make sure you are on the list!