James -

Completely understandable and anxiously awaiting the release of your next contribution!

Still no other takers for the Xoops 30-day Challenge?

Beginning countdown...a bit later i will post first 2 themes obviously covering 2genres from the list James put up in the original post. 2themes will be posted first time so that one can see the changes from one to the other, after that a theme per day will be posted until theme 30.

All themes will contain a style.css used in all themes and in addition each one will have a different one to fit better with theme's genre.

May be this can help :
http://csstinderbox.raykonline.com/

I sure does , the code i was using was found in XOOPS's 2.2.x notifs block and adapted it for the column

Sigh... I really dropped the ball on this, didn't I? Sorry about that all!

Truth is, I've been too tied up with work and other projects and that new default theme is driving me nutty.

Given that I haven't done such a good job getting this started, and quite frankly don't have the time to do it all now, how would you all feel about turning this into a community project?

After all, DefianceB0y has already shown some great initiative and started a couple themes himself.

Here's what I propose...

* Let's make a list of volunteer designers. We would need enough time and exposure to get the news out.

* When we have our list, we divide the 30 themes up equally among the group of designers. If possible, we would try to do this by preference of the designer.

* Once we have the list compiled, we can discuss our start date. Then we can schedule the release rotation. Something like this perhaps...

Day 1 - Designer 1
Day 1 - Designer 2
Day 1 - Designer 3
Day 1 - Designer 4

and so forth

* Once all of the above is taken care of, we could work on collaborating on the new "simplified default" theme, aka: the "Generic" theme. We could work on this until our scheduled start date.

* Once our start date arrives, a new theme would be released every day for 30 days, starting with the "Generic" theme that the group of designers collaborated on. On the second day, the rotation among designers would start.

Of course, all of the above is subject for discussion.

My thinking behind this is that, this is a great concept and I think it would be a real shame for it to not become reality. However, a lot of changes have taken place in my life since originally making this announcement and now I simply don't have the time to do all these themes in the time frame alloted.

IMHO, this would be a huge community moral booster and it would be a rapid infusion of some fresh designs. I've seen some absolutely beautiful designs released recently by members of our community and I believe we can show that world that we can compete with the likes of Joomla! and Wordpress. However, to do this, our wide base of designers need to come together and start sharing ideas and code. I think this project would be the perfect jumping off point to get this collaboration started.

So, what do you think? Do it community style? Let someone else do it? or Wait until I have time to do it myself?

WHO is asking for more theme designs?

I can do a google search and make my selection from well over a million references. If I can't find something there I don't think 30 more will do the trick.

Once we (end user) do make a selection for a design, we immediately go to makeing changes of our own to make it more personal.

In other words I would think more (free) themes would be way down on the priority list.

That is just my opinion...

BS
Hard-Hunting.org

NOTE: a 30 day tutorial showing exactly what into making a theme and explaining its parts would be higher on the list of priorities for me. Maybe that is what you were talking about.

Well, the issue is this...

Currently, there are hundreds, if not thousands of XOOPS themes that are compatible with the 2.0.13.2 and older versions of XOOPS. These themes do not take into account the new block positions of 2.0.14 (or is it 2.0.15, I don't remember). Therefore, the functionality of XOOPS is not being presented by most of these old designs.

This is an issue not only with current compatibility, but future compatibility. Sure, the current designs will work, but only in a limited fashion. Eventually, XOOPS will evolve more and more and the old theme structure is no longer going to work with the new core. This is a fact. One us designers must not take lightly.

Also, the web is an ever changing place. Web 2.0/3.0/4.0 are a reality. Designers must constantly change their approaches and designs to keep up with the demands of their target audiences. Right now, people are demanding a Web 2.0 look and feel of sites. Whether they understand the mechanics or not, most users just care about looks. Very few of the themes currently available for XOOPS have that Web 2.0 look and feel.

A good example of the above is the last theme I released, the Bluehue theme. It is relatively popular, but from an experienced designer's standpoint, it has numerous flaws.

* It's table based
* It's standards compliance relies on loop holes and old technology
* It's CSS is only barely compliant and has many warnings
* It has virtually no end-user functionality
* Its accessibility is horrible
* It follows a long breed of *NUKE-like designs that is old and worn out
* It's not even remotely unique; It uses old thinking and old style

Furthermore, as stated in my previous post, this isn't just an idea of introducing new themes, but also a way to bring designers together to bring the best designs possible to the XOOPS community. When it comes to "visual appeal" XOOPS is not competing very well with the likes of Joomla! and Wordpress. By bringing our designers together, we can capitalize on each designer's strengths and start to build themes that appeal to the masses.

The fact is, web design is not static. It is a constant evolution of visual appeal, functionality and standards. If the designers who make the public face of XOOPS-powered sites do not recognize this and respond, then eventually XOOPS will loose it's appeal to the masses. Why? Because the vast majority of users choose a CMS not on its functionality, security, and support, but on how it "looks". While I don't agree with this "grass is greener" approach to CMS selection, the fact is that the majority of people are drawn to a CMS by it's appearance.

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No one asked for more themes, James' purpose was a bit different -
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And - it demonstrates how one can contribute back to the community in more than one way - demonstrate it can be done, AND do it!

I can also vote for a new tutorial on building a theme - similar in impact to starting a new site, it teaches 'others to fish.'

After all, the Xoops 30-day challenge is open to everyone!

You hit the nail on the head, Steve.

The original point was, and I hope IS, to show what the "average" user can do with a little creativity and only basic skill.

I'm not the best at writing documentation. Instead, my method is to put my code where my mouth is. This is how I learned, and this is how I teach. I learned by studying the code of others that did works I found good. I teach by trying to produce works that are good so that others may learn of the methods I use. Don't take this as arrogant. In fact every work that I've done has been built on the work of others. IMHO, this is the strength and spirit of OSS. We all contribute our strengths to the project to further its progress.

This is exactly the sort of thing I am looking for!

With a solid core and nice modules, I need to focus on the look of my sites. there are many great themes out there, but I want to be better able to make may own them, or at least modify an existing one much more than the basics to fit my wants and needs.