i recently tried my own hand at creating a XOOPS theme, lol, by modifying a dreamweaver template:
http://movetoxoops.csmapcentral.com

i'm really disliking the theme that i was working on, haven't had time to work on it further and i really suck with html and css.

the only thing i really like about the theme, is the header graphic created by daddycool (good CS mapper, graphic artist, etc), and the nav bar which came with the theme



anyone who would like to gimme a quote of how much you'd charge to create a xoops-compliant theme for me, i'd appreciate it

also, as an alternative to payment, i'll host ya for free (like i do for daddycool ->http://www.whosyourdaddycool.com), if that's what you prefer



i want something lite, so that it can be fast loading from pretty much anywhere, lol.. since it's php+mysql, as the site grows, it'll slow down by default, as you can see athttp://www.csmapcentral.com (this is what i'm about to revamp/replace). the server is located in texas, i'm on the east coast (usa), yet the site still seems to load too slow, and i don't want to still have slowdown when i move to xoops, at least, not by the theme.


i prefer the html to be comprised primarily of <div> statements, and most/all of the design should take place in the css file if possible.

daddycool has suggested in the past that the default color for the theme be a kinda orange/yellow-to-grey scheme (like in the header), and i'd also like to see variations of green, red, black, blue.

there's no rush on this, but faster it gets done, faster you get paid. graphics for the forum, downloads module, weblinks module, etc, would be needed, to keep a nice flow


preferred design is to have a max of 1 block columns, i don't want the 2-column design that is prevalent on too many sites right now (including csmapcentral).

post here, pm me, or email me with any replies
thanks.


btw, i kept referring to DaddyCool, he's a good friend that has made a few suggestions, fyi.

fyi, CSMapCentral is based around the game, Counter-Strike, a Half-Life mod. any graphic design for the site should keep that in mind.


clean, easy to read, geared towards gamers yet not too arcadey, must still have a bit of a serious tone, all are musts

yes, i know, i'm picky.

oh, and as little flash/javascript as possible, the first sometimes slows down sites, the second breaks too easy.

Hi bd_csmc,

I'm currently doing the same with my site. I host over a 512/512 DSL connection so bandwidth management is very important for fast loading.

You might like to try contacting StudioC as I think he is a pretty savvy theme maker.

Hi,
I'm awful with design, so let me nitpick a bit on your site's performance...

1st- Lots of unoptimized stuff there, like logo.png (24KB, 16M colors) that can be reduced to 20kb with lossless png compression. Or to 8KB with 256 colors. Similar results can be achieved by compressing/reducing number of colors of all those small images. Which brings...

2nd- Way too many images. From here:"With 70 total objects for this page, that computes to a total lag time due to latency of 14 seconds". And if you ask your browser to save your mainpage, you'll realize that many similar or identical images could be using the same source.

3rd- 40 fat KB of HTML. If you enable gzip (in Apache) or similar, you can cut that by more than 60%.

4th- Many HTML errors, that makes browsers a bit uncertain about just what they should render... more delay.

5th- Login "block" generates two images, perhaps admin login should be a text link?

I'd say that you can get your old site (or something 98% identical) loading in 1/3 of the current time if you tweak it a bit.

Edit: examples

thx brash, i'll contact him


ajax, thanks for the tips, but that's actually part of the reason why i'm dumping NSN-Nuke for Xoops. btw, gzip is enabled on the server, but nsn-nuke doesn't support it by default and i never bothered looking into a setting to override

thx tho


oh, btw, ajax, that is the default theme for nsn-nuke, with a logo tossed in. it was never meant to be permanent, but i had trouble converting my older php-nuke themes to nsn-nuke (center blocks... argh...), and i don't like where nsn-nuke is headed, so i stopped bothering with the theme for it, and that is why i'm concentrating on a XOOPS theme

hey bd_csmc,

you noted you did not want the standard 2 column, but also noted you wanted 1 blocks column. so essentially you will need a 2 column design of some kind.

sorry tj, i knew that would cause confusion once i said it, lol

i was thinking of *block* columns only, not in html speak.
in html speak, lol, i want a max of 2 columns. in my own speak, i don't want the columns for blocks on each side of the page, so if someone designs a more ingenious layout that is still accessible, that'd be great

i'm just tired of the [htmlspeak]3 column[/htmlspeak] displays that i see everywhere


sorry for subjecting you to my idiotic statements

hey bd_csmc,

how many blocks would you be using? i only use center/center.

there's generally a sizeable number, which is why i stay open to the 2-column design. if you look athttp://www.csmapcentral.com, you'll see i make fairly heavy use of blocks (likely just because they are available and i felt like enabling them, lol..)

i like having info about other modules of the site, expressed in blocks (like latest downloads, most popular downloads, and that block that shows how many downloads/uploads a user has had, as well as the Server block, etc)

but i know if a single column design were intriguing enough, i'd lean towards that

are ya thinking of taking the job?

hey bd_csmc,

i am in the midst of three sites right now, but what you are basically asking for is something i have been trying to conceptualize. one of the sites i am working on will have two colums, but will hopefully appear seamless.