Hi--
Ok, first post. I have used XOOPS 5 minutes, rank newbie, and et cetera.
I read "Xoops on Crack" --last post by DonXoop re: a Topic related to Theme development suggestions. Owing to the date of that post, I can't find that such a Topic has been initiated, so bear with me. Maybe a Mod can move this to the appropriate Forum?
Anyway, Themes being a matter of aesthetics vs functionality and content, Theme design, at least IMHO, requires versitility in two diciplines-- Art and Technology. The problem seems to be that you seldom find both bents in the same Human. Anybody ever thought of teaming with an Artist? Agreed, most available
(free)themes bottom-feed; and, IMO as a Artist, so do most of the commercial ones. There are exceptions to be found even in the XOOPS Themes area on this website; notably those by MadSnake, who's "Gold" I chose for my new XOOPS site for my Horse business. Personally, I think this Theme is top-shelf, and it works very well for my application of it and purpose with it.
Modules. Ok, another thing I have noticed is that there are loads of Mods, several per function, and very, very, few with descriptive text as to what the Mod actually does, or comparing it with others of the same ilk. For those developing and publishing Mods, please take some time away from tweaking and write a comprehensive description of what your Mod is for--"calandar, ver--dit.dit, build 1.01" tells me (newbie) and others absolutely nothing. Being new to Xoops, but not to HTML, DHTML, SHTML, PHP, or web design in general, I know for a fact that installing and uninstalling tables on a regular basis to find out what a Mod does is a prime way to screw up a mySQL DB. I went through 3 calandar Mods (used for for posting Clinic and Event schedules on my site) before I found what I actually needed; that being Tiny_event, a K.I.S.S Mod that perfectly and very simply does the intended job. The Developer of same noted that he had no intention of developng the Mod any further--GOOD --its is a climax design and doesn't need any further developement.That brings to mind that there is great Virtue in "K.I.S.S Mods" and this XOOPS user would definately like to see more of same---take note.
On the other hand, I flatly like Xoops, and so over Nuke and Mambo. I find XOOPS much more user friendly than either of the others. I take care of other websites for other people, and the less time I spend on my own site, the better. The simplicity oof the XOOPS Core System allows me to accomplish what I need to do very quickly. (Yes I have tried Nuke and Mambo, and both are much more difficult to get around in or modify.)
Mithrandir---before you ask, yes, I fully intend to get involved more deeply when my learning curve with XOOPS is at a stage where I feel comfortable with doing that.
I'm done.
