Assuming I'm working on some ElkArte theme but I could need some donations: Is there a place for that? :)
Well, I for one, would think to not sell, but place a donation button somewhere at a download page.
Pfff. People don't donate. I am a translator for quite a bunch of Open Source projects and I place a donation button wherever I can. Don't even dare to think anyone would care. :(
As always there are good people and not so good people. And again, rich enough and not rich enough. I guess a thread with screen shots will be useful in your case. I am sure there are a lot of people who are ready to pay for the right theme. Thanks for joining in expanding the theme base.
I am not against the selling of themes and dont get discouraged but I think it is hard to sell one unless you are very well known theme developer.
In ElkArte's case, one of the things that make me think I have a chance is the very small number of available themes. AFAICS there is no one who has a "supported theme" unless it's part of ElkArte's distribution.
1. ElkArte is not yet as well known, as other forum software, so, that also is going to affect whether or not people would pay for a theme.
2. There are several themes, on ElkArte's theme's site. http://themes.elkarte.net/
Some are just variants, and some are full themes.
3. With the changes yet to come, I'm not too sure it's worth paying for a theme, that may not be usable, for 1.1, but that's just me. ;)
Updating a theme over larger changes is something I've been doing with WordPress for quite a decade now. I guess ElkArte wouldn't be much more work. :D
Hopefully, it won't be like when I made themes for SMF 2.0 Bravo 4.... ;)
The changes from that, to 2.0 RC1 was even drastic. Let alone RC1 to final... LOL
SMF is a different beast. A nearly dead beast, while we're at it.
BTW, I thought you left the board scene?
I left the SMF scene, for good reasons.
I totally agree with your first line.
Especially, in light of the drastic team changes, and so many of the good team members leaving.
I don't think there is any at the moment.
CrimeS has set up its own site: http://elkartestudio.com/index.php
I never thought deeply about how to handle such cases. I (personal opinions coming) wouldn't try to setup a marketplace similar to xenforo (even only because it requires so much more energies than what we have right now and also because it would require some accounting that we are not in the position to deal with), I'm not against promotion of paid works here and the addon site should be able to redirect to any website for download.
Were you thinking to something in particular you would like to have?
what about themeforest?
I consider setting up a website for themes but it's just one I'm starting with, probably it would require at least 3 different themes before this will pay out ... :)
All I need is some "download free version / donate with PayPal for an unbranded version" choice or something. I could do this here, but not as sophisticated as it should be.
What is a themeforest?
ThemeForest is a website where you can sell digital goods. Themes, as you would have guessed. They charge a commission for using their space. ThemeForest is established and popular for good reason.
They don't seem to have an ElkArte category.
Not yet. :)
Not even SMF has a category on Themeforest, but if you search SMF you will find some themes.
IMO themeforest is the easiest way to sell a theme
Beware that themeforest has a rather strange admission level - I tried a few years back to add SMF themes to them, themes that was more advanced than the (recolored)themes already there.(there are a couple I think, still). They were rejected with no explanation.
How stable is the 1.1 theming engine yet?
Hello
@Bloc . Just noticed your presence here. You happen to be one of my favourite theme makers.
I had plans to change it, but I'm already way behind my schedule and I never found a way to change and keep the backward compatibility, so I guess 1.1 will remain the same "engine", of course some of the templates may receive adjustments, but I don't plan any overhaul (unless of exceptional circumstances). Also the default theme will remain the same.
A pity. It's ugly. (I recently gave the IP.Board a test run and now I'm spoiled when it comes to the (edit: grammar) loveliness of forum designs.)
But OK. Prepare for my first theme some time soon.
I kind of have to agree with that sentiment...
The Light variant, does need a bit of adjusting. ;)
Now, the Be Social variant, on the other hand, is pretty decent. :)
IMO, Be Social needs a dark variant again ;D and should finally get rid of those old SMF-style buttons.
I'm not familiar at all with it. How does it work?
Really, really great. :)
Even the non-admin part is one of the cleanest I've ever seen; see http://community.invisionpower.com for example.
But the ACP is overwhelming. And it's even responsive! I want to marry it. <3
Too bad they lack BBcode editing support in their newest versions.
I thought the theming engine was great. :P
It surely is. There seems to be no way to make a bad-looking IPB theme. In opposite to ElkArte which all has themes that look like ElkArte... :P
Its not impossible to make a "non-elkarte" theme..just takes bit more effort. ;) Its the same as for SMF, its a lot easier to just change a few colors than making a theme from scratch. So many hours go into creating the perfect defalt theme, that unravelling that again takes time.
What theme engine are they using?
None. :P
The same system as SMF: plain php files and echo all over the places. ;D
So Elk is more or less like xenforo, with all the forums having the basic thing just recolored a bit (for those that put at least that much effort LOL).
I have seen several bad-looking IPB themes. :P
Really? Last I looked on ElkArte's theme site, there were several themes that looked nothing like ElkArte.
Yes, basic layout on some parts, will not be changed by themes, but that's par for the course, for any forum.
Also, we are talking a
FREE forum software, worked on by
volunteers, compared to a
PAID software, worked on by
paid people. There
is going to be a big difference in what can be done.
Imo Dzinerstudio made some great themes for SMF, and if they did that I think it's not impossible to do similar templates in Elkarte. Also
@Bloc did some nice and free templates for SMF. I think is a matter of time, we need some designers here ;)
In the past I bought templates from dzinerstudio and if in the future we will have premium templates for Elkarte I'll surely buy one ;)
1. I was not talking about myBB forums.
2. Those themes still look like myBB in terms of the board index layout.
3. Some themes for ElkArte have been changed that drastically, too. ;)
1. But about "free themes for free forum software" which, as you implied, can't look nearly as neat as paid software.
2. To be fair, there's not much else possible here. A board index should have certain elements, it does so even on expensive paid forums.
3. Like which one?
1. That was
NOT what I was implying. I was
meaning your comparing ElkArte to IPB. The structure of ElkArte, SMF, phpBB, MyBB and other free ones, are a lot different, than the paid ones. The devs have to work with what they can, in the time they can. Compared to a staff of a paid forum software, which focus more of each, to their projects. Hence, themes and mods, are not going to be changing the overall looks, as drastically as some that are made for paid forum software are.
For example, I saw one IPB forum, that the whole board index, was so changed, you'd not even know it was the main board index of a forum! LOL I will not post a link, as it's not for guests, and I'm not able to even take screenshots, for security reasons.
2. You can change the board index, in ElkArte, and SMF, and myBB, but to be fair, it is a pain in the neck. I showed Em an instance of where I had done so, for a site, running SMF, that had the board index not an index, but image buttons for the boards.
True, it did not tell the last post, number of topics/posts, etc., but it was not meant to. Heck, I was about to modify it more, and have the images being om/off to alert when each board had new posts, but scratched it, when I had put that project on hold.
3. Like, take a look. There's a handy button to get to the theme's site. :P
What you showed in those links, most those edits, are very simple index.template.php and index.css edits.
1. The "Home" page on ElkArte.net does not look like a forum either. LOL.
3. I did. Everything looks like ElkArte.
I am not talking a "home" page.
I am talking the board index page.
I had completely redid that. Looked pretty decent, but man, was that a lot of hacking up of the BoardIndex.template.php
I never finished any of them, but most of my tries are rather different from a default Elk. :P
http://www.elkarte.net/community/index.php?topic=2575.0
http://www.elkarte.net/community/index.php?topic=1946.0
http://www.elkarte.net/community/index.php?topic=1734.0
But I'm no themer, so I have a justification. O:-)
... proving my point that there are no Elk themes which are different from the default look&feel.
That proves nothing.
It just proves the ones he was making, are not done.
Heck, there's ahrasis's theme he recently did, that looks very different from the ElkArte default.
My theme, looks different, except for some parts I left default, for compatibility with addons and updates.
That's 2 more reasons, why theme making is a very difficult beast to tame.
You need to make it, so addons and forum updates, work. Or, you'll be forever making patches to update the theme for the forum updates. Because, is want to make a killer theme, that changes the complete look, that's going to take editing almost all the template files. Doing so, will make updates and addons, very difficult.
ElkArte is pretty to look at. My users love it. But for most of them it is also something new, because the are rather usual phpBB.
$thing does not look better just because it looks different than $otherthing.
This is always in the eye of the beholder ;)
Themeforest is definitely the way to go. I've done it a few times. You can also use fiverr, if you want to create customers that wants customizations. I usually gets bigger projects there.