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Where can I sell a theme? Started by forumsearch0r · · Read 28882 times 0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic. previous topic - next topic

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #30 –

Quote from: forumsearch0r – 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.

Quote from: emanuele – I thought the theming engine was great. :P

What theme engine are they using?

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #31 –

None. :P
The same system as SMF: plain php files and echo all over the places. ;D

Quote from: forumsearch0r – 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
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).
Bugs creator.
Features destroyer.
Template killer.

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #32 –

Yes, indeed. One of the reasons I'm growing tired of xF is the look.
But it's easy to migrate...

 :D
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Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #33 –

Quote from: forumsearch0r – There seems to be no way to make a bad-looking IPB theme.

I have seen several bad-looking IPB themes. :P

Quote from: forumsearch0r – In opposite to ElkArte which all has themes that look like ElkArte...  :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.

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #35 –

Quote from: Burke Knight – 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.

No, why?
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Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #36 –

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 ;)
sorry for my bad english

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #37 –

Quote from: forumsearch0r –
Quote from: Burke Knight – 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.

No, why?

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. ;)

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #38 –

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?
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Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #39 –

Quote from: forumsearch0r – 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.

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #40 –

1. The "Home" page on ElkArte.net does not look like a forum either. LOL.
3. I did. Everything looks like ElkArte.

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #41 –

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

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #42 –

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:-)
Bugs creator.
Features destroyer.
Template killer.

Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #43 –

Quote from: emanuele – I never finished any of them

... proving my point that there are no Elk themes which are different from the default look&feel.
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Re: Where can I sell a theme?

Reply #44 –

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.