Joomla Templates Club 406,261 posts

[cjmicro Friend cjmicroJoin date: June 2008Posts: 501Downloads:3Uploads:0 Thanks: 198 Thanked: 81 times in 10 posts]

#292847

I think having different styles is a great thing, even if it is just different colors. For SOME people. Many of us use the templates as a starting block and customize much of the styles on our own. However, there are those who can’t do that, because of time and/or knowledge constraints.

So I can see the benefit of both, and from a customer service standpoint, offering products for people who can’t just go in and change styles and colors easily.

I looked at the new RT template, and one suggestion is to maybe develop a color/style chooser to go with the templates, such as what they have. That way you could just develop the new template and a style/color chooser and people could mix and match without having the CSS knowledge, in an easier fashion. Personally I may or may not use something like that, but it may help satisfy some of the people (which probably is a majority) that buy the templates because they want it to be easy and fast.

Just my 2cents… 🙂

I would like to thank the JA team for all they do in developing the different products. I know it’s not easy to please all the people all of the time. (understatement of the day, eh!! 😀

Cheryl

[wooohanetworks Friend wooohanetworksJoin date: September 2008Posts: 1239Downloads:0Uploads:2 Thanks: 148 Thanked: 138 times in 41 posts]

#292849

Okay…but than those color variations should be something the mass likes, I can see no use in those. First, when the topic business themes came up, I voted for those as I thought, now comes one theme that makes the site not more auto related but business conform. Like JA Edenite comes along but this is not what I referred to as business themes.

And to be honest, as it makes no sense to say something that is objectively not true, we want to enhance the Joomlart.com site and community, so simple head ups that lead in the wrong direction make no sense. And this I often also see in the Member Showcase forum, people simply give heap ups, but for real are only amused by the submissions, rather than coming with a lot more tips, hints, example sites, all that what would benefit the member for real, to make better homepages, to better revise the whole site, to use another template from here and not letting them walk on with something that is not prospering them as much or at all as some real interest in their sites could have and often it is just about mentioning to use another template or not just to remove some things, add some things but to make the right changes. As long those members are also not interested in enhancing their sites, also the help from others becomes useless, time wasted, simple thing again. But, how it is, when you come with constructive critics, some other members only say, no that is wrong the site looks good as they think they cannot make it better, have no skills, will never learn, whatever reason there may be. Or, the objectively useful critics are disregarded…

Now back to JA Cooper, those new styles make the whole template look like less interesting that so many free templates out there. When you provide something new, then it still must look professional and interesting and I do not know who wants to use those new styles when there are so many other better looking ones here at Joomlart in other templates? The template lives from the styles only, there are no super nice new extensions or effects included, no sliding bars, whatever could justify this and not even this could justiy this, there I can only say again, bennitos is definitely right, when this would be how it goes on with the next templates, I also would not like Joomlart.com no more. Sorry to say, but the time taken for making those themes could have been used to make ONE more business theme that really looks exciting.

Thanks!

[bennitos Friend bennitosJoin date: May 2008Posts: 1717Downloads:0Uploads:39 Thanks: 39 Thanked: 474 times in 407 posts]

#292855

<em>@Hung Dinh 113843 wrote:</em><blockquote>Hi Phill
When something is nearly to the perfect, you won’t want to try to change it. If there was any better design we should have made a new template.

I will wait for more post & comments from other users. If everyone are not happy with the business style. I will work with the team and we commit to work overtime this month so that we can make you happy. Although everybody will tend to ask more and force a release of new template as a replacement, the team will be get ready for the totally new work

However, if you have a look back with our recent efforts to improve template quality, providing totally exclusively extra styles (instead of only changing the color in 2006,2007, 2008 templates), all of such our efforts are just a “rip-off ” ??? :((</blockquote>

Hung,

I believe JA did great improvement on new templates and the extra styles are really nice, compared to like you said only changing colours.

In general i believe JA had some good changes last year, improved templates, the ticket system, JA developer helping out on forum. I do believe JA is on the right path.

My “rip-off” comments where purly pointed to the new “cooper business” style, as i believe adding extra styles cant be compared to bringing out a new template. The extra styles could have been released as extra but not instead of a other template.

Like scotty said before i hope this does not happen when JA goes to 1 template a month, as then they should have enough time to put all styles in when the template comes out.

I dont think JA should work overhours to make an extra one next month, im just waiting for the next template and if JA keeps up what they been doing lately then in sure it will be a nice one.

Only wanted to point out that new styles in my opinion cant be compared or can replace a new template.

[cjmicro Friend cjmicroJoin date: June 2008Posts: 501Downloads:3Uploads:0 Thanks: 198 Thanked: 81 times in 10 posts]

#292856

<blockquote>Okay…but than those color variations should be something the mass likes, I can see no use in those. </blockquote>

So your point is that offering the different colors/styles is that you just don’t like the styles and colors used? I might not like them either, but it doesn’t mean someone else won’t like them or use them.

I would vote for more different templates, rather than color and style variations of the same. But, I can see why they do it though, to try and give more options to those who prefer to use the templates more “as is”.

I guess some people just think they are doing it that way because it’s easier and faster, and therefore might seem like a ripoff, and my point is just that I don’t see it that way, and they probably have a reason for doing it the way they are doing it.

Cheryl

[joev Friend joevJoin date: December 2008Posts: 108Downloads:0Uploads:17 Thanks: 5 Thanked: 10 times in 1 posts]

#292857

<em>@scotty 113876 wrote:</em><blockquote>I think the new colours look excellent…

BUT I totally agree with Shannons analysis. These are not 5 styles. It is one style with 5 colour variants. They could have easily been released with the original release. Once the header BG image was produced in Photoshop it’s just a matter of moving a Hue slider to change the colour. You could make 50 different colour variations in an hour.

In my opion JA are the best template club (just compare Cooper to the new RT Template) and I agree with JA moving to one template a month because I believe it will lead to even better templates. But I do not agree with using up a template release by releasing new styles/themes/colours of a previous release.

By all means release extra variants – but please not by sacrificing a new template.

I sincerely hope this never happens when you move to one a month.</blockquote>

Just to fair – I’m also a member with RT and I do agree that some of their templates are over-the-top. However, take for example their Akiraka theme. If you had a chance to play with it, the Template Manager options will blow you away. They literally have an option to change every part of the site. Unlike JA templates that usually only have a few options. So instead of creating all of these wierd styles, they give you more than enough ways to customize each template. And the documentation, support, tutorials, are absolutely the best. Don’t get me wrong, JA templates are good, but they really need to raise the bar in all areas. Just my 2 cents.

[scotty Friend scottyJoin date: March 2008Posts: 2339Downloads:0Uploads:13 Thanks: 76 Thanked: 827 times in 595 posts]

#292858

Hi Joe, when I say I think JA templates are the best I am solely talking about the frontend – nothing to do with support, backend features, or tutorials. Other clubs may be better is this regard but that doesn’t interest me when I am looking to make a good website. The visitor experience on the finished site is what is most important to me and in this regard I think Joomlart are No1.

I do like the idea of a dynamic colour chooser in the backend and maybe this is something JA could develop. I generally think JA should release more extensions anyway.

As regards compensating members by releasing 3 templates next month… quality is always better than quantity.

[Phill Moderator PhillJoin date: February 2014Posts: 7013Downloads:40Uploads:77 Thanks: 917 Thanked: 2206 times in 1818 posts]

#292871

I have to agree, it is the user experience that counts and JA are well ahead of the bunch when it comes to that. I’ve helped a lot of people build sites with other template clubs templates and JA templates and JA are usually the best. JA Fagus was the first one that caught my eye and it has stood the test of time.

So many of the other clubs go OTT with their templates when it is just not needed. Some are ridiculously slow at loading as a result, or have loads of code clashes so many extensions need tweaking to work. Boasting you have 120 module positions is just silly.

What could JA do to improve? Well I think going to one a month will make a difference. It will give more time to iron out the little bugs that we all find from time to time. It will allow more time to improve the manuals (as an ex technical author I tend to be overly harsh so it is probably unfair of me to comment). It will allow more time to develop extensions. Or at least it should do if staff are not redirected into Magento work.

1 user says Thank You to Phill for this useful post

1. Hung Dinh

[quantaweb Friend quantawebJoin date: September 2007Posts: 38Downloads:0Uploads:2 Thanks: 4 Thanked: 6 times in 1 posts]

#292885

JA is the best. One who complains that they need a totally new template design every other week has allowed himself to become overly dependent on the template developer. Is someone in a mad rush to bang out empty websites each week based on every new template? Sounds like a bad business strategy for a web developer. JA offers a MASSIVE template library. If you focus on learning to modify them to your liking, you will probably find greater success as a web developer. The alternative is to become dependent and perpetually disgruntled. This is a transition that every serious developer has to face.

Good luck.

1 user says Thank You to quantaweb for this useful post

1. Hung Dinh

[sfpkent Friend sfpkentJoin date: October 2008Posts: 829Downloads:0Uploads:100 Thanks: 310 Thanked: 75 times in 1 posts]

#292927

Hi Hung Dinh,

500 Internet Server Error when I viewed the templates.

[Hung Dinh Friend Hung DinhJoin date: September 2014Posts: 4408Downloads:11Uploads:189 Thanks: 309 Thanked: 3310 times in 3 posts]

#292931

sfpkent;113987Hi Hung Dinh,

500 Internet Server Error when I viewed the templates.

Thank you sfpkent, I am having a look at this.

1 user says Thank You to Hung Dinh for this useful post

1. sfpkent

[ShannonN Friend ShannonNJoin date: July 2006Posts: 1947Downloads:0Uploads:9 Thanks: 16 Thanked: 172 times in 49 posts]

#292965

quantaweb;113935JA is the best. One who complains that they need a totally new template design every other week has allowed himself to become overly dependent on the template developer. Is someone in a mad rush to bang out empty websites each week based on every new template? Sounds like a bad business strategy for a web developer. JA offers a MASSIVE template library. If you focus on learning to modify them to your liking, you will probably find greater success as a web developer. The alternative is to become dependent and perpetually disgruntled. This is a transition that every serious developer has to face.

Good luck.

Well if the user was a totally competent web designer with all the necessary skills the templates makers wouldn’t be needed would they? The designer would make it themselves

The downside of templates are it leads to laziness, and apathy, and the insulation from any kind of web design knowledge or principles – we’ll think of the quickstart system in the following

The user just fills in the blanks, no real talent needed till you wish to change something major. the problem is a majority of newbies don’t know, want or care to learn anything ( generalizing here) they are in it for a one site that’s why most use a template, but then they find out they need to add change manage and that’s when the trouble ( read need to learn) happens.

Re changing headers and images

Mention they need to know photoshop or Fireworks to allow image editing and hear them moan, look at all the unskilled ppl here just joined, haven’t researched Joomla the CMS first or “what skills a web designer need to learn bombard the forum with the absolute most basic questions that even a Google search can give the answers to like how do I change the logo image.

Occasionally , I do a Google search on their question and post a link to the answer, just to say, they could have answered it themselves. While I know Ja is not very good at providing detailed instructions and manuals lot of the info is there to some forum users questions, its not even a matter of using the search its the first stickied post in the template forum the users is posting in, how lazy can that get?

Now DON’T flame me, as this is true, no one anymore wants to do a little pain for gain, the concept of a template also carries the concept of support meaning “answer my every question on every subject and if you can’t answer it do it for me approach”, and then when you provide the answer to “help. need answer quick, urgent etc , you see they don’t return to the forum for 6 days then don’t even say thanks, but still want a complete code example as it is too hard they don’t know css or Photoshop etc

Anyone else see this behavior,

Now I know and appreciate there are many new to Joomla and web design that do Not have that approach and are thankful for all the time and effort, these are the ppl I love to help as they learn and grow and contribute back to the forum.

For the record: My take on web design and what it entails as a joomla web designer is

1. A working knowledge of css, a working knowledge of Joomla and its admin backend
2. Reasonable knowledge of what Joomla as a cms can and can’t do
2. how to edit images and at least turn on/off layers in PS or FW and save images
3. how to use an external FTP program, not just some cpanel file manager
4, Know what permissions are and what 644, 755 and 777 are all about
5. know what a ‘wamp’ is how to work offline using any kind of wamp, be it JSAS, Xammp etc
6. know how to google for answers
7. be prepared to debug for hours
8. Be addicted to coffee and no sleep 🙂

Any I’ve missed?

and if you really want to be a web designer and don’t want to learn all these things, that’s fine, just don’t call yourself a designer or web master

Cheers ShannonN

1 user says Thank You to ShannonN for this useful post

1. jsliao

[jsliao Friend jsliaoJoin date: April 2008Posts: 817Downloads:0Uploads:12 Thanks: 25 Thanked: 236 times in 210 posts]

#292966

Agree with Shannon on most of her points especially on those who come into the forum asking for ‘urgent’ help and disappearing without even saying thanks once they got what they want.

[ShannonN Friend ShannonNJoin date: July 2006Posts: 1947Downloads:0Uploads:9 Thanks: 16 Thanked: 172 times in 49 posts]

#292968

jsliao;114034Agree with Shannon on most of her points especially on those who come into the forum asking for ‘urgent’ help and disappearing without even saying thanks once they got what they want.

ARRH ShannonN is a guy not a girl ARRRGH 😀
Shannon

[quantaweb Friend quantawebJoin date: September 2007Posts: 38Downloads:0Uploads:2 Thanks: 4 Thanked: 6 times in 1 posts]

#292972

Your avatar gave that one away…

If the term Website Designer is a little too lofty, I find it appropriate to call myself a Website Integrator. Open Source relieves me of the pain of ground up development, but it does not relieve me of the pain of learning CSS, HTML, PHP, server admininstration, and most importantly as you point out Shannon – DEBUG. There is tons of it. If I did not have WAMP and Google I couln’t do it. One does not have to be an “expert” they just need to be “very resourceful” and persistent.

[scotty Friend scottyJoin date: March 2008Posts: 2339Downloads:0Uploads:13 Thanks: 76 Thanked: 827 times in 595 posts]

#292987

quantaweb;113935One who complains that they need a totally new template design every other week has allowed himself to become overly dependent on the template developer.

Or…. they expect to get what they paid for. Not an unreasonable request is it?

Yes, a members ability to modify templates would determine their decision when it comes wanting extra styles released or not.

But the question is… should these extra styles be released for those members at the cost of a new release for everyone else?

I don’t think so.

1 user says Thank You to scotty for this useful post

1. nefar

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