18 replies to this topic

[Dean]

The Etomite templates seem to have been a bit slow at rolling in, so I've decided to do a competition to try and get an influx.

There would need to be some rules, like you have to submit your own material (no converted templates).

Would you be interested? What if there was a prize?

[vw53a]

I would be interested, 'specially if there was a prize
...but I don't know if I would have the necessary amount of spare time to create it.

[Burkhard]

Good idea with a competition. Wherever I can I prefer my own created template (s).

Edited by Burkhard, 21 August 2007 - 07:44 PM.

[darren]

I agree - a good idea but my templates are created for clients and I wouldn't feel comfortable putting them out there for others to use. I'd be interested in a competition for sites running etomite as long as the designs weren't promoted as free to use.

Edited by darren, 31 August 2007 - 05:32 PM.

[Ralph]

A competition would be a great idea... I've been brushing up on my template skills and, even though someone will probably steal it and call it their own, I'm gonna share my almost finished entry... It just needs a quick spit-shine to get it production ready... Heck, I might even give up coding and do templates full-time... I'm planning on full HTML 3.2 compliance...!!!

Attached Files

•  my_template.png   32.2K   32 downloads

[Cris D.]

@ Ralph I will give it a go but I think I will be barring last place is there a prize for the worst design?

[Dean]

Well I've figured the prize for the last place, as I figured Ralph's won that even before we decide on the competition

The prize for last place is seeing your design put on a stake and burnt

[cathode]

Ralph, I love your color scheme

[cathode]

I would like to contribute but I am really busy. What I'd like to do would be to compete for a new default install template... The ones we have are really not up to today's standards.

[Ralph]

I would like to contribute but I am really busy. What I'd like to do would be to compete for a new default install template... The ones we have are really not up to today's standards.

See my previous post for a prime candidate... Seriously, I'm sure we would consider any entries for potential inclusion as a default template...

[PaulD]

I think the best prize would be publicity.

The winner perhaps could have a 'Best Design' logo of some description. Perhaps those logos should be available in different formats, Best Design for commercial projects, Best Design for Open Source Templates etc etc. A great way to showcase work as well because people love top 10 type lists.

The fork does have you beat on some superficial matters, but I have never been tempted off to the dark side :-)

It is amazing how long it takes to do a design from scratch. Like Karen, we are all busy doing 'paid' work and paying the mortgage. But that also applys to Ralph and Dean. How much time do they give to eto, as well as all the other contributors of course. How much time do they save us?

Personally I feel guilty to not have returned more contributions. I wish I could. I intend to. One day. When business picks up a bit :-)

A competition is a great idea though, even if it is just for fun.

Paul.

[Dean]

Lots of good ideas :-) I'll have a ponder

[darren]

I would like to contribute but I am really busy. What I'd like to do would be to compete for a new default install template... The ones we have are really not up to today's standards.

I like this idea, much cooler than a prize, i think... and supports community involvement....

[PaulD]

I started to make a template but without content or any idea what people might use it for it is very hard.

Perhaps if the competition is to happen, we would need more pointers than a simple 'any template'. Just to give some direction to the design.

Paul.

[Ralph]

I started to make a template but without content or any idea what people might use it for it is very hard.

Perhaps if the competition is to happen, we would need more pointers than a simple 'any template'. Just to give some direction to the design.

Paul.

My suggestion to anyone wanting to contribute would be to focus more on standards compliant (XHTML & CSS) table-less template... Most template issues, some of which I just went through on my own site, are related to cross-browser formatting issues... As far as pretty graphics, they can either be there or left to the end user to provide... Oh, and using as few cross-browser hacks as possible would be an added bonus...

I know it's Deans competition, but if we're thinking about bundling a template in an upcoming release we might as well not overwhelm a new user... Hence my input on guidelines... Those are just things that I might like to see... Although some of the templates, or template suites, which have been included previously have been visually appealing, they can be more than a bit daunting to use to their fullest... I've been known to gut them, only to find that I went too far and then had to start over from a backup...

<<< grumbles off into the dark recesses to gear up for his next "IE Sucks!" debate with Ian >>>

[Dean]

Ok, well I'm still putting stuff together - this is definately on the todo list for the next few days.

I'll get back to you.

[cathode]

Here's my stock XHTML template that I use for just about all of my websites with little or no modification. This would be a great starting point as it's XHTML compliant and can accept any style.

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN"
"http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">

<html xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml" xml:lang="en" >
<head>
	<title></title>
	<meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"/>
	<meta name="description" content="" />
	<meta name="abstract" content="" />
	<meta name="author" content="http://www.n-vent.com" />
	<meta name="distribution" content="global" />
	<meta name="rating" content="general" />
	<meta name="keywords" content="" />
	<meta name="robots" content="NOODP" />
	<style type="text/css" media="all">@import "style.css";</style>	
</head>

<body>
<div id="page">
	<div id="header"></div><!-- end header -->
	<div id="menu"></div><!-- end menu -->
	<div id="leftcol"></div><!-- end leftcol -->
	<div id="rightcol"></div><!-- end rightcol -->
</div><!-- end page -->
<div id="footer"></div><!-- end footer -->
</body>
</html>

[Cris D.]

For anyone interested, I've been working on a snippet that lets you "see" a template in your database without having to read the code. It lets you see where many of the snippets are being used and their names. You can see the template from within your existing Etomite page without any content inside it.

If seeing naked templates is your thing, you can check it out in action here. It will to posted to the snippet library when it has been CLEANED UP.

[Ralph]

That's a very handy snippet you have there, Cris... I'm sure people will find it helpful... It would be an interesting addition to the Cocoon code base as well, rather than relying on thumbnails...