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Newer Themes


Lynn

Anonymous
Good morning all!

I'm wondering where can I find new geeklog themes. Our church is in need of a website and i am looking for a theme that is not so standard or basic yet modern.

thanks
lynn
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ironmax

Anonymous
Lynn,

Have you looked on the Geeklog Demo Site at what we have for user submitted themes? If not, please try there first at http://demo.geeklog.net and then click on vThemes link on the top menu bar. If you are still not satisfied with what you see, its possible that you may see a theme that comes close and it could be altered to suit your needs. Let one of us know if you need help in making modifications or a new theme developed.

Michael
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Lynn

Anonymous
Good morning,

I've looked at the available themes. unfortunately, they don't appear up-to-date or suitable for christian website. very plain in design and layout. Too bad. I need different styles to present but everything looks the same with the exception of 3 or 4 and nothing comes close to taste.

thanks
Lynn
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suprsidr

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Lynn,
Custom themes are as easy as breaking out your html editor.
Or have someone do it for you.
Dan is a graphic artist very familiar with geeklog theme styling.
A few examples of his work:
Hallmedia, Roberts Health, Aker Service and Flashyourweb.

-s
FlashYourWeb and Your Gallery with the E2 XML Media Player for Gallery2 - http://www.flashyourweb.com
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gdl

Anonymous
Boy o boy did she state the truth. Themes are definitely not Geeklog's strong point. I've been looking at other CMS' and I am blown away at the amount of themes available. So much so, I'm itching to switch. No theme choices when I start a new Geeklog project. Every time I install or even upgrade a new Geeklog site, I have to start from scratch with a new Professional theme. Mainly because of all of the customizations that I do to the layout, which shouldn't matter on upgrades, but it always does. Kudos to glfusion to taking notice to this issue.

Many people have asked about themes in the past only to have people in the community point them to the Geeklog Demo site. :blahblah: Haaa! Haaaa I say! Each one of the themes look like they are from the late '90s. Lynn is right and I am glad to hear her point it out. Hear that fellas? Not one theme is suitable for this cutting edge christian website.

It was great to see the interest that the glfusion team has in creating a more up to date experience with their new CMS. Though I don't have much experience with it as of yet, I have an install I am working with and it's definitely a step up. Though I don't care for mootools –since I prefer jQuery. Their CSS structure also needs some getting used to. And finally I wish their Media Gallery wasn't so buggy. It's definitely no replacement for Gallery2 (menalto). Personally, I prefer Geeklog and Gallery2 to GLfusion. Suprsidr's G2Bridge is terrific. Though I can see if improvements are made to Media Gallery, it will easily become the preferred choice.

It may be a good idea for the Geeklog team to consider changing the theme on their main site. It's been this way for over 5 years if my memory serves me correct. I understand that most of you are coders and geeks and really don't care about aesthetics and may not have the experience in graphics, but you've been around longer than most CMS' and their popularity has trumped Geeklog a 100 fold. I think most of this is due to the amount of Designers creating themes. What better way to showcase the functionality of Geeklog than to have a fantastic demo? Rather than seeing something that looked like it died with the dotcom burst of '98. Seriously. I think Lynn makes the point rather nicely. You have this great app that few know about, and those that do find you are turned off because of the lack of themes and design.

-Dan
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Dirk

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Quote by: gdl

I understand that most of you are coders and geeks and really don't care about aesthetics and may not have the experience in graphics


Obviously, us coders shouldn't make themes or you'll end up with something like this (screenshot).

So what would you suggest we do to get better themes?

Personally, I still like the Professional theme. From a technical point of view, it's valid HTML (XHTML even, if you prefer) and easy to customize. Sure, it could use a makeover from someone with an eye for spaces and fonts ...

bye, Dirk
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gdl

Anonymous
Obviously, us coders shouldn't make themes or you'll end up with something like this (screenshot).

Hahaaha! That is some old school stuff man.Big Grin

Sorry about my crassness yesterday. I was in a mood. Ehem... Evil

I like the professional theme too. it's simple and I can adjust it. And as you point out, it's valid XHTML.

My suggestion to get better themes is to add at least one great looking theme that is a bit more stylish. Make this your homepage theme and default theme. Perhaps it will get the attention of more designers looking to shape the themes even more.

The thing is, the CSS and Templates are really straight forward for Geeklog. I am not a programmer and it's easy to adjust themes with proper guidance. I've been confused why more people haven't done it.

It's time that I try and do something about it. I am a bit busy at the moment, but I will put this on my list of things to do. When I have an "updated" version of the Professional theme, I'll submit it to you Dirk so that you can give it the once over.

I am rebuilding my personal website from scratch using GL 1.6 & Gallery2, perhaps the theme I create for my site could be used as another theme too. Hmmmm. Wink

I wanted to thank you again though for your "author_photo" advice the other day. I was able to get the changes made to the comment templates. The client is very happy! Comment Samples
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gdl

Anonymous
One last thing. I would pick a Javascript Framework that you would like to endorse for Geeklog. I love jQuery, but you can use another if you like. This way some cool usability can be added to some of the functions of Geeklog. Templates for some cool functionality can be added in default Static Pages upon install. Such as image slide shows, carousels, block sliders etc...

Have a look at this page for some examples. Specifically, the "Sliding Login Panel with jQuery" towards the bottom of the page. Pretty cool.
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Dirk

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Quote by: gdl

My suggestion to get better themes is to add at least one great looking theme that is a bit more stylish.


Yes, but where is that theme going to come from? Not from me, obviously ...

In other words: We need an artist / designer. Any volunteers?

bye, Dirk
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Dirk

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Quote by: gdl

I would pick a Javascript Framework that you would like to endorse for Geeklog.


The last time we discussed this, we couldn't agree on one.

bye, Dirk
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1000ideen

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GL is rather a system you choose because of technical advantages and maybe the advantage to alter the layout very easily. Normally you only honor these aspects if you have tried another CMS before and learned how difficult it can be.

It is simply another breed of users who goes for a CMS that advertises it is 'easy to install', has tons of 'great themes' etc. The layouts suprsidr showed are custom made and that`s what I also do, I change a standard theme to match my friends or small client`s tase and CI.

As a beginner you hardly have more to do than change header.thtml and style.css, both is beginners level HTML and CSS. Next step would be to have a look at http://www.monstertemplates.com/ and try to adopt one of their layouts.

You could produce many new standard layouts and non might be matching the taste.
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geiss

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Text Formatted Code
[quote]Yes, but where is that theme going to come from? Not from me, obviously ...

In other words: We need an artist / designer. Any volunteers?[/quote]

 :lol: You're kidding, right? ...seriously?

This has been my experience with "volunteering" for Geeklog, ...buckle up! ;)

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002642.html[/url] - Mark telling why div based themes with the 1.4.1 code base doesn't work (after Oliver supposedly did his patch to allow div layouts. No response from Oliver.

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002639.html[/url] - Blaine stating that he has no problems with Nouveau as default as long as Professional continues to ship. No reply from Dirk.

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002752.html[/url] - Mark making his argument for CTL integration.

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002763.html[/url] - Direct question to Dirk about including the theme, supported with documentation by Blaine, Oliver, Vincent, and on the forums. Went unanswered.

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002778.html[/url] - Blaine says the core team is supporting my theme development efforts.

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-December/002832.html[/url] - My reply to Dirk stating that he didn't intend to support more than one theme and didn't want to remove Professional, so....

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-December/002841.html[/url] - Me saying I haven't received any feedback lately.

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-December/002843.html[/url] - Tom gives some feedback.

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2008-April/003366.html[/url] - I give it another try for inclusion.

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2008-April/003378.html[/url] - Blaine asking for community help, and me stating Dirk's POV where he said he doesn't think anyone can help out in the community (just a little ego...).

[url]http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2008-May/003600.html[/url] - Me responding to someone saying they can't believe there was no theme update.

[url]http://www.geeklog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=81853&mode=&show=5&page=2[/url] - Dirk states he doesn't see any obvious candidates, and my response.

Take the above info, or leave it. It doesn't matter to me, I've moved on to broader horizons. The intent of this post is to serve as a word of caution to anyone as foolish as I was in taking the above call for volunteers at face value.

Good luck! :wink:

Eric

ps- since my post was flagged as spam for whatever reason... enjoy the formatting!

Synergy - Stability - Style --- Visit us at glfusion.org
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Dirk

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The following post by Eric Warren was caught by our spam filter, probably due to the amount of links. Reproduced here before anyone accuses us of censoring or something ...

Yes, but where is that theme going to come from? Not from me, obviously ...



In other words: We need an artist / designer. Any volunteers?




LOL You're kidding, right? ...seriously?



This has been my experience with "volunteering" for Geeklog, ...buckle up! Wink



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002642.html - Mark telling why div based themes with the 1.4.1 code base doesn't work (after Oliver supposedly did his patch to allow div layouts. No response from Oliver.



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002639.html - Blaine stating that he has no problems with Nouveau as default as long as Professional continues to ship. No reply from Dirk.



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002752.html - Mark making his argument for CTL integration.



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002763.html - Direct question to Dirk about including the theme, supported with documentation by Blaine, Oliver, Vincent, and on the forums. Went unanswered.



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-November/002778.html - Blaine says the core team is supporting my theme development efforts.



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-December/002832.html - My reply to Dirk stating that he didn't intend to support more than one theme and didn't want to remove Professional, so....



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-December/002841.html - Me saying I haven't received any feedback lately.



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2007-December/002843.html - Tom gives some feedback.



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2008-April/003366.html - I give it another try for inclusion.



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2008-April/003378.html - Blaine asking for community help, and me stating Dirk's POV where he said he doesn't think anyone can help out in the community (just a little ego...).



http://eight.pairlist.net/pipermail/geeklog-devel/2008-May/003600.html - Me responding to someone saying they can't believe there was no theme update.



http://www.geeklog.net/forum/viewtopic.php?showtopic=81853&mode=&show=5&page=2 - Dirk states he doesn't see any obvious candidates for stepping up to help, and my response.



Take the above info, or leave it. It doesn't matter to me, I've moved on to broader horizons. The intent of this post is to serve as a word of caution to anyone as foolish as I was in taking the above call for volunteers at face value.



Good luck! :wink:



Eric
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Dirk

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Quote by: geiss

LOL You're kidding, right? ...seriously?


Er, no I wasn't. Why should I?

I never rejected you or your theme. I offered to make it the default theme on geeklog.net (with a prominent download link) but continue shipping Professional for the time being (since at that stage we were already late with the next release).

I don't see anything wrong with this approach and none of the links you posted are saying anything different (that is, those that are even relevant to the discussion - the CTL is a different topic altogether). Of course, all this never happened since I did question if the CTL was ready for prime time and then several people, including yourself, went and forked Geeklog to run your own show.

The only thing I could have handled better, I guess, was the communication. But then again I thought I had made my intentions clear. Maybe I didn't.

bye, Dirk
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jmucchiello

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Quote by: Dirk

I don't see anything wrong with this approach and none of the links you posted are saying anything different (that is, those that are even relevant to the discussion - the CTL is a different topic altogether). Of course, all this never happened since I did question if the CTL was ready for prime time and then several people, including yourself, went and forked Geeklog to run your own show.


In Sep07 CTL was ready and it was installed on gllabs.org around that time. It ran on gllabs.org without any issues through to June08 when the site became glfusion.org and the site switched over to the glfusion codebase where CTL is the only template choice.

Yes, by the time I'd given up on CTL getting into Geeklog you were still asking is it ready. In June08 CTL had been ready for 9 months. But at that time CTL became part of glFusion so I stopped paying close attention to Geeklog for a while.

And I can throw benchmarks here as well (From Jan08 ):
With CTL
W/O CTL
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Laugh

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Uh,oh lets not bring up the past again since everyone has moved on...

Geeklog does need some new updated themes, especially if we want Geeklog to grow in popularity. Most bloggers who actually install a CMS would probably rank having a good selection of themes near the top of their list.

The one reason I like the Professional theme is because it is basic, which makes it a good place to start when creating new themes from scratch. I think for this reason it should always be included in the install. IMO geeklog.net does need an overhaul in terms of style and to show what a geeklog site can look like when a professional gets his hands on it. If (I hope when) a new default theme reaches maturity, a decision should already be made on what Javascript Framework we should use. This way any cool functionality can be added and plugin developers don’t have to worry about what framework they should use.

I hope gdl does go ahead and submits an updated professional or new theme.

I also hope Joe goes ahead with a Geeklog CTL plugin which he had mentioned previously.

Tom

One of the Geeklog Core Developers.
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jmucchiello

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Quote by: Laugh

a decision should already be made on what Javascript Framework we should use.



As I recommended the last time this came up, Mootools is most similar to Geeklog in terms of philosophy. Mootools, unlike most other frameworks, is designed to make working with javascript a better experience. Jquery and similar frameworks are designed to make it easier to create glitz and glam. That is not what Geeklog is about. Geeklog is about security first then a helpful core of useful routines. That is mootools - it makes javascript easier. There are flashy add-ons but they are kept out of the core of mootools and the core devs of mootools do not compromise the core of mootools for the sake of cool.
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