Request: Premium Templates and Demo

hgtonight

This discussion was created from comments split from: phpBB 3.1 launch.

Schryvers

Im coming from phpbb....

phpbb is too mainstream for me, worked with it from 2002 till 2012.

Dont gonna give it a try, one thing is better than vanilla; templates! Would love a Template demo viewer here and more template designer, what is it that makes it for designers to make many phpbb templates but none vanilla templates.. if there are coming good premium templates for vanilla for lets say 25dollar imma gonna buy it!!!!!!

Already buyed all the 3 themes from @jspautsch and when hes uploading more i gonna buy them all.

So Themers.... Comon and make money! I can design very good, i cant script...

peregrine

So Themers.... Comon and make money! I can design very good, i cant script...

if there are coming good premium templates for vanilla for lets say 25dollar imma gonna buy it!!!!!!

Already buyed ...

@Schryvers
you could donate some money and support the to the free helpers and developers too, if you are feeling flush! , doesn't have to be a purchase-only deal That's how you get more free things in the environment by supporting the people on the forum and who provide "Free" themes, help, and plugins.

The more people who send a token donation to the developers of free plugin and themes, the more likelihood, something better will be developed for the entire community, and negate the need for developers to restrict themes, plugins, etc to "purchase only". Its a win-win situation (for community, users and developers alike) by supporting (making a donation) to the developers of community "Free" add-ons.

It also makes it easier to debug if the code is open-sourced to the community rather than purchase (e.g. if you bought a premium theme, it is very hard to see whats going on, unless the person helping you also has the premium theme s well (if you know what I mean ).

Bleistivt

@Schryvers said:
Would love a Template demo viewer here

@phreak‌ has a theme preview on vanillaskins.com, but I guess they are actually all different installs?

I think vanilla is going to open source the code that runs this site here soon, so this could be added by the community, embedded from an external page that is serving the theme previews, as they probably dont want to run the theme code on their servers without review.

Schryvers

Well,

I like all the commercial themes from @jspautsch on themeforest, and i dont wanna be rude, but i dislike all the themes from vanillaskins.com and all the free themes available, except one and thats bootstrap, but thats also not my flavour, not my first choice since i have Ozone, Nexus and Silicon.

So, i dont want to pay for something that i dont know of how its gonna be. If i like it, i buy it, that means first of all the development needs to be done at that time.

Dont wanna pay and quessing what its gonna look like. Paying for free plugins and answers, is like, paying for breathing air whats free.

If you have an answer and i need that answer, and i know that answer is gonna cost 2 dollar, i pay you 2 dollar. I dont pay 2 dollar if i already have that answer.

Do you get me?

So if you build a good theme, thats premium quality (and for me thats like how ozone, silicon and nexus look like) dont give it for free and hope someone donating you because he likes it. Drop a demo viewer here on the site, and sell those themes for 20-30-50dollar each.

I think, if they can buy it here, or just view the demo here, just like
http://demo.phpbb3styles.net/

the sells are going up up and up. Cause i see when its a free or premium theme in a second, if u dont know better you always gonna look for free ones. And whats 15-30-50 dollar? thats 1 time investment 5 years or more pleasure!

I dont donate for items that are free download. Go develop and sell them, thats a way to make money not quessing some people might like your work and donate you something.

Just my opinion dont hate, just how i see it.

Bleistivt

@Schryvers‌ as peregrine already said, the same applies to plugins too.

I don't see why people are more willing to pay for style than functionality.

Bleistivt

I dont donate for items that are free download.

Unfortunately, that will lead to a decrease in quantitity and quality of those.

Schryvers

If all the 18 plugins im using costs about 5 to 20 dollar each, if its worth that, i payed that.

But to say now, im gonna donate al those 18 plugin writers, its not gonna happen.

On the other hand, if you need to pay for everything, most of people dont gonna use vanilla anymore.

but i think there are enough people willing to pay for good plugins, and thats in my opinion the only way, authors of plugins are getting intrested in make plugins... and updating the plugins at least every year.

peregrine

@Schryvers said: Paying for free plugins and answers, is like, paying for breathing air whats free.

True. Totally understand, and it is your decision.

• The distinction is "have to" vs "want to" and my point is if more people "wanted to" you might see more free addons and themes, of the quality you desire, with the added plus that is open-source available to all. It's an investment in the future, although one don't know what the future will bring. It's more of an incentive to developers to continually add to the open-source community.

• If you received value, it's up to you to decide to donate, it is not mandatory or obligatory. It's just another way to support the community that supports you and may improve quality and abundance of "community addons and themes". Nothing more, nothing less.

Kind of like a non-profit Food Co-op, vs a Huge Corporation. If more people support the food co-op they might have more choices of food available, increased hours,etc. If no one supports it the food co-op may dwindle and go out of business.

Schryvers

Let's say,

A template viewer, is gonna atract new vanilla users.

If only the default style would be here i dont use vanilla. If they can see live demos of other templates maybe more people are intrested in downloadig vanilla and the template aswell its more fun to make a theme cause its gonna be in the live previewer on the official website vanillaforums.org!

Win win situations here.

peregrine

good idea to split discussion.

Schryvers

Don't want to get this topic gettin bleeded dead.

Every big forum software has its own template demo forum.

And because vanilla won nr1 place best forum software i think its time

x00

Schryvers how about this idea? A server to hand out toilet paper for wiping ones bottom with.

x00

I think vanillaforums.org will get some of these feature perhaps, but if their recent presentation slides are anything to go by they want to more away from a "free stuff" mentality to one the is more conducive to an OS community. Of course the core will still be free, but monetary cost isn't really the point behind OS and never was. OS primarily help those the contribute back in some way. Other benefit from this process by coincidence, but those the contribute obviously have a special value.

Vanilla is more so than other software of this type, for those who are more developers or at least willing to get their hands dirty.

I think suggestions are fine but those not running this sort of business or experience deploying such a service talking about "win win" is more than a tad patronising. The team are stretched provide free shit for people who only care about free shit.

Bleistivt

If the new plugin repository would support easy payment options, it may become a more attractive place for developers to publish their plugins. Again, this is something that would be quite a developement effort.

Regarding the style preview thing, its possible to switch the stylesheet by a query paremeter quite easily with a cookie or query parameter:

public function Base_AppStartup_Handler() {
    SaveToConfig('Garden.Theme', val(Gdn_Request::INPUT_COOKIE, 'VanillaTheme', 'default'), 
    SaveToConfig('Garden.Theme', Gdn::Request()->Get('Theme'), false);
}

However, that would not include the themehooks.

The themehooks are included before the plugin manager even starts and the first event is fired, so the "themeswitcher" would need to be an application and the above could be done in the applications bootstrap.

The real problem I see though, is trying to find someone, who is willing to run random code on a public server, or establishing a review process.

Schryvers

I'm caring about free shit if its free. If its not free im buying it. But free shit needs to be good also right

Bleistivt

@Schryvers said:
But free shit needs to be good also right

Not really. As "free" already implies, free shit can be whatever it wants.

Also, check out the differences between free software and freeware.

x00

There is no requirement for free stuff to be good.

There is no requirement for OS to be free.

Free OS might be good becuase for the OS culture and community behind it. If you can't contribute with skills, then contribute some other way.

x00

@Bleistivt said:

However, that would not include the themehooks.

It would not include template overrides either.