Why are all the themes really bad?
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SamBeckett
Joined: 2002-09-29
Posts: 146 |
Posted: Thu, 2004-02-12 15:26
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Just upgraded to 1.4.2 and I just relized all the themes are really low quality and bad looking to the eyes. Who wants bright colors? We are supposed to be looking at the photos. I tested out about 5 of them and switched back to the default. Why have crappy themes when no one seems to use them? And when will we get some good ones? Sorry to be so harsh! |
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Posts: 32509
well, i like the bRed very much!
example:
http://www.nei.ch/gallery/
Posts: 1301
I just noticed this post and thought I'd respond...
While the themes may not be to your taste, I don't consider them "low quality". One person has put a lot of time into making these for others who don't know how or don't have the time to add a customized look to their Gallery. In fact, I believe she recently added some "quieter" themes. You might want to check those out.
Crappy is not really the best way to put this - I think maybe (again) they are not to your taste. However, people ARE using these themes. If there is something you'd like to see, why not put a request in the Customization thread and see what happens? JadeDragon seems to be very accommodating in this regard.
Again - define "good". What are you looking for?
Not so much harsh as I believe a poor choice of words. You are, however, entitled to your own opinion.
Gaile
(who did not build the themes, so don't think I'm taking this personally)
Posts: 332
History of the Themes.
Back in Feb 2003 I found Gallery. I like to make things pretty by adding backgrounds and graphics. Which I at first hard coded into every single public page of Gallery. :o Thirty some odd pages and about as many hours later I had a custom Gallery. A few people asked how I did this so I put up the code in the orginal Gallery Tutorial site. Another 20 or so hours in the making of that site. This worked for a few people but wasn't very modular or user friendly. So back to the drawing board I went again.
Another 30-40 hours later I extracted everything I could find in to the CSS layout you see now. That was March of 2003. Then I promply ran out of time, I work FT as a business manager and work in RL 45-60 hours a week during the summer & fall months. I did some curtesy skins just to show people what could be done. These people could download the skins & Gallery conversion files off the first Gallery Skins site.
Yes, they are simple and yes I did miss a few things when doing them last year. I just figured with the ease of CSS people could and would change them at will.
Then I received a nice little message from one of the Core Dev people here at Gallery. They wanted to include my skins in the next release. I agreed so they took the code I hade made for version 1.3.3 and incorporated it into 1.4.x. But with the timing of development and my RL work the only skins available were the ones I originally did as examples, so they included those.
Knowing that these are simple designs and not for everyone, I started the next version of Gallery Skins and have 58+ more skins compatible with the new version of Gallery. These are all free for download just as my original skins were. It takes anywhere from a half an hour to 3 hours for each skin. I do them as I have time.
As far as I know I'm still the only one doing Gallery skins for download. I've had over 2,000 downloads just this month. I have requested in past posts for ideas for new skins. I don't know everyones tastes in web design so I can only guess what people want.
Some like bright bold colors, some like soft, some like graphics and I even have one just stripped down to the bare background.
Also with anything that is new, there are some adjustments to be made. Certain portions of text and areas of Gallery need the skin code adjusted to be compatible with the new features of 1.4.x. These changes will be an on going process and many have been noted for future releases.
If you would check into the Customization forum you will see the customization tutorial to make your own themes, if there's nothing that I have done that you like.
If you would have noted I do have a link on the left sidebar of this site for skins and I also have the link in my sig.
I hope you find or make something you like.
=)
Jade
Posts: 146
lol, i agree the themes really suck. I'm using default, but I like default a lot cause its simple.
Posts: 53
I think gallery is missing one solid theme that is really good.
Posts: 3
For what it's worth, I'm not really excited by any of the available themes, but I wish folks wouldn't attack them for being "crappy." I think that the themes are what they are because only one person bothers to make and distribute them, and they reflect what she likes to make. I can't criticize that! If more people would take the time to make themes, we'd probably have a wider variety ... though I think that there's only so much that you can do with Gallery 1.x.
Maybe it's time for a theme competition to get some more people involved?
Posts: 8
That one is really neat!!
Posts: 9
I dont remember what it's called, but it's dark and clean: http://arve.nsgp.net/gallery/
Posts: 16
i understand why gallery included JadeDragon's sample themes but my question is why the hell haven't they added any newer ones that don't look like it's 1999. come on, add a couple that don't suck to gallery1 already. and what's with that gawd awful default blue color scheme now?
Posts: 27300
What is your favorite color....... Blue, NO green.......
The blue color was changed at the request of the many users that did not like the green. You can''t please everybody i guess.
So to answer your first question is: when somebody does it. Make one and send us your new skin and then we will have one more to choose from.
Dave
Gallery Frames / Mods || G1 Test Gallery
Posts: 32509
btw: http://www.nei.ch/gallery/ is using now G2, so it's not the bRed theme anymore.