TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

Jeremie · 2005-07-09 16:56:42

Well, is there any kind of guidelines ? What level of semantic, accessibility and useability is required ? Are we talking about theme (pure CSS), simple templates (pages&forms) with or without plugins, full templates (with CSS), etc etc.

In any case, TXP may move a lot before 1.0, so I don’t see the rush. A first try may be nice, but as I can see it the first real one can’t start without a solid 1.0.

davidm · 2005-07-09 17:30:34

Well, Jeremie, I had the same idea to wait for 1.0 at first, but you never know w-h-e-n it will come out… As for guidelines, check the wiki page I set up earlier

You can edit/add whatever you feel is appropriate :-)

Mary, cool I’ll test those plugins :-))
Your remarks about the rules are right on target, I’ll try update the wiki with that tomorrow…

Jeremie · 2005-07-09 17:52:03

Well, as far as I can tell it’s not really templates, but more “themes”. Maybe my taxonomy is wrong especially in english, but I understood template to be the full thing (pages, forms, and so on). The graphic side would be more “theme” to me.

On that, I suggest you wait for the next default template (pages&forms) of Textpattern. They will be out soon (less than a week), and will be much more capable of supporting such contest.

alexandra · 2005-07-10 19:20:16

Hey all,
as this is a design contest i agree with Davids No. 1 + No 2. rules listed unter Template Requirements in the WIKI. Especially as it is the first contest of its kind and will probably take place before 1.0 is out, we should keep it simple, shouldn´t we?.

For the No. 3 rule (brwoser compatabilty) i like to suggest to set up the rule, that all templates have to work properly on Opera, Firefox, Safari – but not in IE. Why not IE? I believe IE did take us designers so much time already for just nothing, that i dislike the idea to work for it anymore :( . MS is such a big global play and could have updated their browser by now easily. Instead working on it, they leave the work to the designers/coder. I will not support that kind of policy anymore. Not for a free contest anyway.
Nevertheless i like to make a suggestion how the issue can be handled: we could always add a kind of sign (blue dot…whatever) meaning this is although working in IE, MacBrowser and so on. But working for IE should not be a prerequisition.

Timeline: as it is summer and many people go for holydays and/or enjoy the long evenings, i wonder if it makes sense to have the contest taking place before september/october?

I offered sivni my help with textgarden.org and he asked me to help with designing and setting up the contest-area on textgarden.org, which i happily will :) but if you ever come across a nice site, presenting templates, drop me an email, so we can get inspired :)

Last edited by alexandra (2005-07-10 22:33:25)

sivni · 2005-07-10 23:49:35

How about we call this contest “Out of the box 2005”?

I vote for an easy contest.
-TXP Default template. CSS and images allowed.
-Categories: blog/photoblog/corporate/wild/zine.
-All entries compared to eachother, disregarding category.
-A jury decides on a winner based on their favorites and download counts.

Categories:
I need your help to settle on some categories. Got any better ideas?

Vote by downloads:
Upon layout submission to the contest on textgarden.org, one set the article date to a common future date. This way all entries should be displayed at the same time, and download counting will start simultaneously.

A jury:
I think a jury would be in place for this contest. Setting up a jury to evaluate the submitted layouts would make it easier to agree on the outcome. As layouts appear quite different to all of us, a jury would declare a winner based on their favorites and the download count. I think we need some celebrities in the jury. Some Hollywood stars would be good. How about Steven Spielberg and Al Pacino? Or, perhaps Dean would have the honor?

The default template:
I’ve been monitoring Jeremies work on the new template, and as he say it’ll be out in less than a week, this one will surely be worth the wait. Plenty of nice CSS hooks to enable those wild tricks.

Last edited by sivni (2005-07-10 23:56:55)

alexandra · 2005-07-11 18:21:16

I like Out of the box 2005.

Regarding the categories i am not sure. What is the difference between the layout for a zine and a blog? Both can look pretty much alike. Same with corporate and zine.
Well i am not asked but if so, i would forget about the categories …

btw. how about using sIFR?

sivni · 2005-07-11 19:51:13

> Well i am not asked but if so, i would forget about the categories
I get your point, one could just forget about categories if we are just working on the default template. On the other hand, the categories can describe an intended audience, not only a type of look.

> btw. how about using sIFR?
Would you not need a plugin for that?

alexandra · 2005-07-11 20:21:28

> sivni wrote:

one could just forget about categories if we are just working on the default template

this is the question, or did i miss something on this long thread?

> btw. how about using sIFR?
Would you not need a plugin for that?

i used sIFR once on one of my txp sites and… lol.. i can´t remember if i did use zems plugin….i think i did it by hand. for sure a javascript file is needed and of course a flash file.

jonimueller · 2005-07-14 00:47:25

I’m very interested in designing for textpattern. Be careful to caution your designers that they must be careful about using images from such places as istock.photo.com, which strictly PROHIBITS redistribution of the image whether for profit or not. (In other words, it’s okay for you to download an istockphoto.com image to use to design for yourself or a client. As long as there’s no mass distribution involved.)

Also, playing the skeptic/devil’s advocate here, as in other blog template competitions, are the licenses individual, with the designer/author, or should be be made clear to all those submitting designs that they should all be open source/GPL with leeway for end users to chop hack and modify them?

Something to chew on for later on down the road when this contest is ready to be unleashed on the world!

And in any event, I’m ready to go!

MsContrary · 2005-07-17 18:21:05

Well, don’t go away for three weeks and expect to come back to the forum and have an easy time catching up! That’s what I’m finding anyway. I was able to check email but at 5 Euros per 30 minutes I didn’t want to browse the forum. Makes me realize how much time I waste—er, spend educating myself here. Yeah, educating, that’s it!

Anyway, it’s good to see that so much has been mulled over about the contest. Now I have to get back up to speed on txp. I printed out Kusor’s template tags in a small format and took it along to study. I’m ashamed to admit that I had jumped into textpattern without reading through the whole thing from start to finish.

I was visiting the Azores. I wonder if there are any Textpattern users there? I’m thinking of incorporating images from my pictures into a template design (just so I can keep on topic here…). A few of my pictures are here (Not a Txp site—when I get a serious ablum online it’ll be with Txp).

Ciao

M

alexandra · 2005-07-19 10:30:42

… a suggestion how templates/themes can be judged:

+ Originality & Imagination
+ Colour & Composition
+ Skill & Quality
+ Effort

sekhu · 2005-07-19 19:44:21

Hmm I think effort is too subjective a critique to judge – firstly it’s going to be difficult to define – someoen could spend 300 hours on something and it may still look like a poor effort by others. I like the other suggestions though, skill would be another tough one to judge though I think.

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#157 2005-07-09 16:56:42

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#158 2005-07-09 17:30:34

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#159 2005-07-09 17:52:03

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#160 2005-07-10 19:20:16

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#161 2005-07-10 23:49:35

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#162 2005-07-11 18:21:16

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#163 2005-07-11 19:51:13

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#164 2005-07-11 20:21:28

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#165 2005-07-14 00:47:25

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#166 2005-07-17 18:21:05

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#167 2005-07-19 10:30:42

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

#168 2005-07-19 19:44:21

Re: TXP Template Contest : Starting a Pledge ! Will you sign up ?

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