Is there a market for 'premium' themes?

NicolasGraph · 2015-06-16 08:22:21

I think that well made themes are missing for Txp; I would like to spend more time designing with Txp (including the french site) but time is often missing.
People here see Txp as a dev/designer tool, but I’d love to see it also becoming more “user catcher”.
I read threads asking for Txp themes but I’m not sure about how many users would be interested by this; because it’s a thing to share a free simple theme but if you dedicate time and provide support you need to be paid. There are a lot of downloads for some of the Textgarden themes but most of them are old and free; not easy to know about a theme service. There also was protextthemes but I don’t know if it was used a lot and why it stopped.

Last edited by NicolasGraph (2015-06-16 09:07:40)

candyman · 2015-06-16 10:28:16

Only bespoke tailoring. No warehouse deals… :)

I agree with you: I think that a premium theme easy to customize would be very useful.

BTW, a forum user recently posted his easy-to-modify and modern theme but I can’t find it anymore… :|

Last edited by candyman (2015-06-16 10:35:37)

NicolasGraph · 2015-06-16 10:35:29

Thanks candyman, but my question is mainly are there enough buyers to make it real on a long time?

Edit: Easy to customize… Yes it should be improved. For now it can be done via adi_variables, etc_variables, and maybe the next comming smd_prefset.

Last edited by NicolasGraph (2015-06-16 10:38:47)

candyman · 2015-06-16 10:37:27

Do you want to know if a premium theme for textpattern would have sufficient market to make it profitable?

NicolasGraph · 2015-06-16 10:39:55

Shortly, yes. Profitable enough to spend time building exlusive themes.

Last edited by NicolasGraph (2015-06-16 10:41:22)

candyman · 2015-06-16 10:42:04

Maybe a competition like Texplates could be useful, what do you think?

NicolasGraph · 2015-06-16 12:24:35

I’m not sure to see what you mean. It seems to be another topic (?).

Last edited by NicolasGraph (2015-06-16 17:02:09)

colak · 2015-06-17 09:39:40

NicolasGraph wrote #291564:

I think that well made themes are missing for Txp; I would like to spend more time designing with Txp (including the french site) but time is often missing.
People here see Txp as a dev/designer tool, but I’d love to see it also becoming more “user catcher”.
I read threads asking for Txp themes but I’m not sure about how many users would be interested by this; because it’s a thing to share a free simple theme but if you dedicate time and provide support you need to be paid. There are a lot of downloads for some of the Textgarden themes but most of them are old and free; not easy to know about a theme service. There also was protextthemes but I don’t know if it was used a lot and why it stopped.

Hi Nicolas

I agree that paid support of themes is missing in the txp community. In fact, front end themes are but a fraction in number to what other systems have to offer.

I think that he gap should be filled by the community so as to attract new users whose html/css knowledge is limited and they are looking for ready-made solutions. Whereas these solutions are offered for free and/or adjusted after payment I cannot comment about. Considering this community mostly consists of designers, we are far behind regarding the ready to use availability of modern/responsive themes.

candyman · 2015-06-17 10:45:37

For these reasons, I thought about a Texplates ’07 -like competition to attract designers.
But we need a sponsor, I guess. The 2010 edition failed.

Last edited by candyman (2015-06-17 10:50:30)

hcgtv · 2015-06-17 14:43:10

colak wrote #291592:

Considering this community mostly consists of designers, we are far behind regarding the ready to use availability of modern/responsive themes.

The problem has always been the core team’s reluctance to provide a mechanism for the import and export of themes, either via core code changes or the adoption of a sanctioned plugin. The conclusion I’ve come up with after many years of fighting for themes, is that the core team is getting nudged under the table to deliberately keep Textpattern from gaining theming capabilities.

Code is Poetry ;)

Bloke · 2015-06-17 15:10:30

hcgtv wrote #291606:

the core team is getting nudged under the table to deliberately keep Textpattern from gaining theming capabilities.

Hehe, external influences daily send me messages through the ether in ghostly voices: “dooon’t do theeeemes in Textpatteeeeerrrrn, it’s baaaaad for the communiteeeeee.”

Bottom line is to reliably swap themes without trampling on data is hard work in Textpattern’s current architecture. Unpicking the rat’s nest of code and database columns to more cleanly separate presentation from structure while maintaining the tag / plugin flexibility that makes it more approachable to designers is a challenge I don’t relish. I’m sure it’s possible to move the furniture and apply a fresh coat of paint at the flick of a switch, just a tad tough to do it in a way that allows migration for existing sites.

But if someone were to patch the core to do it via a pull request to either natively support it or make it easier for a plugin to do, then I say Bring It On and I’ll gladly merge it in. The line between user and developer is blurry now.

candyman · 2015-06-17 15:27:47

Please, can you explain to a profane what is the problem to adding and import/export feature?

I imagine that would be an huge effort for the core developers but, are there any other reasons (for example a slowing down engine) to avoid to take that street?

I see that almost every CMS out there have its template/theme packages but TXP’s leaders approach is different: why?

Last edited by candyman (2015-06-17 15:31:17)

Textpattern CMS

Textpattern CMS support forum

#1 2015-06-16 08:22:21