Comments on: WordPress Themes - Do You Want Someone Messing Around With Your Theme?

By: Extralogical · Foot in Mouth

Extralogical · Foot in Mouth — Fri, 16 Mar 2007 00:28:59 +0000

[...] not a fact, and baldly stating that it is makes you look somewhat foolish. Andreas Viklund responds as follows in the comment thread, and I find myself very much in agreement with his sentiments. I [...]

By: daniel horton

daniel horton — Sun, 18 Feb 2007 16:00:38 +0000

I’ve never used a theme that I didn’t mess around with. I don’t use widgets either, so I don’t see why this is being posed as a new debate. Why wouldn’t someone customize a theme a little. It’s not like the formatting of the PHP is in some foreign language or something. Besides, even if someone doesn’t have ANY knowledge to tinker w/ the code, what’s to stop them from altering images?

By: Lorelle VanFossen

Lorelle VanFossen — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 12:31:34 +0000

Completely static pages? That’s old thinking. I recommend you don’t use WordPress but use one of the old fashioned web page makers.

If you still want to use WordPress, then you need HTML/XHMTL/PHP/CSS expertise. The answer to the “easy” part is no. I spent months converting mine from non-static to php generated because it’s worth it and almost harmful to go completely static nowadays.

For the hard part of doing this, try these to get your started: Integrating WordPress with Your Website and Creating a Static Front Page.

By: Bill

Bill — Mon, 14 Aug 2006 03:23:30 +0000

Is there a site providing simple/easy directions to set up WordPress to function as website creation software which creates a completely static website?

By: Ben Gray

Ben Gray — Tue, 01 Aug 2006 17:46:26 +0000

It doesn’t bother me at all to see people screwing around with my theme. More often than not, though, I think what they do to it resemles a bad nightmare but I never pass judgment (publicly.) The only thing that pisses me off is when someone screws with my theme and then removes all references that I was the one who made it when they put their tweaked unsleepable theme up on a theme viewer…essentially communicating that it’s their own design. That really torques me. But as for whether or not I feel some sort of connection to my theme? No.

By: mqstultz

mqstultz — Fri, 07 Jul 2006 16:33:36 +0000

You know… As a web designer you already have to cringe at the things clients do with your designs. You design it one way, code it perfectly, give the client guidelines, and three days later you visit the site and the client has put a humongous purple image where the guidelines clearly said it wouldn’t fit. It’s just the way it is.

I have recently decided to design and develop a free WordPress theme by my strict standards. I am currently requesting initial input from users. I intend to test the theme with the current available widgets, and as with any other piece of work I do, the theme will be tested to death in different browsers and both in Windows, and Macintosh.

People will attempt to customize it, and they will ruin it, but it will be THEIRS. It will reflect who they are and what they like. That’s what a blog or personal site is supposed to be. So… just like with clients, I’ll see the modified theme, sometimes I’ll cringe at it, some times I’ll be pleased. What’s important is that I want to offer my skills to add some value.

Particularly in WP.com I see a lack for selection of themes that are nicely designed + usable + work in several browser environments - all three things. My challenge is to create a product that meets this three requirements, and that accounts for the fact that content is DYNAMIC. I’m thrilled at tackling the work ahead. It’s what I love to do, and you know… as a freelancer I get plenty of down time. I like to use that time wisely.

By: ionfish · Foot in Mouth

ionfish · Foot in Mouth — Sat, 03 Jun 2006 12:06:30 +0000

[...] Lorelle asks if we want people messing around with our themes. Certainly the time is right to ask questions along these lines, but that particular question is just silly. It doesn’t matter whether theme designers want people messing around with their themes or not, because if they’ve released them for public use, they will get messed around with. It’s as simple as that. If you don’t want that to happen, don’t release your theme. Not too hard to get your head round, is it? [...]

By: ceejayoz

ceejayoz — Thu, 01 Jun 2006 20:55:48 +0000

I wrote a post on the subject recently. We ran into this a lot with Tarski - people wanting to do unexpected things with it.

We decided it’s better to help ‘em out than to resist it. It’ll certainly happen whether we want to or not, so why not make it easy and get some goodwill out of it?

By: Andreas Viklund

Andreas Viklund — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 12:08:01 +0000

You write:

“Commercial website designers aren’t in the business of handing out web designs for free, except as a marketing ploy.”

You are wrong, way wrong there. I am a professional designer since a few years back, and my everyday work consists of building a whole lot of custom designs and WordPress themes for different kinds of clients. But I still release high-quality website templates and WordPress themes for free, and it is definitely not any marketing ploy. I can’t deny that free themes and free website templates are good marketing, but that doesn’t make it a purpose. I have more work than I can handle already, and I’m still spending a few hours of my spare time every day on supporting the open source design phenomenon and the wordpress theme scene.

In case you don’t know it already, many of the most popular WordPress themes are based on open source website templates from sites like OSWD.org and OpenWebDesign.org - and there are many professional designers who (just like me) release free templates on those sites. Many of these templates are ported into WordPress themes, sometimes within a day after the release. My own templates have been turned into themes - not only for WP but for most open source blogs and content management systems. Two of the themes, WP-Andreas09 by Ainslie Johnson and Andreas04 by Tara Aukerman, have been added to WordPress.com. I keep on answering questions and requests from WordPress.com users on my spare time - despite the fact that I don’t make a cent from it. Please don’t degrade that to being a “marketing ploy”…

I give away free designs and free themes to give something back to the community - and since it is really fun to take part in the development of the blogging world. I can’t answer for everyone else, but I know a whole lot of professional designers who do the same.

By: sunburntkamel

sunburntkamel — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 15:31:43 +0000

honestly, i just can’t see this as a problem. most themes aren’t just free, they’re open-source and CC-licensed. it’s partly the nature of the WP1.5 and 2.0 theme competitions. it’s partly the nature of the community. any idiot with a text editor or photoshop can make a real mess of my theme. in turn, i made a mess of the connections theme.

widgets, on the other hand, with the exception of the non-API-compliant blogroll widget, can’t break my theme. i tell them how to look. if anyone thinks that the order of the calendar, archives, and blogroll is integral to their theme, i’m revoking their designer license. a garish post does more to mess up a theme.