This is not a call out thread, nor am I saying that it applies to everyone. However it is something I have seen happening more and more recently...
When you download a free theme then you are getting something that is just that, free. You can't expect the best coding or that everything is working perfectly. But if you are paying for something, then you should expect just that. I have seen a grown increase in "premium" themes that may look good, but are very poorly coded. If you are unsure about a theme, ask someone with knowledge to look at it before you buy.
To theme developers: take more care to make sure that your themes are of the quality people want, stop ripping people off with bad work. I have spent far too much time fixing shoddy code.
A note yet again, this does NOT apply to all developers, but unfortunately it seems to be a growing trend.
For the free themes part i agree with you. For the premium themes part, i dont know..
(2013-01-19, 08:12 AM)jacktheking Wrote: [ -> ]For the free themes part i agree with you. For the premium themes part, i dont know..
It is a common problem now I'm afraid, many people selling themes that just aren't coded properly..
It's pretty simple. There's a few top class theme developers here at mybb that produce some fantastic premium themes. Then there's the wannabe theme developers that because they know a little CSS and can slap a jQuery popup login form on a page and alter the default theme, they call their themes premium. All I can say is, it's not hard to see who is a proper developer and who isn't. Just do a little research beforehand.
I agree with you in some respects frank, but recently I have seen good designers crop up that an design, they just can't code properly
Tindris, may I ask what you mean by "cannot code properly" as I think this is true of many self-taught coders (myself included).
Do you mean simple things like the HTML not validating or inefficient use of CSS, or do you mean custom plugins used to enhance a design?
Inefficient use of CSS in a way that makes the theme uneditable without big modifications. Improper use of HTML and use of HTML code that is either deprecated or doesn't exist. Conflicting Jquery is the most common which breaks features. Improper browser rendering meaning themes break in different browsers.. The list goes on.
Another big issue is that is often these developers that refuse to fix the faults in their themes
Sorry but I completely disagree with you about free themes. Premium or not people should have a good work ethic trying to bring people the best they can, otherwise people can expect from you to be lazy and cutting corners and that is such a slap in the face for people. So saying it's ok to cut corners and to have mediocre coding as a free theme and expect such a crappy standards it's hilarious.
(2013-01-19, 02:09 PM)Tindris Wrote: [ -> ]Inefficient use of CSS in a way that makes the theme uneditable without big modifications. Improper use of HTML and use of HTML code that is either deprecated or doesn't exist. Conflicting Jquery is the most common which breaks features. Improper browser rendering meaning themes break in different browsers.. The list goes on.
Another big issue is that is often these developers that refuse to fix the faults in their themes
Maybe these developers are not they make out to be, therefore they simply cant fix these issues.
Personally I wouldn't buy a theme off anyone who didn't have a really good reputation from other users, or if I hadn't seen any of their work before.
I am also wary of sites offering "free themes", lots of these for all forum software have nothing that the official forums have.
In fact I've downloaded some from Awesome styles and they are not even updated to the versions they claim they are.