I guess I'm just an optimist and see the best in all situations thus why I don't think this thread is really that bad. Here's how I see it:
People know how to code themes. People code their own themes. People don't use public themes thus aren't aware the lack of submitted themes. People see this thread and realize the lack of public themes. People work on public themes.
As for them using their sites or this one, I think that themers should atleast attempt to post on here or atleast provide a thread in the Templates/Themes area to let others know about them. To be honest, I can only list maybe 3 sites that have themes on them and all of them are general sites, not themer's personal sites.
And for what it's worth, before reading this thread I had no interest in designing public themes, but now I'm really considering it if I can get some help from non-color blind people.
I really feel what you are saying Lopalong. It's hurts when I see people discouraged from working with the project. If the coder/themer needs to have their work on their own site, charge money, or ask for posts I think it's reasonable to either accept their conditions or just move on. Complaining the the author only discourages them from working with the project altogether. It's why I believe Mybb is growing at a faster pace now. Chris I believe has ruled that he isn't bothered by outside mybb sites that support the project. When I first came here and had mybb central there was some confusion about it's place and why it even existed. I think it's a good resource. Sometimes an alternative is nice. Yet it's still MYBB and I think that's more importanat.
It was only in the past year that mybb changed it's license. Originally it was not allowed to even distribute the software. Chris relaxed a lot of rules and now...the project grows.
I would also like to comment about how difficult theme production is. imho it's not incredibly hard BUT...with the new system you do have a learning curve. Now you have like 4 or 5 css files to work with and the template system is different. Notice I said different and not harder or worse...just different. Takes getting used to. I have to find the new positions of everything.
If I had to say which was more difficult to work with...css/templates or images I would say the CSS and color palette choices. I have a system for my images. I sort of create my own GDK where I have layers. I pretty much just edit the gradient, turn on what layers I want exported and save. I repeat the process until I have all the images I need. I can do a set usually in less than 30 minutes. Choosing color schemes and playing around in the admincp till I get what I want can take me 1-3 hours.
Once I create my GDK and understand all the images I need now for 1.4 I will be able to bang out themes without problem. I might even release them free at webmasterforums.biz.
Overall...I think this thread is just premature and given a couple months I can forsee a wide variety of themes. Heck maybe I will support my own contest for a theme just to help it get going. The one from mybbfans was OK but imho they didn't offer a good enough prize nor make certain rules clear. They took a long time to judge the themes too.
I was thinking about running some sort of program through my web hosting business and provide free websites (domain + hosting) to MyBB themers and coders if it helps get some quality content out there... not sure if that would help or couldn't hurt. I'll brainstorm a bit more about it.
(2008-08-22, 12:41 PM)Lopalong Wrote: [ -> ]but when I advertised in the "Chat" here that if anyone was interested; the site and DNS was being changed and would be off-line for a couple of days. It was responded to by Tikitiki who stated that this was no place to advertise my site's status and the thread was locked.
So that attitude never really gave me any encouragement to carry on. 
You know it's against the rules to advertise your site in this forum and it's not very sensible to have a whole thread in the Chit-Chat forum dedicated to the "status" of your site alone.
It's perfectly fine if you reply to your own thread in the Showcase forum with the status of your forum - That's what that forum was made for.
Quote:You know it's against the rules to advertise your site in this forum
I know that once you said the same to me but then Chris stated as long as it was a mybb related site he didn't think it was a problem. At least that's how I remember it. Maybe I am wrong.
(2008-08-23, 06:37 AM)labrocca Wrote: [ -> ]Quote:You know it's against the rules to advertise your site in this forum
I know that once you said the same to me but then Chris stated as long as it was a mybb related site he didn't think it was a problem. At least that's how I remember it. Maybe I am wrong.
We have a whole forum directly dedicated for your MyBB related sites - That's where that information can go, not here.
(2008-08-23, 12:10 AM)KuJoe Wrote: [ -> ]People know how to code themes. People code their own themes.
Wrong, and wrong. I'm the worst coder you'll ever meet.
(2008-08-24, 04:56 AM)ahero4heor Wrote: [ -> ] (2008-08-23, 12:10 AM)KuJoe Wrote: [ -> ]People know how to code themes. People code their own themes.
Wrong, and wrong. I'm the worst coder you'll ever meet.
Which is why MyBB makes it easy. All you need is some basic knowledge of html,css, and a little basic graphic skills.
It was an example and I didn't mean everybody. I was speaking strictly in terms of people who know how to code.
Lmao. I know how to code, I just suck and am the most time consuming person at it, you'll ever meet! Haha.
Lol. I gotcha, don't fret. I tend to rant on these things, pointing out the loopholes in their logic.