The problem with RT Themes!
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- Buddy Quaid
- Newbie
- Posts: 18
- Thanks: 0
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Hey guys,
I just have to get this off my chest. I've been a member for just about a year now, I believe this is my last month. In a years time, I've seen the community grow and now I see Rocket Theme as basically the leader in templates for Joomla sites. Which brings me to my problem with Rocket Theme.
The problem with RT is that the templates all have that same look and feel. A little TOO much Web 2.0 slash gamers inspiration is built in the artwork of all the templates. I don't know how many people RT employs to build its templates but someone just browsing the templates from start to finish would probably come to the conclusion that it's at the most, TWO people and maybe one person.
I'm going to let me membership expire because honestly, I have used only one template for a website and it was for a freebie that I did for a friend because I wasn't getting paid. While structurally the Templates are sound and outstanding, allowing for many parameters, but in a complete year, there has not been one template that is good for a "serious" site. This lends to a bigger problem, which is that now there are so many sites using RT Templates that it's easy to tell if your on a Joomla site. I don't believe this is a good problem.
I put in a request for a more serious theme for businesses, corporations, education sites, etc. But still nothing. Just the same old reflection, bubbly, shiny elements all over the place and sliding menus. I don't know, but RT was cool at first, but month after month, it's just the same looking template each month with a new fancy name and color schemes. It's nice for Joe Blow who does not want or have the need to build serious sites, but in the long run, I believe will steer people away from Joomla. Joomla is clunky as it is.
There's too much compeition out there now in the opensource CMS world to pick Joomla as far as I'm concerned. Sure it's great for certain things, but when real functionality comes down to it, Joomla sometimes can hurt the cause more than it can help it. I know the Joomla issue is not related to Rockt Theme but it's all encompassed in the "view" people start to attribute to the framework by seeing the same 'type' of templates flooding the Joomla sites.
Just my 2 cents. It would be GREAT, if RT got serious and made templates businesses could actually employ.
Buddy
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2142
- Thanks: 0
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i'm a long time customer of RT, i think i became a member in february 05 for blogtopia and i've seen it develop into what it is today and what it is going to become with rocketwerx alongside: probably the number one for extensions as well as templates
but i agree with what you are saying .. to an extent
however, at the exact same time, if you're willing to put the work in you can take any of the last six templates and completely change it so it would almost be unrecognisable ... in fact make that to any of the templates from this year
while i understand your sentiments about the menus and effects you're getting each month ... i think what you actually get is everything - then it's up to you to take away what you dont want, make rounded corners square, change the colours ... or whatever. it;s not as if you're not given everything to make these changes and if there is something you cant do you've got the forums - which are better than the joomla forums
but like i said. to an extent i agree with you ... - Last Edit: 17 years 6 months ago by damo.
- www.c3p0.se - sweden
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- Buddy Quaid
- Newbie
- Posts: 18
- Thanks: 0
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Yea, I agree with you too that you can customize the templates to do anything you want. That's why I say the framework and how it's build is really organized and groundbreaking as far as Joomla templates go. RT really knows the mechanics of building a solid foundation for the perfect Joomla template. I just wish they would have tried to have gone in a different style every once in awhile. I actually don't want the cookie-cutter template, cause that would lead to the problem I was talking about just as much as any design.
If they flooded the market with good businesses designs, no business would use them because no business wants the same look and feel as the next guy. At least thats what they say, but then they always want you to copy someone, but oh well.
It's the fact that after all this time, design wise, we're all living in one dudes creativity. This is "his/her" style, yea we can change it, but as a template company, they need to change it up. As far as looking forward, the best indicator of the future is their past and I don't see any changes coming. At least not with design.
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2142
- Thanks: 0
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But if you look at the past and see how the templates have developed (design wise) there are some big steps.
I mean, Internet Gazette was the very first template offered up that looked like a news site .. because of demand Sporticus was released - while they look the same they don't really. They've very different. Versitility, which I admit I'm fed up with has developed the way it has purely because of demand but if you can't take that template and make it unique then there is something wrong.
Then you've got Elixer - it was the first Web 2.0 theme and others just followed. There is nothing like Tehcnopia, Fire, Extremities and Digital Ether (one of the best templates for Virtuemart) out there and thats only mentioning the first ones that come to mind.
I wanted to write what follows because it is more than possible but I'm not going to, simply because it would mean me having to work for 4 or 5 hours and actually I don't need to prove it because I believe you actually already know it:
I'll lay a challenge down to you. Name three templates and I'll go away (I may ask others to help because it will be a lot of work) and with those three templates I'll play with one and make it look completely different - so much so that you'll not recognise the original theme. This can be done in two hours and pretty much each one could be made to look like a serious business template. - www.c3p0.se - sweden
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2142
- Thanks: 0
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I think for me bigging up RT here I shodl have my affiliate code used on all the demo.rockettheme.com pages for one week ...
in fact that would make an excellent prize for that new award: member of the month ... which everyone keeps badgering me to accept
- www.c3p0.se - sweden
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- damo
- Elite Rocketeer
- Posts: 2142
- Thanks: 0
- i'd throw a guess at v3 ... but some really nice customisation
- www.c3p0.se - sweden
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- CG Icon
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 371
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Had I been a new member as of recent I to maybe expressing agreement with ya buddy,, but, I have learned that NO theme is ever going to be good enough or completely 100 percent perfect at download.
I tweaked the living snot out of V3 till I got what I wanted. www.mycgspace.com ,, and I bet that had I not said v3 you woulda been hard pressed to figure out which theme I started with by looking at it alone.
and to me thats what I took away with being a member,, that I borrowed some one else's amazing knowledge on a subject I knew nothing about,,, I listened to fellow members explain away the bugs and I found tricks and hacks and I learned..and my site is proof ( to me anyways) that it was worth being a members here...
there are soooooooooooooo many little snippets of code hacks and work arounds in my site to get it to work right ,,, but thats what made it fun and forced me to learn more about css files and php files.
so.. you take away what your willing to invest
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