My wish for RT
-
-
- Nick R
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 180
- Thanks: 0
-
Hi Guys,
my joomla membership just expired a few days ago and im thinking if i should renew it or not.
In the past, i guess i had it poste somewhere already, RTs themes are too much "candy styled", i don't know how to describe this. Yes, you are releasing great themes, no question! But it is too much in one direction. Some would say they look too much for games sites or whatever.
For me, im missing something simple...
Your new templates do look good on my 27" imac, but when i switch the screen resolution to the most common 1280 x 1024, i need to scroll a lot of the page to reach the bottom. This belongs to the big module titles, waste space between modules etc.
I would like to create a portal page, but as im not a developer or a designer or able to afford one of these, im stuck something given and need to try to change it. Thats ok so far, as i guess most members are on the same boat. Using a club as they are not able to build those great themes by themselfe.
So for my case, im not able to create a content rich site as im not able to display a few of them. Just as an example. What looks good is from another club, template is T.....3. The idea is not bad, but they are more lazy in bug hunting and dont have a great feature like gantry. On this example you can see what i mean with simple. Or take a look on the german website bild.de sure this is not Joomla, but the idea behind this template is great. You have the chance to display a lot of content. And its not only useable for a newspaper site. Something like this, with a lot of module styles (colors etc) would be so great.
I hope you know what i mean with this example.
Next thing, support is not really that helpful sometimes at RT. Most times i read and study forum and only post if im stuck. A few posts havent been answered or nobody really cared about this. And yes, i posted moderators also a link to my website to take a look at this. But guess what, i havent received a message back! Henning was very helpful with the gantry problem which i had, thank you, but thats all. I mean, who should i ask if devs are not replying? Bumping the topic each second day?
It would be great to improve this a bit in the future.
I like it when its getting close to the 1st of each month. Everyone is getting nervous etc, but after releasing the template i say first: Wow brilliant looking theme. And second: Dooh, another one which i cant use.
Maybe it is just me, but maybe not. Im just looking for a template which you can choose for different things. The candy/bubble/future style is not for every website.
You deliver many style options which is really really great. But most of us, i guess, are using only one style for the website. I would love to see a official howto, which shows me how i can delete all unnecessary stuff from the template. Where and what should i edit to remove all other style relevant things? Which css files or whatever can i delete so they are not loaded as they are not needed.
I guess you see what i mean. If you stick to one style, you have a lot of other unneeded code and files in your template. Im just looking for a simple guide.
Another question, is there something where you could use overrides? It is always a pain to update a template when you release a new version.
Right, enough ranting etc
At the end, i like your products and idea, but i just wish that some things could change in the future. Dont take this as a big critic, just as an idea for improvement.
Cheers
Nick
-
-
-
- John Hodgkinson
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 421
- Thanks: 0
- Retired, but build and run websites for organisations of school leaders and others - e.g. http://www.icponline.org, http://www.aspa.asn.au, http://www.appa.asn.au
-
A couple of ideas:
Have you looked at the pre-Gantry templates? Some of those might meet your needs for a portal site.
And have you looked at the Gantry templates with the minimum styling selected? That removes most of the "bubbles" and "candy" in most cases.
-
-
-
- Nick R
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 180
- Thanks: 0
-
Hi John,
thanks for your reply!
I have taken a look to various templates which are not based on gantry but as gantry has nice features, i would like to use a template which is based on gantry.
Sure, i have tried your suggestion already but it didnt worked out, at least for me. There is still too much spacing between boxes etc.
I know that im maybe the only one who is looking for a template which not that overstyled etc. The style is taking a lot of the screen size and everything seems to be getting bigger. Maybe its because some devs are using a big screen and high resolution so you dont see this.
Anyway, i hope someone of RT understood what i have ment in my post above and could reply to this.
Thank you.
Cheers
Nick
-
-
-
- John Hodgkinson
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 421
- Thanks: 0
- Retired, but build and run websites for organisations of school leaders and others - e.g. http://www.icponline.org, http://www.aspa.asn.au, http://www.appa.asn.au
-
I don't think that you are the only person who would like the features of Gantry with less styling - I would also like that, as most of my sites rely on providing information to viewers without the need for so much eye candy. That's why my biggest sites (3Gb of info/papers with >20Gb of downloads per month) still use some of the oldest templates still supported by RT (e.g. Chromatophore).
Have you asked in the relevant template forum for suggestions about reducing the space between modules? Maybe there are easy ways to do that in some cases.
-
-
-
- Nick R
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 180
- Thanks: 0
-
Yes, i see we have a similar wish/idea for the template and i guess there are some others as well.
To be honest, after a few unanswered questions, i gave up on posting and bumping.
Maybe i should have choosen another title for this post as there seems to be no official response from RT to those mentions above or at least a moderator...
-
-
-
- Henning
- Preeminent Rocketeer
- Posts: 29362
- Thanks: 954
- Volunteer
-
We are reading it ... for sure.
When you want a very light theme use the basic Gantry-template that is really fast.
With gantry 3.09 it is supporting the RokNav-menu now.
If you want an easy to modify theme Somaxiom is a good choice.
I used it latey and was pretty happy. But for sure you have to make it tighter ... so perhaps the G-basic template would fit your bill or take one of the templates with a low style ...
This are just personal notes – some want eyecandy, some j-script effects, some light themes.
For "lack" of support: we are trying really hard to help people.
Here is quote from Kat that explains som things ....
just as a note, we moderators never just ignore a post. we have a great team with a very diverse knowledge base. sometimes a certain moderator finds an unanswered post and does not know the answer to it. in this case that moderator will not reply there, if he would, then that post would fall out of the "unanswered posts" list which many of us use when browsing through the forums. i for myself often dont open a thread when i see that the latest reply has been added by another moderator.
many posts stay unanswered because they get posted in the wrong forum such as the "tutorials and guides" or "solved threads" board for any template forum. those boards are not regularly monitored by us obviously.
there are other posts which may not get an answer right away, because the issue is not a top priority. an installation or configuration issue has higher priority than a post where someone asks: "look at this site, i want mine to look the same, how can i do that?" in this case here, the issue has a top priority and it was just bad luck that no moderator picked it up on the first day of posting.
and there are some threads which get very busy very quickly, a high number of replies usually indicates that another moderator is already actively helping out in that thread, so other moderators may not open it.
anyways, i just wanted to say thanks and let you know why sometimes a thread may not get a reply from a moderator or team member, but be assured that this does not happen because we simply ignore anyone and their issue, we are here to help and we do our best to solve all issues if possible.
-
-
-
- Brian Shea
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 176
- Thanks: 18
- Web Management, Server Admin, Google Apps Service Provider
-
It sounds like it is more of a learning thing... how to edit css, how to unpublish modules, how to resize logos.
I agree with you that too many sites use up too much space up top. And it is a problem because a lot of the newer laptops out this year have wide screens but 800px height.
But that is a designer issue, and NOT a template issue. These templates come with many options, and it is up to the designer to decide what to use and what not to use. Personally, I hate the Showcase areas. They are a big waste of space. But, some of my clients love it, so I compromise and make sure the Showcase is only on the home page.
If you don't publish anything to the showcase area, and limit items on the top, there should be no issues. My own site, sevensages.com , keeps the fluff and candy to a minimum. It's not the most stylish, but it uses one of the newer templates.
And this one, www.marineac.com/ uses a newer RT also, with little wasted space. (also little design flair as was requested).
So, perhaps a lesson or two in features and modules might help. And CSS is key to design now, so if you want to design you need to at least know the basics. -
Website Hosting and Management
for the non-technical, non-geeks
G+ Page for Seven Sages , a Google Apps Authorized Reseller
-
-
-
- Nick R
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 180
- Thanks: 0
-
Hey Henning, you made it to a moderator, congratulations!
I will try your suggestions but the problem as a non developer is always the styling of modules, or 3rd party integration. Im able to take an existing template and modify it a bit in css and thats it. So i have to stick to template releases which already support some 3rd party tools and are getting an phpbb3 theme.
So that why i have mentioned to get something lighter as most templates have been really heavy. I know its my fault that i need to move my release date from one month to another month, but yeah my job is a complete different one.
But again, i really like to look at them. But i feel a bit jailed in the needs for these.
I have used Somaxiom and was also very happy, but then again, its the module styling which takes a lot of the website.
As you are also from Germany, you know my example from above, at least i think so. And there you can see big difference to the templates which have been released at here in the past. It nice to have a great design, but most of users want information and content. Sure it always depends on what you want to do with your site. But i guess it could be on time to release something which does not follow the candy style or which gives some users the chance to realize a portal website ie travel destinations, newspaper, magazine etc. Yeah i know, there is solar sentinel and mixxmag but all of them have reached their ages. Something like this on gantry with a great navigation would be brilliant.
I also like the dropdown menu and all the js stuff which is used there, it shows how tech savvy RT is but most websites -where you have a huge amount of information- are using a "two line" menu like in Somaxiom.
About support, i can imagine that this is not easy the whole time but RT needs to understand the members side as well. Its just frustrating sometimes when you are full of energy and want to work with your template but are stuck and no one seems to help you. I would even choose a paid support tickets if they were available.
Thanks so far for your reply!
-
-
-
- Nick R
- Sr. Rocketeer
- Posts: 180
- Thanks: 0
-
Hi Brian,
thanks for your message. Believe me, i know how to publish and unpublish modules also how to resize the logo. As you said, its a thing of learning css. Some have a very less learning curve with this stuff, and for some its something like a bad foreign language. Im able to get around most of my issues with firebug.
But as said, im not a designer or dev, if so i guess i could build the one for my needs
Its great that RT is releasing different styles but maybe they could take a look at these issues and make it as a simple style in addition or whatever.
How was the saying? Less is more?
-
-
-
- cxm
- Hero Rocketeer
- Posts: 300
- Thanks: 0
-
This is a good read...
I have to say I agree. lol, and my site is kind of candied out. I would have totally gone with the August theme if it hadn't been so dark (the light version didn't cut it for me.) But in general, I like the capabilities I just wish the modules and menu's were smaller. P.S. that German site has boobies at the very bottom... Very nice...
But yea, I would appreciate themes coming out with bells and whistle (candy) and a more simplified magazine look. If RT came out with 2 theme variation versions I bet you that would boost their sales.
-
Time to create page: 0.083 seconds