As you know we don't provide a bunch a of design templates with Dolphin anymore. Surely, community sites, social networks and dating sites should have their unique designs, though. Moreover, we used to be in the lead in "templates" business and provided a lot of design templates adding new ones with every version. We still get questions and suggestions, like: "why don't you add an additional Facebook-like theme?" or "an included adult dating template would skyrocket your sales". We still don't do it. We probably will never do it and this position is strengthening to the point that I would argue that anyone who provides community software with lots of templates is diluting quiality of their product and selling "packaging" that you don't need. Deceitful upselling. Here's why:
The main reason for using a non-standard template for your dating or social networking site is to make it look special, unique, different. To achieve that you need to (ideally) build it yourself, or order a custom one. As a compromise, you may take a design package from a smaller provider that only sells a handful of their products every month.
A template that has bold, unique attributes that make it stand out should never be shared with too many sites, or you're in risk of being recognized as a design thief. Thus, a generic, universal template that you customize via admin panel would work worlds better than a set of colorful rainbows and same smiling people found on a few hundreds of sites. In other words simple square cookies with different icing are perceived as unique a lot more than same gingerbread-men cutouts. You get the drift.
Large, experienced software providers worked it out long ago, and so you only get basic templates from Wordpress, Joomla, Drupal and, yes, BoonEx, too. Smaller providers still try to inflate value of their products by throwing in some bright and colorful designs. I think it's wrong, very wrong, almost dishonest and users should know why. There more to it...
Ever wondered why Apple doesn't include a dozen of "extra/free/bonus" case covers with their iPads? That's because tastes differ, while you still pay for extras. There's no such thing as "free" product. Somebody has to pay for it. If you get templates - you pay for all of them. You pay for their development, ongoing support, testing, etc. What's worse - you would likely only use one of them, but you have to pay for the "maintenance" of all of them.
Development and testing for more than one template adds massive additional burden to the software provider. In our experience, a few additional templates may double version development time. That's true for any social networking or dating software, no matter what kind of templating engine they use, and how streamlined are their operations.
So,
Not cool.
Been there, know that. When we were offering design templates we knew only too well that every new design would make a healthy sales-jump. We loved it. The other side of the coin was that we had to close eyes at some... discrepancies and tradeoffs that were quickly building up. Namely:
It still made money, though. Produced more refunds, yes. More negative reviews, yes. More frustration, support queries, complaints, unhappy clients, yes. Still, money talked, but, as Master Yoda said "The dark side are they. Once you start down the dark path, forever it will dominate your destiny." At some point we have been able to make the right decision...
As I noted before, this is the way most reputable web software developers choose for years. There must be one, or maybe 2-3 at a maximum very generic templates that are very easy to customize and build upon.
In Dolphin, we continuously work on making our default design universal. We plan to bring some MAJOR improvements in it in 7.1 as well. Ideally, webmaster should be able to significantly change site design using the default template. No issues during version upgrades, no troubles with new elements display, no compatibility flaws.
Now, many web-masters would rightfully want special look for their adult dating site or a social network for young musicians, or what not. That must be done by 3rd-party template developers that specialize in it, live and breath templates, upgrade them on time, check them, install them, charge for one template at a time, or even design custom designs for you...
If you read carefully, by now you know that development and support of a good social software template is not a trivial undertaking. It takes a lot of work and time. It only pays off if the software is popular enough and demand for templates is significant. We are fortunate enough to see some developers offering quality templates via BoonEx Unity Market at very fair prices or even for free.
At Unity Market you'd find templates for Facebook-like sites, adult-themed sites, colorful generic templates, as well as integration and custom development services. We believe that this is as good as it gets - a secondary market that offers you real choice without messing with development process of the software.
Choose good provider, quality template and you'll win. Don't buy into flashy stacks of pre-made designs that come with (mostly dating) software.
Browse dating, social networking, adult and niche community templates at BoonEx Unity Market
Software developers should also maintain a platform that is stable, secure and easily upgradable. Gone are those days (or gone should be those days) where every version would be a nightmare to upgrade to a point where users stayed away from updates because it was a fearful see more
If the above statement were to be held true then a multitude of templates would not cause any site to crash or become inoperable due to an incompatibility between 2 versions. I am not suggesting that cookie cutter templates are a good idea; my point is that with the correct foundation there would be fewer issues during upgrades.
I am on version 7.0.4 and I sincerely hope that upgrades from here on in are smooth. I am looking forward to many fruitful and exciting see more
atleast for some understanding?
Like mentioned it leaves the time to improve the actual functions of the software instead of the looks.
Having free templates ready and available would just cause billions of wannna be's to open a site with out even planning what that site would serve a purpose for.
...what would the web look like with ten thousand 'yahoo' or 'facebook' or 'youtube' look-alikes?
Please! Leave the design up to those willing to see more
..anyone online is a 'wanna be' or socially nicley speaking 'netprenuer' ...
I take the 'wanna be' wording back - it's not a nice way to coin a phrase.
I am a 'wanna be' too - I wanna be the next 'facebook owner' too
So does everyone - and I agree with you some don't have the time or a lot of cash to start off with.
Quote above:
I have to admit, creating a template with the software currently is hard if you have little to no knowledge of web programming..
This is true. Why do you choose for the user and decide that having similar templates is a bad idea? Let the user decide. see more
Just about everything is hard if you do not have the required knowledge. It's a good thing some people aren't stopped by that fact, and take the initiative to learn something new. If you don't want to learn new things, you will forever be at the mercy of others.
One of the 'wishlist' items is a built-in template editor similar to what SocialGo.com and Meetup.com use on their networks. SocialGo's theme customization is a flash based widget that sits in the Admin area. They have a standard design that you can customize, but if see more
I chose the other option of adjusting the default template. I have changed colours of lines, backgrounds, fonts etc etc, to create something that inevitably looks similar to the original design but still something of my own creation. I chose see more
In Photoshop you can save the colour adjustments you make and then reload it and apply it to other images which makes it easier to maintain the look of say something like the navigation menu which is made up of many pieces.
If you have the time then this is a great way to develop your skills but for those that struggle for time or really can't be arsed, then they always have the many templates to choose from.
Just my two cents worth. Hope this helps some see more
That's actually what I like about it... to change it you gotta have a bunch of bucks, or a bunch of patience, there are too many sites popping up all over the place with 'flip the switch and create' technology - you can spot see more
I don´t compete with anybody. If you like to be in a race of equals, that´s your choice, not mine. I´d like to see that it is possible to have a Dolphin site not to look like a Dolphin site. So far, I couldn´t find one. You may easily say, "well, if you don´t want it to look like Dolphin, then don´t get Dolphin..." Yes, you may. But that´s not the point.
You mentioned "bunch of bucks". I understand that you´d rather stay cheap instead of investing in something see more
http://yack.com.au/
http://www.sex-encounters.com/index.php
Just to mention a few of the things Dolphin currently lacks:
- Template installation (zip pack) and uploading right from the Admin Panel. (there is a ticket for this and of course it was post-poned for v 7.1)
- The "tools" to FULLY edit the layout and the menu, not just some unadjustable insert code
- A flexible layout - full width blocks followed right under by 3 other blocks see more
DeeEmm´s websites are what I call more of the same. It doesn´t matter where you put each category (people, videos, music, etc.) they´re all the same or almost identical icons, boxes, colours, etc.
What I mean is that I´d like to see a Dolphin site to look, for instance, like any other social script websites (not going to give any names because that´s not the point).
Regards to all and wish you all have an amazing 2011!
I would love for a designer to come out and say they can help create something that will work for your site and for it to be reliable
I have tried for TWO WEEKS to get help with an error message and to tell me how to change font colors (simple stuff) ... yet NINE emails, and NO RESPONSE!! I even asked for a refund, since I cannot get help and this template has caused error with my see more