Professional Joomla templates and extensions club

Enrico

Hi Tess,
just to clarify that my criticism is just towards themelets' releases.

Joomlajunkie team is very friendly and professional, providing top-notch support.

chris

Hey Enrico,
Thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts. I understand where you're coming from regarding the themelet releases. I'll admit that Morph's development has definitely taken the focus over the past couple of months, but the reason for that was out of necessity, as the feedback we received from many users that the concepts in Morph were too hard to understand. So the past couple of months we've been working hard to lay the foundation for the major version, which hopefully bridge the gap for new users. We also have a lot of other bigger stuff in the works, which you'll start to hear more about soon ;)

Both Andrew and I have a couple of designs that we've been working on and once the current beta version of Morph is stable, we'll be working on those in tandem with our side projects (including the infamous Jomsocial template).

On a side note, we've actually been discussing internally about getting someone on part time basis to help out get themelets out more frequently. We don't have a shortage of designs, its just the time it takes to actually implement them, when combined with everything else involved with the day to day running of the business. Is this something you'd be interested in? The idea came to me that there probably isn't anyone better suited, as you're definitely a Morph veteran and are already familiar with the process of creating themelets. If this is something you're interested in, let me know via pm and I'll get in touch so we can discuss.

Cheers,
Chris

bigspring

People!

I sympathise with allexiel because he relied on the progress milestones... but:

One thing you all need to realise here is that Morph is not about Themelets at all. What? Am I crazy? Yes. But that's not the point.

The huge added value of Morph is that you can do ANYTHING. Chris and the guys do all the boring, nasty, unpleasant work for you (like identify all the crappy Joomla classes and format basic stuff like module chromes and forums).

You then get a blank canvas from which you can create something unique and awesome built on top a well designed and stable framework with its own upgrade and support structure....

THAT is the value of Morph. If it was up to me, I'd encourage them to do 2-3 themelets of broadly different layout styles (one like vanilla, one with tabs like Creativa, etc), all with blank styling, and then build our own sites from there. There's enough module positions and module FX options to do literally anything.

I'd like to see a few themelets with no graphics, no colours, none of that. Just solid frameworks and support for common Joomla apps. That's the real strength of Morph. A blank canvas, a framework. Like Codeigniter or Django for Joomla designers.

They also tame horrible ugly apps like K2 and JomSocial, and make them look nice and neutral so we can build our marvellous designs on top. Genius.

...alternatively you can stick with Rockettheme, and use the same boring old generic styles on every project, with their OCD over-elaborate graphical styles that scream "AMATEUR" louder than anything else on the internet (apart from maybe OS Commerce which truly is a monument to chronic laziness).

Think!

x

matt

Thanks BigSpring. That was a nice review. :)

Unregistered

JomSocial new base theme development

That layout looks amazing. Everything is laid out so neat and professional.

chris

Thanks! :) I'm currently working on the css validation and performance optimization. Once that's done i can proceed to start implementing the various layouts into the Jomsocial template :P

Unregistered

I think if we are ever going to have a system than can compete with FB in terms of layout, speed and usability then this is what we need. Can´t wait for all this to come togeter with Morph etc!

chris

Thanks! Its been a lot more work than i had initially anticipated, but definitely worth it! What is your name by the way? Feels weird not addressing a reply to anybody in particular :P

Enrico

I disagree.
There are different types of customers and not all of them are websites' developers and aren't able nor have time to create themelets.

Most of all, at JoomlaJunkie Template Club it's clearly stated that paid members have 'Access to updates AND new themelets', meaning membership comes with extensions (morph) AND themelets.

If joomlajunkie/prothemer's intentions weren't to release themelets on a monthly/regular basis (it's nearly 5 months since the release of the latest themelet Mocha) they should have revised memberships' prices 'cause now paid members are basically paying for just morph framework and 9 themelets (with 2-3 looking very similar being black or grunge version of another themelet).

tess

Hi Enrico, :)

I do understand your point of view and, eventhough we nowhere state that 'access to new themelets' means it's a new release every month, we are having discussions around restructuring the memberships.

Since so many of our members have chosen to go the customization route we see the need for adjusting the business and offerings accordingly. I can not say how the final pricing and package structure will look, but we'll definitely let you guys know well in advance before it's implemented. It will be based on the feedback we've received from our members in combination with where we as a business want to go in the future.

On a sidenote, a big part of the membership is the support and this is why we, based on our members' suggestions, opened up a new forum board: Morph - Themelet Development Help where you post a screenshot or a link to the layout you want for your site. We'll then guide you so that you get setup based on that. Sort of a personal paint-by-numbers tutorial. ;)

Cheers,
Tess