Originally Posted by DirectPixel

I've stopped selling pre-made skins publicly.

Originally Posted by Gary Bolton

If you don't mind me asking, Why?

If they was bring in some income from sales, what made you decide to stop selling ready made skins

Originally Posted by princeton

you may be surprised at how many of us do "fit" in this category

there are many advantages/disadvantages on both sides -- the key is to find a company that will be around for the long haul

TIP WHEN BUYING SKINS:
1)__ Do not buy or use skins that contains deprecated code. ie. <font> :down:
2)__ Do not buy or use skins that do not validate XHTML. (validate code at http://validator.w3.org/)
3)__ Purchasing a custom skin will make your site stand out. Paying upwards of $1000 is not uncommon.

NOTE:
- Skins with deprecated code are usually bloated with unneccessary code.
- Skins that do not validate is a sign that "designer" does not know what they are doing OR a sign that "designer" is in it for the quick buck.
- 9 out of 10 skins that do not validate will usually give you problems down the road.

Originally Posted by DirectPixel

It just ended up requiring too much of my time that could've been spent on doing other things that pay better and are personally more enjoyable.

As much as I love designing, it really becomes a pain to test and debug each skin every time a new release comes out, while still providing support for the skin (and for those who haven't upgraded)--in addition to doing custom design work and maintaining clients' servers and being on-call for back-end tech-support.



You do realize that vBulletin uses the <font> tag everywhere, especially on showthread and BBCode-generated code, right? :p What I've (slowly) come to accept with vBulletin is that while you can get standards-compliant XHTML code, you can never go beyond that (except for recoding every single template, of course) and achieve semantically-correct code, tableless layout, and seperation of XHTML content and visual display.

(This auto-merge code is pretty neat!)

Originally Posted by Gary Bolton

Have you ever just thought about maybe offering budget templates for ?5 -?10 a chuck to the mass market that come with "no support" due the the price there sold for as an alternative method of still selling mass-market templates. But at a budget price with no support because of the price structure there sold for. Then that would free up the support side of them templates sold, while still offering templates at a budget price for specific vBulletin versions only.

That would then leave another avenue to make cash from sales and not have to worry about supporting them low cost templates.

Originally Posted by DirectPixel

You do realize that vBulletin uses the <font> tag everywhere, especially on showthread and BBCode-generated code, right? :p What I've (slowly) come to accept with vBulletin is that while you can get standards-compliant XHTML code, you can never go beyond that (except for recoding every single template, of course) and achieve semantically-correct code, tableless layout, and seperation of XHTML content and visual display.

Originally Posted by princeton

by default, vbulletin is XHTML valid

the <font> tag is ONLY used in some bbcode which in this case is not a designer issue but a vbulletin issue

I highly recommend that everyone tests (validates) a style before purchasing or installing. To test a style, all one has to do is test the forumhome, forumdisplay, and showthread (with no bbcode on posts) pages. Testing these pages alone will give you a good indication if style validates.

Originally Posted by DirectPixel

While I agree with you, I would like to point out a nice article to read that keeps everything about validation in perspective: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/a...r-own-standard

Validation isn't everything, and while it's important, it is imperative to note that validation does NOT necessarily mean good code. Validating your code is a great tool to help debug your XHTML and your CSS, but does not guarantee accessibility, good coding practice, nor good design (both visually and semantically).

Originally Posted by DirectPixel

While I agree with you, I would like to point out a nice article to read that keeps everything about validation in perspective: http://www.mikeindustries.com/blog/a...r-own-standard

Validation isn't everything, and while it's important, it is imperative to note that validation does NOT necessarily mean good code. Validating your code is a great tool to help debug your XHTML and your CSS, but does not guarantee accessibility, good coding practice, nor good design (both visually and semantically).

Originally Posted by princeton

I find the article hilarious.
All he has to do to validate his page is to change the DOCTYPE or if he desires to create "new attributes"--he can create a new one.

Originally Posted by princeton

The answers are available but, if you choose not to do the homework ... well, that's on you.

Originally Posted by CAMS

i agree.
not a good idea to try debate with him dp he doesnt listen bud ;) as proved in a thread wer he tryed to tell me the rules of designing ;) lol..


also i dont mind companys buying styles from freelance designers then reselling them.. gives me someone to try sell my styles to lol

Originally Posted by DirectPixel

I think you missed the point of his article. ;) Actually, I think you may have missed the point I was trying to convey as well.

Originally Posted by DirectPixel

I did not realize I was asking a question...