Featured Websites and Member Profiles, Oh My!
A new series of upgrades is under way here at Themebot. What started out as a hobby is now one of the most popular websites for open source web design and finding free website templates. As traffic continues to grow, the Themebot team is hard at work adding new features to make the site better for both visitors and members. A big thank you to all of the members who have uploaded their free web layouts. The majority of uploads added so far have been WordPress themes. Hopefully, we will also see more templates for the other content management systems and platforms going forward.
All of the website templates hosted on Themebot are checked for XHTML and CSS validation before they are added. They are also checked for layout technique (Flash, CSS, or table-based), width (fixed or fluid), number of columns, main colors used, and are then categorized with appropriate tags. This info makes it easier to find a particular theme when using the advanced search.
Furthermore, a live demo is created. No frames or extra stuff are added to the demos, so you can peek at the code and see what to expect when you first install or upload the theme. Of course, most themes are highly configurable and a basic demo doesn't always do proper justice.Authors also provide their own demos, if available, which can be view in the theme details.
Featured Website Templates
One upgrade that was added recently is the ability to view all themes added by a member. If you like the design and style of a certain author, you can click their username in the listing and see the other templates they have added. There are many talented web designers adding themes. As a way to bring attention to some of the templates that are particularly outstanding, a new section has been added to Themebot for "Featured Website Templates". Once a month, or whenever deemed appropriate, a new theme will be featured as the editor's choice and listed on the homepage.
As you may or may not know, web design beauty is more than pixel deep. Although pretty graphics are definitely important, there can also lean and elegant code beneath the design. Exceptional themes are beautiful to look at and also have an elegant code-base.
In order for a website template to be featured, it must meet the following requirements:
- Only themes that are licensed GNU/GPL, Creative Commons Attribution, Creative Commons Attribution Share-Alike or Free (No Restrictions) will be featured.
- You must have submitted at least 5 themes.
- Featured themes must have both W3C Valid XHTML and W3C Valid CSS.
Featured Websites
It is always interesting to see how other people are utilizing open source content management systems to build their online empire. If you are using a free theme found on Themebot, or any open source CMS platform for a project, you can add your site as a case-study and it will be featured on the homepage. Not only is this a way to get the word out about your site (Themebot gets a lot of traffic), it is also a great way to get feedback from other web designers. If you would like to find out more about website, click on the link in the Control Panel to feature your site.
Member Profiles
At long lost, full-featured member profiles are now available. As a member, you can now upload an avatar, create a resume, connect with other members and access all of the themes you have uploaded from your profile. With time, the functionality of the member profiles will expand to include many valuable features, that are only available for registered members. If you haven't done so already, take a minute to upload an avatar.
Special thanks to the members at CrystalXP.net for the cool Tux icons used in the avatar gallery. Also, thanks to Daniel Grimm for creating the GPL licensed Gnome icons titled "black-white 2 Gloss"used in this article and for the default member avatar on Themebot!