It’s evident that Michael Heilemann of Binary Bonsai received enough emails in regards to his site’s theme that he decided to release Kubrick. On a similar note, I’ve been receiving a few emails in regards to using the kartooner.com “theme” for other personal projects.
At first I was a bit surprised that anyone would want to use this design. I suppose it’s the perfectionist in me, but I’m not 100% satisfied with the look of this site. Granted, it’s my best layout yet for kartooner.com, but to me it’s just another layout under constant scrutiny. It seems like everyday that I’m tweaking various aspects of this site, whether it be stylesheet or graphic oriented.
In my attempt to prevent constant redesigns I’ve settled on this theme for the time being. Yet, I can’t guarantee myself or my readers that I won’t change this design in the next 6 months. One of the great aspects of a personal web site is the freedom to experiment with fresh layouts.
If you’re a well-known designer with a blog, like Dave Shea or Jeffrey Zeldman, you might face an onslaught of disgruntled comments, but smaller sites like mine with only a handful of readers rarely receive any negative or positive feedback on redesigns. When we do, however, it’s like receiving a response from the Dali Lama. Let’s be honest, it’s always nice to receive positive feedback and constructive criticism but negative feedback? That’s like receiving a slap in the face in most cases.
That said, I guess what I’m getting at is this: Should I let other interested Wordpress bloggers adopt this site’s theme, if proper credit is given? Maybe I should apply for a Creative Commons license to retain my copyright, but allow copy and distribution on the grounds that credit is properly displayed. However, what is the process in tracking legitimate and illegitimate uses of your work?
It’s a damn good design and there will surely be a lot of people that will want to use it. But Michael has been running around trying to solve bugs (which I knew he would come up against once he decided to include plugins) and his bandwidth has probably rocketed…now the move to Matt’s server.
S’pose the other thing to think about is would you like ‘X’ number of sites popping up that look exactly the same as yours?
Regardless, there would be a want for it once word got out.
Gary: I’m not sure how I would feel about ‘X’ number of sites using this theme.
For one, this is a Firefox compatible theme and breaks in some areas (comments and sidebar headings) in IE thanks to CSS display issues. This would require a bit of re-coding on my end that I would need to find the time for.
I’m setting aside some time in the future to blow out the stylesheet for this design and re-work it from the ground up (same design, different stylesheet), but would this fix the glaring IE issues, who knows?
I know exactly where you are coming from, especially with constant changes :D My CSS is a mess, and with 10mins and a cup of coffee whilst pouring over the source I can just about remember what I did and where.
There’s no way anybody else would be able to just plug it in and get it working, and I wouldn’t be inclined to fix it so they could. Besides, I sweated blood and (almost) tears of frustration to get the damn thing working…best way to learn!
Hmm, I mustn’t be in a very charitable mood today ;)
In regards to the ‘keeping it under control’, I’ve just decided to more or less let it go. Which is why Kubrick is so similar to my own layout.
I’ve seen people adopt things from BB that I didn’t originally intend for others to ‘use’, but by now I’ve sort of converted into more of an open source idea of my designs. If people want to use notions from BB, then that’s great, I don’t mind it at all. I’ll redesign at some point anyway.
As for bugs in Kubrick, they’re mostly non-related to plugins. In general they deal mostly with many different people having many different ways of setting up their servers, and me trying to figure out how to make it easy for everyone to use.
v1.2.4 is by the way bugfree right at the moment as far as I know :D
You’re too good to people Michael ;) I think I mentioned on your site as well that I wouldn’t have included plugins or anything else - just the design - but that’s just me.
Looking forward to the gallery to see how people are using your design though.
Michael: Thanks for the insight. I’m sure you’re up to your neck in bug reports and technical support (all of which you provide on your free time) which you should be commended for. When you opted to release your BB theme I must admit that I thought it was both a brilliant plan (to let others use your work) and something that could inevitably turn into a nightmare.
I’d imagine it’s a toss up for you. Since releasing Kubrick you’ve increased your recognition (you were cool before, but now you’re an instant blog celebrity) but it also increases bandwidth, etc.
Again, I think it’s great you’re doing this for people but I’m sure you’ve had days of complete burnout. I’m not sure if I’m ready to open the floodgates.
I was going to put together a couple of css, index combos for people to download and use as a giving back to the wordpress community type of thing, but I wasn’t really going to release my own. There are some layouts that aren’t really covered by what’s out there right now, so it seems like we should get a few more that cover different scenarios.
As for licensing, you should license it under creative commons, even if you intend to not reserve any rights at all, which I believe is what i’ll end up doing. Creative commons just makes it clear exactly which rights, if any, come into play.
Plantilla para WP: Kubrick, de Michael Heilemann
Michael Heilemann ha puesto (post) a disposici?n de la comunidad las plantillas de su bit?cora para WordPress, que en…
I for one like your design and think its great. My recommendation would be to create a “request” form on your website or via email where is one wanted to use it they could request it. In the request require them to provide a link of where they will be using it. Then you could at least know somewhat were its being used.
Jacob: Good idea. Too bad it will work entirely on the honor system. Jon Hicks seems to find his work being plagarized all over the place.
[…] ;s a brave man to take on the inevitable support burden, but has borne it extremely well. Erik Sagen has also contemplated releasing his design - but that hasn’t happen […]
[…] Viernes, 20 de Agosto 2004 / 20:37 H — en: Weblogs V?a Kartooner. Descarga de plantilla para WordPress a cargo de Michael Heilemann. Sencilla y f?cil de instalar. […]