Custom Website Themes.

[Duke]

I'm looking for some honest feedback on this topic and since you all know me the best, I thought I'd ask for your input in the matter.

A few years back I started a website called e-ztheme.com. The reason I started e-ztheme was because I was (and remain) tired of wasting my time heavily modding other peoples themes for my websites. e-ztheme was started as a means of creating my own custom work for my sites well at the same time, giving others a platform to use custom themes that are all interchangeable with each other that were running the same website software.

Some limitations aside, I managed to create my very first custom theme and was somewhat close to publish before finding a major bug with the software version I was creating it for. Since the sites running the software had to be re-built I pretty much dropped the project and haven't progressed forward since.

Now my domains e-ztheme.com and e-ztheme.net are up for renewal and before I spend the money I was wondering if it's something that I should even bother with. As an example of the type of work I'm looking at creating, I submit the following (live site concept, test site built and operated at 75% complete):




Of course with anything there are a number of Pros and Cons the main being:

Pros:

• Custom and Highly Original Work
• Increased Network Traffic/Exposure
• Brandable

Cons:

• Heavy Time Commitment
• Not Fully W3C Compliant

Anyway, I'm aware of the issues facing me if I resume this project; all I'm looking for is feedback on whether or not anyone thinks it's worth wile.

Thanks,

Ken

[TKDLady]

This sounds like something you have a lot of interest in and I know just from the couple years I have been here that you have invested quite a bit of time on this. I don't feel comfortable telling you one way or the other. You have to weigh your time commitment involved, the costs both time and money, and how badly you want to do this, your satisfaction level for doing this. My opinion is that if it makes you happy and you are willing and can afford to do it then you should do it. I assume that if you dive back into it, it would mean seeing less of you here. That would be the main drawback for us, IMO. If you opt to go for it and you need any help I would be willing to help in what ever capacity I am able.

[Duke]

Well I've let the domain slide and officially deleted e-zthemes account just minutes ago. It was a hard decision but it had to be done because I simply don't have the time for yet another project.

I still hope to create my own custom templates one day but it's not clear if they'll be for phpnuke (I doubt it) or Joomla/vBulletin (more likely). Assuming I do end up releasing these themes they'll likely be downloadable via lifesupporters.com.

[TKDLady]

Sorry you had to do that Duke. I know you put a lot of effort into it.

[Luba]

My very honest opinion is that you have SO much creative talent and can do extremely GREAT things! But I feel the same way as TKDLady does, that would make less time for you spent here on your first baby that needs you! You breathed Life into Lifesupporters, and Posting goes up when you are here welcoming people, giving good advice, compassion, laughter, and your wonderful brand of sarcasm, including those witty one-liners! JMHO!

[Duke]

I appreciate that Luba but the problem is that as much as I love Lifesupporters.com, I really cannot commit the rest of my life to living here. I spend much of my idle time doing something onsite and it's only serving to stagnate any other projects I'd like to dive into such as learning 3dsmax, building and promoting GameMovieMaking.com/2dfilms, filming gaming movies, programming, starting/running a business and most important of all, being a loving father to my child.

I've given 4 years and countless dollars to keeping this site online and its not something I can continue to do primarily on my own indefinitely. I only plan on putting in another 2 to 3 years here as the clear site leader and then handing the reigns over to someone as passionate about this site and it's focus as I am. Of course I don't mean selling Lifesupporters (even though I've had a few offers), I'm referring to a person or group responsible for running, maintaining and continually building on the rock solid foundation we've already laid.

I figure by the time 2011 gets here we should have in the neighborhood of 2500 - 5000 members if current growth estimates hold any accuracy. We nearly doubled our membership last year alone and it's all due to a software change and a few extra dollars committed to moving forward. I see no reason to believe this growing trend will not continue given our forum content, news content, blog content and wiki content soon to be crosslinked in every respect.

I'm hoping by 2010 - 2011, we'll have enough of a dedicated staff and members here to ensure that the original vision of Lifesupporters.com is not tainted, adjusted or blemished; these are the people I intend to have run this site, not myself.

Of course I'll still be active within the community and do my best to help out whenever possible but running this site is something better left to people with less time commitments than mine.

For the record though I'd like to touch on something mentioned earlier in my post; to date I've had half a dozen offers to purchase Lifesupporters.com. The offers have ranged from ridiculous to very tempting in nature but I want to state for the record, Lifesupporters.com is not and will never be for sale.

Anyway, I'm not pissing or moaning about my commitment here as this site has been one of the most worthwhile projects I've ever done in my life. All I'm saying is that the time will come that I need to move forward with other things. I can only hope there are others who will want to help this site continue well off into the future by taking some of the burden when the time comes.

FYI, according to dnScoop, Lifesupporters.com is currently worth $37,950, up about $30,000 from this time last year. Rest assured, this site would not be for sale at 10X the price.