Frank at OSWD has updated the designs. Wow! I couldn't believe it when I visited the site last night. Why would I care when we have this fine community?
OSWD has brought me more traffic than any other community because Frank chose one of my designs as a site favorite and that "put me on the map", so to speak.
Anyway, say what you want, but I don't think it hurts to have our designs showcased in a number of communities. Having said that, this place here is my "home" now.

yeah, snop...isn't it though?

I noticed that my by now already obsolete design Multiflex-2 also appearead at oswd in the latest update. I submitted that one way back in June 2006, that is, seven months ago. As Arwen said, OpenDesigns is also my homebase for new designs, but I am still open to publishing templates at other places as well.

@gnome: i will actually be approving the rest of the pending designs at OWD today... after that who knows what will happen.

Either way, OpenDesigns.org is moving forward and like arwen54 said, having designs at multiple places does in fact help promote the designers and the templates... however, we have a community that works together here, so that's something to consider.

hello skettino!

I don't really think it is too late. OSWD is still be a very successful template site.

Posted By: gwolfgangThe community is the wonderful thing about OD, in this respect simply unbeatable!

Simple, to the point, and oh so true.

Heh, it took him so long to update the website that the one I just got denied was entirely tables. I've long since abandoned table-based designs in light of hanging around the open design community.

oswd was what got me into the whole thing, so I do owe him that much i guess.

Here is the thing: The people that know about opendesigns love it. The community is great and all the people we love are on it. BUT, in the few hours that my new design has been on OSWD, it has seen nearly 150 downloads, and here it hasn't even seen a dozen downloads (though it has been on for a day longer). Those who aren't in the know still frequent OSWD, and that might be hard to change.

One difference we can make is to put links to OpenDesigns in our templates that we submit to OSWD. Otherwise, it could be a great community, but no one here who actually needs the designs. See?

No one can make you use this site or any other site. It comes down to personal choice, so like arwen54 said, I agree that if it's in your best interest to put your designs on various sites, go for it.

One of the main ideas behind this site is to promote YOUR designs and YOU as a designer.

In this lovely place we call the internet, it's about exposure. Granted, you want to be getting exposure on a good site and not a site that doesn't update often.

OpenDesigns.org has done some amazing things in only 30 days and you should expect to see more amazing things in the days, weeks and months to come.

I'm also very proud to be an administrator and one of the "founding fathers" so to speak of such a thriving community and site.

Here's to a great 2007 and beyond for all of us.

In time, OpenDesigns.org will move up the Google ladder. The site is barely a month old. It does take a little time to get the rankings up.

@karesz: Frank was not always alone, he had moderators and admins in the early days of OSWD and when things went south for Frank and MonkeyMan, many people stepped up and offered to help him, including me but my emails and others went un-answered for a long time or at one point he finally replied with it was under control.

So in my eyes, if he was overwhelmed, it's on him. Again, so many people from this very community have offered to help him.

The past 2-3 days Frank approved 500+ designs that have been in a queue waiting for close to 6 months and only now is he starting up being active again.

When OWD went up, I offered my help to MonkeyMan and he took it. I kept design approvals moving without fail. I have still been doing approvals at OWD but soon that might be changing because for 2007 I don't want to be spread to thin with my volunteer work. I can only do so much for free.

As you and others have seen, OpenDesigns.org, the community and the admins behind it can work together in peace and happiness.

I do hope OSWD gets going again, it was the original site but as I've said in another comment, we need to think about the designers and users of this site and others... without them, there wouldn't be sites like this.

Posted By: megadethI thanked him for finally updating the OSWD site and he emailed me back saying "I have a few major changes planned soon so keep an eye out." I wonder what they can be...

They will probably take another 6 months to see though... Which is a shame really... That site helped me delve more into web design.