I think the templates here are cool. But there is one problem, I don't think they are getting the amount of downloads they deserve, as compared to the other design sites like openwebdesign.org and oswd.org, maybe a solution to this would to get higher up on google?

@kirby145: OpenDesigns.org is getting plenty of traffic (1,000's of visitors daily) and in within the first 30 days the site was up, we had a Google Page Rank of 6. Not too many sites can do that within the short amount of time we've been up.

As time goes on, the site will get more exposure, links and design downloads.

Design ratings and comments are coming soon and other features as well. The to-do list is pretty big but we're working through it.

Yes it is my favorite web design site now, it is extremely active, I hope that there are more features and more downloads in the future.

I can also say that from searching for my designs that it seems like I get more quality downloads from OD that OWD. What I mean is, since I've uploaded my templates here, I've found a lot more sites using them than I saw when I just had them at OWD.

Sorry, but I feel the need to inject my "2 cents" here:

Lucky & Ocean are my first templates- I have never designed a template before having designed them. Within 2 days, I have seen almost 200 downloads from just these two templates, and more-importantly experienced an 800% increase in visitors to my work/personal web site in less than 60 minutes.

Now...

My designs sat here waiting for approval for less than 48 hours. Within 48 hours, my templates were made available through Open Designs.

I have been waiting for 3 weeks for OSWD, 2 1/2 weeks for OWD, and almost 1 month for a few other communities. My concern with this is that the administrators and moderators of these communities do not take the "open design movement" very seriously; I will not list my designs with them at any point in the future due to that.

My concern is not in "how much" exposure, but how quickly I can get (even a small amount) of exposure.

This leads me to one further opinion:

You can't get downloads if you don't have a template to share; so don't complain about the lack of downloads when your contribution to this community is zip, zilch, nada, nonexistent, zero, invisible, insignificant, etc.

To top it off - and slap me on my hands if you want Mods - feel damn lucky that your *** has a chance to get *free* exposure to any body of developers, clients, customers, viewers, etc. And don't complain because the (free) service isn't up-to-par with what you think you deserve.

What you deserve is a swift kick in the *** for skipping past the hard work a group of people put into making this community a reality for every one of us. True, they wouldn't exist without us; But then again, a lot of our careers wouldn't exist without them.

I'm not going to get involved in this debate, but feel free to continue with it.

One point - "I have been waiting for 3 weeks for OSWD" - I waited over 3 months before I got designs approved, with OSWD you can't predict when the owner will be bothered to update the site, it just happens (very rarely ) and with OpenWebDesign, well, the templates got sponsered links inserted without warning, and the forum got removed at a very unfortunate time. Which is why this site was created, by a group of people (and a ton of supporters) who are passionate about what it stands for, and to allow the community to continue and not fall apart like it did with OSWD.org and OpenWebDesign.org

edit: another thing about the downloads amount, I'm reorganising a lot of the content on my site and have put the downloads for my templates direct to Open Designs, so you can see the result on my user page with the above average download count. But to take it further, check out Andreas' user page! Over 6000 downloads on one of his designs, from linking to the downloads from his site.

auhsoj, you're my hero for speaking the truth.

The site needs two important pages:

1. Most Downloaded: Last 24 hours
2. Most Downloaded: All time

Right now the designs go into cold storage after a week. Can also increase the number of templates being displayed on the homepage from 6 to 10.

I think some of these suggestions should also be done off the forum. All members, including admins have an email on the site. Most of these topics are merely suggestions, but....many be interpreted as insults to this site by many.

Most likely, they are not insults, but as I said earlier, this site is brand, spankin' new. Everyone needs to be patient and just enjoy the ride. Lots has been done is a very short period of time.

I was mainly suggesting that it would be cool to organize the downloads more in some way- a featured designs, design ratings, and admins said they are going to do that. So yea...

It's sunny.

I know I'm ready for summer. anybody else?

could you send some of that warm weather to Colorado??

For those of you who didn't know, I used CSS to target christopher's web browser and display "kirby is a worthless piece of trash". [< sarcasm]

Posted By: christopher
Now I'm pretty sure we all don't mind you speaking your mind, but think before you type, please.

I sure hope nobody minds. But as for the "thinking": I thought along the same wavelength a couple others obviously thought.

Now, before continuing let me think then type...

You thought really hard before you typed that I called someone "worthless"? How about all that thought you squeezed out before you sent me that e-mail? Did you think about the last paragraph where you speak of being able to "stand by what you say if someone challenges it"? I challenge you pulling words out of thin air and interjecting them in my post to support your retort.

I understand my poor choice of wording when I stated that kirby's contribution was non-existent; but I do not understand your poor choice of creating words then saying that I stated that "kirby's contribution" meant something along the lines of "Kirby = Dirt", not what I apparently meant when I conjuncted the statement with "contribution".

Lastly:
Those 10 designs aren't available for downloading, are they? No, they would be in queue... Complain about the downloads *after* those 10 have exited the queue and crossed the finish line.

----------------------------

Now, I'm not here to make enemies, so put away your Flash 8 Auhsoj Dart Board project then read this:

I'll admit that I have jumped on the bandwagon here. Look up; I wasn't the only one- I was just the only one who wrote a novel. Everybody is capable of jumping to conclusions, or reading more into something than what is painted on the surface; if you haven't settled into the understanding that "nobody's perfect", please get out from under your rock.

I apologize for jumping to conclusions, kirby. If your post didn't appear as vague to me, I wouldn't have stated what I did. It appeared to be someone complaining about the lack of exposure they weren't going to get, even though they hadn't presented a product to expose, and subsequently thought they might inject a little "you're not good enough cos you're not up there on Google" bit.

Anyway, it rained here in Arizona.

Bakies for everyone

It's nice and sunny here in Jerusalem, though it was rainy and miserable last week.

it so easy to misinterpret what people write. Sometimes what one person sees as constructive critism another person sees it as a flame.

A few months back, I was a little annoyed at what a member wrote on a forum in response to a rant I had. This member's writing style, I discovered, after getting to know him much better, is basically a little blunt. But you know what? I really appreciate people who don't mince words and are honest. So I changed my perception of this person by accepting his writing style as part of him.

So when you read a post that rubs you the wrong way, I would suggest taking a step backward, and really think about what you are about to post. Is what you are going to write going to make things better for everyone or is it going to contrubute to the flame war?

ps: it's cloudy here but finally getting milder...I can almost smell spring

oh nice, wfiedler...I'd love to come for a visit...it's not quite as warm here:
Welland, Ontario, Canada weather

it sounds fabulous, Wolfram!
I'm a lover of good food and wine...I plan on taking my son on a European tour when he graduates from highschool when's he's 18. That's in 3 years...but I need a vacation sooner..so you never know, I may travel to Europe before that.

@Lobsterman- I visited Jerusalem back in 99. It was great. Need to visit again soon.

time to steer this back on course....or let it drop [might not be a bad idea]

Posted By: refueledI dont see a reason to steer this thread back on course. Its a good thing that its turned into a weather and travel discussion.

It's a good thing the original discussion has simmered down, I agree. But we want to have posts based on the Discussion subject, not on tangents. Start a weather and travel thread.

Posted By: LobsterMan
We could always rename this thread

Good idea! No need to start a new one.

Posted By: gnomeRenamed.

Partly cloudy and 45 degrees (F) here in the Hudson Valley of NY.

lol. you rock gnome.

the layer of ice on everything is finally melting here and leaking into the roads. Hopefully it freezes tonight so i don't have class tomorrow :D

Mild and snowing here in Ottawa, but that doesn't matter because I'm going to Barcelona tomorrow