Daily Decisions, SMBI, auDA actions
Firstly an apology to my regular readers for the lack of recent postings. I have been busy wth my minisite empire and a shift to a new location in the country.
The fields of Sunflowers at my new location are a change from the bugs of moreton bay. We picked the wettest period in a hundred years to move and had to do it in stages between downpours. On the last day, I fell over the lawn mower and severely injured myself. Bruising thankfully was all I sustained narrowly missing breaking my clavicle and sternum.
The Southern Moreton Bay Islands or SMBI is now behind us, Hurray. We don’t know what we were thinking when we moved there last year. Populated with Several Million Biting Insects and Small Minded Bloody Idiots. SMBI is a much used acronym on the islands, now I will be using a few of my own.
Continue reading
Terrific or Terrible Templates
Recently I needed to get a really great looking Joomla! template for a client. I of course thought of the various Joomla! Template clubs and commercial template suppliers. I chose a flash looking RED Template from a MAJOR website the URL which shall remain anonymous to protect the guilty. After downloading and having to create an install .ZIPFILE that SHOULD have been done by the designer (it only takes minutes, but will frustrate some web-users). I installed the new template.
Then comes the interesting part. No parameter file, OK I can handle that. Next only 3 module positions, Ok I can add more. Continuing down the terrible template tour, I realise that NO valid CSS for the TopMenu . OK I can handle that, Change CSS is easy in most templates. NO not on this little template from the Monster Mansion. CSS files supplied are the most frustrating I have seen, and boy have I seen some nightmares.
Contacted support to see if maybe it was a dud download or an unfinished template that had been supplied in error. No Support not only said it was the correct one, but implied it was the best available on the planet. But they did have a premium service that would add the missing bits for expensive fee (more than triple the original price). I asked for my Money back, after all it was unusable. Support offered to check that there was no problems, if I gave them logon details. After checking and confirming the template was OK (their point of view, not mine). Was told that no refunds were given, but I could have a 50% on my next purchase. AS IF I would ever buy from them again.
So let’s do a little headcount.
- NO Install File supplied.
- Minimalist approach to Module positions.
- CSS problems
- Arrogant and insulting support service.
- Blatant exploitation requiring essential changes to be paid for as additions.
- Lost my client , they Lost an Affiliate (Yes I advertised their products),
- Inspired me to start designing templates. I decided to get a copy of ARTISTEER Trial to try it.
Simply TERRIFIC. Brilliant. I can now CREATE Joomla, WordPress, Drupal and HTML templates with a few clicks.
Part 2 of this saga
I now have purchased 3 licensed copies, 1 for each computer. Bloody brilliant software.
