Welcome to the MacNN Forums.

EllMUK · Dec 23, 2004, 02:40 PM

Here's the lowdown:

Forum based, so you can post your comments on all new Mac Themes, Desktop Pictures, Icons etc.
Working closely with mac themers to ensure they announce all their new themes over at the MacThemer Forums
Theme Reviews
And more features to be announced

MacThemer will be the first forum-based site to focus on Mac Customization. While MacNN has its own dedicated forum, MacThemer will revolve solely around customizing the Mac GUI.
We are looking for people to be moderators for the new forums, so if you wish to help, please post below or email me at ellmichaels(@)gmail.com. Also, if you are a designer and wish to help us design a logo please email the above email address or post your idea below.

I hope you are looking forward to the opening on January 2nd 2005

ambush · Dec 23, 2004, 02:47 PM

Right.

Give us a better reason. I like this forum here. It's *the* reference.

Sorry.

Basileus · Dec 23, 2004, 03:50 PM

off topic:
does anyone know what happened to "the furnace"?

Dave-o� · Dec 23, 2004, 04:13 PM

Originally posted by Basileus:
off topic:
does anyone know what happened to "the furnace"?

That was a private web site, done by one person. I think he ended up taking it off line for copyright/distribution reasons.

Mac Guru · Dec 23, 2004, 05:02 PM

I'm all for people getting involved... but don't waste your time on something that is redundant.

Try to find something innovative to devote your energy to... MacThemes.net and MacNN have the monopoly on Theming for the most part.

Mac Guru

nooon · Dec 23, 2004, 05:17 PM

I agree. Too many sites will just make the GUI-scene difficult to follow.

mattwdmn · Dec 23, 2004, 05:25 PM

yup, sorry to add my negativity to this, but the other guys are right... good name though.

iamnotmad · Dec 23, 2004, 06:50 PM

yeah, microsoft pretty much has the monopoly on os's, no one should make any more ever, and browsers? Meh, what do you need besides IE? why big groups dev things like Firefox/Opera, etc.. is beyond me. Makes the browser scene too hard to follow. Web sites? we really only need 1 or two per subject, otherwise I get really confused and can't follow what's going on.

oy.

Make your website, if people like it, they'll show up. Good luck with it, let us know when it's up.

thanks.

orangep0ny · Dec 23, 2004, 06:52 PM

Originally posted by Mac Guru:
I'm all for people getting involved... but don't waste your time on something that is redundant.

Try to find something innovative to devote your energy to... MacThemes.net and MacNN have the monopoly on Theming for the most part.

Mac Guru

MacThemes hasn't even been online for that long. Everyone said the same thing about that site. It will never work. The majority of people only like going to MacNN etc. etc. If you have a decent enough site with content people WILL go there.

phillryu · Dec 23, 2004, 07:02 PM

There's no harm in another site. If it's good, then we'll go to it. If it's not, it won't hurt us. I mean, come on, this guy is putting in a lot of hours for the site, let's wait until it's up before critiquing his attempt

EllMUK · Dec 23, 2004, 08:12 PM

Heh, thanks for the support. Obviously there are a lot of reasons why people won't come to MacThemer, but then there are very good reasons why people will. MacNN only has ONE forum dedicated to GUI Customization. MacThemer is devoted in its entirety to Mac Theming and forums have been specifically created to cater everyone's mac theming tastes. There's also a Desktop of the Month competition (with prizes ;-)).
Hopefully this won't just be another mac theming site...and I'll need everyone in the mac theming community to help me along the way. Lets hope the forums boom with posts as soon as they open and MacThemer can have a vibrant community that integrates with the current mac theming community. So thanks for your input, and any comments/suggestions for new forums would be greatly appreciated. Also, logo designers and forum designers and of course those who would like to be moderators...keep emailing me...because your support is greatly appreciated!

NetworkShadow · Dec 23, 2004, 08:16 PM

I agree. I'm not against new sites, but I'll only visit and post if it's; (a) Better than the current sites in both content and layout (b) It's something different form the existing sites, at least a little something to give it the edge interest wise. (c) a specialty site that focuses on a more specific interest group that I happen to like.

And as a webmaster of a forum site, I know it's hard to get them going, and if you do it's also hard to keep them going because people can lose interest. I've had anywhere from 4 active members to 50 active members, and then back down to 8 or so on my little board.

If you go for it, good luck.

acronym16 · Dec 23, 2004, 08:32 PM

well im now officialy on board as moderator and possibly designer, I'll be adding as much support to this as I can muster, I like the idea and we shall see what we can do to make this forum extra special, don't write it off just yet

TheIceMan · 09:59 PM

EllMUK: Good luck with the new site. I agree the more the merrier. I would love to see a site that is entirely devoted to just theming for the OS X platform.

[Edit:] I went to take a sneak peek at MacThemer. I really like the design of it.

phillryu · Dec 23, 2004, 09:51 PM

All right dude. This is a bit of an unfortunate coincidence, but I think it'd be better if I let you know sooner than later. I'm also planning to open some GUI forums at MacThemes on January 1st, so it looks like there will be some competition.

I sympathize with you, and I remember when I launched MacThemes last January, I launched it with several competitors, including XThemes and InterfaceLift. So first of all, understand that I'm not launching them to compete with you. Our forums have been planned for our first anniversary (Jan 1st) for a while. Second, I'm definitely not hostile towards your site, so I hope you feel the same. Good luck!

chezpaul · Dec 23, 2004, 10:41 PM

Originally posted by phillryu:
All right dude. This is a bit of an unfortunate coincidence, but I think it'd be better if I let you know sooner than later. I'm also planning to open some GUI forums at MacThemes on January 1st, so it looks like there will be some competition.

I sympathize with you, and I remember when I launched MacThemes last January, I launched it with several competitors, including XThemes and InterfaceLift. So first of all, understand that I'm not launching them to compete with you. Our forums have been planned for our first anniversary (Jan 1st) for a while. Second, I'm definitely not hostile towards your site, so I hope you feel the same. Good luck!

Why didn't you say that at 3:02 PM ?

Aeolie · Dec 23, 2004, 11:30 PM

I think everyone just can open forum, but why do you have to post about it here?

do you think this forum is not mac gui customization forum?

DigiHal · Dec 24, 2004, 12:36 AM

I will check it out.

Email me or PM me if you need help. Sounds like fun.

H!

EllMUK · Dec 24, 2004, 06:21 AM

Lol, just realised how obvious the link to MacThemer is.

phillryu: Hopefully both our forums can have great communities where people post freely. As has been said before, the more the merrier. Both MacThemer and MacThemes can help boost the mac theming community and of course joint competitions can be organised etc...all for the good of the mac community!

EllMUK · Dec 24, 2004, 07:06 AM

Ok...I've pretty much finished with the creating of the forums and for now I'm really happy with the forums I've created.
However, I do want your help. Currently the link to the forums can be found here. I'd like your suggestions on new forums or name changes for current forums/categories. What do you think of the MacThemer Hotel? Leave your comments below.
NB. This link won't be up for much longer, I want to get the skin sorted out!

Gerrit Vanoppen · Dec 24, 2004, 07:49 AM

skin : looking nice in a classic way
forums : how about some tutorial-like items (tips on How-to-ThemePark, How-to-Photoshop, etc) where people can share techniques
hotel : I'm not likely going to spend much time in the Conference Room...

EllMUK · Dec 24, 2004, 08:33 AM

Totally agree with you on the conference room...also could create some serious tensions if not properly moderated. A development forum is planned with a place to post tutorials. As for the skin, the final version will pretty much look like that with a few modded graphics to make it look more aqua-esque.

pyn · Dec 24, 2004, 08:35 AM

Yes, you should mod the theme...it looks like label o's

EllMUK · Dec 24, 2004, 08:36 AM

Isn't that a good thing

pyn · Dec 24, 2004, 09:42 AM

I guess so.

anyways, i made a logo if you wanna use it

I emailed you the PSD

DigiHal · Dec 24, 2004, 10:52 AM

I just want to throw this out there, but there seems to be a few people (I am one of them) that do a lot of wishful thinking about themes. So I create a mock-up that will more than likely never be published.

If someone were to create a mock-up, would it go with theme releases? Maybe it's own forum?

This is just a thought I had.

Looking forward to the forum taking shape.

Best, Hal!

Komisar · Dec 24, 2004, 11:57 AM

well its a great idea i love macnn and you guys should go to xiap.net and check out that forum it is great..... a macthemes forum .... it would just be the same as all the others...

chezpaul · Dec 24, 2004, 01:03 PM

For those who can't see the site.. it's MT capital letters in the link.

EllMUK · Dec 24, 2004, 01:17 PM

Yep...sorry everyone for not updating the link..had a couple of problems with the host which have now been resolved but meant I had to reinstall the forums.
Thanks chezpaul

pyn · Dec 24, 2004, 04:58 PM

The link is http://macthemer.com/mt/

swiz · Dec 24, 2004, 05:30 PM

My main suggestion would be to make the tables less than 100% window width, that is one thing that really keeps me from some message boards. Not exactly sure why, it just does.

Another suggestion, a forum SPECIFICALLY for mockups. Im tired of mockups being in a GUI forum when they never become more than a mockup to the public.

Stuphalina · Dec 24, 2004, 05:34 PM

Well, I registered, willing to give it a try.

DigiHal · Dec 24, 2004, 07:58 PM

"Another suggestion, a forum SPECIFICALLY for mockups. Im tired of mockups being in a GUI forum when they never become more than a mockup to the public."

I am guilty of this.

I hope this makes it in.

H!

EllMUK · Dec 24, 2004, 08:50 PM

Yup..the mockups forum will definetly be in there by the opening date and will be closely monitored by moderators so that when themes do get past the mockup stage they will be moved to the theming forums. Hopefully this should keep the forums neat and tidy.
BTW, the DOTM idea is really beginning to take shape with the January competition winner looking to get around �100's worth of goodies :-)

nooon · Dec 24, 2004, 08:51 PM

Originally posted by pyn:
The link is http://macthemer.com/mt/

I've been getting a 404 on this all day..

acronym16 · Dec 24, 2004, 09:04 PM

it is a capital MT at the end which was stated later on in the posts

lazydesert · Dec 25, 2004, 01:55 AM

I'd love for there to be more of a mac-presence at gfxoasis

a place with the best of pc theming combined with the best of mac theming would be awesome. we keep a work in progress forum separate from a released theme forum. you won't find a better community

mac15 · Dec 25, 2004, 08:07 AM

Originally posted by lazydesert:
I'd love for there to be more of a mac-presence at gfxoasis a place with the best of pc theming combined with the best of mac theming would be awesome. we keep a work in progress forum separate from a released theme forum. you won't find a better community

I too love that site but I think the MacThemes Forums will fill the void that this and many other GUi like sites have. Sure MacNN is nice but there needs to be alternate that caters to Mac GUI fans only.

Ice Spectre · Dec 25, 2004, 08:10 AM

It's nice to see the "Mockups" section separated from the "Themes" section.
Now I don't have to worry about these [ANN]'s that don't even contain a finished product.

Keep it going, I like the idea, and would be happy to use it if a community was established there anything like the one here. After all, it's not like these separate sources cannot be accessed in unison.

cgc · Dec 26, 2004, 07:42 PM

Originally posted by iamnotmad:
yeah, microsoft pretty much has the monopoly on os's, no one should make any more ever, and browsers? Meh, what do you need besides IE? why big groups dev things like Firefox/Opera, etc.. is beyond me. Makes the browser scene too hard to follow. Web sites? we really only need 1 or two per subject, otherwise I get really confused and can't follow what's going on.

oy.

Make your website, if people like it, they'll show up. Good luck with it, let us know when it's up.

thanks.

I was gonna say the same thing. Funny that the "competition" (i.e. MacNN) is advising against it.

Twister · Dec 26, 2004, 08:08 PM

I didn't read everything but it sounds good to have a new forum. Hopefully it'll be moderated better so there isn't so much negativity or off topic rants.

phillryu · Dec 26, 2004, 08:17 PM

Originally posted by cgc:
I was gonna say the same thing. Funny that the "competition" (i.e. MacNN) is advising against it.

I wouldn't say we're the competition? We're just GUI enthusiasts looking for a place to discuss themes, not MacNN zealots. Ok, maybe some of us are, but still.

acronym16 · Dec 26, 2004, 08:29 PM

Originally posted by Twister:
I didn't read everything but it sounds good to have a new forum. Hopefully it'll be moderated better so there isn't so much negativity or off topic rants.

I'll do my best, but you with any forum you have to allow freedom of speach, I think the way that it is devided up into subtopics will aid this, but to encourage a good will feeling and help designers of all types of mac customization areas work together to create things that are even better, thats the aim of the forum

EllMUK · Dec 26, 2004, 08:36 PM

Originally posted by acronym16:
I'll do my best, but you with any forum you have to allow freedom of speach, I think the way that it is devided up into subtopics will aid this, but to encourage a good will feeling and help designers of all types of mac customization areas work together to create things that are even better, thats the aim of the forum

Couldn't have said it better myself :-)

EllMUK · Dec 28, 2004, 10:04 AM

Update: New forums added and moderators created. Honestly think we might be opening before 2nd January, maybe 29th/30th...but don't get your hopes up, we're still designing the logo

Fonzie · Dec 28, 2004, 10:27 AM

I think it's good that there's multiple forums that has something to do with the Mac OS X GUI. I just wish that this new site won't get involved in any type of war with MacThemes forum so that people flee from one place to the next creating a hazard. Although i'm sure that is gonna happen in time anyway.

I for one look forward to this new MacThemer site. Although I like this site(MacNN) i'm sure i'll visit the new site just for kicks and to see if it's worth the effort.

Let it roll...

acronym16 · Dec 28, 2004, 10:49 AM

Originally posted by Fonzie:
I think it's good that there's multiple forums that has something to do with the Mac OS X GUI. I just wish that this new site won't get involved in any type of war with MacThemes forum so that people flee from one place to the next creating a hazard. Although i'm sure that is gonna happen in time anyway.

I for one look forward to this new MacThemer site. Although I like this site(MacNN) i'm sure i'll visit the new site just for kicks and to see if it's worth the effort.

Let it roll...

At mac themer forums, we have no wish to get into a forums war, we just want to further the mac comunity, I am a moderator of the new forums, but I will still be visiting here to check on updates etc and have no plan to desert it, anyone appearing to be trying to start a "forums war" in mac themer will suffer bans from me atleast, The idea is to work together, so lets do that

nooon · Dec 28, 2004, 12:00 PM

The site is starting to look good, but you should definitely add a frontpage/portal (ref. gfxOasis)

EllMUK · Dec 30, 2004, 07:49 AM

Quick update:

Splash screen added
MacThemer logo 95% done
Forum skin updated, now with 5 different flavours!
Opening date moved forward to the 31st December (New Years Eve)

The reason for moving the site date is NOT to put ourselves ahead of the opening of the Mac Themes forums (to be fair it would only put us a couple of hours ahead anyway and would make no real difference). The reason is that MacThemer is about 95% completed as I have spent a lot of time and hard work on it. I really was not expecting to open early, but as there is no point waiting an extra 2 days, we might as well open tomorrow. Please resist from signing up and posting until tomorrow and hopefully we can make the New Years Eve opening go off with a BANG. I'll see you all there!

pyn · Dec 30, 2004, 08:42 AM

This is great.

Too bad I won't be here for the opening ceremony.