Why do my themes suck?

[fredbird67]

I've submitted several themes to GNOME-Look.org, and everyone keeps voting them down. I just created what I thought was a very attractive theme (it's called "Blue Fusion"), and already, it's down to 43% within the first hour. WHY?!!

[Peasantoid]

The rating other people give them is less than useless when it comes to judging your own work. It's like the karma system on some forum packages (e.g. SMF) — if your karma is low, it's because someone doesn't agree with you, not because you're wrong in some way.

Your themes were attractive to you, and that's what counts. Other people have different tastes. You need not seek their approval.

[zhocchao]

I think people are looking for something special e.g. light or dark themes. Your themes look like just changing a few colours from a standard theme. As I used windows, the first thing I did was changing the horrible blue. I am not interested in any of your themes (different taste, I didn't vote you down).

(Maybe you could try making screenshots with more open windows (nautilus, terminal, gedit...) so people can see the style in action)

[fredbird67]

Thanks. I guess I needed to hear that. In fact, I just looked at the most downloaded items on GNOME-Look and, while it took me a while to find it, I found a Beryl Emerald theme that was rated at only 33% but with neighboring items by number of downloads earning ratings in the 60s or 70s. And, I've seen excellent written comments on stuff rated below 50%, too.

What's even more frustrating is that most themes I DON'T like get rated well. What I especially dislike is black themes. I've tried them and they don't work, because there are quite a few websites they don't work well with at all. Facebook's chat feature comes to mind here, as in light gray text on a white background, which makes for a very poor contrast.

[ellalan]

I do like your theme and particularly the W7 type background, I'll definitely try this theme on my new Jaunty when it is released. Cheer Up.

[LIB53]

I think it's the fact that it looks windows-ish. I know that's the point, but people don't really want something like that. I agree with about the dark theme stuff. I despise completely dark themes just because they don't work. The only good dark stuff is Dust. Also, your screenshot is very plain. Make use of Compiz and other Ubuntu eye-candy to make your theme look stunning. I think it's not bad. Honestly, there are themes rated higher than this that are complete crap (i'm not gonna point them out).

[fredbird67]

UPDATE: I corrected some contrast issues with insensitive text and updated it, and it now has a rating of 57%, the opposite of what I had earlier! :)

Thanx, y'all! I'll keep all this in mind in the future.

[Saint Angeles]

ive been having a frusterating time with the rating system on gnome-look also.

people will vote it down anytime you do an update, not because they dont like it, but because its not their theme and they want their theme to look better.

its a horrible system anyway (starting at 50% and being able to vote "good" or "bad")

there should just be a single button that says "I like it!" and the themes with the highest number of "i like it!" hits should be at the top.

i also hate how people will never tell you why they gave your theme a bad rating. ugh. check out my "Cyclotram" theme in my sig and tell me whats so bad about it.

[SomeGuyDude]

Keep at it. Themes go up and down, and every so often a theme that was sitting in the 50% area will suddenly launch upwards and vice versa.

[JK3mp]

Just diffrent tastes is all chap. Doesn't matter really. And one up on the dark themes topic.I love dark themes but i wish the color schemes wouldn't effect external apps like FF and webpages and so on. REALLY ANNOYING when i find a theme that goes well but then i open up FF or OpenOffice word and everything F**** up. :-( . Only downside that i think should be able to be fixed. And probably could if i was willing to take the time :(. Just lazy. lol

[chriskin]

ive been having a frusterating time with the rating system on gnome-look also.

people will vote it down anytime you do an update, not because they dont like it, but because its not their theme and they want their theme to look better.

its a horrible system anyway (starting at 50% and being able to vote "good" or "bad")

there should just be a single button that says "I like it!" and the themes with the highest number of "i like it!" hits should be at the top.

i also hate how people will never tell you why they gave your theme a bad rating. ugh. check out my "Cyclotram" theme in my sig and tell me whats so bad about it.



i checked your theme and to be honest i have seen many better than this
it is too windows-like for my taste (for a gnome theme to be windows-like it's a crime, for a kde one it is acceptable) , and has the button on the left side where it gives no usability(or is it theme-independent? i don't know). as for the colors, the choices are nice, like the one i used to have until some weeks ago (had to change to light colors, summer is coming)
it is not bad though, it deserves more than it has got on the rating, it is just not top of its kind

[Saint Angeles]

i checked your theme and to be honest i have seen many better than this
it is too windows-like for my taste (for a gnome theme to be windows-like it's a crime, for a kde one it is acceptable) , and has the button on the left side where it gives no usability(or is it theme-independent? i don't know). as for the colors, the choices are nice, like the one i used to have until some weeks ago (had to change to light colors, summer is coming)
it is not bad though, it deserves more than it has got on the rating, it is just not top of its kind
i use gconf-editor to put the close button on the left... i'm used to it but it has nothing to do with the theme. how is there no usability if the button is clickable and i find it easier than when its mixed in with several other icons on the right?

plus, i never accidently close my windows when im in a hurry.

and also, what part looks like windows? i dont think it looks like anyother theme i've seen... and im known for getting bored and changing my theme every 8 hours, so i've seen just about every theme on that site.

i'm sorry, but "windows-like" was the last thing i expected to hear.

[chriskin]

i use gconf-editor to put the close button on the left... i'm used to it but it has nothing to do with the theme. how is there no usability if the button is clickable and i find it easier than when its mixed in with several other icons on the right?

plus, i never accidently close my windows when im in a hurry.

and also, what part looks like windows? i dont think it looks like anyother theme i've seen... and im known for getting bored and changing my theme every 8 hours, so i've seen just about every theme on that site.

i'm sorry, but "windows-like" was the last thing i expected to hear.


yes i didn't say it clearly enough, sorry
i mean that the colours are a little too vivid , like they are on windows. i was used on vivid colours on windows (dark blue for xp etc etc) and when i came to the easy for the eye brown of ubuntu i felt right at home. then i had grey (dust theme) and now i have light grey (dust mac)

offtopic : is the close button on the left side helping you? i have tried it on an emerald theme that gets everything on the left side and i can't say i got too eager to keep it there :S don't you go by instinct to the left side every time? :P


by the way, if it was my choice, i would give it around 80 , not 50something

[SunnyRabbiera]

I think the main reason is that this seems very pixmap oriented by the looks of it, pixmap themes are very unpopular.

[Saint Angeles]

yes i didn't say it clearly enough, sorry
i mean that the colours are a little too vivid , like they are on windows. i was used on vivid colours on windows (dark blue for xp etc etc) and when i came to the easy for the eye brown of ubuntu i felt right at home. then i had grey (dust theme) and now i have light grey (dust mac)

offtopic : is the close button on the left side helping you? i have tried it on an emerald theme that gets everything on the left side and i can't say i got too eager to keep it there :S don't you go by instinct to the left side every time? :P


by the way, if it was my choice, i would give it around 80 , not 50something
mainly, by having only the close and menu buttons on the left while keeping the minimize and restore buttons on the right, i instinctively move my mouse to the left side when i wanna close a window and to the right side when i wanna resize the window. i never accidently click on the wrong button...

but when all three are on the right, i used to click on the wrong thing sometimes and it sucked... i'm not saying one thing is better than another, but i'm used to it and I like it a lot. when im using windows, i sometimes move my mouse to the upper left part of the window to close it and i feel stupid... i also try to move windows by alt+dragging them and it doesn't work.

thats one of the greatest things about linux really...

[Ioky]

I don't think it is that bad, in fact, i think the GTK theme looks pretty good, however, it is totally not going along with the "vista" window. You might thing of a better theme for the WM

keep up the good work

[chucky chuckaluck]

don't worry, people thought van gogh sucked (of course, people thought joe schwartz sucked, too).

[Giant Speck]

Don't worry about your theme. Even if you didn't intend for it to look like Vista, it somewhat does, which is enough for the hoard of down-voters to attack your theme. There seems to be a group of people on GNOME-Look that go around searching for any Windows-like themes just to vote them down.

[chriskin]

mainly, by having only the close and menu buttons on the left while keeping the minimize and restore buttons on the right, i instinctively move my mouse to the left side when i wanna close a window and to the right side when i wanna resize the window. i never accidently click on the wrong button...

but when all three are on the right, i used to click on the wrong thing sometimes and it sucked... i'm not saying one thing is better than another, but i'm used to it and I like it a lot. when im using windows, i sometimes move my mouse to the upper left part of the window to close it and i feel stupid... i also try to move windows by alt+dragging them and it doesn't work.

thats one of the greatest things about linux really...

i remember trying to move the cube IN WINDOWS yesterday :P

if you read the posts below the quoted one, you can see that others feel that it looks like windows too. Giant Speck is right i think, many vote down windows-like themes just because they are windows-like. ok i don't like the idea of a gnome theme to look or feel like windows, but why vote it down if it is not bad?

[ice60]

i like the theme :D and i'll add 'include "../panel.rc"' to some of my other themes too! i just added the panel to the theme i'm using now :)

[perfectska04]

Don't really go by what the vote percentage says... The most popular categories seem to be very competitive, and sometimes you will get voted down for no reason or because someone else wants their theme to be on top of yours. While this is not always the case, you can always tell some shenanigans are at play when all the top themes have at most 75% rating, and any theme that goes over that percentage, quickly gets voted down and disappears from the front page.

As your theme becomes better known, people will comment on it and either thank you or tell you what areas need improvement. You are sharing your work so others can enjoy, and using the feedback to improve your own desktop; that's what really matters.