[penguicon-general] Potential New Website Skins

[David Crampton]

On 8/12/06, Ron Blanchett <rrcb21 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
> You don't get it do you. You must not.

I must not get it.  So, I will ask some questions to make sure that I
understand.

This:

> We have been looking for a different theme to use on the website since we
> started using the current CMS(Plone).

seems to contradict this:

> The current website redesign (more like a combining of site) has nothing to
> do with placing a new theme on the website.

which then seems to contradict this, which seems to agree with your
first statement:

> We(Penguicon) have also had
> several talks about potentially changing the website theme every year to
> give the site new life every year.

The only way that I can make sense of this is that you are separating
this into two topics.  1 - Website redesign / merging.  2 - Changing
of the theme.  Your second sentence then makes sense, as the website
redesign is simply for merging of the data, and independent of the
choices that we are being presented for themes.

We -are- being presented choices, right?  We're being asked for input?

My next question involved why we're choosing a new theme, if the old
one wasn't broken.  Which, you respond to here:

> That was also the idea behind the website
> theme design contest the was started last year, get penguicon attendies to
> design a new themes for the site and have attendies vote to find the winner
> which would to be used on the site the following year.

I was previously unaware of this contest.  It's a great idea!  That
means that those attending, whether newly come or having attended the
con from the beginning, would have a chance to give input, and
contribute their work to the convention's website.

On top of that, you could gauge the need for such a change by
response.  If people hated the theme, the layout, whatever, there
would likely be a flood of responses by people who want to do it
better.  If there was no need for it, there would be no demand, and
therefore no response.  That's the way open source software is moved
along, is it not?

> Last year this
> contest did not get any entries but we are hoping that this year we can get
> people to enter and find a wining theme for next years site.

This would seem to imply that there was no need to change the theme
for this year's web page, as there was not enough interest to drive a
single submission to the contest.

Is last year's theme unworkable?  Is it not compatible with Plone?  I
have yet to get a straight answer as to why the theme is being
changed.  Even if it's because the con committee decided that a new
theme would just be nifty.  Even if it's because Ron decided that a
new theme would just be nifty.  I'm all for nifty.  Just answer the
why.

-- 
Dave Crampton
--

P.S. - I'm not trying to resist change.  I'm trying to understand it
so that I may better understand its implementation.