Disqus - Latest Comments for buffdownunder

Re: ActiveInbox Turns Gmail Into a Task Manager

buffdownunder — Mon, 04 Apr 2011 01:07:31 -0000

Took me a week to have an empty inbox. Highly recommended.

Re: http://www.buff.com.au/joom15/about-joomla/the-cms/joomla-overview.html

buffdownunder — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:05:54 -0000

My first comment. It works. How good is this?

Re: 5 reasons you should use joomla instead of wordpress

buffdownunder — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:30:18 -0000

Hi Guy Incognito,

Could you please be a bit more specific? Say I want to make a section that looks sporty and I want every bit of navigation or content visible only relate to that section. Then I have another section that looks bikie black and I want again to have every bit of navigation and content only relate to that section. Both sections have the same structure (Most popular, news, ...). I also want certain posts to always be on top (I call them timeless or sticky) of the page.

Could you please be so kind and tell me what plugins or approach I would need to make this happen?

Thanks in Advance

Re: Tell us our next template and get a free copy

buffdownunder — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 00:02:59 -0000

The list is impressive. I would have not thought that so many people are looking for "themed" templates. I guess this supports my wish for a modular template, Barry.

Why not create a template that allows for infinite image sets (and corresponding colour profile) and sell them as add on. Somebody wants a butcher theme. Sell him the image set that fits your new template. You want a wedding website. There is a image set to achieve that look. With the right image library in your hands you can cater for nearly every profession and all you need is one set of slicing templates to make them fit your template. Why not offer some other form of affiliation? Send in your photos, images or icons and upload them to the Joomlashack template image store. Creator gets a percentage of sales. Images in that store are compresses professionally and fit the templates you sell.

Sounds like pretty low hanging fruit for me :-)

Cheers,
Edward
www.buff.com.au

Re: Creating a Blog Site With Joomla

buffdownunder — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:09:53 -0000

What extension are you currently using on this domain? disqus in not among the list so I guess some extensions are outdated or do not exist any more.
Cheers,
Edward
www.buff.com.au

Re: Tell us our next template and get a free copy

buffdownunder — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 05:06:45 -0000

Also with Inspiron? I just went back but couldn't the information for this.

One other suggestion for typography: Initial caps for paragraphs and other tricks that newspapers or the print guys in general use to guide their audiences through long text. Also paragraph styling that make the paragraph form a block like in the blog category layout.

Re: Tell us our next template and get a free copy

buffdownunder — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 06:25:24 -0000

Had a second thought about template and realised that I would love to pic certain elements from all of your templates.

I guess the perfect template would be like a bucket of lego.
-You have a header that is highly flexible in height and width and contains necessary stuff like logo and tagline and search box.
-You want 3 colums layout. Here you go. Blog, News whatever layout. Just tick the right box.
-You want a Sucker fish menu after that. Here comes your module that fits in the right module position
-You want whatever menu type. Joomlashack has them to download and install in the members area
-Colour shemes are something you download and install. There are hundreds of them just depending on what mood you want to create
-Content CSS is available for what ever you like. A CSS for your images that gives them a border and a caption. Download and insert. A CSS that styles your paragraph with special typography: Download and install.

If you have this building block fitting all neatly together you then create examples and bundle the features into themes. This way people can built their template step by step or change things on the way.

The most daunting thing I find with templates is that you don't know how your audience reacts. By using a building block system you can test elements until you find what works best with your audience.

How does that sound?

Cheers,
Edward
www.buff.com.au

Re: Tell us our next template and get a free copy

buffdownunder — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:14:32 -0000

I totally forgot to comment on colours.
I would have purchased Inspiron immediately if not for the dull colors. I don't live in Grey England. I live in sunny Australia and all my customers do so. Colour shemes that reflect the sunniest winter days and the great summer memories are on top my wishlist. Vibrant blue, green, red do it and the tourist numbers to Australia show that a lot of people around the world dream about experiencing these images.
Colour shemes that reflect this (diving Great Barrier Reef, Sunset on Uluru,...) would most probably attract people on a subliminal level and make them enjoy the browsing experience. Images and colours can always be provided.

Cheers,
Edward
www.buff.com.au

Re: Tell us our next template and get a free copy

buffdownunder — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 20:06:38 -0000

Hi Barry,

After reading all this I would like to draw your attention to the Wordpress discussion (5 reasons to blog with Joomla). If you analyse the comments you see that most people are referring to creating good looking content very easily.
I started with the standard theme and was blown away how good your content looks just with the styling of images.

My recommendation therefore for a new template:

-focus on good looking content following the great examples of Robin Williams "Non-Designers Design & Type Books" (The wordpress themes I looked at all tick the boxes of Robin Williams. I haven't found a Joomla template yet that does this)

-Create standard setups using a popular Editor (JCE or maybe the editor you promote) so that you really get what you see in the editor. There is a Wordpress theme that takes this to the max. All you do is upload your images and write your text and the entire content layout is handled by the theme. This rocks and would be a unique selling selling point in the Joomla community. The template I am talking about is http://prothemedesign.com/t.... It sells for $100 and I would pay it if I would be using Wordpress.

-Create themes also for the most popular extensions and create packages. So if you like to convince people to use Joomla for blogging instead of Wordpress just grab all the extensions you use to make it happen and make sure they look the same. I would even go as far and create a template that works in Joomla and Wordpress so you have that area covered.

-For navigation and other template elements stay with your proven concept of different module styles and color themes. Also please focus on level 2 or 3 navigation elements. The book "Don't make me think" changed my view on Simplicity entirely. I have now found so many elements that hinder navigation once you go deeper into the content structure. Please enable Logo & Tagline easy setup plus obvious search and breadcrumbs. I did a test with the beez template and 9 out of 10 guinea pigs browsed the site easier than with Simplicity and 6 discovered the font resizer that didn't even know that it exists (the guinea pigs all used my website for more than 2 years). Everybody admitted that beez looks bad but from a useability point it beat Simplicity. Maybe just a better looking beez template does the job. Don't know how low the fruits are hanging here.

-Keep it small and allow people to switch of this $%^# mootools script. Also incorporate everything required for Google Analytics and Website Optimizer. Basically every popular extension that requires adding code to the template and is used by people who want to make money on the net. These are the people that will happily reward you and talk good about you.

To round up my view. Templates like the ones from Studiopress or Mimbo Pro would rock my world and make me fork out money. Integrated editor settings that enhance and encourage readability and legibitlity pluss awesome looks and SEO friendly would add icing. Integration of popular Extension would make me fork out money on top. Continous support for all this that reflects the permanent Upgraditis and Migraditis of Joomla developers would make me pay a monthly support fee.

Cheers,
Edward
www.buff.com.au

Re: 5 reasons you should use joomla instead of wordpress

buffdownunder — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 01:28:25 -0000

I have played around with Wordpress for a few days now and I am back to square one for a simple reason. Wordpress does not allow you to cluster your information in the setup of the navigation. For example if you write about Riding a Harley and flyfishing (2 totally different topics) you can not restrict the tags shown to only one of this topics. Your navigation is always about the entire content.
This means that if you want to separate topics from each other you have to set up a blog for each topic.

Still I now understand why people rave about Wordpress and I can only ask the Joomla developers to learn from Wordpress. The ease of creating good looking content and the focus on the content itself definitely makes a difference. The comparison between Macs and PC's really works for me.

Cheers,
Edward
www.buff.com.au

Re: 5 reasons you should use joomla instead of wordpress

buffdownunder — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:38:49 -0000

I totally agree with David. I just did one article on a new product with Joomla and Wordpress. Writing the article in Wordpress was a breeze but then I wanted to have a "Buy Now" teaser with link to the shop floating on the right. I didn't bother trying to find out how to do that.

Went straight to Joomla. Took me a few more steps in setting up a new Section, Category, Menu item, article and module but I just did it. Didn't have to read how to do it. Didn't have to look for extensions. Why that: I have spend a few years working on my site and understand the structure of Joomla.

Having now read TJ Bakers article on Blogging Extensions for Joomla I will start a blog with Wordpress embedded in my site (CorePHP has a solution I like
http://www.corephp.com/word... ) and switch over as soon as the full blogging functionality is available for Joomla

Re: 5 reasons you should use joomla instead of wordpress

buffdownunder — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 21:10:43 -0000

I like to add a few cents to what JoeJoomla said. This discussion (and Joomlas upcoming migration to 1.6) triggered me to look at Wordpress again. This time I went straight into the forums and guess what: Issues, Problems, ... Exactly the same story as with Joomla (no migration though - extremely big plus).
As soon as you start tinkering around with extension (or plugins) and layout/design you run into trouble. For me it basically means that if you want to concentrate on content and not on technology you pick what runs straight out of the box and forget all "nice to have" gadgets. Everything else belongs in the hands of an expert no matter what CMS.

I will now install wordpress in a subdirectory and Joomla 1.5 in another (I am still on 1.0 because some extensions I want didn't move quickly to 1.5). I will start a blog by creating articles of stuff I always wanted to publish but never did. This way I don't have to wait for some ideas. My general aim will be to start a discussion on my product with the community and to entice users of my product to also submit content. Pretty similar to this blog. Let us see which platforms enables this with the least tinkering around and hazzle.

Re: Joomla 1.6 means change for templates

buffdownunder — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 19:26:25 -0000

Joomla is starting to loose me here.

I am just starting to switch over to 1.5 and now there is change again and it affects the templates.

Barry you don't seem angry about this and you are earning a living of templates. Could you please share the benefits of permanently having to touch your setup with me. Could you also please be so kind and comment on if it makes sense at the moment to move to 1.5 with 1.6 appearing on the horizon.

By the way: After reading a lot of books about usability, design and type and marketing I like the beez template the best except for that the design elements are a bit too simple for todays standards. Have you ever thought about creating a template that focuses on the main content and has everything else submit to this?

I know that as a designer your goal is to make template demos that are awesome but this in some way contradicts the goal of focusing the readers eye on the content.

Keep up the good work.
Cheers,
Edward

Re: 5 reasons you should use joomla instead of wordpress

buffdownunder — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 18:38:07 -0000

What are the comments on the end of this discussion (underneath the add new comment box I am currently typing in). Tons of people just posting a tinyurl that links to their stuff.
Is this an example of security problems with Joomla or are these all registered members that are just abusing this discussion for their own page ranking efforts?

I looked at Wordpress years ago. Wasted lots of time trying to figure out how to do what I needed to do. Then I discovered Joomla and it gave me the freedom to focus on content.

I have never had any security issues with Joomla but I now want to start a blog and a lot of these comments in regards to security are putting me off.

Could anybody please explain what security breaches I have to expect? Are they related to people commenting on the blog? Would it be bad manners to not allow comments?

Cheers,
Edward