Posts filed under "themes"
So I’m there minding my own business, just checking my feeds and I see a familiar sight. Manji was mentioned on Devlounge as one of the single column themes of choice.
That’s pretty cool actually, seeing as it was designed over 4 years ago and hasn’t really been modified since. What’s interesting to me really is that there does seem a severe lack of super simple themes out there. Super simple is fucking hard to do and make stick - but that’s a topic for another time, which I fully intend on exploring.
Oh and btw, this is officially Broken Kode’s 1500th post.
Minimal Design - And here I thought the new ‘Kode was minimal. This site seriously takes it to the next level in certain ways. Might even use his minimal gallery solution.
Switch Display Options - Added to my collection of options I might use for my eventual illustrations category on the site.
Well it’s been a bit too long coming, but I think I’ve found a theme that I can get to grips with relatively easily. I’m going to be hacking Depo Clean, adding parts of Fauna and some K2 in for good measure. I had a look at Sandbox and I’ve got to say that I was pretty turned off by the function.php file that they’ve added in there. It just makes the markup so much more difficult to understand at first glance which is what made me keep looking for alternatives that just did the job cleanly. In any case Depo Clean probably best resembles what I’m aiming for in the end anyway so it helps that I like the markup as well. The next time I do this I’ll be converting this markup into something that can be used with Habari.
I’m currently in Greece for a full 2 weeks. I’ve been looking forward to this break for well over a month now, hell I’ve been looking forward to this break for at least 3 months. I didn’t go anywhere during the summer period, which was probably the worst thing to do for my psyche to be honest. The summer was a very dark time for me with very little bright spots which was clearly reflected in my mood and how I dealt with those around me. Being a traditionally pretty patient person, I noticed myself getting more irate with things and situations that I would normally brush off, or at least see the funny side. Hasn’t been the case for at least 3 months now.
I guess I can attribute this to the situation in Lebanon which seriously hit me very hard. I can probably attribute it to work which has been very far from enjoyable these last few months, or I can attribute it to unfinished business from several areas that kept me down (my list of unfinished projects is pretty extensive). Needless to say, I need a break and a break I shall have. However I’m never happy until I’ve got things off my plate and I’ve been very good at not putting anything new on my plate but actually finishing those projects that I had opened/started/committed to first, after all I’m a finisher, not just an instigator.
Since it’s good to have a list I think I’ll make this list to remind myself what I have to look forward to in getting these monkeys off my back:
Finish the Splash Panel Redesign.
The site is nearly a year old now, and I’m still using Fauna, which has done the site proud but I’ve got a lot more in store for this site. The break in Greece is going to do wonders to the amount of writing I get done for the site. This time round however I’m going to be sure to stock up on the reviews and release them at a slower but regular pace. Expect a lot of European comics and some more indie revies (as that’s the majority of comics I have in Greece).
Stathi’s and Priya’s Websites.
The other two websites that I have promised and have actually done most of the work on (ie all the artwork is complete) it’s just a matter of coding the damn things. These will be done once I get back from Greece, although I might get the urge and sort them out while I’m in Greece, who knows I’ve got two weeks to fill in.
Broken Kode Season One
Book’s been done, edited by hand and just needs those tweaks to be put into the file and thrown out to lulu. This is probably 1 day’s work or something like that so I think I might be doing something about this in the not too distant future. Just get another thing that I said I’d do off my plate.
Broken Kode Prints
This is an interesting one. For a while now I’ve been asked if people can buy prints with my artwork. It’s been in the back of my mind and I did it once, but to be honest it was a great deal of hassle and not enough benefit. So I might go away from the DIY route and use a service like Zazzle or something similar. If any one’s got any recommendations that can cater for Europe at reasonable prices I’m all ears.
Chameleon Theme
I talked about this ages ago. Obviously life got in my way and I wasn’t really able to go forward with this one. It’s a very simple idea, which I’m going to elaborate on in a massive post in the coming days. Once I’ve done the design I’ll contact the souls that answered my call the last time. Don’t want to be wasting anyones time. Needless to say that the current Broken Kode redesign and believe it or not Crazyegg have both enabled me to have a clearer view as to what works and what doesn’t in the design of a site (once again more on this at a later stage down the road).
Also on a completely different note, I really need to get myself a laptop (any recommendations for small dinky laptops, like the Fujitsu Lifebook or a Vaio would be welcome) as I’m currently using my dad’s windowz install using an ADSL connection that might be a little difficult to sort out on Ubuntu and it’s seriously painful to get anything done (which isn’t helped by the fact that it’s a shitty CRT screen that’s got a tinge of purple going through,…nice), the ‘Kode has never looked this bad.
Just thought I’d give all the crazy cats out there looking for some different Rin and Manji flavours a nice treat. It might seem as though I’ve neglected my little themes, but I have not forsaken them. I’ve had a couple of flavours (different coats of paint) sitting on my harddrive waiting for me to clean them up and release them. I’ll try and sort them out in the coming month and put them out for everyone to play around with them.
The thing is I’ve actually got the ULTIMATE theme in my head. I know EXACTLY what I want to do with it. I’ve got the name and everything, I’ve even got a couple of mockups scribbled in one of my moleskins.
The only problem is that I need a TEAM to create this bastard theme. If I get it done the way it’s in my head I can pretty much guarantee it will become the WordPress default theme. Bold statement maybe, but I’m telling you I’ve got a plan.
So if you’re up for a long burner project, probably 6 months or something (I’m in no rush whatsoever). I need someone that understands WordPress architecture and someone that is a complete whizzkid with Javascript. The could be the same person or completely different people.
I would ask one of my buddies but I really don’t want to overload anyone. We’ve got loads of things to deal with as it is anyway. Just to be clear I intend to stay well clear of the coding as I’ll make a right mess of it. Someone that knows what they’re doing or at least thinks they know what they’re doing would be good. If you’re interested, just drop me a line.
http://www.brokenkode.com/new-rin-and-manji-flavours-coming-soon
It’s been a long time coming, just needed to find a couple of hours to do the necessary dirty and sort it all out.
- I’ve brought the php code inline with standard theme mark up. This actually prevented a couple of people from installing the theme. So for all those people that tried and didn’t succeed, problem has been solved.
- One of the things I love to hear about Rin and Manji is the when the user comments about the ease of modifying the code. I know exactly what it feels like when you’ve never seen CSS as structural markup and you still think tables are the way to go etc. So I’ve tidy-uped the CSS file to have a content in there, and just made it more readable.
- Smooth Scrolling. This is an idea that I’m including in V4 and I found out how to do it from this excellent little tutorial. Easy implementation, but makes things less jarring I find.
- Rin Manual has been updated to version 0.2
Now I’ve included the calander in the archive.php file, using the get_calander template tag, but for some reason it only shows the day which there was a post during that month. When you click on it the link goes nowhere. Anyone know what the deal is there?
I know there’s a slight conflict with a certain spam plugin, but I can’t find the information, so if you know what I’m talking about drop me a line.
It would seem I’ve finished work on Rin and Manji wouldn’t it? It would seem that way, but that would be a lie. I’ve been compiling information and ideas from people on the Broken Kode Boards, on the WordPress Boards, e-mails people have sent and even reviews people have written. There is a lot of little things that I should have the time to finish in the coming week. Here’s a list of them, I’ll come back to this post and strike them through once I’ve completed them.
<ol>
That’s all I can think of for now. If I do come up with any more ideas, or if anyone has any other points they think I’ve missed out on here, then just post it underneath, if it’s doable then I’ll update.
For those who want a 3 Column Rin RIGHT NOW, then I direct you to Hemisphere Dance’s website and download Rin Tin Tin.
Also before I forget Rin has been localised for into both Persian and German (thanks to Ali and Oli respectively). Go to the Rin download page for more information.
Rin got second place in the Alex King Theme Design Competition!
Well it’s not really an award, it’s a competition I know, but still it’s the closest to an award the WordPress community has so indulge me for a moment while I bask in this feeling, and go through this little acceptance speech, honest it’s not going to be long. (Now if I ever get an Eisner that’s a completely different issue altogether, all bets are off then, but I digress).
First off I’d like to thank my partner in crime Joshua, who came through in flying colours. It took us three days to convert Manji2 into Rin, and another day for me to sort out the actual manual etc.
Rootie for being there at the beginning of the Rin & Manji expedition.
To all the users who’ve posted here and on the forums and sent me e-mails of thanks, support and bug reports I thank you, would have been what it is without you guys.
Honestly I’m not just saying this, after seeing some of the other entrants I thought that at best we’d get a mention, but nothing else really. So it honestly came as a complete surprise to see it there up second. Completely solid competition.
As said elsewhere, the real winners however in this competition where all the WordPress users. I can think of 50 designs that look absolutely fantastic, and they’re all under a GPL license. Sweet.
Okay it’s finally here. After nearly 2 months, and 2000 downloads later, Manji2 has now blossomed into Rin. The major differences between this and the Beta version and the final release is really in the stylings. There have been some tweaks in the code, but those are just falling in line with the developments for Manji. Rin has been submitted for the Alex King Design Competition, but I’ve got to say it’s up against some pretty awesome competition. I’ve got a pretty extensive post in me about themes, their development and the current state of affairs on the horizon, but that’s for another time.
So if you want to have a look at what Rin looks like go over here and have a look, I’m sure you’ll be pleasantly surprised. (yeah I know the bloody name is still Manji2preview, I’m working on it, trust me I’ve got some pretty major updates for this place as well in the coming 12 hours or so).
As always my partner in crime Joshua did a great job with the mess I presented him.
Manji2 is NO MORE. I hinted at this before. Manji2 is being renamed Rin. I’ve spent the entire evening sorting out the final release. There has been a lot of stylistic changes to the final theme. I’m currently working on the icons which will accompany it. The first flavour to be released will be Nebular. I’ve got several new flavours up my sleeve, but it’s a bit premature to be talking about that right now. Flipping from Beta to Final release you can see the evolution. The Beta version has been out since the 1st of February, so I think it’s about time I got my ass in gear and released the proper version.
I’ll hopefully release it sometime tomorrow or the day after that, but it’s coming soon, very soon.
First we taken Manhattan, then we take Berlin.
Manji is finally prepped and ready for WordPress Version 1.5.
First of all I’d like to thank everyone who’s taken an interest in Manji. It’s been an absolute joy watching all you wonderful people who have taken the code made it your own and come up with some fantastic designs. I’ve got to setup a gallery to set up to showcase all your wonderful designs, it’s on my to-do list I promise you.
It’s taken me 3 months to finally reach this stage where I can leave the code in peace knowning all the fixes that I wanted to get done have been completed and it’s finally the way I want it. This is in no small part thanks to everyone who downloaded it and commented on the theme. (BTW the theme has been downloaded over 4000 times since it was launched on the 5th of December 2004, so again thanks for all the kind words and support).
- I’ve tweaked the general font from Arial to Verdana. I’m in that mood right now so I’ve decided to go with that.
- The top navigation bar now automatically pics up the pages created. All you have to do now is create them and they’ll pop up in your navigation menu. This is using WordPress’s wp_list_pages tag.
- The template now remembers who visited and commented previously. It’s the same little javascript found in action on BK. I like this little script so I’ve included it in here.
- WP’s nextpage function now works for the individual pages as well. It was just a missing tag really, so can’t really consider that a bug.
Apart from the above the major change for me is that the help manual has gone up to version 0.2. I’ve added 2 more pages and one thing I’m really happy about finally getting done is the structure mockup. For all those of you out there that are having trouble understanding the structure of CSS, this should help you understand everything very clearly. I’ve not actually made it look pretty, that’ll come in future editions. This was one of my original ideas and I’m really glad to be able to offer it to people, with the promise that one for the typography will come as well. I think this is something that theme developers should spend some time on, because I remember what it was like to start off with this CSS stuff and be completely overwhelmed by what was going on. This little jpg should help you all in your question for CSS knowledge.
I don’t think I’ll be editing the code any more. The only reason the code is ever going to change from my POV is if Root wants to revisit the code and sort it out, in the only way he knows how. Otherwise all my attention (with respect to Manji that is) is going to be focused on the manual, Manji2 and other flavours, oh yes ^_^.
So Monsieur Alex King has begun his second annual WordPress Theme design competition. Interesting. Now I remember a few people got really annoyed with the last one of these, and while I really am with Alex on the reason behind the competition I can see where the apprehension can come from.
Will I be entering the competition? Highly unlikely. There is several reasons for this:
- The first being that I’ve got loads of other projects on my plate that take much higher preference.
- The second and in my opinion much more important is the fact that a good template takes a hell of a lot of time and effort. I mean that. It can take months of proper preparation and hours of testing, for all the bugs and kinks to be ironed out. What you think Manji was the way it is the first time it came out? No it wasn’t. That’s why we’re on version 1.1, and gearing up to version 1.11 (hopefully I’ll have some cool news to report on this very soon).
The point I’m trying to make is a template competition can be a good thing, but the judges will have to be able to discard the themes have got some obvious fundamental flaws. Some people might take short cuts, and might not really care about what the CSS looks like or is structured. It took me something like a week to get the structure of the Manji CSS correct and cleaned up in the way it’s presented. I had the luxury of time on my hand. Will the people entering this competition have the same luxury?
Oh don’t get me wrong I don’t claim Manji is perfect for a second, but I think anyone who’s contacted me with regards to a problem I’ve tried to solve it for them straight away, even though I’m not a coder, and generally speaking they’ve not been serious.
Which brings the next point up, what happens to the forums when people start asking questions left right and centre? Are the creators of the themes going to offer support or are they going to be lumped on the poor support forums? When Manji came out I had a forum that killed my site for a day and a half. Sorry that’s not happening again. Until I find a forum system I can trust and update easily I’m not putting another Manji forum up.
So good luck to all those entering the competition, I hope it’s a success, but if you’re thinking about entering be prepared for a lot of work ahead, unless you’re a coding guru ^_^.
This is going to be a pretty large one people as I’ve spent the past 4 days trying to get this to all work nicely together. As you’ll notice Broken Kode has now got a new front page, as I mentioned a little while back. This is about why, how and what I’ve learnt in the process.
All of Broken Kode’s previous derivatives have always been a one column job. Always. The reasoning behind this is pretty simple really, when the site started I only wanted a simple way to update the news section of the site. Using Blogger this was as easy as pie. Needless to say that just quickly spiralled into the wonderful world of CSS and Weblogs as I began to use the feature for a whole lot more.
Now believe it or not Manji is actually the second FULL CSS site design I ever attempt. All previous attempts had css sure but none of them except what I call version 1.0 had css structure in place. The more I got into it the more I realised the full potential of the language.
I downloaded the excellent plugin BAStats which is running on this site right now. The significance of the plugin is two fold. First of all it lets me see what is being read and by how many, but it also tells me what people are searching for, both on google and locally, and that is the main driver behind the two column index page. I get over 1000 local searches a day retaining to shuttle and manji. Erm guys it’s right up there at the top.
Which is why I decided to make them a little more prominent. The second reason was due to the number of completely different people coming to the site, seems Broken Kode is coming up higher in specific searches for the topics I cover. So I take these things a bit seriously and rather than have people come to the site for some seriously unrelated rubbish, I’d like for them to come and get some semblance of information, opinion or whatever. If they want to know what the deal is about this site at a glance I’ve included a tiny description with a bit of my character right there on the index page.
I’ve tried to keep additional items on the side to a minimum, but what you’ll notice is the fact that I don’t have complete posts on the front page anymore. Reason behind that is again very simple, as the focus of this site changes slightly so too should the design. I’m not in the habit of finding great links on the internet before everyone and telling them about it. I write about things. I write long posts, like articles. They might not be the greatest things in the world, but one has to try and try again before they can get better. The way I write now is ultimately much more different to the way I used to write a year ago, and hopefully in a year’s time it will be better than now.
Logo Design. I’m sure I’ll keep tweaking it till I’ve got it exactly the way I want it. It’s a start and been in my head for a while now. Something simple and yet gives this site an identity.
This design also showcases the Iliosnare logo for the first time. Basically this is to get me to actually start doing something with regards to my showcase site. My online portfolio. That will be a reminder for me that I’ve not done that yet. Iliosnare will be 85% Flash with a bit of WordPress and CSS stuck in there for good measure. As much as I love CSS and XHTML, I love Flash and all it’s infinite possibilities. I’m not constrained to much with Flash, and it’s a joy to use.
In trying to solve a few design issues I had to delve deeper and deeper into the world of web design and CSS. There really is an immense amount of information out there, and as it seems there are some key players that set the standard for all of us out there. Some worthwhile resources include the following sites:
Designers Toolbox - Absolutely one of the best resources on the net. I’m going to be downloading EVERYTHING that they offer whether I use it or not, because it’s such a fantastic resources of information. Somethings I’m going to be trying out simply because now I know how.
Oh yeah and I HATE INTERNET FUCKING EXPLORER. Please! Please! Please! stop using that pile of shit browser. It’s really pretty bad. It kills my site (and many others) for no reason other than it feels like it. I’ve spent like 3 days trying to sort out bugs that come up in IE. There are alternatives people, much better alternatives. I’ve even written about them. Go, have a look. Just wanted to thank Joshua who came to my rescue again, as I was slowly going insane trying to sort out these bloody IE bugs. Thanks buddy I owe you big time.
I had a pretty quiet moment of clarity yesterday as I finally understood something that had been bugging up my design for 2 days, and it was then that I understood something Joshua said to me. We were talking about Shuttle, and he asked me how I was going to handle compromise. I replied that there shouldn’t be any problem at all, it’s an honour working with everyone on the team. It only occurred to me how quickly Joshua sussed me out though e-mail and MSN conversations. That I’m a stubborn bastard when it comes to my work. He realised this by the way I was adamant about how I wanted to skin Manji2. The good news is that I’ve seen the light and will be sorting that code out in a big way in the coming weeks. The beta phase is over. I like to do this before I release a theme because I get to see what works and what doesn’t. See people’s reactions etc.
Manji2 will get a bit of a rebranding as well, in terms of colour to distinguish it slightly.
I’ve tweaked the Manji code very slightly, just a couple of minor things, I’ll put them in the change log on the preview site, which had something really stupid happen to it after the move. I’m still investigating to see what the problem was and restore everything back to normal.
The major difference is the addition of the HTML manual. This is just information culled from the FAQ and the download page so that you have it all in one handy file.
What I find the most satisfying aspect of the whole Manji experience is seeing how the code evolves over time, as I tweak a little here or there, add some functionality, fix a bug. It’s been an excellent experience so far.
Okay so here it is. I’ve set up a live preview for you to have a look at the theme and so any modifications, additions, alterations, bugs whatever will be talked about it there.
The structure was changed slightly for Manji2. The sidebar content code was nicked from the WP default. This is just to fill in space until I sort it out the way I’d actually like it to behave, so I might include another foreign scripts (much like the javascript code for the comment buttons). This is to make full use of the extra width and sidebar element of the design. After all there has to be a point to the sidebar right? It’ll be incorporated in such a way that you guys can take it and do whatever you want with it.
If you leave a comment please thank Joshua as he’s 90% responsible for actually getting the code out to everyone. I’d have still been struggling with all sorts of issues, so Joshua you’re the man!!!
This is a 1.0 beta release, however expect only certain files to be changed; as I do want to tweak the aforementioned sidebar elements, and possibly clean up the css ever so slightly. You’ll notice a few hacks in there as well. That’s to make it all work in IE, which is a royal pain in the backside. Cross-browser issues really are a pain in the ass.
As you know very well there’s always more to do, however this release is pretty close. There might be some minor changes in the future, but that’s general tweaks. If we find a way to work around hacks, and a few other issues, there might be some structural changes in the index.php file. From our part we’ll make sure we post clearly what the changes are.
You can go download it now from the usual Manji download page.
A 2 column official Manji flavour is being prepped. Just doing some code restructuring and getting everything as easy to customise as the original Manji theme. It’s the most demanded ‘how-to’ I get (and have gotten in the past) and while it goes against the grain for me, I’d rather have it done properly by Joshua and me.
It’ll probably get released on Sunday evening, as with most Manji releases. It’ll be called Nebular Flavoured Manji2.
It’ll be interesting to see which one is downloaded more to be honest.
Ok I finally got round to it, even though it only took a few minutes to set up, it’s just been on the backburner. So if you’ve got any ideas, or if you’ve got any bugs you’d like to report then go there and give me a shout.
It’s been a while since I posted one of these, and this is definitely not a slant on all you beautiful people that have been slaving away on your superb Manji designs it’s just that this one as I’m sure you’ll agree truely does deserve a mention.
It belongs to Catonya and Rick, however it was designed by Lisa Fahrmeyer from Cafelisa. From her website it’s clear that Lisa has a distinct style to her work, and that’s something that’s a rare thing on the internet. To have a style that people associated you with. Lisa seems to be of an illustration background and that mentality shows. As illustrators you spend years trying to find your voice. I guess the same can be said of graphic and web design in general.
Lisa has fully embraced all my quirky little requests in absolute style. Letters Apart flavored Manji. She’s even gone and given the line that the design was based on the Manji code. Not necessary but I’m truely honoured you’d put the entire line in there.
It breaks out of the box. It’s a great little touch and brings forward the feel of an old letter brought into the modern age in style. It’s really the attention to detail that I truely love about this design. Also from what I’ve seen around the net, she’s the only one along with Paul who’s customised the edit buttons, and in both cases they do a magnificent job of these. I know how hard it is to come up with something nice for those areas, as I struggled enough to get the Manji default up and running.
Takes a bit to get used to as all the writing is italic, however having said that think about the letters of days gone past, everything was done in a caligraphic nature. Italic is the only way of achieving the desired effect. It’s obvious what the font selection is trying to convey here.
Makes it look easy doesn’t she. I mean colour selection can be one of the hardest most painful processes a web design goes through. So much is said by the colours you choose. Great colour combination.
Man when I saw this I just had the biggest smile on my face. Fantastic work Lisa.
One of the most common questions on the boards, is how do you add another column for Manji. Now I’d originally decided not to ever release Manji with two columns, and the reason for that is simple, just about all blogging themes have got at least two columns. Some might argue for good reason. I tend to believe that in order to keep Manji unique, I would keep it single column, and that was the philosphy.
Of course even I’ve resorted to doing a two column layout within Manji, and it’s been there since the day I released version 1.0, on the official Manji download page. Is it hard to implement, no not really. So here it is for all you crazy cats that have decided to go to the wordpress boards with this question after I told you NO ^_^, yeah that’s right I’m looking at you, I’ll spill the BIG secret. Eventually I guess I might release another Manji flavour, but the Nebula Flavoured Manji will always be single column.
In the CSS, add the following lines:
.doublecolumns { } .rightcolumn{ float: right; width: 350px; } .leftcolumn{ float: left; width: 150px; }
Where you’re going to have your posts edit them in the following way (I’ve included SPACES so that the code can actually show up):
< div class=”doublecolumns”> < div class=”leftcolumn”> Where you’ll place all your links and other stuff. < / div> < div class=”rightcolumn”> Where the entries go. < / div > < div class=”clearer”> < / div > < !- - You must have this, otherwise it won’t wrap around itself - - >
Pretty simple I know. In fact if anyone had looked at the Manji download page, their problem would have been solved instantly ^_^.
I promise this is like literally the last time I talk about this. I finally got EVERYTHING clear in my head about this. After the previous post Carthik said,
GPL is a license, and only that. The author or designer of the things you mentioned do have the copyright, and they preserve it. GPL is the license they release their work under, so anyone can use their copy-righted work in the manner specified in the license. The difference is subtle, but important - since they have the copyright, they will always be identified as the rightful creators of their work.
Curious, does it matter who has the copyright. It’s a pretty worthless thing, so I started thinking and talking about it again. I couldn’t get this little thing out of my head. After all I’ve put a copyright in the Manji CSS code, but I only did that because I was following the GPL instructions to a ‘T’ when I released the theme. Turns out that line is (where I put my name and together with the GPL license) the only things you’re not allowed to remove from the code. These lines won’t bloat the actual file size and don’t effect the SOFTWARE in any way.
You see if I said you’re not allowed to take of a link within the template back to this site, the WHOLE software is no longer FREE (in the sense of complete freedom). It’s a line of code you’re not allowed to touch. That goes against the GPL license. The code is meant to be editable in every way.
How do I the creator retain the credit? With the inclusion of my copyright credit line in the comments. Found this directly from the GPL license FAQ.
Yeah ok, but what happens when I modify your code? Aha, very simple, YOU retain your copyright to the CHANGES you’ve made. You just add your copyright credit after my copyright credit and you’re away.
There’s nothing immoral, at least from my point of view, about removing the CODE that retains to my name and a link back to this website. However it is immoral and wrong if you remove my copyright line and the GPL license. And that my friends is GPL for templates. I’ve put a link in there as part of the core code. You have EVERY right to remove it and modify it in any way. If the original creator wanted to retain that one line of code in there, then a creative commons license should have been applied.
Some people might choose NOT to include that copyright line. I suspect that is the case with B2 and wordpress, because Matt hasn’t included Micheal V’s copyright in there, and neither does Matt have a copyright there either, at least I can’t find any.
Hmm, ok after I wrote my previous post I strolled over to this link over at podz’s website. For those in the dark, Podz is an incredibly helpful chap. He’s always online answering questions on the wordpress forums and should be given a medal. He was going to help out with Manji as well which was nice, but he got a bit busy which is completely understandable.
After I read through his post and really started thinking about things, the following dawned upon me, Manji doesn’t belong to me. Wordpress doesn’t belong to Matt Mullenweg, and Persian doesn’t belong to Chris J Davis. Wordpress was a derivative of B2 which was originally on a GPL license morphed into Wordpress, does anyone know who the lead designer on B2 was? No, I know it’s easy to find out, but off the top of your head does anyone know? Unless you were using B2 probably not.
GPL basically means NOBODY has copyright of that particular bit of code. It’s there out in the open for everyone to play around with and create something better and bigger.
So when Michael asked people to credit him in the Kubrick code (download kubrick and read the readme file), he effectively had no right to do that, simply because HE made the decision to release Kubrick under a GPL license. People could do that if they were so inclined and wanted to thank him for it. But they have NO OBLIGATION. They can then take that code alter it and release it under a completely different name, without even thinking about including his name or whatever. Not even in the CSS. The only stipulation I see that you can’t do is alter the license. Nothing you do after that make it copyright of you. You don’t own the copyright of the code, and neither does the originator. In fact making people feel like they have to credit you kind of goes against Open Source code. You don’t see php.net in the bottom there, or apache.org anywhere on the site (except now of course). And yet this site wouldn’t be here for you to see without these open source codes.
This seems to be standard practice for most code we all use. Who’s the lead designer for Apache? What about MySQL? PHP? Some projects have a lead developer, since it does take a lot of time and knowledge and resources to keep something like Wordpress going. Matt’s doing a great job, but he could decide to stop tomorrow, he has after all turned 21, (Happy Birthday dude), does that mean the end of Wordpress? Well maybe, but the code might live on with someone else who would probably rename it and not include Matt’s name in there. Then again he might, but that would be a courtesy thing.
Which basically means that if you put the code in the bottom with a link back to where it was downloaded from, well that’s just a courtesy thing really. Nothing in the code stipulates that you have to link back to this site. So what I’m saying about Manji is that, by me releasing it under a GPL license, you’re effectively free to do whatever you want with it. You want to keep a link to my site in there, go right ahead, I thank you kindly and appreciate all your love. If you don’t want, take it out. What you can’t do is then say that the design is YOUR copyright, because no matter what you do with it, it will NEVER be your copyright. It’s out there in cyberspace to live or die. I will continue to work on Manji, tweaking and fixing bugs, because it means a lot to me. Wordpress is a community and in the same way that I have taken so much from it this was one way of giving something back.
So if you want disregard the below post, I could ask you to put the link, but NOTHING in the license I release with Manji says you have to. I include the link as a default, but as with everything else in that file, you’re free to do with as you please.
Free as in FREEDOM.
It’s amazing what a day does, after you’ve thought about things a little.
In my trolls around the internet I’ve seen several conflicting footers with regards to credits to Manji. I guess this is my fault since to be honest I don’t have a readme file that states any of this. I’m going to hopefully finish this off in the next couple of days along with the user manual for all you newbies who would like to understand the structure and how you can go about actually skinning Manji.
I will say that the majority of the sites I’ve been to that have used Manji have left the credits in tack and in some cases gone a bit further and given me copyright of their blog as well ^_^. Needless to say YourSite is NOT copyright of Khaled Abou Alfa. Your site is your copyright. I’ve got to say that I’m really proud of you guys for being so honest and cool about keeping the Manji credit in tact.
Which leads me to my next point. Could all those using the preview version of Manji (around 1000 downloads) make the link back to manji the following:
Many people are getting this page when they link to this site, kind of defeats the object doesn’t it? http://www.brokenkode.com/index.php?p=470
In the meantime I’ll say this about the footer credits. I guess all I ask is that you keep one line in there:
Manji designed by Khaled Abou Alfa & Root.
That’s all I ask (of course and keeping the proper creditation in the css and the GPL license). Which funnly enough brings me to my final point about this I promise. There has been some talk about people releasing their Manji flavours to the world at large. In fact Scott has already released his Flavour for Wordpress Version 1.2. Personally I’m all for this effort. It’s what GPL is all about. Community and people adding to something someone started or whatever. It’s more fun that way.
So what happens then? Well then the footer does change and personnally I’d really like it to be something along the lines of the following:
YourName Flavoured Manji: Designed by Your Name. Based wholely upon the Manji template(or code, whatever suits you more) developed by khaled abou alfa & root.
In the CSS your name gets added to the list of people before you. So my name and Root’s and then yours and then the next person after you. To be honest none of this will ever get policed. It’s just a courtesy thing really nothing more nothing less.
I turn around for like one minute and bam, everyone’s been busy with all sorts of things left right and centre. I feel like I didn’t achieve much this christmas while everyone else was hard at work on various projects here and there.
Don’t believe me, let’s start with Matt, man’s just released bbPress. This is a forum system that runs the Wordpress Support forums. Hmm interesting, only because it seems like it can be integrated into wordpress directly. I do like phpbb, and I love how much progress they guys and gals have made since the last time I used this package. So although I’d like to support your Matty, I’m going to have to wait and play around before the verdict can truely be out on that one.
Erm, we’re now running Wordpress 1.5 Beta? Damn man, I was running 1.3 Alpha not that long ago, how did this all happen? Oh and Kubrick is now the default, comes straight out the box. Is this a good thing? I’d like to think so, as it’s a tad(understatement) bit better in terms of design to original design. I think it’s a good move for the Wordpress community at large. So congrats to Micheal.
Scott’s been busy as well. I think I’m going to go for his gallery solution as well for the Manji Gallery. Glad to see he’s reverted back to his red masthead as well. I’ve been thinking about the wp 1.2 version Manji (since his site is running manji with wp 1.2.2) , and can’t help but feel it would be a waste of time, since we’re so close to WP 1.5 or whatever we’ll end up with. We’re in Beta peeps, it’s close I can feel it. To be honest I’d rather sort out bugs and tweaks for Manji 1.3 than go back; Lava Flavoured Manji and Like Manji: Loaded.
Manji: Loaded what’s that? Heh, wait for it baby, wait for it.
Which reminds me, for all those experiencing a bit of Peek-a-boo rubbish in IE (that is the comment information sometimes shows up and sometimes disappears, again only appears for IE), please modify your Manji code with the following:
add the following line in
p.instructions { margin: 14px 0 0 200px; color: #7b7b7b; font-size: 0.9em; text-align: justify; border-left-width: 1px; border-left-style: solid; border-left-color: #d5d7db; padding-left: 15px; position: relative; }
And a semi-colon after
padding-left: 15px;somehow it got missed out in the last iteration.
Version 1.02 has already been uploaded.
Oh yeah just wanted to thank all the kind kids on the Manji boards that are helping each other, thanks for caring enough to point things out to me as well, much appreciated.
My buddy Franchesco has released the very first iteration of his B/rad program. When I get a change I’m going to help him tart up his website to make it slightly more fun to look at. Open Source doesn’t have to be ugly.
Well here’s the first Manji port I know of. I believe a textpattern version is in the works as well. However Chris over at ichris.ws has already ported Manji over for Drupal 4.5 . I’d like to take the opportunity to thank the man for all his work on it.
The page with all the information is located here www.ichris.ws/drupal/themes/manji