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Fishy

Fishy - Template Screenshot

Ryan Arrowsmith’s template is inpired by a community fishbowl at his job.

Our fish, Howard and Gretta, always seem so happy even as dozens of strangers watch their every move.

20 Comments

  1. stdmedia

    Jan 28, 04:25 PM

    Nice, very clean.

  2. Ryan

    Jan 28, 11:44 PM

    Thanks! If only the fish bowl were… ;)

  3. Steve Pilgrim

    Jan 29, 12:05 PM

    Excellent.

  4. Dana

    Jan 30, 06:50 AM

    Terrible, just terrible.I can’t think of anything even r emotely nice to say about this vacant and blah template.It lacks originality and looks as if it were thrown together in a matter of minutes.

  5. Ryan

    Jan 30, 07:20 AM

    You know what they say, Dana. If you can’t think of anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all. :)

    After reading all of your comments, I am anxiously awaiting your original set.

  6. Thame

    Jan 30, 11:28 AM

    Dana: There is nothing wrong with saying your opinion of a template (even if it is overly critical).

    However, I don’t think it’s nice to dismiss the effort that all of the competitors have put into their submissions.

    If you can, please come back and describe how the templates could be improved so that our competitors could try to fix them.

    Thanks

  7. Brian

    Jan 31, 02:55 AM

    Dana: a bit vague.

    I do somewhat agree that its not THE best template. But its well put together as a whole. The thing that would prevent me from using it, is that its graphically top heavy. By practice, the point of most webpages is to display content. And if I visted a website with a layout such as this, its likely that I’d have to scroll to view the actual content. Something that many users are too impatient to be bothered with. Its the same reason I hate splash pages, unless its a splash page acting as a portal, its something I recommend avoiding.

    Luckily in this case, the images are appealing and interesting enough to grab my attention long enough to explore a bit further. Lesson of the day: avoid this type of template unless you have images that are attention grabbers or that are directly related to the website’s content.

    Just my two cents.

  8. Alex McKee

    Feb 1, 08:08 AM

    Dana: I assume you will be making an entry?

    Ryan, Nice job, different.

  9. John Rynne

    Feb 2, 01:59 AM

    I like the clean look. The submenu trick is neat.

    My only criticism is that it is not easy to swap in one’s own photos.

  10. Ryan

    Feb 2, 05:51 AM

    John:

    E-mail me and I can send you the PSD file. It’s all done in layers so you can stick your own image in pretty easily.

  11. Thame

    Feb 2, 09:03 AM

    Ryan, if bandwidth is an issue for you, feel free to email me the PSD and I’ll include it as an “extra” to your template for those who would like to download it.

    With Dreamhost, I have more bandwidth than I know what to do with :D

  12. Ryan

    Feb 2, 12:56 PM

    Hey, I’m a Dreamhoster, too.

    I’ve posted the PSD on the demo page for those interested. Now you can simply add your own images behind the graphics, crop and you’re good to go.

  13. Indranil

    Feb 7, 06:36 PM

    Ryan, looks really good! If I were you, I’d extend the whitespace beneath the bowls a li’l bit, making it look like a polaroid shot. Just my opinion.

    Dreamhost rocks, BTW.

    Hopefully, I’ll be able to submit something towards the end.

  14. Veronika

    Feb 8, 07:15 AM

    Perfect. Thank you Ryan. ;o)

  15. Dana

    Feb 11, 12:43 PM

    I cannot believe how sensetive some of you are … gosh.

    Let me start with what is wrong with this design and 99% of the others that have been submitted.

    First, I think it’s ugly and looks like something that was thrown together is a matter of seconds.There is nothing original or appealing about this or any of the designs.

    Next, the design is not easily customized to fit a variety of blogs.What about all those ppl out there who don’t have Photoshop skills… what are they to do?

    The first thing all these themes should have been is useable for a variety of blogs.Instead most them them are aimed one way or another at some genre, and some are just plain screwy.

    I’m sure you are all aware of the Typo theme contest and what awsome themes were submitted there.The majority of them could have been used anywhere and many actually had no overdone graphics to them at all.

    This theme contest has not brought out the best of the Textpattern community, but rather a few amateurs here and there hoping to win a nice little prize.

    This contest will go down as a flop.Sorry.I had hoped better from Textpattern.Lack of quality themes is why myself and many other had to leave Textpattern.

  16. Tony

    Feb 15, 12:06 AM

    Dana: you’rea bi*#h.

  17. Angelo Ashmore

    Feb 15, 04:53 PM

    Im with Dana.

  18. Ryan

    Feb 16, 07:48 AM

    Dana (if that’s your real name):

    You’re assuming every template was made with the purpose of being unitarian. And you know what they say about assuming. ;) I’m familair with the Typo theme contest. Last time I checked, there were some niche templates in that contest as well.

    Anything I’ve submitted is a work I enjoyed making. If people want to use it, God bless them. If they don’t, there are many other sources for templates. There are also many excellent tutorials on how to create your own templates and themes. Textpattern is the easiest CMS to customize, most people could do it if they tried.

    I don’t think anyone here is being sensitive. I think you, however, have made a point to be rude. You can say whatever your like…but tact always helps (if you don’t know what it is, look it up: http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=define%3Atact).

    Whether or not you like the designs submitted to this contest, they are someone’s work. Since you’re obviously not creating your own template for the competition, I can only assume your comments about them being “thrown together” come from ignorance. You can like and dislike whatever you choose..but respect the people who are actually doing something and not standing by the wall making petty comments.

    So, yeah. Sorry to hear you’ve left the TXP community.

  19. Larry

    Feb 16, 09:55 AM

    Dana’s comments seem pretty stupid to me. I don’t think she even cares about the competition, she just seems to enjoy being rude.

    It seems odd that someone is raving about creativity and originality—then says she chose a different blog software because other people wouldn’t make her a template.

    I think the negative comments are keeping people away. Who wants to try when there are nasty individuals tearing you down? If I was Thame, I would block Dana’s IP for the good of the competition. Only let those who are enthused give feedback.

  20. Thame

    Feb 16, 12:26 PM

    “This contest will go down as a flop.”

    I really don’t think so. There is still quite a bit of time left in the competition and I’m sure everyone’s going to be tweaking them until the last minute. Even if submissions were to end today, I would still judge the contest as a success because it did something that has not yet been done with TXP, original templates.

    Larry:

    “I think the negative comments are keeping people away. Who wants to try when there are nasty individuals tearing you down? If I was Thame, I would block Dana’s IP for the good of the competition. Only let those who are enthused give feedback.”

    While that may be true, I am not in the habit of deleting comments or banning people. Everyone can state their opinion and, frankly, Dana is better than most “rough” commenters because she has returned to answer and expand upon her statements.

    I really hope that possible contributors know that there will always be a few people who will leave less than encouraging comments and will not be deterred.

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