I think it would be an excelent idea to get some analytics going and create a "sort by # of downloads" option in the litestep theme browser.

That is the stupidest idea I've ever seen. I'm offended.

Really? Worse than some of mine even?

Wont happen. In past versions of LSnet there was a display of the top 5 themes by download. What happened was it became a penis measuring stick and people up'd their counts just to get on the list. This is why you can only see how many downloads your own theme has, unless your an admin. Themes are about what you want as a user, not what everyone else wants. So go find what fits your needs and use it!

Yeah, downloads does not equal usage.

So 100 people may download some flashy looking theme, but only 3 actually use it 2 or more times,

Then only 30 people might download some other theme, and 28 people like it.


The best way to get accurate community feedback would be to have some kinda "phone home" function in the core, that tells a server what theme the user is running.

But that is kinda creepy :|

Phoning home, telling a server which theme people use? You are too late, i wrote scripts to automatically do that months ago ;p
http://www.ls-themes.org/index.php?cat=article&show=updater

THC: Yeah, but how accurate is that?
It needs to be mandatory to be accurate (which is also very creepy)

How about letting people rate the themes and sort by that rating?

As soon as we get someone in here that can program a ratings system then it would become possible. But since nobody is coding for the site currently it is very hard to do.

I'm anti-rating. Comments are just fine.

You can't sort by how good a comment is.

What software drives this site? There are many scripts and CMS addons that could be used to add a rating feature.

Has it ever occured to you that maybe the reason there's no rating system is that (gasp!) we don't want one?

Personally I'm with xcal. Comments are good, ratings are useless. Or let me rephrase that: ratings are useful, but people who rate are in most cases useless. Just look at a place like customize.org. People just look at the screenshots and go "OMGZORZ! THIS THEME IS TEH RULEZ!" and give it a 100/100, even though the theme itself is seven years old and will not run on a modern LS setup. Or, alternatively, "THIS THEME IS GHEY" and give it 0.5/100 because they can't figure out how LS works. Ratings will tell you absolutely nothing about the quality of a theme.

Wow. Your lack of faith in this community is surprising.

I hold my fellow litesteppers in higher regard than that. This community would produce useful ratings.

West wasn't basing his opinion on a 'lack of faith.' He was actually basing it on fact and experience. The site he mentioned is probably the best example. There are countless cases there of 100% fanboi ratings on themes that aren't even close to being 'perfect,' not to mention the 1% ratings given to themes for no reason.

My point was that the two communities are distinctly different and that we should not expect the same results.

But it is clear that I am alone in my opinion, with the possible exception of Blairkatu and his "stupidest idea" ever.

Something will be done in time as soon as we can find a programmer.

I wasn't talking about "fellow litesteppers" (by which I assume you mean people who are serious about this shell), I was talking about the clueless morons who will rate themes based on screenshots or wallpapers or their own inability to understand how LS works. The same lazy and ignorant people who come to this forum posting questions about basic things that have been answered hundreds of times before. Or do you have any plan on how to prevent them from rating the themes? A short quiz before being allowed to rate maybe?

"LiteStep skins windows." [true] [false]


edit: Like this guy for example. Is that someone you'd trust with rating a theme?

C'mon West, what's your problem? It's the same way in the US with our electoral system, and that works O.... hmmm, wait a minute, I see your point.

Off topic: thanks for that link, West. It prompts me to ask this question, at my own peril: Why are the veteran members of this board so rude to new people and new ideas? "Stupidest idea ever" and "Because you are stupid" are not good recruitment methods.

It my view, it is a veteran's responsibility to help bring new members into the fold. Berating them helps nobody. Assisting them politely nets the community a new member who may turn out to be quite valuable.

You never know who you are insulting. Perhaps it is someone with great programming or theming talent or a who needs some help getting over the litestep learning curve. That person, once confronted in such a way, is likely to leave us forever.

Don't you want the community to grow and foster teamwork?

"Stupidest idea ever" was a sarcastic joke. I thought everyone knew that.

Before you lump me in to a "rude" or "unhelpful" type of category, I suggest you go looking for my posts and read them.

If someone doesn't know how to look for an answer on their own or use the working search bar...I doubt they can program anything. However...I could be wrong...but I still can't excuse people for not using the tools we give them.

OOh shite...this damn thing is Bustugated. Hopefully the lemmings can fix it soon.
- LiteStep.net Development Team (tuxpow3r)

haha i've seen this message for about.. two/three years.. i love this website

New ideas? What new ideas? All I see is someone asking a question for the 100th time.



"Stupidest idea ever" was, as xcal confirmed, a joke. As for the second one... why should we want to "recruit" someone who is obviously too dumb or lazy to search a forum?



What kind of hippy forums have you been visiting? Most forums on the web have clear policies on conduct. First and foremost, you don't go asking questions randomly without first trying to find the answer for yourself. If you do, you're likely to get a verbal spanking in almost any forum. I don't see why ls.net should be different in that regard. I think it's very rude coming to a web community and just expecting people to hand you the answers without any effort on your behalf. We're not a live heldpdesk. That said, users who do search for answers and try a few things on their own before posting get perfectly polite and helpful responses. It's just that we don't get much of that particular kind of users.



Oh, I sure do. But I don't see how teamwork is fostered by holding people's hands and repeatedly explaining things that they should be perfectly capable of finding out themselves.