http://spectacu.la/forum/ A great WordPress community en Fri, 10 Sep 2010 11:48:36 +0000 http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/how-to-post-support-enquiries#post-141 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 12:02:46 +0000 clopinettes 141@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>If you need to post an issue or question regarding one of our themes or plugins on this forum, you need to do the following:</p> <p>1. Make sure you're in the right forum for that theme or plugin.<br /> 2. Create a new topic for each question - this helps others find problems and solutions.<br /> 3. Make sure you include the version number of the theme or plugin in use, the version of WordPress you're using and, if you can find it, the version of PHP and mySQL you're using. These all help us to reproduce the problem you're experiencing.<br /> 4. Add a link to the website in question, especially if the problem is in the display of the theme. If you're working on a closed development server, take a screenshot, upload it somewhere, and post the link instead - less useful, but still helpful.<br /> 5. Be patient - we don't watch the forums 24/7, sadly, but we do our best to respond promptly.</p> <p>Thank you!</p> <p>David &#38; James. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/sidebar-wont-go-away#post-140 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:39:01 +0000 clopinettes 140@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Hi Steve and thanks for joining us.</p> <p>You should really post this question in the Caribou Topic (http://spectacu.la/forum/forum/caribou-support) if you can re-start the thread there that would be awesome.</p> <p>If you can add information with a link to the site or a link to a screenshot of work in progress I can check what's happening and let you know if there's a workaround. Can you also let us know the version of the theme you're using, the version of WordPress, and what plugins you have active? This will all help us to reproduce the problem you're experiencing.</p> <p>Thanks,</p> <p>Dave. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/sidebar-wont-go-away#post-139 Wed, 13 Jan 2010 04:51:25 +0000 sfogden 139@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Using Caribou Theme. I've removed widgets from 300px sidebar &#38; added widgets to the 160px sidebar. Now I have a 300px with a 160px below it. Can't seem to get rid of the 300px one, even with it's widgets removed. Suggestions? </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/welcome-to-new-members-and-a-little-message#post-94 Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:49:33 +0000 clopinettes 94@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Hi all - well, it looks like since we quietly re-opened our doors to memberships things are picking up. Slowly at first, and I'm sure it'll continue like that for a while, but we didn't expect a massive rush. A big thank you to those who have joined as a way of supporting our projects - it really helps to reassure us that going GPL was the right decision.</p> <p>Older members who paid to download themes will also find that they have had their memberships updated and extended until next year. That's a thank you for your early support.</p> <p>The key thing now is to get the word out there! If you like our themes, give them good star ratings on the WordPress.org repository, but also encourage people to join. We reckon we can build a nice new theme variation for every 100 new users, and that we can create a whole new theme framework for every 500 users. That's a lot of people, but it's certainly possible. If people contribute through code then perhaps this can be brought down somewhat.</p> <p>Either way, we're now looking forward to creating a real and helpful community here. Let's get going!</p> <p>Dave </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/new-licensing-ideas#post-89 Wed, 14 Jan 2009 10:35:15 +0000 clopinettes 89@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Hmmm - you've come up with some great ideas there. Thanks - time to think! </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/new-licensing-ideas#post-82 Sat, 10 Jan 2009 16:38:58 +0000 bbmedia 82@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>I think you have a solid business idea of giving customers/clients access to all your themes, and allow them to choose which theme they want to use on their site after testing things out. I was thinking about a strategy like:</p> <p>1. Make all theme licenses a GPL compatible version.<br /> 2. Resubmit to repository<br /> 3. People pay for "membership / license" in which they get (1) access to advanced features for the themes, (2) forum support, (3) access to all Spectacu.la themes, (4) One license to use on one site which would allow removal of footer links.<br /> 4. These "membership / licenses" could incorporate what you currently already offer... 3 months access / 6 months access / 5 licenses / unlimited developer license... etc.</p> <p>Just some thoughts. But I do wish you guys luck and that you don't give up yet. Caribou and Brew are some great themes. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/new-licensing-ideas#post-81 Fri, 09 Jan 2009 08:54:55 +0000 clopinettes 81@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Hi BB - I've only just caught up with what Brian Gardner's doing, and I have to say... WTF?! He's playing a very strange game, and causing an awful lot of disturbance in the market! On the other hand, you have to admire his ability to draw links, traffic and controversy. I thought this might be a strategy, but what I suspect is that he has no strategy!</p> <p>The key for us, however, is to get the themes back into the repository. Just like plugins are now installed from the back-end, so will themes be at some point in the near future. In the short term that won't have much impact, but in the long term it'll mean that most themes and plugins by new users will be sourced from the WP.org repository.</p> <p>If we have anything in Spectacu.la that isn't GPL or GPL compatible, we can't be in the repository. Without it I feel that we'll slowly suffocate. We've got a steady trickle of new members, but it's not been where we'd have hoped it would be. Given the cost of ongoing development, and our other revenue streams, we have to consider how we'll move forward. WordPress.org and Automattic (I know we're not supposed to conflate them, but we will) are taking what seems to be the current new way of doing business online - the control and conquer route. Look at the Apple Appstore, the Google Marketplace, and more to come. They can pick and choose what goes in, what gets highlighted as a top theme and so on. It gives them an incredible level of control over their markets and the people who supply these markets.</p> <p>Funnily enough, if Microsoft tried to do similar they'd probably fall foul of anti-trust regulations, which is why you'll probably see a more cautious approach from them.</p> <p>One approach may be to do as Brian has now done - which is to implement GPL style licensing across the board, but at the same time not allowing free downloads of the more developed themes such as Caribou. That gets us into Matt's good books, perhaps gets us some publicity, and more or less maintains the business model. After all, had somebody abroad taken our premium themes and offered them up we wouldn't really have the money or capacity to chase them up anyway - so I suspect there's very little loss.</p> <p>So in summary... perhaps this as a strategy:</p> <ol> <li>Change all theme licenses to GPL compatible version</li> <li>Start resubmitting to repository for our free stuff</li> <li>Maintain concept of some free to download themes, along with paid downloads for big stuff</li> <li>Continue to charge a modest sum for non-SLA type support through the forums</li> </ol> <p>How does that sound? Yes, someone could rip our themes and offer them elsewhere, but licensing doesn't stop that. You can get all the WooThemes for free on torrent sites and if the RIAA can't stop these downloads I doubt they can. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/new-licensing-ideas#post-80 Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:53:19 +0000 bbmedia 80@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Is your decision going to be affected even after Brian Gardner and Jason Schuller seem to have decided to leave behind the "theme-free pay for support" concept and go back to charging for the themes?</p> <p>Jason has reopened his press75 site and Brian is bringing back the entire revolution line to be sold like he used to sell them. </p> <p>I think you guys have some great themes and should keep up the work and not change anything. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/new-licensing-ideas#post-79 Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:30:11 +0000 clopinettes 79@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Just want to check this with our members before making it official, but here's the new plan:</p> <p>Withdrawal of current version of Caribou to be replaced with a slightly cut-down version.<br /> All WordPress themes to be licensed under the GPL compatible WTFPL and freely available to download.<br /> One price only access for support and assistance for six months (likely to be around the £30/$50 mark).</p> <p>More sophisticated, non-GPL items available by direct order from Interconnect IT (the Spectacu.la parent company) on an individual and per-case basis. Consider that to be consulting and service related work with SLAs and the like, rather than ad-hoc forum support which comes on Spectacu.la</p> <p>Members who paid up to the Intermediate level of membership will be changed free of charge.<br /> Members who paid for the levels above will be refunded the difference.</p> <p>All this <em>is</em> as a result of the recent blow-up over the WordPress.org repository and how we perceive business risks. We believe that with the deepening integration of WordPress.org's repositories into the WordPress product there's a big risk that third parties who don't play by Matt Mullenweg's rules stand a big chance of being frozen out of the market. We were only just getting started when the great withdrawal occurred, at which point we'd invested quite a lot which we're nowhere near close to recouping. But it left our three year plan in tatters.</p> <p>It means that Spectacu.la can no longer provide themes with any sense of exclusivity about them, but there's nothing to stop you approaching us (or another designer) to do this for you.</p> <p>Investment into Spectacu.la will be reduced, somewhat, but we'll still be filtering some of our great tech developed for clients into it, along with a license that grants even more freedom than the GPL - the WTFPL v2 - I suggest you look it up... it's the simplest and best free license you can find!</p> <p>We'll be implementing these changes in the coming month or two.</p> <p>As a business Interconnect IT's primary focus is to continue with corporates and to investigate the leverage of web technology such as WordPress in that sphere - Spectacu.la will be as much a showcase for our talents as a business in its own right. If it makes a profit, great! But profit is no longer the primary driver behind Spectacu.la - great themes will continue to be, however, even if investment is reduced slightly.</p> <p>Whaddaya think? </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/the-logo-needs-work#post-56 Thu, 11 Dec 2008 23:16:20 +0000 clopinettes 56@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Heh - it's not just me that does that then :o) </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/the-logo-needs-work#post-50 Thu, 11 Dec 2008 05:32:08 +0000 lcmartin 50@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>[deleted] (Sorry, posted to the wrong place) </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/highlights-in-caribou#post-44 Sat, 22 Nov 2008 00:53:28 +0000 clopinettes 44@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>I'm hoping to make some time over the weekend to at least plan out the screencast so we can deliver it in the coming week. It's a powerful theme, and actually once you understand it we've found it's very very easy to use, and fast to configure too. But there is that learning curve.</p> <p>But in the meantime.... :o)</p> <p>If you have a page (not post) with a page template of Section Layout then you perhaps want it on the front page. To that end you must go to Settings | Reading and then you'll see an option called Front Page Displays. You can set this so that the front page of your site, instead of being a standard blog view, points to a page. Given the power of page templates this then means that you can set your section page as being the front page.</p> <p>You can then select a Posts page, but with Caribou that's not strictly necessary. In fact, by default the Caribou view is very much that of a standard blog - and that's a bit boring really ;o)</p> <p>If you can tell me your URL I can see more closely what you're trying to achieve and perhaps help more. Off to bed now so will take a look in the morning. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/highlights-in-caribou#post-43 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:01:39 +0000 ktarbox 43@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Hi clopinettes - thanks for responding.</p> <p>To clear up further...<br /> Since I do have a 'Features' page already set up, do I still need to &lt;i&gt;"Create a new page (call it Home, or similar) and select the page template (further down) of Section Layout."&lt;/i&gt;</p> <p>&lt;i&gt;presumably have used standard WP functionality to make it your home page."&lt;/i&gt; Can you explain further on this? How?</p> <p>I really think a screencast as you mention will be VERY helpful! I learn best by watching how things are done! LOL </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/highlights-in-caribou#post-40 Fri, 21 Nov 2008 09:55:12 +0000 clopinettes 40@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Hi Ktar - I'll be doing a screencast showing how to set up Caribou very soon, which will help I'm sure...</p> <p>Anyway, the way to get a main page with a highlights section is to do the following:</p> <p>Create a new page (call it Home, or similar) and select the page template (further down) of Section Layout. From what you say you've already created a Features section and presumably have used standard WP functionality to make it your home page.</p> <p>You'll then need to go to Manage Categories and for each category select which section it's to appear in.</p> <p>Once that's done, you will have a standard layout, rather like at the <a href="http://demo.spectacu.la/caribou/games/xbox360-games/">Caribou Xbox Games Demo Page</a>.</p> <p>To make use of the highlight slider element, you just need to start selecting articles to appear in there - so if I wanted to highlight Call of Duty, I'd go and edit the page then scroll to the bottom where you can select which section you want to highlight the feature in - the section doesn't have to match the post's category. The highlight section will show three post excerpts (very quick and easy change to the php code if you want a different number) in a slider. You may also wish to select an image that represents the post for use in these areas.</p> <p>I think the sooner I get the screencast done, the better - it's a powerful theme, but there's an initial learning curve. However, once you get into it it's very easy - I converted my personal site to it in far less time than I expected - the only problem is that a lot of my blog is very old, and WP doesn't regenerate thumbnails and medium image resizes for old items unless you export and import to an empty install - and then you lose other stuff :o(</p> <p>I'll move this thread to the Caribou support section once you've responded, so I know you've read it and don't think it's disappeared! </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/server-outage-apologies#post-36 Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:14:05 +0000 clopinettes 36@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Some of you may have noticed that yesterday afternoon we had a server outage. This was due to the discovery of file system corruption on our server which meant an emergency rebuild.</p> <p>Unfortunately it also meant that the system had to be restored. Since the Spectacu.la launch we asked our hosts to move our server to daily backups. Sadly it seems that this didn't happen.</p> <p>If you joined between the 12th and yesterday your membership may have been lost. I've been in touch with everyone who joined. You will need to re-register, but you must cancel before paying. This will create your account details. We will then add subscription details to your accounts.</p> <p>Each member affected by this sign-up problem will receive an upgrade to the next package up. So if you signed up to on an Individual package, you will be moved onto the Intermediate package. If you were on pro-light, you'll be moved to the Professional subscription. There were no Professional members signing up in that period, so thankfully we don't have to worry about what to do with them :o)</p> <p>In terms of forum posts - most members don't seem to say very much anyway (British reserve? We don't market in the US just yet) so nothing appears to have been lost. If it has been, you may need to repost. Our apologies for that.</p> <p>An investigation is being made into the problems suffered with a view to reducing the chances of them happening again. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/its-incredibly-simple#post-20 Mon, 18 Aug 2008 22:58:28 +0000 rkw1956 20@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Just registered, checked out the demos and downloaded the two themes. All very straightforward. Hope to get time to play with the themes tomorrow. Then I should be able to provide more feedback. Well done, guys. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/who-does-this-show-me-as#post-10 Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:25:31 +0000 hyperionjrw 10@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Well that seems to work. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/who-does-this-show-me-as#post-9 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:48:44 +0000 Anonymous 9@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Hmmmm </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/its-incredibly-simple#post-8 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:34:45 +0000 clopinettes 8@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>Isn't it? In testing this is going well - easy to sign up, easy to use. Love the sidebar widget. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/your-first-topic#post-7 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:32:53 +0000 clopinettes 7@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>You are such a child sometimes!</p> <p>Brilliant work done on getting to this stage - I'm impressed. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/the-404-could-be-used-for-fun#post-6 Wed, 06 Aug 2008 17:31:20 +0000 clopinettes 6@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>I like having just the occassional image on this site... they have more impact... so a nice image for the 404 could be cool. Just like there's that celebratory image on sign-up. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/the-404-could-be-used-for-fun#post-5 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:42:33 +0000 hyperionjrw 5@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>The 404 on the WP side of things could be used to direct people to sign up and to get a message across that we feel would be good. Could also use the No Search results found section of index.php for the same kind of thing. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/the-logo-needs-work#post-4 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:20:16 +0000 admin 4@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>When I changed the logo today to try and get rid of the box look I thought it looked okay. Now that I see it on a monitor without the sun glaring off it I see it needs work. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/your-first-topic#post-3 Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:06:40 +0000 hyperionjrw 3@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>This is a another test reply, this time signed in with a temporary aMember product. </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/your-first-topic#post-2 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:37:36 +0000 admin 2@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>This is a reply, just for the hell of it </p> http://spectacu.la/forum/topic/your-first-topic#post-1 Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:27:36 +0000 admin 1@http://spectacu.la/forum/ <p>First Post! w00t. </p>