29 ms·

Show HN: Themes for Bootstrap

354 points by coderdude 15y ago

anderspetersson 15y ago
So, this is great and all, but: How are you going to prevent people from stealing the themes instead of buying them? One can grab the full HTML and CSS from the preview views.
- dawilster 15y ago
  If your market is professionals I'm sure they'll typically be mature enough and make an honest purchase, I mean look at themeforest they make no effort to hide their themes source codes but thats probably because people that are willing to steal are never going to purchase the theme anyway, so its a negligible trying to prevent it. Great idea btw.
  - coderdude 15y ago
    Thanks, but actually I got the idea from jamesjyu's comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3438802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3438802 It sounded like a good idea so I decided to execute on it. :)
    - danberger 15y ago
      +1 for honesty
- coderdude 15y ago
  I don't prevent people from stealing the themes. It's a necessary risk. Without a live preview you'd never want to buy a theme and live previews are basically standard at this point (see themeforest.net). If someone saves a theme from the live preview and if it's discovered then the course of action would be a legal one.
  - moconnor 15y ago
    You could use obfuscated minified source for the previews and sell the original readable CSS and HTML. Everybody needs to customize their theme.
    - coderdude 15y ago
      That would be a fantastic way to go about it actually. Thanks for putting it in my head!
      - almost 15y ago
        If it becomes a problem for you and you think there are people who would steal them without that but pay you with then go for it. But it will make it harder to evaluate themes for people who do actually want to buy them. This is an awesome idea by the way. I love the choice on Theme Forest but I the flexibility of Bootstrap is brilliant too. I'm also using Bootstrap whenever I prototype anything and being able to just buy and use a theme later on would be incredibly useful (obviously it's not quite that simple, but it could be close). I will almost certainly be buying lots of themes from you assuming you get designs (which I'm sure you will!). I'm surprised ThemeForest don't have a Bootstrap section yet actually...
        coderdude 15y ago
        True, any obfuscation would make it impossible to judge the quality of the source. Good point. I'm surprised that ThemeForest hasn't jumped on this yet either.
        moe 15y ago
        You could perhaps partially obfuscate the code. But it'd probably be tricky to ensure that at least some interesting parts remain untouched. Perhaps let the template author markup those areas?
        15y ago
- tomblomfield 15y ago
  People who don't care enough about being caught committing copyright theft will never pay anyone, whereas those who care will usually pay. cf https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523024
  - StavrosK 15y ago
    I don't care about copyright theft but I pay because I $8 is peanuts for a good theme.
beck5 15y ago
This is great. I would love a nicer home page for http://www.sharelatex.com http://www.sharelatex.com. I looked at ones on theme forest but didn't want one framework for my homepage and one for everything else. Will defiantly look at what comes up there. On stealing the css: your market are people who know the effort it takes to build something and are probably likely to pay $15-$50 for a big time saver.
- coderdude 15y ago
  I hope to get some more sellers on board soon so there's more to offer. I'm glad most everyone seems to feel the same way about stealing the live previews. There is honor out there.
  - beck5 15y ago
    I've not looked properly but future suport is quite important. I have been upgrading to bootstrap 2.0 and there are a lot of breaking changes, having future versions available would be something I would want to see, even if it requires and upgrade fee.
    - coderdude 15y ago
      Upgrading from 1.4.0 to 2.0.0 was kind of a pain. I definitely am on the same page as you. Sellers attach a version number (of their own invention) to the items they upload. When a seller comes up with an update to their item they would upload it and update the version. At which point anyway who has purchased it in the past would be able to upgrade for free. (I don't like the idea of buying a theme and then paying to get the latest changes.)
redslazer 15y ago
Just wanted to give you a head up. On the /sell page it says earn 55% - 75% on each sale but then in the paragraph it says you earn 35% if you sell it non-exclusively. Edit: Sorry to be annoying but the sign-in link has a padlock icon next to it which usually indicates a secure connection/SSL neither of which you are using. Great concept btw.
- coderdude 15y ago
  Thanks for bringing that up, I'll get that wording fixed right away. Regarding the padlock icon: That was an item on my todo list that I moved to "not critical for launch." And then someone mentioned it. :)
revorad 15y ago
This is such an awesome idea. It will be interesting to see how many themes you get. I would never have thought of making a marketplace like this because it seems too niche. But I won't be surprised if you prove me wrong! Shameless plug: I'm trying to get a new community project going, so please consider sharing this on there - http://swym.me/ http://swym.me/
- alexobenauer 15y ago
  What's the goal / point of swym?
  - redslazer 15y ago
    I seem to have the same problem, i browsed through the site and wasn't really sure what exactly it does or is used for.
    - deleted 15y ago
      [deleted]
  - revorad 15y ago
    It's mostly sharing and discovering cool projects, tools and people. I explained some more here - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3579260 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3579260 Basically, you know how people often ask on HN how did you make that? What stack did you use? It's the same thing, but the tags give you a fun way to find out about other projects built on the same technology. Plus, you might find other creative people you may not have found otherwise.
    - jurre 15y ago
      I love the idea. I think adding a description field to the project and tools pages would make it a lot more interesting.
      - revorad 15y ago
almost 15y ago
It would be good to be clearer about licenses. It just says "Single Site" right now but it would be good to have a page that clarifies exactly what you mean just in case my idea of what that means differs from yours. Will exclusive and multi-site license options follow? Also, on your /sell page there's a heading that says sellers earn between 55 and 75% but in the text of that block it says the non-exclusive share is 35%. Anyway, as I said below this is awesome and I wish you the best of luck.
- coderdude 15y ago
  I've moved this up in the queue. Right now the seller can choose whether an item is sold with a single or multi-application license, but in the near future I would like to change that to an option that can be chosen at buy-time. As for the earnings text on the sell page, I'm working on cleaning up the wording there so that it better conveys what I mean. And thank you! Edit: Updated the earnings text
robinwarren 15y ago
great idea, and excellent timing as well tbh. The TW Bootstrap look is getting very common out there. My site is built on it and I can see the vanilla TW Bootstrap look ageing very fast.
- coderdude 15y ago
  Yes, a lot of people have started to complain that they can see Bootstrap everywhere. Here's to fixing that!
  - Xion 15y ago
    Seeing Bootstrap everywhere is actually a good thing. It makes me hope that the Web is finally maturing to the point of having a common, uniform UI patterns for its applications. If Bootstrap helps to alleviate the design & UX bonanza that many of the present day web apps still is, it will be just another stone in its awesomeness bucket.
ewalk153 15y ago
The preview page for themes still has the Paypal link to sandbox http://wrapbootstrap.com/preview/WB00TO920 http://wrapbootstrap.com/preview/WB00TO920
- coderdude 15y ago
  Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out -- I just fixed it.
kingsidharth 15y ago
Biggest problem with Bootstrap was non-distinct visual design. All sites created with bootstrap had same loon and feel which is bad for visual distinction and mind-space. Themes will be useful in solving that problem. Way to go.
nhebb 15y ago
I like the idea, and I hope it does well. But what I would pay money for is a series of lessons on how to customize bootstrap. The whole reason I'm using bootstrap for my site redesign is because: - I can't find off the shelf themes that meet my needs. - I want to learn how to do it myself. - I want a solid foundation to start with. A codecademy for CSS "cooking" with bootstrap would be great. A quick mover with good design skills could probably make a decent amount of money in a short period if they sold tutorials with focused content. [I'm just throwing this out there in case someone wants to bite.]
- loceng 15y ago
  Maybe shoot Codecademy a message mentioning this to them. :)
- shareme 15y ago
  I make you deal if you can ship some pizzas to an US address say via fedex I may able to teach you.. see my gh-pages sites: http://shareme.github.com http://shareme.github.com
  - nhebb 15y ago
    Thanks for the offer. :) FYI - Your carousel isn't centered, the follow shareme button is clipped, and the Android, Hello article has an extra </div> in the <section id="getsdk">, causing the remainder of the page to be left aligned. I like sausage, mushroom, and olive on my pizza. Did you want my address? <jk ;)>
    - zak_mc_kracken 15y ago
      Indeed, looks like shareme has more to learn from you about web design than you from him :-)
      - nhebb 15y ago
        Nah. The world is full of people who can point out problems. Knowing how to fix them is where the value is. I claim no expertise in that regard.
aarondf 15y ago
Very well executed, IMO. Some other people have mentioned that themeforest doesn't obfuscate and they're doing just fine, which is true, but they also have additional assets that are needed in addition to CSS. Namely, PSDs. One way you could increase incentive to buy instead of steal is only show CSS on the preview, but download the LESS file on purchase (if the author used LESS). I'd certainly be more interested in a LESS file. In the end, I wouldn't worry about it too much, like someone said, people who are gonna pay are gonna pay. OT: Are you using some sort of "food ipsum" generator for the StackLayer theme? I love it.
- coderdude 15y ago
  Thank you! Yes, the additional assets are the big gotchas (especially with themes that have text embedded in images) and I like the idea about including the LESS source. I'll get on adding that to the StackLayer theme! By the way: Veggie Ipsum. It's awesome. http://veggieipsum.com/ http://veggieipsum.com/
loceng 15y ago
I was hoping there'd be a free version of this - though with a paid version you'll certainly get higher-quality options ---- but I can see free versions being useful enough, where there's not too much customization. Perhaps have a free section? It would be a good way to get free traffic which you can use to upsell to paid versions.
- coderdude 15y ago
  That's an interesting idea, and one that I think would work too. A few years ago I bought an admin template called Adminizio (http://www.adminizio.com/ http://www.adminizio.com/). At first I downloaded the free version and got a feel for it. I like it enough to buy the full version $50 and I've never regretted it. Good thinking.
nirvana 15y ago
I wonder if it isn't a good time in the webs evolution to come up with or popularize a theme standard, and if bootstrap isn't a good step in that direction. This might help accelerate adoption and popularity of themes, especially open sourced themes, saving everyone a lot of time. This is the kind of thing I don't feel proprietary about at all, and would rather share my designs with others to improve and extend than re-create the wheel. I'm working on a web application platform (coffeescript running concurrently across a cluster of nodes, basically). I'm still working on the backend, but once it is released publicly, I want to start building out a built-in frontend. To that goal, I'm planning to ship a web framework built in, and Bootstrap is the leading candidate right now. I know popularly you buy themes which are collections of HTML and CSS and that they make it easy to have a nice layout without having to swipe a 37signals page-- you just change the content to suit what you want. I see bootstrap coming from one end- a cohesive framework to make developing pages easier-- and themes being going a step further-- specific designs for everything but the content. And I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to have a sort of theme architecture for bootstrap. What I'm imagining is that themes could be specified, and developed in such a way that they could be traded as tar balls and quickly and easily used by projects. Much the way wordpress themes are standardized and plug into wordpress, these themes could be standardized and plug into bootstrap. Hell, the bootstrap page has an almost theme creator that lets you customize bootstrap. (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/download.html http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/download.html) I'd love to have the ability to point my web platform at a github page, and have it suck in the latest version of an open source theme for people. I'd love it if themes became a popular open source item. You may think this is a bad idea, but I see it as taking the framework idea and building another level on top of it. Sure, some people will just use stock themes, others will make custom themes. ... and a lot of people will learn web design by taking apart themes and understanding them. Does a standard format for bootstrap themes make sense? (Please don't flame me if I've missed something here- this is an idea, and I admit to not being a bootstrap expert.)
- BadiPod 15y ago
  Personally I like that Bootstrap is NOT Themed. It's minimalistic and still very flexible. I believe it should always stay as a BASELINE. I want to build amazing designs on top of it, and save time by not having to copy code again and again for round corners, shadows, forms, tables, etc.
TomGullen 15y ago
Is this for landing pages only? I generally think landing pages are a waste of time in general, however this site seems to address my main criticism of them which is that start ups invest far too much time in making them. Good luck with it, looks like a nice well made site!
- coderdude 15y ago
  Nope, the site is for all kinds of themes (Wordpress, ecommerce, blogs, etc.) and templates (e.g., button packs). A landing page is just a theme I chose to start out with. Thanks!
mgkimsal 15y ago
Can we get some sort of live preview option to see the same site with different bootstrap themes, similar to csszengarden? Would be very helpful to see how one similar site will look with different bootstrap themes. Thanks!
- coderdude 15y ago
  That's not a bad idea. Wouldn't work for everything though. For example, when the theme uses custom classes or components that aren't part of Bootstrap. But in general it would be a very handy way to gauge the differences between styles.
  - mgkimsal 15y ago
    It may compel theme writers to adhere to a standard and stretch what they do to make it more apparent in your marketplace that their themes will require as little work as possible to integrate. Thanks.
    - noahc 15y ago
      This would be awesome. I bought a theme off of themeforest the other day and they essentially wrote a mini-cms in js that would have been way to much work to tear apart and turn it into a static site. This morning, I'm working on adding a grid framework to another theme I bought off of themeforest. That's the one thing I hate about themeforest is you can't see the "bones" of the theme before you buy. I've bought 4 or 5 themes off of theme forest with about 3/4 of them being of decent quality. With decent quality being the ease at which I can modify them for my own needs.
rzbn 15y ago
This is very useful. I have a design that I wouldn't mind uploading.
andrewcanis 15y ago
Great idea! I would love a valentines day bootstrap theme.
deleted 15y ago
[deleted]
jbigelow76 15y ago
It's a good idea, considering the popularity of themeforest I'm not surprised to see this. But, if you want to charge 20 bucks you'll need to offer multiple pages of samples, the landing page sample doesn't really tell me what a form might look like with those theme elements, or blog post, image gallery, etc... Good luck with it though.
- coderdude 15y ago
  That's a good point. A style guide/reference would be very useful to include in the live preview. I'll definitely be adding more to the StackLayer theme and all customers receive updates for free. Thanks!
aniketpant 15y ago
Really don't get the point. Bootstrap is open source. Most of these themes would be paid. (not good for me) Don't have much in support of my point, but I would not use this service unless some really _amazing_ designs are put up.
- coderdude 15y ago
  Then I'll just have to make sure I get some really amazing designs up there. :)
- mgkimsal 15y ago
  So it's open source. So use it. Just because the source is available doesn't magically make people able to make really nice looking site designs with it. However, it does allow some people who are already good with design to make reusable and largely understandable designs available for your project. And you can pay for those layouts. People who want nice designs on top of a bootstrap base win. The designers win. End of story. Interestingly, you say it's "not good for you", but then you say you'd use the service if some "amazing" designs were available. I presume "amazing" designs would be good for you, hence you'll use it. Not even sure what the point of your comment was, except to say "I don't pay for stuff" (with a hint of "everything should be open source" seeming to lurk underneath).
- mknx 15y ago
  Open Source != Free. You can have open source code but need to pay for license to use it.
vineet 15y ago
Great idea. But starting with just 1 theme will make it hard to convince potential customers and potential theme creators to use the site. Perhaps send an e-mail to a couple of handpicked theme creators from one of the other sites to come over - maybe even convert some of the themes for free.
- coderdude 15y ago
  Yeah, it is difficult to start any marketplace. A chicken or the egg problem. I was hoping that by releasing early I could get some sellers on board. It's considerably harder to get a designer to create a work to sell on a marketplace that isn't even launched yet or validated by buyers. However, I've made a couple sales (literally, 2) and hopefully I will get more, enough to attract the sellers. I have emailed a few handpicked designers already so I will see what the response is. :)
  - vineet 15y ago
    Offering to convert themes for free to the first few designers (and just give them money per sale) might help you get out of the chicken/egg problem. Best of luck with it.
    - coderdude 15y ago
      Thanks for the idea, I'll certainly take it into consideration. I could see that being the 'tipping point' for many sellers since they wouldn't have to do the work.
kolinko 15y ago
Excellent idea. Too bad that it's just one theme for now, but I'll take a look at it tomorrow, and might just buy it :) Good luck!
- coderdude 15y ago
  I released early with just one theme, but I'm adding more soon and we'll see if some of the people who signed up for selling today upload some items as well. I'd like to get some competition going! Thanks and stay tuned :)
highace 15y ago
This is a great idea and I'm sure you'll do well. The one template that's available and your site itself look very well designed. However - wasn't the whole point of bootstrap to make it easier for developers to create their own stuff, thus avoiding the need to buy a template? If you want a templated site, just buy one from ThemeForest, because that's exactly what you're getting here except it's built around 'standardized' markup instead of the designer's own.
- coderdude 15y ago
  Thank you. >>that's exactly what you're getting here except it's built around 'standardized' markup instead of the designer's own That's kind of the point. :)
suresk 15y ago
Love your idea and really hope you're able to be successful with it. As a developer with absolutely no design ability, bootstrap + some nice-looking themes could really improve the way I build websites - and I certainly wouldn't hesitate to shell out cash for them. Good luck!
santa_boy 15y ago
This is eerie! I was planning to make complete websites with themes using Bootstrap just yesterday! :-) .. Here is what I launched about an hr back on my own site! http://bit.ly/zn9Wxc http://bit.ly/zn9Wxc
pamelafox 15y ago
I just wrote a blog post on "theming" bootstrap by overriding CSS (as opposed to using Less, since I use SaSS). Might be useful for people interested in customizing their Bootstrap: http://blog.pamelafox.org/2012/02/theming-twitter-bootstrap-without-less.html http://blog.pamelafox.org/2012/02/theming-twitter-bootstrap-...

354 points by coderdude 15y ago

So, this is great and all, but: How are you going to prevent people from stealing the themes instead of buying them? One can grab the full HTML and CSS from the preview views.

dawilster 15y ago
If your market is professionals I'm sure they'll typically be mature enough and make an honest purchase, I mean look at themeforest they make no effort to hide their themes source codes but thats probably because people that are willing to steal are never going to purchase the theme anyway, so its a negligible trying to prevent it. Great idea btw.
- coderdude 15y ago
  Thanks, but actually I got the idea from jamesjyu's comment here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3438802 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3438802 It sounded like a good idea so I decided to execute on it. :)
  - danberger 15y ago
    +1 for honesty
coderdude 15y ago
I don't prevent people from stealing the themes. It's a necessary risk. Without a live preview you'd never want to buy a theme and live previews are basically standard at this point (see themeforest.net). If someone saves a theme from the live preview and if it's discovered then the course of action would be a legal one.
- moconnor 15y ago
  You could use obfuscated minified source for the previews and sell the original readable CSS and HTML. Everybody needs to customize their theme.
  - coderdude 15y ago
    That would be a fantastic way to go about it actually. Thanks for putting it in my head!
    - almost 15y ago
      If it becomes a problem for you and you think there are people who would steal them without that but pay you with then go for it. But it will make it harder to evaluate themes for people who do actually want to buy them. This is an awesome idea by the way. I love the choice on Theme Forest but I the flexibility of Bootstrap is brilliant too. I'm also using Bootstrap whenever I prototype anything and being able to just buy and use a theme later on would be incredibly useful (obviously it's not quite that simple, but it could be close). I will almost certainly be buying lots of themes from you assuming you get designs (which I'm sure you will!). I'm surprised ThemeForest don't have a Bootstrap section yet actually...
      - coderdude 15y ago
        True, any obfuscation would make it impossible to judge the quality of the source. Good point. I'm surprised that ThemeForest hasn't jumped on this yet either.
        moe 15y ago
        You could perhaps partially obfuscate the code. But it'd probably be tricky to ensure that at least some interesting parts remain untouched. Perhaps let the template author markup those areas?
        15y ago
tomblomfield 15y ago
People who don't care enough about being caught committing copyright theft will never pay anyone, whereas those who care will usually pay. cf https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3523024
- StavrosK 15y ago
  I don't care about copyright theft but I pay because I $8 is peanuts for a good theme.

beck5 15y ago

This is great. I would love a nicer home page for http://www.sharelatex.com http://www.sharelatex.com. I looked at ones on theme forest but didn't want one framework for my homepage and one for everything else. Will defiantly look at what comes up there. On stealing the css: your market are people who know the effort it takes to build something and are probably likely to pay $15-$50 for a big time saver.

coderdude 15y ago
I hope to get some more sellers on board soon so there's more to offer. I'm glad most everyone seems to feel the same way about stealing the live previews. There is honor out there.
- beck5 15y ago
  I've not looked properly but future suport is quite important. I have been upgrading to bootstrap 2.0 and there are a lot of breaking changes, having future versions available would be something I would want to see, even if it requires and upgrade fee.
  - coderdude 15y ago
    Upgrading from 1.4.0 to 2.0.0 was kind of a pain. I definitely am on the same page as you. Sellers attach a version number (of their own invention) to the items they upload. When a seller comes up with an update to their item they would upload it and update the version. At which point anyway who has purchased it in the past would be able to upgrade for free. (I don't like the idea of buying a theme and then paying to get the latest changes.)

redslazer 15y ago

Just wanted to give you a head up. On the /sell page it says earn 55% - 75% on each sale but then in the paragraph it says you earn 35% if you sell it non-exclusively. Edit: Sorry to be annoying but the sign-in link has a padlock icon next to it which usually indicates a secure connection/SSL neither of which you are using. Great concept btw.

coderdude 15y ago
Thanks for bringing that up, I'll get that wording fixed right away. Regarding the padlock icon: That was an item on my todo list that I moved to "not critical for launch." And then someone mentioned it. :)

revorad 15y ago

This is such an awesome idea. It will be interesting to see how many themes you get. I would never have thought of making a marketplace like this because it seems too niche. But I won't be surprised if you prove me wrong! Shameless plug: I'm trying to get a new community project going, so please consider sharing this on there - http://swym.me/ http://swym.me/

alexobenauer 15y ago
What's the goal / point of swym?
- redslazer 15y ago
  I seem to have the same problem, i browsed through the site and wasn't really sure what exactly it does or is used for.
  - deleted 15y ago
    [deleted]
- revorad 15y ago
  It's mostly sharing and discovering cool projects, tools and people. I explained some more here - http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3579260 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3579260 Basically, you know how people often ask on HN how did you make that? What stack did you use? It's the same thing, but the tags give you a fun way to find out about other projects built on the same technology. Plus, you might find other creative people you may not have found otherwise.
  - jurre 15y ago
    I love the idea. I think adding a description field to the project and tools pages would make it a lot more interesting.
    - revorad 15y ago

almost 15y ago

It would be good to be clearer about licenses. It just says "Single Site" right now but it would be good to have a page that clarifies exactly what you mean just in case my idea of what that means differs from yours. Will exclusive and multi-site license options follow? Also, on your /sell page there's a heading that says sellers earn between 55 and 75% but in the text of that block it says the non-exclusive share is 35%. Anyway, as I said below this is awesome and I wish you the best of luck.

coderdude 15y ago
I've moved this up in the queue. Right now the seller can choose whether an item is sold with a single or multi-application license, but in the near future I would like to change that to an option that can be chosen at buy-time. As for the earnings text on the sell page, I'm working on cleaning up the wording there so that it better conveys what I mean. And thank you! Edit: Updated the earnings text

robinwarren 15y ago

great idea, and excellent timing as well tbh. The TW Bootstrap look is getting very common out there. My site is built on it and I can see the vanilla TW Bootstrap look ageing very fast.

coderdude 15y ago
Yes, a lot of people have started to complain that they can see Bootstrap everywhere. Here's to fixing that!
- Xion 15y ago
  Seeing Bootstrap everywhere is actually a good thing. It makes me hope that the Web is finally maturing to the point of having a common, uniform UI patterns for its applications. If Bootstrap helps to alleviate the design & UX bonanza that many of the present day web apps still is, it will be just another stone in its awesomeness bucket.

ewalk153 15y ago

The preview page for themes still has the Paypal link to sandbox http://wrapbootstrap.com/preview/WB00TO920 http://wrapbootstrap.com/preview/WB00TO920

coderdude 15y ago
Whoops! Thanks for pointing that out -- I just fixed it.

kingsidharth 15y ago

Biggest problem with Bootstrap was non-distinct visual design. All sites created with bootstrap had same loon and feel which is bad for visual distinction and mind-space. Themes will be useful in solving that problem. Way to go.

nhebb 15y ago

I like the idea, and I hope it does well. But what I would pay money for is a series of lessons on how to customize bootstrap. The whole reason I'm using bootstrap for my site redesign is because: - I can't find off the shelf themes that meet my needs. - I want to learn how to do it myself. - I want a solid foundation to start with. A codecademy for CSS "cooking" with bootstrap would be great. A quick mover with good design skills could probably make a decent amount of money in a short period if they sold tutorials with focused content. [I'm just throwing this out there in case someone wants to bite.]

loceng 15y ago
Maybe shoot Codecademy a message mentioning this to them. :)
shareme 15y ago
I make you deal if you can ship some pizzas to an US address say via fedex I may able to teach you.. see my gh-pages sites: http://shareme.github.com http://shareme.github.com
- nhebb 15y ago
  Thanks for the offer. :) FYI - Your carousel isn't centered, the follow shareme button is clipped, and the Android, Hello article has an extra </div> in the <section id="getsdk">, causing the remainder of the page to be left aligned. I like sausage, mushroom, and olive on my pizza. Did you want my address? <jk ;)>
  - zak_mc_kracken 15y ago
    Indeed, looks like shareme has more to learn from you about web design than you from him :-)
    - nhebb 15y ago
      Nah. The world is full of people who can point out problems. Knowing how to fix them is where the value is. I claim no expertise in that regard.

aarondf 15y ago

Very well executed, IMO. Some other people have mentioned that themeforest doesn't obfuscate and they're doing just fine, which is true, but they also have additional assets that are needed in addition to CSS. Namely, PSDs. One way you could increase incentive to buy instead of steal is only show CSS on the preview, but download the LESS file on purchase (if the author used LESS). I'd certainly be more interested in a LESS file. In the end, I wouldn't worry about it too much, like someone said, people who are gonna pay are gonna pay. OT: Are you using some sort of "food ipsum" generator for the StackLayer theme? I love it.

coderdude 15y ago
Thank you! Yes, the additional assets are the big gotchas (especially with themes that have text embedded in images) and I like the idea about including the LESS source. I'll get on adding that to the StackLayer theme! By the way: Veggie Ipsum. It's awesome. http://veggieipsum.com/ http://veggieipsum.com/

loceng 15y ago

I was hoping there'd be a free version of this - though with a paid version you'll certainly get higher-quality options ---- but I can see free versions being useful enough, where there's not too much customization. Perhaps have a free section? It would be a good way to get free traffic which you can use to upsell to paid versions.

coderdude 15y ago
That's an interesting idea, and one that I think would work too. A few years ago I bought an admin template called Adminizio (http://www.adminizio.com/ http://www.adminizio.com/). At first I downloaded the free version and got a feel for it. I like it enough to buy the full version $50 and I've never regretted it. Good thinking.

nirvana 15y ago

I wonder if it isn't a good time in the webs evolution to come up with or popularize a theme standard, and if bootstrap isn't a good step in that direction. This might help accelerate adoption and popularity of themes, especially open sourced themes, saving everyone a lot of time. This is the kind of thing I don't feel proprietary about at all, and would rather share my designs with others to improve and extend than re-create the wheel. I'm working on a web application platform (coffeescript running concurrently across a cluster of nodes, basically). I'm still working on the backend, but once it is released publicly, I want to start building out a built-in frontend. To that goal, I'm planning to ship a web framework built in, and Bootstrap is the leading candidate right now. I know popularly you buy themes which are collections of HTML and CSS and that they make it easy to have a nice layout without having to swipe a 37signals page-- you just change the content to suit what you want. I see bootstrap coming from one end- a cohesive framework to make developing pages easier-- and themes being going a step further-- specific designs for everything but the content. And I wonder if it wouldn't be a good idea to have a sort of theme architecture for bootstrap. What I'm imagining is that themes could be specified, and developed in such a way that they could be traded as tar balls and quickly and easily used by projects. Much the way wordpress themes are standardized and plug into wordpress, these themes could be standardized and plug into bootstrap. Hell, the bootstrap page has an almost theme creator that lets you customize bootstrap. (http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/download.html http://twitter.github.com/bootstrap/download.html) I'd love to have the ability to point my web platform at a github page, and have it suck in the latest version of an open source theme for people. I'd love it if themes became a popular open source item. You may think this is a bad idea, but I see it as taking the framework idea and building another level on top of it. Sure, some people will just use stock themes, others will make custom themes. ... and a lot of people will learn web design by taking apart themes and understanding them. Does a standard format for bootstrap themes make sense? (Please don't flame me if I've missed something here- this is an idea, and I admit to not being a bootstrap expert.)

BadiPod 15y ago
Personally I like that Bootstrap is NOT Themed. It's minimalistic and still very flexible. I believe it should always stay as a BASELINE. I want to build amazing designs on top of it, and save time by not having to copy code again and again for round corners, shadows, forms, tables, etc.

TomGullen 15y ago

Is this for landing pages only? I generally think landing pages are a waste of time in general, however this site seems to address my main criticism of them which is that start ups invest far too much time in making them. Good luck with it, looks like a nice well made site!

coderdude 15y ago
Nope, the site is for all kinds of themes (Wordpress, ecommerce, blogs, etc.) and templates (e.g., button packs). A landing page is just a theme I chose to start out with. Thanks!

mgkimsal 15y ago

Can we get some sort of live preview option to see the same site with different bootstrap themes, similar to csszengarden? Would be very helpful to see how one similar site will look with different bootstrap themes. Thanks!

coderdude 15y ago
That's not a bad idea. Wouldn't work for everything though. For example, when the theme uses custom classes or components that aren't part of Bootstrap. But in general it would be a very handy way to gauge the differences between styles.
- mgkimsal 15y ago
  It may compel theme writers to adhere to a standard and stretch what they do to make it more apparent in your marketplace that their themes will require as little work as possible to integrate. Thanks.
  - noahc 15y ago
    This would be awesome. I bought a theme off of themeforest the other day and they essentially wrote a mini-cms in js that would have been way to much work to tear apart and turn it into a static site. This morning, I'm working on adding a grid framework to another theme I bought off of themeforest. That's the one thing I hate about themeforest is you can't see the "bones" of the theme before you buy. I've bought 4 or 5 themes off of theme forest with about 3/4 of them being of decent quality. With decent quality being the ease at which I can modify them for my own needs.

rzbn 15y ago

This is very useful. I have a design that I wouldn't mind uploading.

andrewcanis 15y ago

Great idea! I would love a valentines day bootstrap theme.

deleted 15y ago

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jbigelow76 15y ago

It's a good idea, considering the popularity of themeforest I'm not surprised to see this. But, if you want to charge 20 bucks you'll need to offer multiple pages of samples, the landing page sample doesn't really tell me what a form might look like with those theme elements, or blog post, image gallery, etc... Good luck with it though.

coderdude 15y ago
That's a good point. A style guide/reference would be very useful to include in the live preview. I'll definitely be adding more to the StackLayer theme and all customers receive updates for free. Thanks!

aniketpant 15y ago

Really don't get the point. Bootstrap is open source. Most of these themes would be paid. (not good for me) Don't have much in support of my point, but I would not use this service unless some really _amazing_ designs are put up.

coderdude 15y ago
Then I'll just have to make sure I get some really amazing designs up there. :)
mgkimsal 15y ago
So it's open source. So use it. Just because the source is available doesn't magically make people able to make really nice looking site designs with it. However, it does allow some people who are already good with design to make reusable and largely understandable designs available for your project. And you can pay for those layouts. People who want nice designs on top of a bootstrap base win. The designers win. End of story. Interestingly, you say it's "not good for you", but then you say you'd use the service if some "amazing" designs were available. I presume "amazing" designs would be good for you, hence you'll use it. Not even sure what the point of your comment was, except to say "I don't pay for stuff" (with a hint of "everything should be open source" seeming to lurk underneath).
mknx 15y ago
Open Source != Free. You can have open source code but need to pay for license to use it.

vineet 15y ago

Great idea. But starting with just 1 theme will make it hard to convince potential customers and potential theme creators to use the site. Perhaps send an e-mail to a couple of handpicked theme creators from one of the other sites to come over - maybe even convert some of the themes for free.

coderdude 15y ago
Yeah, it is difficult to start any marketplace. A chicken or the egg problem. I was hoping that by releasing early I could get some sellers on board. It's considerably harder to get a designer to create a work to sell on a marketplace that isn't even launched yet or validated by buyers. However, I've made a couple sales (literally, 2) and hopefully I will get more, enough to attract the sellers. I have emailed a few handpicked designers already so I will see what the response is. :)
- vineet 15y ago
  Offering to convert themes for free to the first few designers (and just give them money per sale) might help you get out of the chicken/egg problem. Best of luck with it.
  - coderdude 15y ago
    Thanks for the idea, I'll certainly take it into consideration. I could see that being the 'tipping point' for many sellers since they wouldn't have to do the work.

kolinko 15y ago

Excellent idea. Too bad that it's just one theme for now, but I'll take a look at it tomorrow, and might just buy it :) Good luck!

coderdude 15y ago
I released early with just one theme, but I'm adding more soon and we'll see if some of the people who signed up for selling today upload some items as well. I'd like to get some competition going! Thanks and stay tuned :)

highace 15y ago

This is a great idea and I'm sure you'll do well. The one template that's available and your site itself look very well designed. However - wasn't the whole point of bootstrap to make it easier for developers to create their own stuff, thus avoiding the need to buy a template? If you want a templated site, just buy one from ThemeForest, because that's exactly what you're getting here except it's built around 'standardized' markup instead of the designer's own.

coderdude 15y ago
Thank you. >>that's exactly what you're getting here except it's built around 'standardized' markup instead of the designer's own That's kind of the point. :)

suresk 15y ago

Love your idea and really hope you're able to be successful with it. As a developer with absolutely no design ability, bootstrap + some nice-looking themes could really improve the way I build websites - and I certainly wouldn't hesitate to shell out cash for them. Good luck!

santa_boy 15y ago

This is eerie! I was planning to make complete websites with themes using Bootstrap just yesterday! :-) .. Here is what I launched about an hr back on my own site! http://bit.ly/zn9Wxc http://bit.ly/zn9Wxc

pamelafox 15y ago

I just wrote a blog post on "theming" bootstrap by overriding CSS (as opposed to using Less, since I use SaSS). Might be useful for people interested in customizing their Bootstrap: http://blog.pamelafox.org/2012/02/theming-twitter-bootstrap-without-less.html http://blog.pamelafox.org/2012/02/theming-twitter-bootstrap-...