](./images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
I'm tired of seeing theme developers go down as if they were some soldiers that have finally fallen after a war.
CatThief, aaron, patrickjdempsey, Frank Lion, Arvid Axelsson, and so many others have given up despite their very best efforts and patience.
Some gave it a second shot and stayed like Ed Hume, but most said, "-censored- this, I'm done."
You all, as theme developers, have gone through some what of an odd relationship.
I'm not sure, if since the beginning of time, developers ever liked the idea of someone altering the GUI of any product since it was some sort of designer somewhat like yourselves that worked on what they thought was best, but I believe that there was a time when theme developers where valued despite the above. Themes from what I saw, held as much value as extensions.
(earliest capture I could find)
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You all know the painful events that occurred over time that brings us up to the current state and the status and apparent perceived value of themes, officially at least so I won't reiterate.
What I do really want you to hear and realize though is that despite how you feel about what your value is officially doesn't matter. It just doesn't.
Humans inherently customize everything and change the default to what they want for themselves for purposes like, standing out, to be an individual and for their own identity, to express themselves, for personal tastes in things like colors, textures, and images, for functionality, and so on whether it be a new car, home, or just putting together an outfit in the morning, people are born customizers no matter what's given to them as the default.
An apartment complex with 1,000 identical units will all be set up and decorated differently by the inhabitants. Same applies to phones, computers and OS's, hair styles, clothes, heck, even food.
Chicken is chicken but we all don't eat chicken as chicken, We add things to it and change it 8 million ways. That isn't a solid number but I'm waiting on the metrics team to get back to me.
Ok, so, it doesn't matter who says what, or what is put in front of you, people are going to customize it for themselves.
All the hype about Google Chrome.
"Oh, wow, it's beautiful, it's so minimalistic, the World is at peace now".
One of the biggest complaints now about Chrome is that you can't do s*it about the way it looks. Unless of course you use one of those, um, themes.
WinCustomize, KDE-Look.org, interfacelift.com, deviantART.com, and on and on are popular because people want to customize.
If you know how Google suggest works, then you'll understand this image.
In short, it's what a large portion of people frequently search for with these terms.
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Mozilla end users are no different than anyone else.
It is getting harder for people to even discover the fact that they can even change Firefox etc with themes because it isn't pushed officially, but people still want to customize.
Now, despite a lot of you throwing in the towel, or thinking about it, you have a few options to continue on or resume your passions because I know that you all are passionate about what you do. You're first and foremost artists and that just doesn't leave you. It never does.
I'm a graphical artist hobbyist so I know.
CSS is just a different tool to create art like Photoshop, Gimp, Inkscape, a paintbrush, or crayons. It's harder, more time consuming, especially when you go to get a snack, or go to the can and you come back to see that someone has changed your canvas and you have to start over, but anyway.
The options. There are a few.
1) Themes for ESR. You can carry on and no one will change your canvas for a while giving you time to adjust if need be.
2) Stick to one theme.
3) Lighter themes. And I don't mean Lightweight themes.
Just some primary elements like toolbar buttons, etc.
A lot of people are doing that and it is going over ok. Not massively popular, but it works.
mine
Color Toolbar Icons for Firefox on WinXP
Phoenix Simple
4) A new site for Mozilla customizations.
Why? Because the focus will be strictly on Mozilla product customizations.
Eventually, it would show up first in search results for customizing Firefox, etc. and through grassroots, word of mouth, etc, it would become well known.
I can provide hosting and I'll even purchase the domain name and file for a Mozilla Domain Name license.
Mozilla won't feel threatened by a competing site. It wouldn't be competition. They may take issue with the name, but that can be altered. We could even get listed as a community site and perhaps use the Mozilla Bedrock theme if you desire (would need to check).
The platform used for it can be whatever y'all want whether it be WordPress, a CDN or something straightforward. A lead developer would be needed. I can help with administration, marketing somewhat (social, etc), and would devote a significant amount of time, effort, and energy, but I do have a lot of projects including other sites.
A few available.
customizefirefox.org (too specific, excludes SeaMonkey, Thunderbird, etc)
customizemozilla.org
It could even eventually hold themes, wallpapers, etc. for Firefox OS.
The main thing that I would ask is that it be restricted to Mozilla products only.
That's where my loyalties are.
You all could, should, would use some of the same channels for getting the word out about your themes and even same hosting spots if you'd like, like here, AMO, etc, but you'd always encourage people to go to the moz customize site. Here would still be a great place for support and announcements.
I do this, the post, the offers, for a number of reasons.
I love art, that's what y'all do. I love customizing. I have always respected the work you all do and always wanted to create a full (accessibility type, large) theme, but I just don't have the mental capacity, time, and certainly not the patience to create one which is where most of my respect for y'all comes from. Whether we've interacted directly or not, I have learned a whole lot over the years from you all in the theming community. I want to help y'all. I also believe in helping out end users where and when I can. I know that they want to customize, you do, heck, even Mozilla does, so lets help them.
Even though there actually is enough porn on the Internet to fill the time that you used to spend on themeing, you don't want to end up like this.
©FOX Broadcasting Company
It's up to y'all what you want to do (of course) but it would take several of you to make #4 work.
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