Update themes!

Discuss application theming and theme development.
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RoyalMail
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Update themes!

Post by RoyalMail »

How to encourage developers to update their themes for compatibility with latest FF releases? Most themes listed on the download site show 'not compatible with this version of Firefox' which is a real pain when you're searching through the list for something at least reasonable to replace the default theme. In fact few listed themes work properly anyway with many not showing check-boxes correctly (always blank). One of the advantages of FF is supposed to be the wide variety of add-ons available!

While we wait for the theme developers to do their job and keep them updated, the Moz site that lists themes could be improved to that only valid/working themes for the right version of FF show.

How hard can this stuff be?
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malliz
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Re: Update themes!

Post by malliz »

RoyalMail wrote:How hard can this stuff be?

Can you do it? Maybe open your wallet and make a donation to the poor sods who are doing this for nothing
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aaron
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Re: Update themes!

Post by aaron »

RoyalMail wrote:How hard can this stuff be?


Give it a try yourself and find out.

I started theming for Mozilla products back when the Mozilla Suite was still at v0.9 -- this was years before Firefox was even a pipe dream. Due to personal, real-life, real-world time constraints I had to give up all work on my 11 themes for SeaMonkey, Firefox, and Thunderbird. After 12 years, I didn't have it in me anymore. You're more than welcome to take up the maintenance on those themes should you desire it.
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RoyalMail
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Re: Update themes!

Post by RoyalMail »

@aaron:

Fair enough, anyone can get tired of work. Maybe what you should have done is delete all your then unsupported themes from the list, saving future users some time and effort.
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malliz
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Re: Update themes!

Post by malliz »

And maybe what you should have done is develop some manners and humanity
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LoudNoise
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Re: Update themes!

Post by LoudNoise »

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jivko
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Re: Update themes!

Post by jivko »

RoyalMail wrote:
How hard can this stuff be?


I don't see you developing themes. Me and other developers are doing this for free, we're not getting paid for developing themes and add-ons for Firefox and despite the fact that theme downloads and users have dropped a lot and the personas factor in the theme world some of us are still doing their best to keep the themes compatible with latest Firefox versions.
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LoudNoise
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Re: Update themes!

Post by LoudNoise »

Mozilla is winning which is sad.
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malliz
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Re: Update themes!

Post by malliz »

No you mean Asa is winning
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Frank Lion
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Re: Update themes!

Post by Frank Lion »

RoyalMail wrote:@aaron:

Fair enough, anyone can get tired of work. Maybe what you should have done is delete all your then unsupported themes from the list, saving future users some time and effort.

Aaron's themes were not on the list.

RoyalMail wrote:How to encourage developers to update their themes for compatibility with latest FF releases?[

Easy, like everything else in the real world, you pay.
"The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil, is for good men to do nothing." - Edmund Burke (attrib.)
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patrickjdempsey
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Re: Update themes!

Post by patrickjdempsey »

RoyalMail wrote:How to encourage developers to update their themes ...
While we wait for the theme developers to do their job...


Here's an idea. Just a wild wild CRAZY idea... how about hitting the DONATE button and giving them some money in exchange for their VERY DIFFICULT, nearly PERPETUAL hard work? Despite what you seem to think. It is NOT a "job", it's a hobby, done in spare-time around a real job and a family and a whole life, which most developers do for their own satisfaction and are sharing it with others out of generosity. Period.

You try to do a "job" which is nearly thankless, which has no pay, and requires digging through code every day to fix things that Mozilla sneakily constantly changes, and dealing with users who will bad mouth you every time either Mozilla or their favorite extension author makes a totally unnecessary theme-breaking change. In fact, Mozilla doesn't even have the decency to alert developers to the vast majority of these changes and TWO independent theme developers actually donate their time to tracking down and logging these changes as they happen for the benefit of the community.

If they don't have a Donate button, drop them an email and ask them how you can send them cash in appreciation for their hard work.
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patrickjdempsey
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Re: Update themes!

Post by patrickjdempsey »

RoyalMail wrote:Maybe what you should have done...


Maybe what you should do is not come into people's living room and denigrate their hard work and try to boss them around. Dealing with verbally abusive thankless users is a big part of why I finally gave up theming.
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What my avatar is about: https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/seamonkey/addon/sea-fox/
willarson
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Re: Update themes!

Post by willarson »

How hard can this stuff be? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/themes Can't find what want? Make your own
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James
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Re: Update themes!

Post by James »

willarson wrote:How hard can this stuff be? https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/developers/docs/themes Can't find what want? Make your own

That is about Personas Themes which are not even close to Real Themes ;)
willarson
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Re: Update themes!

Post by willarson »

Thanks James. How do they differ?
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