There’s been a little talk recently about new templates for Freeway. I
just had an idea about how we could organize this so that it feels
fair to everyone.
In order for something like this to be self-sustaining, there needs to
be an economic model that makes sense for everyone. Some people will
want to barter their designs for other people’s designs. Other people
will be looking to get a quick solution to a client project that
doesn’t warrant a completely tailored design. And other people will
just be there to play and get something for free.
So you sign up for a mythical Template Garden site, get your own
account, maybe get 10 free “credits” or whatever. What do you do next?
Post your own templates for community voting. If your design makes
a big splash, it becomes available as a paid template, and each time
someone downloads it, you get paid a percentage. Even if it doesn’t
become a paid template, you get a number of credits for submitting it
to the site.
Search and browse through the paid templates, buy the ones you like
with your ‘credits’ or by purchasing additional credits. Vote for free
for designs you like but don’t buy, or vote with your wallet (a
purchase counts for 10 votes or some other multiplier).
Search and browse through the free templates, download the ones you
like for free, or vote on them for free. Each unique download counts
for 5 votes or some other multiplier. Early adopters get good stuff
for free, but after a while the best stuff would become pay-only.
So I’m floating this as a balloon, to see if there’s any interest in
this sort of social-commerce application.
This sounds great, pretty beyond what I had been planning (as well as my abilities!)…but the idea is fantastic.
My only problem would be whether it would be too much, whether people would actually use it. One way to create more of a social network would be, obviously, to tie it in with this forum. But would people prefer just a simple website where they can buy templates / download free ones? I’m not too sure…
I would see the templates on various levels, and it could prove
beneficial to all. e.g. Basic design templates at one end, ranging to
more complex templates for creating/adding/searching an online
address database (just hook up the database) for an example, or ready
to run CMS templates.
It would be a fine balance getting the reward for the developers of
the templates (in other words the template designers will get
creative if the rewards are good enough) yes, I think on the whole it
could be beneficial to all.
David
On 13 Apr 2009, at 7:09 pm, Fergus T wrote:
But would people prefer just a simple website where they can buy
templates / download free ones? I’m not too sure…
I like the idea also… especially with the separate categories
julie
On Apr 13, 2009, at 2:44 PM, David Owen wrote:
I would see the templates on various levels, and it could prove
beneficial to all. e.g. Basic design templates at one end, ranging
to more complex templates for creating/adding/searching an online
address database (just hook up the database) for an example, or
ready to run CMS templates.
It would be a fine balance getting the reward for the developers of
the templates (in other words the template designers will get
creative if the rewards are good enough) yes, I think on the whole
it could be beneficial to all.
David
On 13 Apr 2009, at 7:09 pm, Fergus T wrote:
But would people prefer just a simple website where they can buy
templates / download free ones? I’m not too sure…
They do things along the lines of your idea Walter. My concern would be having enough templates, but I got at least 8-10 here that I’d toss out to get the ball rolling.
Absolutely nothing new under the sun! It looks as though one could
simply upload to them, they have a (very sparse) “Other” category
where Freeway stuff could live until it got full enough to warrant its
own tab. http://themeforest.net/category/misc/other
They do things along the lines of your idea Walter. My concern
would be having enough templates, but I got at least 8-10 here that
I’d toss out to get the ball rolling.
I think that seeding “public” sites like Theme Forest rather than building our own “walled garden” (of and for the select few who choose Freeway) could have tremendous evangelism value. If Freeway templates are seen in the company of themes for popular blog engines or templates for Dreamweaver, it lends Freeway some credence (or at least awareness) that it might otherwise lack. (If they’re good-looking examples of the breed, that is.)
Not wanting to poop your idea, just a balancing view
David
On 14 Apr 2009, at 15:07, waltd wrote:
I think that seeding “public” sites like Theme Forest rather than
building our own “walled garden” (of and for the select few who
choose Freeway) could have tremendous evangelism value. If Freeway
templates are seen in the company of themes for popular blog engines
or templates for Dreamweaver, it lends Freeway some credence (or at
least awareness) that it might otherwise lack. (If they’re good-
looking examples of the breed, that is.)
Wow, that’s a lot of link-farming going on there. Maybe half of the
first page were relevant. My point was that what helps Softpress makes
all ships rise. The problem of finding them could be managed by adding
a link or 8 to the KB and other authoritative sites. Plus plenty of
mentions and answers here in this list’s Web site, which manages some
pretty astounding Google-fu.
As i was reading what you said, i had flashden in mind… What stupid i am sometimes, not realising it’s the same.
But i love this idea.
This way, you can bennifit ( sorry i’m in a big flue, not much in a good grammar mood)
of all the good things from the real good freeway users, use their knowledge and learn.
And that way you avoid, the thing that is alway bugging me… the question;
"i can do it for you for…euro’s…or…dollar…’ leave it to a pro… Than people could deside if they want to spent the money on it.
( i would!)
That is how i buy my things on flashden. I don’t buy and copy, but buy and see what they do and how and why!
i would love it. Perhaps even be a part of it somewhere in a future!
The only issue I have with just building this is the scale of the
proposition. Especially if you want to do commerce, there are sunk
costs every month that have to be recouped, and this is a big reason
why all of the “social” Freeway sites I’ve built so far have been free.
I’d have to see some serious pent-up demand in order to take this on
and endure the death-by-a-thousand-paper-cuts that is setting up
commerce and paying monthly and annually for the privilege. I realize
this could be a Field of Dreams sort of thing – build it and they
will come. But it could also be a case of not enough of a market
(would that Freeway had the same sort of market penetration as the
Flash development application) to make it a going concern. I also know
of two such sites that launched with great fanfare over the past ten
years; both of them sunk without a trace. It may have just not been
their time yet, who knows. I’ll keep thinking about it.
Walter
On Apr 14, 2009, at 11:20 AM, eus wrote:
As i was reading what you said, i had flashden in mind… What
stupid i am sometimes, not realising it’s the same.
But i love this idea.
Of course it would. And the ineedwebhosting site can link to any
resources to help ( + we have a few additions to the ineedwebhosting
site being brewed at the moment)
Whose going to be brave and start posting some templates? (We might
even have a few extinct projects that might fit the bill and repurposed)
David
On 14 Apr 2009, at 16:17, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
My point was that what helps Softpress makes all ships rise. The
problem of finding them could be managed by adding a link or 8 to
the KB and other authoritative sites
Wow, that’s a lot of link-farming going on there. Maybe half of the
first page were relevant.
(The link was grabbed from the search URL after adding “Freeway
Templates” into the Safari Search bar - could not be bothered to
shorten it)
Sorry, I meant that a lot of the results I saw when I clicked the link
were those despicable “link farms” that basically glom on to your
search terms, construct an insta-page of paid links elsewhere, and
reap the Google AdWords whirlwind. The lowest form of bottom-feeders,
they give the semantic web a real tummy-ache.
Walter
On Apr 14, 2009, at 11:59 AM, David Owen wrote:
Wow, that’s a lot of link-farming going on there. Maybe half of the
first page were relevant.
(The link was grabbed from the search URL after adding “Freeway
Templates” into the Safari Search bar - could not be bothered to
shorten it)
i don’t mind 'donating my templates, only mine are for absolute beginners and i wonder if or when you guy’s would be happy with them.
( this is no shy or fals pretenses, but i alway’s learn in the process and have about 10 tb harddisk backup LOL)
so iff i make you happy, happy to donate!
give me until the weekend to ‘clean them up’.
I agree it’s potentially good exposure to be on Theme Forest but it
would be so much more so if FW were able to import any html template
and Just Work™. That would provide greater incentive for potential FW
converts instead of locking people into FW-only templates. It seems
backwards that FW-generated html files (not the FW file itself) could
potentially be used by anyone but the FW user is by the very nature of
the app limited to a tiny group of available templates, all of which
brings up another question:
Would only the FW file/media be available for download or the
generated html files as well so anyone could use them?
Todd
On Apr 14, 2009, at 9:07 AM, waltd wrote:
I think that seeding “public” sites like Theme Forest rather than
building our own “walled garden” (of and for the select few who
choose Freeway) could have tremendous evangelism value. If Freeway
templates are seen in the company of themes for popular blog engines
or templates for Dreamweaver, it lends Freeway some credence (or at
least awareness) that it might otherwise lack. (If they’re good-
looking examples of the breed, that is.)
i don’t think when you buy a rapid weaver theme or action ( what is it called?) you can use it in a dreamweaver app to? so why would you make a template you could use in dreamweaver or rapidwaever or sandfox or…or…
i think a lot of people could realy use good fw templates as Freeway documentes, just for freeway.
The very advanced users already use their own skils to use html, flash and psd into their websites as they go.
For me starting with freeway in the beginning was, the use of the Wysiwyg togehter with the Templates. and then your off to create your own … and go on…
I imagine that the Freeway-generated HTML + Resources might be a
salable thing to the others. This might be a great way to make a few
bucks on rejected designs, if you’re used to making a bunch of “comps”
for your clients to choose between. You put that work into the idea,
might as well be rewarded. Same thing could go with the Freeway file
organized as a template. It’s just a menu choice away. The trick will
be to manage any third-party Actions or other goodies in a
responsible, license-following manner.
As to Freeway being able to read HTML, I agree that would be
marvelous, but I’ve been with Freeway for such a long time, and seen
this question asked so many times, that my heart-felt belief is that
if it COULD be done, it WOULD have been done already.
I remember one line of thought that was pursued was that you could use
WebKit to munge the highly variable tag-soup input into a proper DOM
tree (similar to how Xyle scope works under the hood) and then
translate that DOM into a Freeway DOM (not at all the same beast). It
was that last step that was a non-starter. I’ve never seen a line of
Freeway’s source, so I don’t understand the reason why, but I take it
as an article of faith that if Jeremy Hughes says he can’t see a way
– it’s not going to be possible in this time-space continuum. He is
THAT smart.
Walter
On Apr 14, 2009, at 12:12 PM, Todd wrote:
Would only the FW file/media be available for download or the
generated html files as well so anyone could use them?
