Modx competition

hey all,

I was wondering what the community would think about having a little comp with regards a modx template.

Basicley, anyone that wanted to enter would build a "skin/template" for modx, this skin would then be judged by a selection of people that the core modx team picked.

What would basicley happen is that the chosen team would test the skin on the basic modx install including how it handled all snippets and moduels that come with the basic install, how it was coded ( IE the code must validate for the given doc type etc ), and test it in diffrent browsers.

We could run this as a monthly comp or a quartley comp ( whichever was prefered ) and then we could put the winning skins in a cat on the forums or main site under a title like "Modex recommended skins" with instructions how to install them.

I think this would create alot of interest with regards to a comp, and also give people recomended templates to install, hey, the really best of which could be chosen from the install.......

What do the communit think ??

Paul

admin note: fixed typo in title

Building a good template is quite a lot of work. And testing templates would be too.

Also, people interested in MODx come to this CMF because they want lot of freedom for their sites; this is in some way opposite to "recommended" templates.

However, some members could be interested in selling their templates.
If the licence allows selling templates (--Not sure; must check.--), a good idea could be to have a central place on the forum for announcing new templates. Some percent of the sales could go to support MODx development.

I like healthy competitions or awards. What would be the prize for the winners? There are quite a few good MODx templates in the repository and basically any html/css template is a potential modx template. I am not sure what the participation interest would be. Let’s see what people say.

sounds like a great idea, it would increase the already established template repository.

Looking at the likes of wordpress with it’s vast array of template options, a modx competition could offer many new templates to the repository which would further help establish modx as a viable alternative for clients looking for a plug and play system (users with little interest in learning or using HTML/CSS).

While at the current time I’d say more tech savvy users use modx than the likes of Wordpress, were there seems to be a wider demographic of end users and implementers from a non tech savvy background due to the easy theme selection. If we wish to target the wider end user, with broader audience and more market share then the wider selection of available themes/templates and the simpler the process to install the better.

On a personal note, tho, as a designer I would like to make some income from my work so would most likely only offer a limited number of free templates and would hence hope to build enough interest to generate additional client requests from my free work. Having looked extensively at the Magento approach where commercial templates are trading at around $150 to $200 per domain I would hope modx commercial templates could offer similar returns.

We encourage people making a living with MODx. If that means you code premium templates then I’m all for it. Hmmm ... it might be really cool to have a sponsored store for premium MODx add-ons like the iPhone app store. Thoughts on this?

re: the Competition ... I think it’s a great idea and time for a new demo template for MODx. Lots of changes in store in the very near future and a competition with an actual real prize (or maybe prizes) has been on the table for a while.

Yeah a sponsored store does seem like the way to go.

In a similar vain how about a partner programme, I was a member of the eZ Publish Partner programme for a while and received incentives to attend training courses, linking to eZ Corp with referencing site links etc. It generated a good deal of income for eZ Systems and bought additional brand loyalty as I could express to potential clients that I’d recived certified training and was an official and professional implementer of eZ Publish.

A partner/sponsorship programme for modx would also encourage developers to include references to modx as their preferred development platform, creating a visible industry of modx developers. The programme would also work well for the clients, as they would know that a certified modx developer is aware and is willing to support modx development long-term.

It also provides a certain identifiable distinction between modx hobbyist users who build sites at the weekend and those who use modx as a key business development platform for client projects.

Some examples for similar programmes in action:
http://ez.no/partners
http://www.magentocommerce.com/partners/

LOL ... nice timing.

On February 3, I’m turning in our business plan which is almost entirely focused on building the professional development community for MODx. It will be great for both hobbyist developers and professionals and contains both the partner program as you discussed and supported Enterprise distributions of MODx Revolution. This is critically important for many businesses to have a company that can pick up the phone and call that’s ultimately responsible for key infrastructure software.

I’d imagine a hosted option of modx would also be popular. Its worked well for both Wordpress and eZ Publish.

I’d guess the trick which eZ Publish missed by a mile (for us), is finding a suitable level for which users are willing to pay for support and which ensures that modx becomes a commercial asset, generating money for inward investment. A healthy long-term foundation where developers are paid for their work seems only right and helps ensure that modx stays at the cutting edge and evolves over time catering for changing technologies.

EE has a Pro network as well. But I did not find one for Drupal.

This is an interesting idea, I am curious to see the plan in action.

However, in looking at these models I think that they do more for the client and the application than for the developer. Some of the criteria is very subjective and  a bit off with stuff like point systems, unclear approval process, fees, rewards. Who is to say why someone is approved while others are not. And what about the quality of the ’certification’. I have several Adobe and Macromedia certificates that once I learned the criteria for getting them I realized what a joke they really are (basically just pay for them, do a weekend seminar and you are certified).

I will voice the same trepidation I had concerning sponsored development, be careful to not divide the community. The MODx community is so well liked and gets much praise, but I never hear any good comments about either EZ, EE or Magento’s communities. In the MODx community we get as much support from hobbyist in the form of forum participation than we get from pros in the form of add-on development. It is hard to say which ’group’ contributes more to MODx’s success.

I think MODx is more of a team effort between everyone and well everyone. I’ve gotten at least three other people using modx and of the three one came up with a brilliant idea for one of the sites within a week of getting admin login! I never would have thought of doing anything along those lines, but it’s a great example of how everyone helps everyone.

I like the idea of having some sort of certification system. You could do a few different levels of certification to better round things out:
- Coding (Snippets, Modules, TVs)
- Templates (Conversion, HTML, XHTML, CSS)
- Advanced Templates/ Advanced Coding (JS, AJAX, Flash)
- Configurations (Server Configuration, Installation) - Good for hosts....
- Optimization (How to increase site speed on server/modx levels)

You could also have some general certification that touch on different items like:
- Basic Implementation (Install, Template, Optimize, Maintain)
- Advanced Implementation (Server Config, Install, Template, Adv. Template, Optimize)

The reward could be items like:
- Forum Tag (Similar to Testing, Foundation, Coding, Support Subscriber)
- A Contributor level of support (A ticket or two, Access to the Support Forum?)
- A Partner listing (like donation supports page)
- Graphic for their website (I’m a certified Adv. Implementation Specialist for MODx...)

Anyways I would love to see something along these lines offered. Sure the question then is how to test if someone has earned that classification, but I will leave that for someone else.

As for the template competition are you looking for 100% custom templates, conversion, or modification of existing templates? Did you want any special functionality like dropdown menus, JS effects, etc.?

AMDbuilder