Archive of UserLand's first discussion group, started October 5, 1998.

A discussion about Themes

Author:Dave Winer
Posted:6/5/2000; 6:21:30 PM
Topic:A discussion about Themes
Msg #:17583
Prev/Next:17582 / 17584

I want to write up a very high-level view of what Themes are about, and since Brent is writing the code, he'll correct me if I get it wrong. It's a pretty fundamental change in the way Manila works, and as far as I know, it's never been done before.

When Themes are available, there will be a new site pref for Manila sites that allows you choose to allow your site to be cloned. Another way of saying the same thing, when your site can be cloned it graduates to being a Theme. It's more than a site, it's a template for other sites.

When someone chooses to clone your site, they get a copy of all your templates, effectively they get a site that looks and behaves just like yours. All your JavaScript goes across, as does the CSS and whatever else Brent found that could be modularized (which is quite a lot).

It's a total opt-in thing. If you don't opt-in no one will be able to clone your site.

Now it gets more interesting. The webmaster of the Frontier installation chooses the Themes that are available to people who use the server. The list of available Themes links back to the sites they come from. So making your site available as a Theme is a chance to gain exposure for your site.

Further, when your site is cloned, on a UserLand-hosted Manila site, a RPC message is sent to a server here saying that the cloning happened. It stores the URL of the new site and the original site. So if this catches on as we hope it will, you'll be able to see a list of the sites that are descended from yours. And we will make the source available so that other Manila hosts can participate in this network or start their own networks.

Also, by default, the cloned site will point back to you. So it's got a pyramid thing going on there. And you can play around with how they link to you.

The new users can change the look of the templates if they want to, and in turn they can offer their sites for cloning. But you'll be linked into the chain, forever (or as long as Murphy permits).

So when Themes starts up, later this week, there will be a bunch of roots to a tree that might get quite bushy and big over the years. Maybe it's time to start thinking about sprucing up your templates, or ask questions. Brent already has some must-do's for people who want their sites to be cloned. A good discussion about this could make this an interesting and not too confusing rollout.

Let's have fun!



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