Author: Alec Uitti

Themeforest review site

themeforest-envato

For several years now I’ve been buying themes from themeforest.net – probably the most popular site now for themes.

Generally the themes have been high quality. However, I have had about 20% of them, so far, be less than stellar.

The problems are either the admin interface is very poor quality or the service/support is lackluster or non-existent.

The site offers a Preview mode for each theme. This is good, but only a part of the story. Each theme author will build a preview using demo content that can be quite stunning visually.

Problem is, this perfect scenario can many times be very un-customizable for your needs, and claims of “easy customization” may be a very subjective term.

I don’t know about you, but when I design a wordpress site I want to be able to give it my client and say “here you go, have fun” meaning that they should be able to take over without too much handholding and go on into the sunset.

This has been more troublesome than I would like to admit with themeforest.

so, here’s the proposition: Build a true separate review site that uses the URL of the theme to pull in the basics and then have an area where people who have purchased the theme can give real-world feedback and in some occasions warnings to stay away.

Themeforest will likely not desire this and try to shut it down. They have responded to my attempts at trying to get a refund or say that a certain theme is rubbish with “Sucks to be you”. Since they are in Australia, they have taken the position regarding foreign complaints (I’m in the US) of “Fuck you, go ahead and try to sue us, we will do what we want”.

This means that whomever should build this site must have a great resolve. Tell those a-holes that they can’t just put up any old piece of shit just because it looks good and will make them money only to piss off clients.

Online bike shop coupon

Bicycle-Repair-Area-Cyclopedia-Bike-Shop

So, several years ago a friend started an online bike shop that I did the website for.

There was a question posed about how to deal with the issue of online bike shops selling their wares for so much less than a LBS (local bike shop) and taking away their business and life-blood.

I thought about it and decided that online sales were eventually going to take over and that a LBS should start focusing on service and sales of accessories and clothing rather than bikes.

To help alleviate the tension between online sellers and LBS, why not sell a bike online with a voucher or coupon that the buyer could take to a LBS once they received their cheap bike to have them build it professionally? The voucher could be a range of 50-100 bucks (you tell me) and would start a relationship that could last a long time between customer and shop re: service.

The LBS would send it to or call the online seller to get paid for it. The online seller should welcome and celebrate this shop because it is a win-win in many ways. A pro-built bike is likely to last longer and be more enjoyable than something thrown together in a garage. This should be a happy scenario for insurance companies also.

Road accountability

potholes

So, what if the contractor who built/paved a section of highway or road was required to install a plaque at some interval along it that proudly proclaimed their impeccable work?

I believe that if the road was ill-designed or implemented and started to deteriorate prematurely, the company would be compelled to fix the problem and redeem their name.

Anyone?