I most humbly dissagree NEMINI, Dragonfly makes a great package for a personal or family website, with a few addons, or leave off un-needed modules. From that point of view people that would use it don't want or need to be webmasters. Just average Joe's who can send emails and do basic web stuff.
Maybe in that case there is potential for Dragonfly Lite, with just a very basic one click instal routine that would let total noobs get a website online in a very short time, with no real server or scripting skills needed, something they can add simple content such as text and a few images. It would still benefit from a theme selection engine to allow for individualization. I still say your missing 90% of your potential market share.
There is a very good reason Bill Gates is the wealthiest man on the planet. KISS. Simple interface, install and options works for most people.
If Dragonfly doesn't appeal to most people then i think thats a great shame. Don't make the people mechanics, make the car easier to drive.
I know what Henry Ford would have said on this topic.

Web builder interfaces are used on alot of webhosts for newbies, a CMS has never been designed for a newbie in my own experience, it took me a while to learn what i know now but it wasnt hard, it was just a matter of taking the time and effort to learn.

Although i see your point, lets say the theme engine was simplified, should we not then modify the rest of dragonfly which will now look more confusing then the super easy theming system.

When you mentioned windows it had me think about how windows themes work, and although you can modify the colours of the actual theme changing it is very much at the same difficulty as it is in Dragonfly, and although you can change colours via the appearence settings its not the same as installing a whole theme.

Perhaps I am oversimplifying things a little t3los, but even a windows newbie can download and install windows blinds, or skins for winamp, or any number of other programs.
Even a simple installer that puts downloaded themes in the correct folder, where they can be accessed from the Admin panel would make things easier for beginners. But that still leaves it up to the designers to make themes in all colours, and that just doesn't happen.
I know ISP's make simple page builders available with set templates for home pages, and i loathe them, they are far too rigid, unless they have improved a lot since i last looked. No doubt they have.
Perhaps im just a little enthusiastic about CPGNuke right now, but CPGNuke has so much potential that i think is largely unrealized.
If a friend hadn't installed as on our irc chat group home site i dont think i would have even heard of it.
Now i have set up and used it myself i am happily recomending it to all my friends.
As you rightly mention, it is a little advanced for some, but it is not far from being very user friendly, and is already more so than the others i have tried.
But a little more couldn't hurt, and i think that can be done without much extra effort, or loosing any of the powerful features that make it so good already.
Maybe its partly because i find myself helping a lot of newbies in our chat room, but computer systems in general, as good as they now are, still have a long way to go before they are as easy to use as that DVD player sitting under your TV.
Any step towards that can only be a good thing, that is the trend of all good software i think, faster, better, more powerful, better looking and easier to use. Kind of like the difference between a mac and a windows machine, but thats another story

I believe someone was working on something like you are looking for already. run0 maybe?

Lst I read on here they got stuck and required some help to finish the project. Keep watching the new posts and I'm sure the topic will show up again.

Search may also reveal where the thread is.

pretzy wrote:

There is a very good reason Bill Gates is the wealthiest man on the planet.

Yep... he's a good thief!

safecracker4hire wrote:

pretzy wrote: There is a very good reason Bill Gates is the wealthiest man on the planet. Yep... he's a good thief!

That something that i agree on, since Bill Gates isn't very powerful and creative in Today World that cos Apple Corp have lots of idea that turn into money-making product and faster than PC and MP3 Player Sales Price.

Sure, Gates didn't invent the ideas he used, but he did make them available to the masses.
For that alone, he deserves our gratitude.
If it wasn't for him we would still be typing dos programs into VIC 20's, and fun as that was back then, i for one do not want to go back there :S
Still you could argue that if Gates hadn't done it, then Jobs would have, and everyone would be using swish new uber apples :P~~
which would not be a bad thing.
Either way, competition is a good thing and makes people try harder

Actualy Dragonfly does give you the power to build a theme that uses dynamic CSS and images and where you could create an admin/user interface for so they can easliy change colors.

However nobody has build such theme yet and maybe some are in progress to design such theme.

Do keep in mind such theme is overhead and needs additional speed and resources to function.
Since I think such theme is only for "newbies" who know nothing about HTML and CSS i stick with my opinion that it should NOT be integrated into any CMS by default.

This mostly is due to several reasons where a CMS isn't designed for and mostly this could cause forum spamming with questions which shouldn't be on this website but more on something like codenewbie.com/

Mystic wrote:

I believe someone was working on something like you are looking for already. run0 maybe?

nope

Thanks guys, i have enjoyed the discussion, unexpected as it was. It was just an idea, posted in the forum for ideas, and of course in the end the developers must decide where they want their project to go.

I am currently working on such a project yes and have completed the initial port of ThemeCP by Mtechnik. It's extremely basic allowing for someone to change 3 lines of a marquee, 5 links, turn on/off flash, and turn on/off a site search box. all of the variables must be included in the theme for it to work.

i'm about 50% done with a theme that incorporates it all so a demo is coming soon. even though i'm working on the project i do nevertheless agree with Maze. this should never be included in the core because the level of average user request support will go way down making our lives even more hectic.

i'm doing this to make advanced admins lives easier and not for someone that wouldn't be able to impliment these changes themselves anyway.

themecp is available as a download from my site now so theme designers can start using it now. i'm not working on it anymore, it's finished so no worries about changing variables or upgrades for it. the way it is, is the way it's going to stay.

on another note i will be attempting dragonstyles. i understand and agree with maze's concern but i'd like to try it anyway.

Cool, sounds great djdevon3, i downloaded the module and will check it out. I think it would be a great addition to a theming system.

safecracker4hire wrote:

pretzy wrote: There is a very good reason Bill Gates is the wealthiest man on the planet. Yep... he's a good thief!

I definately second that.

And as far as colors go, well, that's just time talking.

DF is still very new. We ARE making themes - here and there.

I have another theme that is pretty much done - just need a tad bit of help, but I'll post for that in the themes board lol.