Sometimes I feel like theme makers have no rights.
Why? Let’s see, theme makers generally have to:
answer things in their inbox politely on a regular basis
fix bugs on their coding as soon as possible
post codes on a regular basis (before people start going into the inbox and demand that they do so)
do all of this, as well as juggling whatever commitments they have in real life, such as studying, or having a job, or actually having a life.
In addition, here is a general process that goes behind making a theme:
Plan the theme. Draw inspiration from various places, make sure you’re original enough, or just whack it and sketch something out.
Open the tumblr customiser, and start translating the idea into code.
Fuck something up, then spend ages trying to fix it, only to then break something else and end up having to fix that, too.
Debug the code and add your credits, trying to make sure that people can’t delete them too easily.
Code meta options into the theme and painstakingly design a colour scheme that works, while making sure that your booleans are all properly coded, that your colour options all work, and that common add-ons (music player, updates tab, freehostedscripts, etc) don’t fuck up when you install them.
Make previews. Find appropriate posts of each post type to reblog, look for suitable header/sidebar/background images, photoshop accordingly if needed, test dimensions.
Write feature lists and options, customisation notes, theme documentation, etc.
Post the theme, ensure that your screenshot shows off the best parts of the theme, tag it appropriately, submit it to relevant places, etc.
And yet, many theme makers also have to:
deal with things like people removing the credit and other people stealing their coding
deal with customisation questions that they don’t want to respond to, or questions about things that have been asked over and over again and are written on the FAQ
deal with rude people demanding that their answer their message and/or fix their bug right now, at once, immediately
deal with even ruder people telling them off for being rude when the question was on their FAQ or in the theme documentation
deal with people demanding that they re-publish ______ theme that has already been revamped/deleted
Theme makers are human too
It feels like a lot of users on tumblr these days have been taking theme makers for granted and not according us the respect we deserve for providing a variety of layouts to help the user make his/her/their blog look the way they want it to. As I’ve demonstrated above, theme making is a lot of work, and it’s not the kind of thing that can be done with a snap of the fingers. Theme makers spend hours, days, some even weeks or months, making themes, because a lot of us think it’s fun. Some use advertisements to try and earn some revenue and some take commissions to earn a living, and that’s understandable because they are people who need to survive, too.
Despite all this, more and more people are deleting the credits because they “look ugly”, “make the blog/navigation too cluttered”, “ruin the aesthetic” or whatever. Some people even have the gall to say things like “I edited this theme, and I spent so much time on it, why should I credit someone for my own work?” It feels disgusting to have your effort, time and hard work consistently spat on on a regular basis, and that’s why so many theme makers have lost the joy of making themes and quit. Coding is fun, yes. But when you have to deal with people treating you like slaves so much, it sucks the life out of you. So many theme makers have said they felt drained, or had no motivation to continue. Please don’t do this to people. Don’t make people hate something they used to love, because it’s really a fucking shit feeling.
I understand, sometimes we are not perfect, and we do make mistakes when we code. We are still learning and many of us are self-taught, not professional web designers. There will inevitably be bugs. But even so, this does not give you reason to go into theme makers’ inboxes, demanding that they solve your problem immediately. We are real people, with real lives. Give us time, we will work on it if and when we can.
I understand, sometimes you just need a slight tweak on this or that feature to make the theme suit you perfectly. You feel like an aesthetic choice isn’t really you, and you want the theme maker to change it for you, but you don’t know how to change it because you don’t know how to code. This is normal and everyone has different tastes. But then that’s what Google is for. That’s what places like w3schools and stackoverflow are for. They’re for you to learn how to do things that you want to do. Theme makers are not your go-to search engine for tumblr coding. If you search for an answer yourself, the feeling of satisfaction you get when your theme finally looks perfect is 2147483647 times more worth it than what you feel when a theme maker solves the problem for you. We don’t have time to help everyone under the sun edit their codes, though some of us would definitely love to.
I understand. Sometimes you’re new, and you don’t know how to do something. So you go into a code, and you steal the stuff that you want. It’s okay to not know how to do something, and it’s definitely okay to ask. I think if you ask us to explain things to you politely, theme makers will explain how they did the thing. But don’t demand that we do it immediately, because as I’ve said, we are people with lives. Although, sometimes we don’t want to reveal how we did the thing because we spent super long on it or don’t want others copying the design, and you just have to respect that. You can try google, w3schools or stackoverflow instead, try to figure something out yourself. Just don’t steal. Stealing is bad, and illegal, too. Plagiarism is an offence that can get you prosecuted in court as well as a criminal record, which is so not worth it for some shitty website.
I understand. Before we are theme makers, most of us are also bloggers. We share your concerns, even more so than you thought. People stealing shit? Why is this person publishing my work as their own wtf! Staff updating dashboard sizes? Oh no, there is no default size to code now! Staff changing the tumblr controls code? Fuck, all my controls are hidden under some navigation or title bar now! Staff doing things to their links? Oh shit, all my links are now broken! A lot of us also think things like “man my theme on ______ blog needs a slight tweak here because _____” and “maybe I should remove my own credit because I made this theme for myself and I don’t want people demanding it”. But from these thoughts, we learn. We learn new ways of doing things, and we improve.
So as a theme user, what can you do?
Well, first and foremost, start seeing theme makers not as coding robots, but as people. Appreciate that we have lives, people that are important to us, things that we have to do, obligations, studies, jobs. And feelings. Don’t delete our credits, and try to edit the code yourself before you ask a theme maker how to change something. If there’s a bug, try scrolling through the theme maker’s blog to see if he/she/they has updated the code. Try reinstalling the code, as they might have done under-the-hood updates when you weren’t looking. Respect theme makers’ rules and FAQs, don’t ask things that they don’t want to answer. Don’t demand that we do things for you, don’t demand that we release things that we don’t want to release.
Above all, please, I implore you, realise that we are not obliged to do this. Realise that a lot of us do this for free and for fun. Realise that we can quit whenever we want to. If you don’t, I assure you that in the future, you’ll have no more theme makers on tumblr.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m happy that people use my stuff, enjoy my work, reblog my themes. I appreciate it a lot and I thank everyone for your support. I’m sure most theme makers will feel this way as well. We are grateful that you are using our coding, trusting us with the design of your blog. However, I think I can speak for most people when I say that I’d rather you not use my work if you’re not going to respect us, the creators.
That is all. Thank you for reading this, and have a pleasant day.
(TLDR version: we are human and we make mistakes. Theme making is hard; stop demanding things, don’t delete our credits and respect that we are people with lives.)
the sequel to lunecerise, this is a theme blog curated by romulvs.
I’m abandoning lunecerise! I've decided that a change was needed. My coding style has changed immensely since the start of lunecerise, and I decided it was best to start fresh. Lunecerise themes will no longer be active, but this blog will remain as an archive. All themes coded under lunecerise will still be found here. My new theme blog is at @solarre, and I’d appreciate it if you followed me there :) happy holidays!!
Please do not redistribute these codes or any part of them as your own and do not edit the credit. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions if you have them. Like/reblog if using, and maybe check out these networks for more themes: x x x // thank you!
Tumblr’s like button is easy to implement into your theme, you can do so using the {LikeButton} from tumblr’s custom theme documentation. However, using it with infinite scroll is not so easy because the same documentation says that “If your theme uses infinite scrolling or some other form of AJAX pagination, you must request the like status of the new posts once the page is loaded or inserted”. This tutorial will teach you how to do this. Experience with/basic knowledge of jQuery is highly recommended for this.
1. HTML for posts
We will have posts wrapped with 2 divs - an outer layer containing all the posts (for infinite scroll to work), and another div for individual posts. To identify each post as unique, we’ll add a variable {PostID} as the ID of each individual post, like so:
If you’re using a different HTML element for posts, like <article></article> instead of <div></div>, then you just add the variable {PostID} as the ID of the element, as I have done above. If you are using <div id=“entry”></div> or similar, please change your current ID to a class. It is incorrect syntax in the first place.
2. Infinite Scroll Script
For this tutorial, I’ll be using Paul Irish’s Infinite Scroll. Load the files onto tumblr’s static uploader and put the script after </style> and before </head> in your code. You should have the infinitescroll.min.js file, as well as a copy of the jQuery library, in your code once you’re done. After that, set up the script by following the instructions on the website.
3. Like Button
You’re almost done. Now all that’s left to do is to tell the browser to check the like button status once a new page has been loaded. To do this, we add a callback to the infinite scroll (the part in bold):
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
var $container = $("#content");
$container.infinitescroll({
// your options
},
function(newElements){
var $newElems = $(newElements);
var $newElemsIDs = $newElems.map(function(){
return this.id;
}).get();
Tumblr.LikeButton.get_status_by_post_ids($newElemsIDs);
});
});
</script>
Update: Using Infinite Scroll v3?
If you are using Infinite Scroll v3 (Desandro’s Infinite Scroll), the callback function was removed when he updated the script. But, fear not! This method still works with Infinite Scroll v3, you just need to make some changes:
<script>
$(document).ready(function(){
var $container = $("#content");
$container.infiniteScroll({ // options
// your options
});
$container.on('append.infiniteScroll', function(newElements, response, path, items){
var $newElems = $(newElements);
var $newElemsIDs = $newElems.map(function(){
return this.id;
}).get();
Tumblr.LikeButton.get_status_by_post_ids($newElemsIDs);
});
});
</script>
(Callback function in bold)
And that’s it, your like buttons should now work. Credit is not necessary but please like and/or reblog this if it has been helpful to you! (:
Theme - Midnight Sun v4; [live] [static] [code] [install] [magnusthemes]
Fourth iteration of Midnight Sun (v1, v2, v3.1, v3.2).
A MacOS x Solo Leveling one column dual-sidebar theme.
Features:
Optimized for Chrome, 1920x1080 resolution
Pagination/Infinite scrolling/manual load
1 column 250/300/350/400/500/540px posts
Optional fading/monochrome images
Optional show captions/tags
Optional updates box & stats panel
[NEW!] Optional social media panel
[NEW!] Optional loading screen
[NEW!] Optional mini Mac-style cursor
[NEW!] Optional featured posts, enter the tag of your choice to the box
[NEW!] Battery meter with optional custom percentage
[NEW!] Theme is now responsive and mobile-friendly
Notes:
Manual load only works if you have infinite scroll turned on.
How to add links: create a page on your blog, then click “show a link to this page”. Page will then automatically be added to menu.
NPF photosets? No problem! Script credit to @annasthms
Full list of credits can be found here
Please like and/or reblog the post if you use or plan to use this theme, or just if you like it! Only message me with questions after you’ve read the FAQ. Thank you for your support!
Note: this theme is basically a mini version of my previous theme, Theme 19. Please do not redistribute these codes or any part of them as your own and do not edit the credit. Don’t hesitate to ask any questions if you have them. Like/reblog if using, and maybe check out these networks for more themes: x x x // thank you!
Hey guys, I know I’ve been really absent lately, but life happens. So I’ll be coming back with new things.
New url, new layout, new themes, new concepts…
I hope you like the changes.
See you soon!
Please do not use the graphics in the preview for your own blogs.
Inspiration credit goes to cixth and ninpen.
Sidebar was made using this codrops tutorial!
Please like and/or reblog the post if you use or plan to use this theme, or just if you like it! Only message me with questions after you’ve read the FAQ, thank you! (:
