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Hello everyone,

First, I would like to thank all of you for your submissions to the Joomla! 1.5 Template Contest.  We received a total of 24 entries, not counting two withdrawn submissions, which will surely make it a challenging and exciting experience to select the final five.  Before we do that, we would like to notify everyone of a small change to the contest format.

We have decided to adjust the template contest time-line a little bit to better coincide with the release of Joomla! 1.5 RC3 and to ensure that all template contest entries are on a level playing field during the final five selection and of course, the final vote.  Following the release of Joomla! 1.5 RC3, all contestants will have one week to make final adjustments and bug fixes.  Within that week long period, all contestants must submit a final version of their templates.  The final version of each template will then be reviewed and considered by the Joomla! Core Team to select the five finalists.  Once the five finalists have been selected, announced, and presented to the the Joomla! community, a one week voting period will begin during which all forum users will be allowed to vote for their favorite template.  Just as before, the winner of the final vote will be rewarded by having their template distributed with Joomla! 1.5 Stable.

We hope that this adjustment will make sure that all the submitted templates are as stable and bug free as possible and that recent changes to the Joomla! 1.5 Core will not adversely affect the outcome of the contest.  All templates will be evaluated and judged on a Joomla! 1.5 RC3 installation to reduce the change for any inconsistencies or bugs that may exist in SVN.  The final release date for Joomla! 1.5 RC3 has not been set yet but it will be coming very shortly.  If you have any questions related to this announcement, please ask them but I expect the adjustment to be rather straight forward and in the best interest of all participants.

Thanks again.

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Rob Schley - Open Source Matters
Webimagery - http://www.webimagery.net/ - Professional Consulting Services
JXtended - http://www.jxtended.com/ - Free and Commercial Joomla! Extensions

Ah that's cool, I can work on a few things I wanted to work on. When will RC3 will be out? or around about...
Also about choosing the top 5, how will that be done? or what will you be looking for? thats if you can tell...

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http://www.speedingpc.com – Repair/speed up/secure/save space/pimp your computer

Yeah, can you tell us?

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MiCCAS.net Free PC Services

As Rob said, no date has been set yet, but it is close. A personal estimation is that it will be out in about of 1-2 weeks from now...

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Personal blogs can be found on http://JFoobar.org

What about the reference to what you'll be looking for in the templates?

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MiCCAS.net Free PC Services

Sorry if I'm speaking out of turn...

Could the members have a voice on the shortlisted 5?

There is such quality here, how do you select just 5?!!!

I guess it will make it easier for all if a basic set is chosen in function of coding criteria, enough differences with the 2 already included in trunk templates, etc.
Core is IMO the best group to do so as they are responsible for what is included in trunk and will have eventually to update the winning template as 1.5 evolves to final release.

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Jean-Marie Simonet / infograf · http://www.info-graf.fr · GMT +1
Multilanguage in 1.7: http://help.joomla.org/files/EN-GB_mult ... torial.pdf
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Joomla Translation Coordination Team • Joomla! Production Working Group

No problem...just thought I'd ask!!

Looks like you guys have a difficult job on your hands!

Its an interesting situation, I have made my top5 and wonder if the Core will choose the same. 

The templates will be evaluated in several areas, some of which include:

• Compliance with the contest rules
• Compliance with standards and best practices
• Code and markup quality
• Quality, originality, and novelty of the design
• Usefulness to the user base

And probably several other criteria.  It is all common sense stuff...

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Rob Schley - Open Source Matters
Webimagery - http://www.webimagery.net/ - Professional Consulting Services
JXtended - http://www.jxtended.com/ - Free and Commercial Joomla! Extensions

That evaluation surely is hard work to do 

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former Q&T WorkGroup Joomla member - Italian Translation Team Member

Sure is, I'm glad I'm not having to decide.

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MiCCAS.net Free PC Services

You're not having to decide the top 5 but the winner. Me too 

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JC

Ahh well that is true!

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MiCCAS.net Free PC Services

When RC3 comes out, would we still need to worry about testing on nightlys?

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http://www.speedingpc.com – Repair/speed up/secure/save space/pimp your computer

Completely OT, but I have to say that no matter how craptacular my day is (and they've been REALLY bad lately) I always get a big laugh when I see Schley's avatar!! 

Rob, thanks for providing me with a small dose of humor in an otherwise bleary day!

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Robert Anthony Pitera
West of East, Inc. - http://www.westofeast.com - Taking technology in new directions™
SchoolastechWorks - http://www.schoolastech.com - Joomla Educational Development

I just keep a SVN copy of Joomla 1.5 on my localhost so its always up-to-date; better than use nightly builds. But I would say so

looking at some of these templates,  i am very very impressed.  Shortlisting is going to  be very hard...
can't more than 5 be shortlisted? I advise the team not to be too restrictive if the need be...

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Check out Bincom ICT Solutions at http://www.bincom.net
Our portfolio contains numerous joomla projects and resource.
http://www.bincom.net/trainingservices/ ... itynigeria is facilitated by Bincom.

HI,

Our template is still being finalized for this entry do you think we can still submit?

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Parth Lawate Director Tekdi Eco Services Pvt. Ltd.
Tekdi Web Solutions. http://www.tekdi.net
Techjoomla. Joomla Extensions, Training & Priority Support : http://www.techjoomla.com
Signature rules - Literal URL'S only & Only 4 lines allowed

I honestly think it's too late, entries closed nearly a week ago

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MiCCAS.net Free PC Services

Ya i know its unlikely but was out of town & missed out on the date

Maybe next time

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Parth Lawate Director Tekdi Eco Services Pvt. Ltd.
Tekdi Web Solutions. http://www.tekdi.net
Techjoomla. Joomla Extensions, Training & Priority Support : http://www.techjoomla.com
Signature rules - Literal URL'S only & Only 4 lines allowed

Don't put it off though, you can still released it for free for the community.. Remember, open source matters and by making more templates means you're supporting that slogan!

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MiCCAS.net Free PC Services

Ya it was to be released to the community only! Actually we'd started on it before the contest was announced. But thought we'd enter it to the contest as well!
Anyways will release it soon.

Regards

Parth

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Parth Lawate Director Tekdi Eco Services Pvt. Ltd.
Tekdi Web Solutions. http://www.tekdi.net
Techjoomla. Joomla Extensions, Training & Priority Support : http://www.techjoomla.com
Signature rules - Literal URL'S only & Only 4 lines allowed

Well you never know!! PM the guys hosting the comp but it depends really on what they're after.

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MiCCAS.net Free PC Services

I'm sorry but the submission period ended on the 22nd.

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Rob Schley - Open Source Matters
Webimagery - http://www.webimagery.net/ - Professional Consulting Services
JXtended - http://www.jxtended.com/ - Free and Commercial Joomla! Extensions

Sorry Rob, but if we have changed the closing Contest why not to change the Submission period???? It isn't logical and "open source"...

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former Q&T WorkGroup Joomla member - Italian Translation Team Member

Not sure if that has been edited but that is from the News item on the frontpage, so the "other" deadlines or milestones haven't really changed so why change this.

coolparth can release his template anyway

The Template Contest article on the front page has not been updated because RC3 has not been released yet.

We did not extend the submission period for two reasons: 1) there was no need to, 2) it would have given an advantage to some people to spend more time on their template before submission.

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Rob Schley - Open Source Matters
Webimagery - http://www.webimagery.net/ - Professional Consulting Services
JXtended - http://www.jxtended.com/ - Free and Commercial Joomla! Extensions

1: I think more templates better joomla!
2: all templates submitted aren't ready (for RC3, for a lot of bugs and so on...) - I think that who first submitted his template, now has the advantage to see the mood of joomlers and the feedbacks / tips / tricks by us on whatever field (bugs included) - this advantage isn't possible for people that now submit a template.

just my 2 cents among 1.000.000 posts

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former Q&T WorkGroup Joomla member - Italian Translation Team Member

Hi RobS

It doesn't seem that current submissions (IMHO) would be unfairly penalised by extending the deadline. The idea that some people would have more to spend on their template before submission would make sense if you were to take the first upload of the template only. Most have undergone a lot of revision with all the feedback they have received, thus effectively extending their development time.

I've raised a number of issues for different templates, some of which could have been found in testing. Some of this could suggest that the submissions were placed a little too early so that the deadline wasn't missed.

I accept the rules and appreciate what you guys do for the community, bit it just seems that the current submissions also have more time.

Just my £0.01!!!