Things i do not like about dolphin.....

1. The people: looking at the members in the site is very odd. it does not appeal the eyes..when you view members (members online, birthday, etc) it should display in an attractive way. with the mini boxes and a mini avatar with no  information under the profile is not so good.

2. Chat room: though its good to an extent but it needs improvements.does the chat ever get updates?

3. I am sure that the template itself is very good. easy to use, admin friendly and even a dumb ass like me can operate it without a single knowledge of php. so that is very good.. but. can there be a template with a different look? i mean a different look, match making, proper social network with same admin friendly?

A lot of people add new templates into the market with differerent colours. how .about the look

i really want  to see things differently.. that is, when you enter a site, u dont have to notice immediately that this is a dolphin script,where are the experts?

dont get me wrong, i am just saying how i feel..

I very much agree with your comment about Dolphin templates looking similar.  I know Drupal has the same problem... I've built a few sites and had to do a lot of work to customize the look-n-feel... fortunately there are a lot of blogs, books and videos to help with that.  I also suspect Joomla site builders experience the same problem.  

If anyone knows of a person/group that is *very* good at creating custom *unique* looking Dolphin templates... for a reasonable fee... with good communication skills and quick results... please let me know!   I'm still sorting out which modules to display and where... but as soon as that's finished I'll be looking to customize the default template so my site doesn't look like thousands of other Dolphin sites.

Please PM me with suggestions for template developers... so I don't hijack this thread. 

I understand what you are saying. I too am pretty new, but here what I see as some of the issues.

To get your unique "look", you will have to change pretty much the internal workings and positioning of blocks, menus etc, which could make your site difficult to upgrade, so you would be constantly battling. Correct me if I am wrong. No matter what sort of site you build, it will be based on a copy of another one; don't you think?

A couple of other ideas and suggestions; I think 8 will allow you more flexibility, feel and look. Not sure though.

Even though you feel that there are a thousands sites that just look like yours, in essence you only feel that because you view them here. In the real world it is hard to meet up with other sites that look like mine. Another idea is to start with minimal costs, get your memberships (membership join is NOT directly dependent on the look of your site, rather how your site fits the community) and once you feel you are on your way, start to work on the look and feel of your site to fit, trust me what you originally visualized will not be what you end up having as a community. I made the same mistake as most do, try to start with this perfect looking site with all the perfect mods, but that is not how it all translates into when you are in live mod. Start with a decent template and a few critical mods for your site and build from there. I am learning the hard way, but I am building slowly.

Hope this makes some sense and helps?

Templates in dolphin all look the same because they follow the dolphin structure.

1) Dolphin has column layout with a header and a footer. The same rules must be followed in any template or you risk breaking the use of the page builders.

2) Dolphin uses blocks. The blocks can be drastically changed, but still must remain blocks.

So any heavy deviation from that must wait until your site is done and you have all modules you want installed and it will have to be a custom build so the developer can skin all of your modules as well. Heavy deviation from the norm will make the template incompatible with all of the modules. So each module would have to be skinned as well which prevents new modules from being added later. Heavy changes may also prevent the use of the template switcher and the profile customizer. There may be other things that also may break as well.

Templates have to follow dolphins template guidelines as well, or they most likely will not be allowed to be sold in the market.

You can blame that last one on the members of this site that insist guidelines be followed. Which they should be and i am sure you agree. So you can't have both. You ether stick with the guidelines, or break the rules and get something you want, but can't be sold to the public because it will not work on most sites.

I agree with you. but how about the chat room having one or two additionals? and PEOPLE should display in a more matured way.

 am not saying they aren't doing a great job. just want to have somerething a abit different. something that gives members choice..... dolphin can design up to 3 types of templates in the market that will enable us make choice.

no i have stumbled into some sites and i noticed immediately that they use dolphin even as there is no logo to show.... anyway we hope later in the future things like this will be worked on.

My site is up to one year an you also agree with me its time to add one or two things to it. but it should look kind of differently....particularly those parts i earlier mentioned. i have seen a lots of updates in the market but no one working on the chat room to add one or two things..

whenever i view PEOPLE or ALL MEMBERS, i feel like completely removing it. i have removed it many times but for the sake of the members i have to put it back. 

I believe dolphin 8 is suppose to have a more flexible template system

As for the chat, that has never changed. D6 - D7 all looked the same. Pretty much no real changes. You are better off finding a replacement. The one built in is showing no signs of advancement.

As for the people block. Well, you can hire someone to rewrite the way it works. I don't have a problem with it, and i cannot redesign anything based on a description of what it should look like. I am a visual person. I need to see examples, photoshopped layouts, ect.

A very excited client of mine wants 7 of these set up to all look different - I sent her to look over the link above labeled 'Websites' for ideas on what is possible for now.  I'm using the Super HTML Blocks mod to break things up a little, playing with the built-in Block _DesignBox: setting has helped some too.  Watching for and trying to think of ways to adjust the layout. Being able to add more rows would be nice imo -

This will add female/male icon and age y/o bellow nickname on all pages,

All Members, Match, Online, Featured, Top Rated, Popular, Birthdays and Search  (Simple mod)

Open file: templates/base/search_profiles_sim.html

<div class="searchrow_block_simple">
    __thumbnail__
</div>

change it to

<div class="searchrow_block_simple">
    __thumbnail__
<div class="clear_both"></div>
<img src="__sex_image__" alt="__sex_image__" /> __age__
</div>

I agree on chat....I switched to cometchat as 100% better. Base costs $49 but awesome features for that like games (single player and two player), group chat, password protected chat for like support and admins, fileshare, video chat (costs more), facebook and gtalk friends integration, announcements, translations,  visitor chat if you want. I use on dolphin site wide even in my smf forums.

Its a must have in my eyes if your going to have chat at all.

@Okweb

Nice little trick with the sex and the age under the avatar.

The <img src="__sex_image__" alt="__sex_image__" /> part though, is showing the same image for all users though, the /images/icons/tux.png

Regardless of gender. It wouldn't surprise me if it's because something I have done earlier, but if you have any ideas why i'm all ears.

Best,

Eric

 If you know a thing or two about java or html you might want to check out esases injections module. This could really shake things up in the right hands.

 Dolphin template, check this

file: templates/base/scripts/BxBaseSearchProfile.php


look after this code

$sProfileNickname = ($sHeadline) ? "<a href='$Link'>" . $sNickName . '</a> :' : "<a href='$Link'>" . $sNickName . '</a>';
$sSexIcon = $GLOBALS['oFunctions']->genSexIcon($aProfileInfo['Sex']);
$sProfileZodiac = ($enable_zodiac) ? $GLOBALS['oFunctions']->getProfileZodiac($aProfileInfo['DateOfBirth']) : '';



and this

$aKeys = array(
    'thumbnail' => $sProfileThumb,
    'nick' => $sProfileNickname,
    'head_line' => $sHeadline,
    'age' => $y_o_sex,
    'city_con' => $city_con,
    'i_am_desc' => $i_am_desc,
    'member_actions' => $sActions,
    'sex_image' => $sSexIcon,