OpenJason

Joomla! Template battle revisted.

I've received several comments regarding my post on Battle of the Joomla! Template Houses - 10 Designers: Who’s great, Who sucks… just thought I'd elaborate a bit.

"I really think that publicly bad mouthing us is not only unwarranted, but also highly unprofessional. Don’t get me wrong, constructive feedback is a good thing, but i cant see any trace of anything constructive in your mention of us."  - Chris

Chris, thanks for the post. I understand what you're saying and agree with you about being constructive in my "public bad mouthing." Joomla Junkie does have some very positive things, which I failed to acknowledge. I'll come back to Joomla Junkie shortly… 

Responding to "unwarranted, but also highly unprofessional." Not sure what to say about it being "unwarranted." Hmmm…. (scratching my head a bit) I think I understand what you're intending to convey. "Highly unprofessional" - fortunately this blog isn't my profession and I have no intentions of ever being "professional." I'm simply speaking my mind… keeping a web-log, if you will. 

Let me ask you something… do you think if I kept everything completely professional and friendly you would have made it to this site?

"I dont see how you can give Joomlajet a shit rating. They are overpriced but if you want clean ,css type sites then these are far superior then most bloated templates out there on the market." -Putts  

Thanks for your feedback. Good points, no doubt. I do stand by my rating though with Joomlajet… and I believe very few will oppose. Joomla Junkie has potential…and Chris seems like a great guy.  Joomlajet, I'm not too sure about. Let me tell you why.

1.Price. When I first ran into these guys, I literally questioned if this was a joke or not… seriously. The prices are ridiculous… and to be honest, this was the main factor the influenced the rating. The best template houses around don't cost anywhere near Joomlajet… I almost feel like Joomlajet

a. is insulting the other template houses by pricing their templates much higher.

b. failed to research the market, helping to better understand Joomla! and the Joomla! Community.

c. is doing nothing more than taking some of the many free templates, changing the graphics, modifying the css and slapping a heavy price tag on it… (not making claims, just sharing a thought…)

2.Do they even know how much they charge?

3. Design. The designs are clean, sure. Bland and boring, definitely. I just don't know where the value is with these guys… I can't find it. You can EASILY find templates of the same quality, or better, for free… All of their designs look the same, they all look like blogs. I just don't know if this is a real company, or just a couple of guys sitting back with a couple of brewski's saying "..haha… dude…. let's take that template, change some graphics and put it up for sale…hahaha…dude…" That's a little harsh, but it's true. That's how I feel about these guys…. form your opinions, as I have formed mine.

Have we seen similar graphics at Joomlart?

I also checked the css on their main site… as suspected, they have errors. You'd think they'd make sure to have valid css, right? 

on to JoomlaJunkie… 

New found respect for these guys… See, if I was part of JoomlaJunkie, I would've been furious about the previous post. Chris, seemed cool… Let me tell you why I gave that rating in the first place. 

When JJ first jumped on the scene, I remember getting directed to the site… but when I'd go to the site, they had nothing to show. It was like they were directing traffic, but then telling everyone to come back later.  When they finally had some templates up, I felt like the templates were nothing more than a Rhuk-Solarflare knockoff… I was anticipating something really great, but was quickly disappointed. So, I seldom went back to JJ… until I wrote the review. Now, when I revisited the JoomlaJunkie site, I thought it looked good… but not well built. I'm not referring to design, but rather information architecture. It wasn't clear where to go and how to get there. If somebody just stumbled on the site, I really don't think they would have any idea what JJ does. Don't get me wrong, it's obvious for us Joomla! folks, but I certainly not obvious for other people. 

Additionally, I felt frustrated with their use of Virtuemart. For several of their products, they don't have a thumbnail. They've used the default "no image available" icon from VM. It's hideous. Now, this is a design house… it says a lot to me, as a user, that they have some ugly graphic next to the product they're selling. Once I got past that and on to placing an order, I ran into more VM shenanigans. There's a very big design issues on each of their products… the "on order" image goes right over the text.

This was really the big influencer for me. A design shop shouldn't have things like this on their page. I check all browsers too… yep, error on each browser, with each product. 

In summary, my first impression was that JJ lacked in overall Joomla! expertise as well as information architecture and content management principles. As well, they initially frustrated me by asking me to go to their site, just to turn me away. 

On a positive note, JJ has a ton of potential. I really like their vibrant designs… it's unique and colorful, which is great. They've definitely improved from their first few releases. Pricing seems better than I thought as well.

Another positive… I don't know for certain, but based on Chris's comment and his professionalism, I suspect these guys would give great support.   

I'll be updating the previous post to reflect the improvements…  Comments are always welcome!