[development] Any way to get a poll? Drupal 5.0 Default theme.

[Jeff Eaton]

inkfree press wrote:
 > ...
> Any argument over "oh, use my default" is only for bragging rights and not
> for any other purpose actually related to design or site building.
 > ...

I haven't chipped in for a while, but I think there's a dangerous 
oversimplification going on when one implies that the default theme is 
unimportant.

The default theme is, like it or not, 'the look of Drupal.' What 
identity it projects has a nontrivial impact on how the platform itself 
is perceived and used. Those of us who see the default theme as "Another 
setting to change, like setting the site name" don't care, but that's 
also because we have been using Drupal for a long, long time.

Those learning the system or evaluating it *will* see the default, and 
many small sites set up for ad-hoc communities don't bother installing 
additional themes. They may see the 'themes' setting and flip through 
the bundled defaults, but few will bother downloading new themes and 
even fewer will build their own. For very functional sites, there is no 
reason to obsess about the 'look and feel' unless the default theme is 
really terrible. The nature of the default theme WILL still have an 
impact on the users of said sites, though.

That said, I do think that we've lost sight of the really important 
aspect of 5.0 theming in this discussion. Rather than asking what a new 
theme should bring to the table, we've been sucked into weeks of 
font-tweaking. Ultimately, I think we would be better served by settling 
on a much-improved base XHTML layout (zen's is MUCH better than any 
previous Drupal default) and promote it as a base for pure-css themes by 
designers who lacked the programming experince to put together a Drupal 
theme from scratch.

--Jeff