custom layers and styles
2009-05-07 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
reeI'm disappointed that Dreamwidth has allowed free users to create a custom style.
The thing about creativity is that restrictions cause it to flourish in a different way. DiaryLand has infamously hideous default templates; that very fugliness has caused countless users to design their own layouts and offer them to others.
I had hoped that Dreamwidth's relatively few system styles would cause designers to take up those styles, particularly the widely-used-at-Dreamwidth Transmogrified, and create stylish CSS to lay atop them. Instead, I'm seeing a small proliferation of LJ-to-DW layout ports: it started with Mixit, but now I'm seeing Opal too.
I'm the pot calling the kettle black - at the moment, I have Bloggish with non-LJ CSS - but don't you see? I don't want Bloggish. I want Transmogrified, or another Dreamwidth exclusive, something that harnesses Dreamwidth's style system changes and makes them something awesome, and I want it to be pretty.
Maybe some clever designer-hacker will make a versatile S2 style out of scratch, but I expect the vast majority of layouts offered on Dreamwidth layout communities to be ports and knockoffs from LJ. And that's sad, because Dreamwidth deserves better than that.
The thing about creativity is that restrictions cause it to flourish in a different way. DiaryLand has infamously hideous default templates; that very fugliness has caused countless users to design their own layouts and offer them to others.
I had hoped that Dreamwidth's relatively few system styles would cause designers to take up those styles, particularly the widely-used-at-Dreamwidth Transmogrified, and create stylish CSS to lay atop them. Instead, I'm seeing a small proliferation of LJ-to-DW layout ports: it started with Mixit, but now I'm seeing Opal too.
I'm the pot calling the kettle black - at the moment, I have Bloggish with non-LJ CSS - but don't you see? I don't want Bloggish. I want Transmogrified, or another Dreamwidth exclusive, something that harnesses Dreamwidth's style system changes and makes them something awesome, and I want it to be pretty.
Maybe some clever designer-hacker will make a versatile S2 style out of scratch, but I expect the vast majority of layouts offered on Dreamwidth layout communities to be ports and knockoffs from LJ. And that's sad, because Dreamwidth deserves better than that.
