No, not just yet! ;)

[Datschge at gmx.de]

> It *is* the prerogative of KDE to make the use of a consistent,   
> usable KDE style mandatory for use of the kde.org domain, just the   
> same as KDE can require that apps obey KDE standards to be in the   
> KDE releases.  
  
Yes and no. It's not like KDE doesn't give developers no freedom   
anymore, it's not like KDE is highly innovative and completely   
different than anything else which would be needed to be preserved  
against "bad influences" from outside. It's quite the contrary as   
we can see in KDE's history: For a long time (and maybe even now)  
KDE is more or less seen as a MS Windows clone, and I state this  
didn't keep user and developers from coming but rather was in fact  
welcomed by many of them. Also standards were not imposed from the   
very beginning but agreed on and included during the time when more  
and more developers saw an advantage in a really consistently looking  
and behaving system. And those standards are not hard to follow since  
many people do see that it has advantages following them.  
  
What we need to do is creating a similar standard set for KDE  
websites: They should follow certain standard everyone is agreeing to  
anyway (anyone really like frames? I doubt, so let's forbid them),  
but it should also allow custom changes. Whatever design we'll decide  
for in the end, it should be ensured that everyone is willing to take  
it over on his own site. This, again, can only reached when we give  
the design a high degree of flexibility. Changing the title logo is  
the most obvious thing you should be allowed to change. Fonts and  
colors can be changed with no problem thanks to CSS. Design elements  
like menues, search boxes, location bar etc. should made modular in a  
way that the resulting design still looks consistent when compared to  
other sites using the same design but other modules.  
  
What we are doing right now is, to be blunt, stupid: We started  
creating reference designs without even asking our "lucky" webmasters  
what they'd want to see, what they'd be willing to take over and what  
they'd never want to take over in whatsoever circumstance. We first  
need to make such a survey, and only after we know what kind of basic  
rule set they'd agree with we can start giving basic designs and  
reference add-ons for those who want to add further stuff to their  
sites.  
  
Does that sound reasonable?  

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