I must be an idiot but, every single skin I've downloaded doesn't work when I try to install in dnn 6.  Also, on this site is under the community tab, is a "design gallery 2011"....on all those skins, everyone i click won't download.  

Is DNN dying?   Does anyone have an example skin and container package (what kind of name is that) that I can download and install?  Do I search for skins, containers or packages?  I can see why so many people don't like dnn compared to other cms.

xxxx - I don't have any problems downloading or installing skins although Nina's advice about logging in may be part of the problem.

It would also help if you told us more about the issues you're having trying to install skins. Are you receiving errors when you try? If so, post them here so we can assist.

Mark

I have to agree with xxxx.

I'm new to DNN and so I thought after a 100% flawless install, that I'd just download a few skin examples from dnn.com, upload them through Site Manager and apply them to my site. How cool it would be to start adding modules and extensions that would allow me to have sliders and menus and even multimedia!!

Well, now I'm slightly disillusioned.

I've downloaded several of the 2011 DNN "skin winners" and a few examples as well. They all downloaded, no issue there. Yes, I logged in as host and have all rights. Yes, I'm on 6.01.03. Yes, Microsoft SQL is running and all of the tables the installation said were created are in fact installed. No, there are no permission errors.

I uploaded the skins through Site Management and it says that the skin is added successfully. I go in and change the skin for my site in Site Management and it previews the skin perfectly. Now, try and actually go to the website and the skin, any skin, fails with numerous errors. (In all fairness DarkKnight continues to work.) There are missing files, missing modules, missing dependencies, missing libraries, stack overflow errors, memory allocations errors, and the list goes on.

O.K. So checking with a couple of "professional" dnn firms, I come to learn that in order for a skin to run, you must load all of the dependent code from all of the tools that were used to create it. ummmmm...I've made a living programming C/C++/C# for years and so I have to ask, if this is true, why is it called a "skin?"

In fairness, none of these errors shows up as a missing component inside of DNN. I had hoped that the hype of "have your website up in a couple of hours" might have at least worked for the skins that DNN is giving out.

As for the PC, it's a 4 core Intel i7 hyper thread to 8 cores with 12 GB of RAM, Windows 7 (all patches) and 1.4TB of highly available disk. Internet is 100Mb fiber. There are no critical errors in any of the event logs. I've shut down all other applications right down to the firewalls and the anti virus.

I'd give a lot to know what it takes to make a skin, any skin, work. :-)

Thanks