I've been using DNN for almost three years now and couldn't be happier with the way its matured and how the community has grown.  Module development is great and developers are always happy to customize or create anything you need.  The only area where I see a lack of progress is in skinning.  Browsing through Snowcovered I see new skins on a regular basis but everything seems to be almost identical and the worse thing about it is the pricing.  Most of the decent skins are in the $100 range.   I feel that’s a bit much when compared to skins for CMS or Blogs on Monster Template…those skins (templates) range of $35 to $45.  That’s less than half of what is being charged for DNN skins.  Is this because DNN has not reached the masses yet?

Hi

There is a reason templates like that are sold cheap, a lot of people can buy them, if you want a monster template to be only for you you will have to pay in the several k range so they wont sell to others anymore.

Another reason that they all look a like is that msot designers follow the same portal setup layout and dont step outside of the box ( at least not for template skins - they have to do what gets em most the money )

Templatemonster templates are either html or flash so thata a bigger user market then dnn alone. And people can buy monster templates and tweak them for there own portal or website system. And monster templates are sh#t quality to skin beleive me. It mostly some fancy photoshop design that they sliced and made html out of enough to look perfect in the sample site. But dont try to make a skin out of it with dynamic content or large content pages most of them bomb then.

just my 2cts

Armand

Armand Datema

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Okay, if you want to add new functionality or get new skins you *have* to pay for them? This is simply not true... considering that DNN is modular and customizable and you can create whatever you need yourself.

Now, if you are complaining that you don't have the time and/or skills to create said content, but you are bothered by the fact that other skilled people don't spend the time to generate it and then give it away? That's not really a problem with the community, I think that's a problem with your expectations.

DNN is growing. Its a solid package. Yeah, some people are going to try to make a buck from the time they put into skins and/or modules, but that is just reality. As more good stuff comes along, I think the lower quality stuff will work itself out of the system.