Opera Add-ons

Themes are fine but.. I love skins. As many other people have said, "why not both?" Skins are a classic feature and one that I have truly enjoyed (for many many years [since the pay to remove ad's days]. Please bring them back!

Themes are pathetic and pale in comparison to the power and control of skins. Keep skins.

классные обои:)

Thanks for making it damn near impossible to find a skin to change the look of opera amidst all opera wallpaper.

Maybe actually bother to show what the theme comes with (ie. speedidal background, different buttons, different titalbar, etc.

Bring back the ability to find skins easily! I also have been using skins happily since the days when you paid to get ad-free Opera. Skins and the customizability of Opera were one of the main attractions. I thought themes were cool until I installed a bunch of them and realized they were nothing more than a background image. They didn't even change the text color in tabs if the image was dark.

Originally posted by krasnoludek:

Bring back the ability to find skins easily!

+100

Originally posted by krasnoludek:

Bring back the ability to find skins easily! .

+101

The current "Themes" are just cosmetic variations on a standard format. The skins provide a truly customized and personalized desktop.

The original post indicated that the skins area "will be discontinued", and developers are "encouraged" to upload to the themes area. This action seems somewhat arbitrary, and does not extend the recognition and support of the skins developers.

As Firefox was mentioned in an earlier reply in this thread, it gave me a deja vu of the Firefox attempt to lead its users toward "personas" (a somewhat tawdry colorization/theming of the standard Firefox skin).

Retain the skins facilities. I already have to maintain two Opera releases (11.01 and 12.0n) due to the ongoing problems with importation and ordering of bookmarks. The skins capabilities increase the allure of that prior release.

Dear Opera Strategics,

there is no other way to express what I'm thinking like... ALERT!!! You obviously became a far too big player to be interested in keeping your "old" community... there are meaningful signs:

...becoming incooperative with all your skin users and designers
...explunging features and nevertheless still promoting it as the "best web experience"
..."disimproving" the mail client (connectivity!)?
... a very, very, very weak private tab function (what for? Money from google, facebook etc.???)

Why should you be interested in keeping your users at all? You enlarged your downloads (but also the using of Opera???). You may meet your financial goals better than ever. So, why bother???

Ultra-boring, clumsily styled themes instead of skins? Non-supporting of copying existing files on YOUR server but/and demanding skin developers to upload them again on your new addons-site??? It all leads to a point of no return, of dissatisfaction.

And all that after using version 12 for only ONE DAY - well, it's "the end of a journey". Thx for the ride in the past years. Good luck to you!

Originally posted by krasnoludek:

Bring back the ability to find skins easily!

+1

Originally posted by Technosparks:

Originally posted by vernacular3289:

There should be a more concrete distinction between skins and themes. I don't agree with lumping them together and I don't like scrolling through 30 themes to find an actual skin to change the UI elements.

What is the point of themes? From what I've seen thus far, it's like changing the speed dial background, but the background goes behind the title bar and there's a slight change to the color scheme while the UI elements remain essentially the same. Creating an option to change the window's background in tandem with the existing color scheme drop-down menu would be pretty much the same as themes. I know it's nice to simplify things so more people can play with Opera's interface, but this is just waaaay too simple IMO.

Why? The themes are a joke, this isn't chrome. First you take away skins from loading in the Appearance window, allowing for a all in one place to see what skins you have and to be able to quickly test out new ones. So one had to load a website to view and try them. Now your basically ditching them entirely in favor of a different color window border, which is all it is once webpages are loaded. Please don't ditch skins, and put them back into the appearance window inside Opera.

The theme thing is horrible. You had a great method of finding new skins that would actually make the browser look and feel different. Now you have to go someplace online, and search for non-existent skins on the extension site. There were 3 when I looked for them recently. There were literally hundreds before this awful change.

The themes are a joke, they don't do anything other than change the background. Why bother storing and promoting these when anyone can pick their own background picture?

Please bring back the old skins.

Same question here. Why? I've been using opera since 2000 and the one thing that made me fall in love with this browser was the fact that it you could use all of these wonderful skins. But now you're switching to themes, and I have to go through tens and tens of themes before I can find a skin? Why, ... Please introduce a filter or re-introduce an up to date skin site.

Please take some action on this. No one is interested in trawling through 90 pages of desktop wallpapers to find a genuine skin.

Provide a filter to show only full skins.

Originally posted by Pesala:

Please take some action on this. No one is interested in trawling through 90 pages of desktop wallpapers to find a genuine skin.

Provide a filter to show only full skins.

I second that! And no one is interested in publishing a carefully designed skin/theme, when no one would find it among all the wallpaper-junk.

Originally posted by Pesala:

Please take some action on this. No one is interested in trawling through 90 pages of desktop wallpapers to find a genuine skin

This is true. I browsed new skins in the past but can not be bothered anymore

Originally posted by Pesala:

Please take some action on this. No one is interested in trawling through 90 pages of desktop wallpapers to find a genuine skin.

Provide a filter to show only full skins.

I second this. The new "skin" section is basicly the new background section. Give us back the real skins!

You know what's really sad?
Nothing good is going to happen. No one cares about people
who don't like themes, 99% must surely love them.
I don't see any reason for Opera to listen to us now,
it's been long time from theme page introduction. They
probably want to phase out full GUI skinning completely.

What I expect is old skin site to be deleted soon, so make
your own offline copy if you want. First take away skins, so
you can only find the themes. Then they can say no one really
uses skin engine anymore,so why bother maintaining it. It's
just another step to making Opera be like Chrome.

This isn't only discussion about skins vs. themes, but no
one from Opera bothered to answer the questions or even
say some reason why not add "skins" filter or something.
Ever.
They just don't care.

Opera was unique. And now it's starting to be like every other browser. Is this really a way to go? I wonder how little support from main developers do theme designers get. And the visual appearance is really very important. It's a feature which sells Apple products, which as you all know - sell good. Yet you discourage designers who make Opera unique and make Opera to look more like... Google Chrome? FireFox? I don't know. It might be not the best move. But hey - everybody does it. Reduce, simplify. Fine - leave one button. And get sued by Apple I hope old skins remain - Opera will still support them.

There is NO creativity in making themes. Just find a wallpaper and paste it into the browser and finish. I tried making many themes, but it doesn't satisfy my creative hunger. At least separate the themes from the skins. Nothing is more annoying than working hard on making a "skin" and having it get lost in the pool of unsorted themes.

Why Opera staff does not respond at all? They could care less?

I CAN 100 percent 4-shure promise you that there is a "bug" ( or bitch ) in my opera account...
A glance at my newly renamed and rearranged picures, videos, bookmarks files and email folders, filters etc. etc....

me parece muy bien:star:

Originally posted by silveronyxbull:

There is NO creativity in making themes. Just find a wallpaper and paste it into the browser and finish. I tried making many themes, but it doesn't satisfy my creative hunger. At least separate the themes from the skins. Nothing is more annoying than working hard on making a "skin" and having it get lost in the pool of unsorted themes.

+1
Thats so damn true...

In most such cases users take it and make their own solution. Could it be possible to host the skins on a free website?
Or everybody upload to deviantart...

@opera: You force us to do this!

I wouldn't say that Opera had 'lost it's uniqueness' just because there now exists themes.
I can STILL use Notes (one of my absolutely best loved Opera features). When ever Opera updates I still have all my personal stuff all ready for me to continue using.

I admit I don't change skins very often. And while Opera skins are lovely, it's not the main reason I Prefer Opera to all other browsers.

What I DON'T like is excluding skins and REPLACING them with themes. That's just silly.

At least, you can browsing (pure) skins there - http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/
my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/ (They're still available, but discontinued support anymore)

But agree, the idea drop skins system to go with themes is quite sad .

Originally posted by nnq2603:

At least, you can browsing (pure) skins there - http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/
my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/ (They're still available, but discontinued support anymore)

But agree, the idea drop skins system to go with themes is quite sad .

so long as opera works:)

muy bien

Hmmmm:eyes:

Oh lord, I've just upgraded from ancient 10.10 to try whether I can function with 12.10 and... I'm mildly annoyed that no I have a wallpapers as skins... WTF?! this looks terrible and is not a skin alltogether...

I dont know opera too many versions,and changes:(

Why did you decided to put Themes alongside Skins? This seems like a messy and unnecessary compromise.

I think Opera preparing to stop support for skins.

Originally posted by koyamaneko:

I think Opera preparing to stop support for skins.

That would be unfortunate. However - I found myself liking the default actually. There are some issues (transparency on Personal bar, lack of darker color schemes) but altogether it's quite nice to use.

Originally posted by koyamaneko:

I think Opera preparing to stop support for skins.

no, skins are becoming part of "addons.opera.com"

http://my.opera.com/addons/blog/2012/04/26/jazz-up-opera

opera me parece excelente:star:

I searched for a skin with a bookmark icon because the latest Opera 12.10 doesn't have one anymore. (facepalm)

The theme directory is broken already: You cannot see if you get a theme or real skin, and finding a skin was impossible. I had to go back to the skin directory to find something. But because this is not updated anymore, there is no skin that works with the current Opera version without bugs.

Please, fix it. Offer the ability to choose complete skins. And please fix the native skin. How could the Q&A not notice the lack of the generic link icon?

Originally posted by toscho:

I searched for a skin with a bookmark icon because the latest Opera 12.10 doesn't have one anymore. (facepalm)

The theme directory is broken already: You cannot see if you get a theme or real skin, and finding a skin was impossible. I had to go back to the skin directory to find something. But because this is not updated anymore, there is no skin that works with the current Opera version without bugs.

Please, fix it. Offer the ability to choose complete skins. And please fix the native skin. How could the Q&A not notice the lack of the generic link icon?

Please have a look at http://my.opera.com/community/customize/skins/author/?id=kosab39 . All 4 Vita skins have the bookmarks icon

This is their reason to promote themes instead of skins:

"The old skin system is of course very powerful, but at the same time complex and hard to ensure compatibility across versions of Opera and different operating systems." http://my.opera.com/addons/blog/2012/04/26/jazz-up-opera

Also:
"In the new Add-ons catalog we will not make any differentiation between skins and themes. This will remain a technical detail for designers to consider, whether they want to use skins or the new and lightweight themes to enhance the look of Opera." http://my.opera.com/addons/blog/2012/04/26/jazz-up-opera

We can still use skins, but it seems that Opera is encouraging skin developers(me) to stop making skins and make themes. If or when they discontinue the skin site, I'll upload my skins to DeviantArt.com, so people can actually FIND my skin.

hello
my name is
i like a

muy bien:psmurf:

The new "themes" are pretty much pointless. Calling them "lightweight" is absurdly generous. They barely change anything, and thus aren't remotely similar to the actual skins.

It's the difference between being able to repaint and reupholster your entire car and being able to stick on a tiny bumper sticker.

I seriously hope you're not considering withdrawing support for true skinning. (Which you worry me about, by referring to it as the "old skin system" and talking about "recommend[ing] designers to use the lightweight version"). Removing support for true skinning would be a giant step backward for Opera.

If you actually want to help clarify matters with regard to compatibility, take the obvious step of giving every skin author a dropdown field to choose from, when submitting a skin, of the maximum Opera version they've tested the skin to be compatible with (a setting which, if they maintain the skin, they can change at a later date, as new Opera versions arrive to test it against). Then allow users to filter by this compatibility -- i.e. in the skin search, give the option "Limit search to skins marked compatible with most recent [#.#] Opera versions". At the moment authors just have to mention version compatibility in the description, and no list filtering of the kind I describe is made available to users.

Firstly, a little info for you:

"Theming" implies that elements of the package are all tuned to a certain look and feel, you know, like buttons, window borders/shapes, font style/color, or, well, what "Skins"for Opera are. "Themes" are often used to change the appearance of a wide range of things at once, like an OS, but graphic "themes" for individual applications are usually called "skins" with the primary difference being that "skins" are for individual apps. Applying a 2d image to a 3d object (pretty much what your calling "Lightweight Theming" minus the 3D part) is part of a skin and not a "Theme" by any meaning of the definition.

I've read the descriptions and tutorials for the new "Lightweight" skinning system or "Themes" as you like to call them and have had the disappointed feeling upon changing "themes" only to realize that it's a background changer.

As a long time user of Opera and it's innovations this new trend is, to put it lightly, very disappointing. You've gone and cheapened one of the top features that made me try Opera out back in the "pay for no ads" days and I never looked back since then. I've been using and pushing Opera ever since.

This B.S. your passing off as "Themes" and touting as the next best thing is a background changer and nothing more. Tell it like it is instead of spinning it like a politician grandstanding on the pulpit.

You've gone and furthered this atrocity by mixing the "themes" (aka crap) and skins together!

What idiocy is that?

Is it really that hard to make another section for them....oh wait!, somethings coming to me!......., duh!, they already have their own section!
Damn that was hard! As far as keeping them current with Opera's versions, most skin devs stated what version of Opera they had tested their skins with and stayed current with Opera if they were popular. As mentioned above, a simple menu with the version(s) tested with for the dev to select when posting could be added. That same menu could also be used in the search process for the end user.

But alas, you've done your "thing", making a bunch of cheap backgrounds be seemingly on par with actual creations by devs requiring thought, time and knowledge of Opera. This of course is going to disheartens most skin developers and discourage most end users from skins as wading through that sea of images to find a pearl has now been made arduous as hell.

Why?

Really?

..........

Please give us our skins section back!
Or implement an "advanced" search option in the so called themes...

Stupid new themes. I'm have access to the old skins no longer. Opera developers are doing their best for users switching to other browsers.

Originally posted by s-ta-s:

Stupid new themes. I'm have access to the old skins no longer. Opera developers are doing their best for users switching to other browsers.

+1

I just wonder why Opera doing this. Absolute downhill

Honestly I hate this "theme" thing.. There all just crappy backgrounds behind the tabs that no one can see, if you have multiple tabs open. I replaced my speed dial background ages ago so these "themes" definitely can't apply there... 1 good.. No... GREAT thing that made me love Opera over all the other browsers.. ALMOST EXTINCT (seeing as how I doubt the dev for the skin I use will update the skin :/ )

I can't believe all the aero skins are gone all thats left are the stupid themes.
What a stupid decision please bring skins back

Why don't they just call it "Background Changer"

In the new theme change recap:
1. Nobody likes it, or is excited about it.
2. Is inconvenient.
3. Does not cater to creativity.
4. Does not give your browser app the unique custom look and feel that makes it yours and not some other person's app that they designed.
5. Alienates your user base.
6. P'ses everyone off
7. Doesn't seam to make anything that much easyer for the Opera Dev team. (afterall, it was the skin developer's responsibility to keep it up to date and current and Opera Team didn't support them in anyway)

What is GOD's name on this green earth are they thinking.

Must be smokin some realy good sh!t

Actually, I for one like Themes, I just don't like it that they didn't provide separate categories for Skins and Themes.