LooseSuits

I noticed that too. I think there's some issues with manpower, I think I also read that they're looking for people to help out. But, I can't remember where I read that.

Basically this response was no help at all. Sorry

I imagine when something is free it is hard to maintain it at a high standard.
I have been looking around as well as it is time I settled on one theme, I think I'm gonna have to bite the bullet and get out my wallet though because I am getting discouraged.

I think theundersigned maintain that (also 9rules member), so I guess they could answer that, but I mean, I don't know the process of getting the screen shot, but it must be somewhat manual.

Well I don't know anything about how they run that but you think with their demo thing you could code something that could snap a shot.

fixed!

@cooper
"I imagine when something is free it is hard to maintain it at a high standard."

What about Linux, PHP, MySQL, Ruby on Rails, and other stuff?

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The problem, IMHO, is that great designers might not feel so comfortable with sharing a great theme (omg, people are going to steal my stuff and don´t give me the credits), so the quality tends to drop.

If recognition isn´t enough anymore, why don´t WP-Themes offer something for them?

i've noticed it also, but i would also agree with the lack of quality too. Its sad that themes have gone down hill, anyone with a few crap images and horrible coding into wordpress can submit now. Such a shame.

WOW.. And I thought I was the only one seeing those black blocks. And I thought it was because my system was incompatible or something!

its all a matter of manpower. read the latest blog entry on the site.

while I understand the problem, the solution is rather easy (find volunteers), and judging from the comments section, there is no trouble finding them... so I'm curious as to why the problem was never solved 100%...

In terms of quality be very careful looking through them and cross-browser check them. For example this theme is not Firefox compatible.

I used to think themes on what I thought was the "official" WordPress site were at least checked for browser compatibility but I guess not. *shrugs

The problem, IMHO, is that great designers might not feel so comfortable with sharing a great theme

I don't know if that's necessarily the case. I would love to contribute a theme - if it's a hot one people will know you made it.

Finding the time to make one, and do it well, is the problem. As Tyme pointed out, some themes just aren't up to snuff - if your theme isn't up to Web Standards, or if it doesn't validate, you shouldn't be giving it away.

It should at least be as valid as the default theme, IMHO. :)

Hehe...just like pelf, I thought it was my browser or the web filter I was using. But then I noticed that it was really only happening with the latest addition to the site because the older ones seemed to show up fine.

Even though it's a free site supported by volunteers, I still have to believe there's a way to use some sort of automatic screenshot. Spicypage uses something similar although it's not very reliable, I must say.