One way to promote the
#Fediverse is by making the different fediverse software support custom profile skins and themes. This can potentially create an ecosystem of skin and theme creators, which in turn will make more people talk about it.
I differentiate between a skin and a theme because:
* A “skin” is like changing the CSS of the default layout. Adding an image here and there, new icons, and colours and gradients.
* While a “theme” can change the layout itself. The widgets available, or shuffle them around. Possible even a way to add custom ones (careful with this though).
Remember the original
#CMS in late 90s to 2010?
#PHPnuke #PostNuke #Xaraya etc.?
You can add, remove, and move widgets around. Use custom ones easily. Change colours easily. Change the widths, the columns, and so on. That is a “theme”. There were even third-party frontend packages a developer can use so they don't have to worry much about it.
Skinning is the simplest method; and this was what made
#Plurk popular when it launched in May 2008 (yes, Plurk is as old as the Fediverse network). There was a Plurk skin ecosystem, which in turn increased the number of people talking about Plurk.
Apply the theming feature from the early CMS brands with Plurk's user-level skinning feature, and we create a playground for the users.
#Misskey and forks already had a good start with their user-level skinning feature (and user-level plugins at that). We just need to see it in the other popular fediverse software.
Make it easier to understand. Write guidelines in layman's terms, not dev terms, and maybe, just maybe, we can spark the interest of new users. Who doesn't want a customisable user profile?
