just wanted to know if someones knows Vimux who developed the mainroad theme.
its doesn’t seem to be updated and has issues which are like easy fixes however making PR seems pointless as several of them are there already without being merged, commented or closed.
asking because I would love to further maintain this theme.
created this fork: GitHub - mansoorbarri/mainroad-v2: a fork of Mainroad hugo theme which is actively maintained!!
I will be fixing the issues from the original theme so feel free to test things out and give feedback
You should probably edit the read me file also to show themes/mainroad-v2 theme = "mainroad-v2". Though a newer/better name would work better.
any suggestions?
Roadster
From my own experience with forking the once popular Learn theme to Relearn:
I discussed with the Learn maintainers to help, almost a year before I forked. Making PRs and helping in the Learn issue tracker in the meantime. The response was a bit lackluster, PRs weren’t commited without giving any hints. But I tried to show that I am serious.
In your case, your journey just started today. Before forking, I would give the maintainer some time to react. Also, getting a listing in the official theme list may only happen if your fork evolved enough (eg by being visually distinct, showing new features, old theme is discontinued for two years).
Making a serious fork of a popular theme is a decission that requires dedication and endurance. Ask yourself if you are willing to give that. Otherwise you’ll only frustrate users, if you abandon your fork after a few month.
And for naming: I would recommend to go releated but creative. See also the forks of “FixIt”, “LoveIt”, “LeaveIt” theme.
I created an account just for this post…
As a new user to HUGO, I’ve been finding it a pain to use themes. Several that I’ve tried has the error:
ERROR deprecated: .Site.Author was deprecated in Hugo v0.124.0 and will be removed in Hugo 0.141.0. Implement taxonomy ‘author’ or use .Site.Params.Author instead.
I’ve tried manually copy/pasting fixes in the code but it’s just not working (and not something I really want to do.
My next step was to downgrade the version of Hugo that I’m running. But I’ll try this version first.
I checked and @mansoorbarri has corrected this issue in the new repo.
I will be downloading this theme soon to give it a try.
I understand your way of thinking. I’ve been actively monitoring the theme and its PR activity, and my decision to fork comes from a place of observation and consideration rather than impulse. I’m being respectful of the current maintainer’s circumstances while still wanting to move forward with improvements.
My experience with Hugo, both as a user and theme developer, puts me in a good position to maintain this fork successfully. I’m quite positive that I can fix the issues of the original theme and introduce new features.
Regarding keeping the name as “mainroad v2” for now - that’s a practical starting point, though I might want to consider a more distinctive name in the future as my fork evolves and develops its own identity.
I am of the view that since Hugo is always in constant update mode, themes should also keep up (if actively maintained). I find it impractical when a theme author (like mainroad) insists on keeping backwards compatibility for Hugo versions as old as 0.54 and is adamant on implementing breaking changes (and not offering support). This is why I support this fork (only if OP is sure and committed to supporting it).
Hint about the name: Renaming your theme later will generate friction for you and your users. The URL of your theme might change as well as the URL of your repo. Also, once listed on the themes page, the URL needs to be changed there.
Depending on the used installation method, users may have to change their config or will infidently stay on the last version before your renaming.
In addition “v2” suggests to accustomed go users, your theme is something like a new “official” version of the origniating project, which it is not. Confusion for your users will be perfect if the original maintainer raises his project to “v2” as well.
But that’s just my opinion.
@mansoorbarri, is there anything that I, a non-frontend, non-professional developer, can do to assist with this?
just open an issue if you know any. Issues · mansoorbarri/roadster · GitHub
@mansoorbarri - Thank you so much for doing this!
I have a large number of sites built on Mainroad (I am a Professor, and each semester I add one or two more sites for the semester’s classes). I will try switching the newest ones over.