TuKod Theme Revival

TuKod Project Abandoned

It has been a couple years since the TuKod Theme was abandoned in 2012. (This involved the coders moving out of the Philippines for better economic conditions!)

The Rise of a New Coder

The project was taken over by Marie, who two years ago knew nothing about HTML, PHP or how to make a webpage, After sometimes intensive study, today she is solely responsible for about 3 business websites!

I (Lan) after months of serious illness, am now better and rejoining the TuKod projects team as a mentor. With only one coder (Marie) and her time being divided to her three year old daughter, she cannot hope to keep up with all the other projects the former five coders were doing. Marie has chosen to focus on just the TuKod Theme for the time being.

TuKod Theme Goals Revised

Marie is using a modified Atahualpa Theme for her personal websites, the same one I use for 43 of my websites. This will be the basis for the new TuKod Theme. However, we want to bring the Atahualpa Theme into the 21st Century!

Twenty (+1) TuKod Theme Goals:

Modern SEO Features
CSS3
HTML5
HTML5 Outline Support (Headings Map)
HTML5 Semantic (Structural) Elements
No Per Site Super Admin
NO FTP Uploads after initial install
No Tables in the Theme Layout
Webmaster Tools Support – No Duplicate Titles nor Duplicate Descriptions
One Touch Updates from WordPress.Org.
Stability ~ We want the TuKod Theme to be Stable.
Protected Modifications that will not need to be deleted / changed at each update.
Multi-Site Installation ~ Complete compatibility!
NO FTP Uploads for custom headers, logos or favicons.
WordPress Media Uploader Uploading of all graphics (these will be protected from upgrades).
Features Rollback to include all Atahualpa 3.5.3 features where possible.
PHP ~ Easy addition of PHP into the theme like in 3.5.3 above.
Easy Conversion from Atahualpa to TuKod for upgrades.
Public Project ~ Open Source Contribution and Integration of Code. GitHub Community Project
Additional Feature Enhancements.
More Responsive Design

Open Source

The TuKod Theme will be a real Open-Source project. Many of us have noticed that WordPress Themes and Plugins are moving to the Quasi-Open-Source camp. For example, Atahualpa started out Open-Source.

However, when donations were not what was expected, a new ThemeFrame was made and SOLD! In fact, features were taken out of Atahualpa and added to ThemeFrame – one might assume to increase the sales of ThemeTrame while using Atahualpa’s popularity to advertise ThemeFrame! That is Quasi-Open-Source!

Quasi-Community

BFA claimed to have a community of thousands! Really, it was a forum with two guys answering questions. There was no community of people answering questions and improving the code. Way back in 3.6.4 and 3.6.7 I proposed a working solution for multisite. It was NOT rejected with any reason, it was just ignored. Later when many people complained, BMF came up with a clumsy “upgrade” that required each site to use FTP (and therefore introduced a major security risk!).

Quasi-Open-Source

When ThemeFrame fizzled (you can now buy it at a fraction of what it was first sold for), Some more Quasi-Open-Source was engaged to increase “donations!”

Pay for Support

First of all BFA / Atahualpa wanted people to “Pay for support!” If you did not donate, you could not use the site. People revolted. The BFA forum site was returned to free. However, some areas are reserved for gold and diamond Supporters! – Quasi-Open-Source?.

Block Low-Income Countries

Next, the BFA / Atahualpa team blocked whole countries that did not “donate enough money” to them! Quasi-Open-Source? One of the countries they blocked was the Philippines. Now the Philippines is a country that before WWII was ruled by the USA, therefore Filipinos often think like Americans. One Big difference, Filipinos often survive on US$300 a month! Not $300 a day, or even $300 a week, but $300 a MONTH (or even less!). $300 a month is what Marie needs to take care of her baby daughter. This blocking continues until today. Here in the Philippines, and in many countries outside the USA, no one can access the BFA “support” website because people here do not donate enough. Many other countries are also blocked from using this “open source” software support site. Quasi-Open-Source!

Donate to Gold, and Donate some MORE!

Starting January 1, 2015 the BFA / Atahualpa team requires that you donate at least US$20 to them to get any support, AND you need to donate something MORE within the last two months. Quasi-Open-Source!

Atahualpa 4 – Pay and Pay and Pay – or Else!

A year ago, On Sep 1, 2014, 06:03 AM, the BFA / Atahualpa team stated a few facts on their website. If you are in the right (paying) country, you can read there post at…
http://forum.bytesforall.com/showthread.php?t=22782

They said “Atahualpa 4 will be fully responsive, and modular.” Which really sounds good! However, reading more it says…

“The theme option pages will be relatively small. All visual things can be controlled through the Live Customizer.” That really doesn’t sound bad until you read down a few more lines…

“It has over 20 accompying (sic) plugins that add functionality. The plugins won’t be free (but the theme itself still won’t be crippled, it has Masonry Layout, Slideshows for galleries etc.).”

“The plugins are

– Live Customizer
– Revolution Slider
– Siteorigin Page Builder Extension (adds image, parallax, video background etc…)
– Google Fonts (complete set, all subsets and variants, auto-updates itself)
– Upload Fonts
– Upload custom Icon Font (also has 3 integrated icon fonts)
– Pricing Tables
– Woocommerce Integration
– bbpress Integration
– Portfolio Custom Post Type
– and a dozen others.”

So based on what they have had posted on their website for more than a year, “All visual things can be controlled through the Live Customizer.” And you can BUY this Live Customizer Plugin.

In other words, you can have some weak Atahualpa 4 theme that is open source but to control “All Visual Things” you will need to BUY their plugin! Get real, that is no where in the spirit of open source.

Plus remember, if you live in any country that is not rich – you cannot access their website – not even to read it! Not even if you pay them hundreds of dollars every year! If you live in a poor country you are blocked by the BFA / Atahualpa team! Quasi-Open-Source?

True Open-Source

The TuKod Theme will be TRUE Open-Source. Available to use and develop with the hope you will support Marie and her daughter Zoe with enough donations to buy food!

Everything on a TuKod.com website can be read from any country for free! If the TuKod Community wants it, we will set up a forum with a small (say $5) registration fee as the best way to stop spam. However registration is only needed to Post to the Forum, reading the forum would be FREE!

GitHub Development

As soon as the Tukod Theme is a stand alone (apart from BFA) it will become a GitHub project where many or anyone can contribute to its development. Bug Reports, suggestions and even donated software changes will be handled via the popular GitHub.

Community Involvement

Besides the GitHub community, we are hoping to have a community forum for TuKod projects. This forum will be open to all to read. A small donation will be needed to Register to post. This will be used to stop spam dead and to help support server expenses. Unlike BFA / Atahualpa the entire forum will be open and readable by anyone (no one blocked for living in the wrong country or blocked for not paying a Gold or Diamond membership).

Documentation Website

The TuKod.Com website will be used to document the TuKod Theme features and controls and give examples of how to quickly and easily develop your website the way you want it.

Check Back and watch for the deployment of the TuKod Theme – more than a promise!

TuKod Theme Revival – Atahualpa Rebuilt!