They have been listed as "Coming Soon" for quite some time.  Any idea when we will get new themes to choose from?

We have new Themes coming out from time to time, but we do not have them listed as 'Coming Soon'.

Is there a particular Theme you have in mind that you are looking for? We are always open to suggestions.

Could 'Wedding' be offered without the background picture? Same for Baby and Nature.  The other simple fix would be the option merely to change font type/colour - since I like a lot of the schemes, but not the text that goes with them (dark grey on dark grey is not the easiest to read).

Would it be possible to for you to let us know more specifically about cases where text in themes is not what you expect it to be? White we are working on themes customization, we can definitely fix existing themes.

Getting back to my original post, why is "Design Your Own Themes" listed as "Coming Soon"?  What exactly is coming soon?  Can you please explain details on what this customization feature will include?

Quoted from the Features & Pricing page on the site: 

"Design your own Themes

*sigh*  This does not inspire comfidence in ZenFolio.  Better to say nothing of the items on the new feature list than leave customers (real and potential) hanging in the wind.  If you are going to annource an upcoming feature, give some ballpark like "winter 2009" - no exact date needed.  ZenFolio seems to not get it that many of the users are in business too. 

It's little late now but this seems like a failure to take a SCRUM/Agile approach and deliver 80% -even if it meant allowing CSS/HTML/XML etc.. - and then figuring out the cool "no coding knowledge will be needed" part which in my guess is the 10-20% killing the timeline and revenue.

Deliver or perish... it's software business in the end.

Been throiugh one cycle with SmugMug.. guess they will end up with the cash for the next cycle.

Let me comment on the process part. We are using the agile approach, which is not exactly SCRUM, but it works for us. Take a look at our news page (http://www.zenfolio.com/zf/news.aspx).  We are delivering new releases every two months. Some releases are heavier with customer-facing features, and some include architectural and infrastructure investments that may not be immediately obvious. Strict adherence to the agile process is the reason why highly requested features, such as themes customization, were pushed out into future releases. Increased traffic, storage capacity, and customer base, with the goal of maintaining the highest possible levels of service reliability and responsiveness, forced us to make hard choices about front-loading "back-end" features. If you are familiar with the agile process, you will understand exactly where I'm coming from -- our "backlog" changes dynamically based on customer feedback and business requirements. 

Vitas [Zenfolio]:

Let me comment on the process part. We are using the agile approach, which is not exactly SCRUM, but it works for us. Take a look at our news page (http://www.zenfolio.com/zf/news.aspx).  We are delivering new releases every two months. Some releases are heavier with customer-facing features, and some include architectural and infrastructure investments that may not be immediately obvious. Strict adherence to the agile process is the reason why highly requested features, such as themes customization, were pushed out into future releases. Increased traffic, storage capacity, and customer base, with the goal of maintaining the highest possible levels of service reliability and responsiveness, forced us to make hard choices about front-loading "back-end" features. If you are familiar with the agile process, you will understand exactly where I'm coming from -- our "backlog" changes dynamically based on customer feedback and business requirements. 

Speaking as a software developer myself, I am intimately familiar with agile development methodologies.  Every single one of them involves these core parts: deliver early and deliver often, and communicate with your customers throughout the whole process.  You may be delivering every two months, although the extreme lack of customer-facing feature deliveries is very telling, but you sure as hell get a failing grade in the communicate with your customers part.  "We're working on it, but we won't say anything else about it" as a repeated mantra for 6 months or more while advertising a feature as coming soon on your page to entice customers to sign up is disingenious at best, and downright duplicitous at worst.

Do you remember how eager your customers were when you first started this forum?  Do you get the same feeling from them now, or do you feel like they're distinctly turning hostile?  Be honest with yourselves when you answer that.

I wonder if perhaps the deafening silence about even the remotest timeframe when your paying customers can expect features that have been asked for for months has anything to do with that newfound hostility on your customers' parts?

 Alex,

Back to the OP's question (or at least related to it I hope) can you define "soon"?  I believe the "Coming soon is the ability to create your own visual Theme designs" has been posted since Feb 2007 (when I signed up 18 months ago).  Or perhaps removing "soon" from the statement would help alleviate future angst from newer customers.  Unless of course its actually coming "soon" (which I usually infer to mean w/in a quarter.)

 And when you say "This is all the information we have available at this time" I'm assuming you really mean that's all you can share based on your policy of not sharing any timing with respect to features.  Unless you've outsourced the development and don't know the status.

Matt:

And when you say "This is all the information we have available at this time" I'm assuming you really mean that's all you can share based on your policy of not sharing any timing with respect to features.

Matt -- that's correct, I am sorry but we do not give out dates for future feature releases. I can confirm that customizing Themes functionality will not become available in the next three months, and I can also confirm that it is on our short list of features we would like to have as soon as possible.

Alex Peyzner [Zenfolio]:

I can confirm that customizing Themes functionality will not become available in the next three months, and I can also confirm that it is on our short list of features we would like to have as soon as possible.

A "short list" feature that won't be released in the next three months?  That's very discouraging, it sounds like nothing is getting close to an actual release any time soon  

Alex Peyzner [Zenfolio]:

 I can confirm that customizing Themes functionality will not become available in the next three months, and I can also confirm that it is on our short list of features we would like to have as soon as possible.

Hi, Alex: 

It's very disappointing indeed! Maybe you should consider replaceing the "coming soon" with "TBD" at ZF's feature list if it takes more than half year to be available. Having said that, I still want to offer my best wishes to the ZF team and hope we'll hear something new in the next 3 months.

 Regards,

Fred 

I came across this thread while once checking the status of the looooong ago announced feature "design your own themes". The thread dates from July. I think the announcement is already two years old. It was one of the key motivators for me to join Zenfolio. I see the feature has now changed from "cooming soon" to "planned". Is there ANY progress?

I'm disappointed.