As a designer, there very rarely are sites, themes or even templates which push all the buttons. Be it big or small there is always that one niggling issue, be it overuse of JavaScript , the colour scheme, compatibility or just the content.

As a business owner or user there is then the added concern of the ability for those to copy or have similar sites to your own if you use such a template or theme that is available both freely or via a template site , even when modified.

Thus the dilemma, with both your designer and business hat on, where does the compromise lie when such a site/theme or template comes a long that ticks all the boxes and has you smiling from ear to ear?

I'm not quite following you, Charlie. While it's true that there are rarely sites, themes or templates that push all my buttions, I'm not following the compromise question when I do find one. The first thing I notice is theme and readibility, then content and navigation. More often than not, if the site is hard to read, doesn't matter if the content is great - I simply move on. On the other hand, if the theme isn't so great, but readibility and content have value, I'll hang around awhile to explore.

I tend to follow much the same route to locating themes/templates or even inspiration for creating one, although it's very rare that I would use one the reason for this is the compromise I was trying to point out.

The compromise itself is that of the use of a freely available or sold (multiple times) templates or themes VS the potential business risk of an almost identical competitor site sprouting up with what could be considered your identity in what is the faceless webhosting industry.

The question/compromise potentially more simply is: "would you use a template and run the risk of potential similar competitor sites sprouting up?"

I understand now. Thanks. Personally, I would never use a shared template, but I have seen some that have been customized to become pretty slick.

You are right Steve , You shld understand it