Guys, i got my first exposure to theming on N900 and Theme Maker today while helping out a new theme maker. I did it because i liked the theme concept.

There are a couple things that are ok and a couple things that are not as members of the Maemo community.

First of all, copying and reusing a restricted theme that the creator has not specifically given a permissive license to is illegal and just rude. In cases where that is being done it should be brought up directly with the creator and also made known to moderators so they can remove links and discussion of the theme in question. On the flip side of this, if you design a new theme, consider making it available under a creative commons license that allows others to use it for their own creations. Also give credit where credit is due.

Second, take pride in your work. If your theme is worth sharing, it's worth sharing in a way that won't be destructive to other's devices. Use a proper tool such as Theme Maker to optify and handle installation and removal, or do it yourself if you are familiar with debian packages. Test it.

Third, don't let your lack of knowledge stop you from making a theme. Just be aware that you will need to get your work to a reasonable level of quality before you should be sharing it.

Fourth, when your theme is complete and tested to not cause problems, upload it to Extras-devel. To do that, you need to get a garage account and request an upload invitation. You also need specific files to give to the autobuilder.

Which brings me to the last point: Theme Maker is a great utility for the community. It may not be a completely automated tool, but it's a big step up from nothing. The developer is receptive to feedback and i recommend you use the tracker to report bugs or request reasonable improvements after you have fully tried it out. In the course of fixing up the theme today we found three separate issues to report that will make the app all that much better for the next themer. In discussing with him today the experience we had with it, he said he would add a button to click to pop out the files you need in order to upload to Extras-devel, so you can see that feedback can be very useful.