Gary and the venerable RWT

seyDoggy: RapidWeaverThemes.com (RWT) is one of the original, if not THE original third party developer of RapidWeaver themes; what's it like to be able to fly that banner?

Gary: Well, to be completely honest I try not to fly that banner very often. As you know Dave Cantu was the original owner of RWT and I feel a little funny about claiming to be the first.

seyDoggy: For those that don't know, Dave Cantu cut his theme dev teeth on the now defunct Site Studio (a forerunner of sorts to todays RapidWeaver) before he founded RWT. How did you come to be in the captains chair at RWT?

Gary: Well, where do I begin ... way "back in the day" when RapidWeaver was still in version 3.0, I began using it for some small personal sites. In those days there were not very many 3rd party developers (only Dave, Charlie, Michaelangelo and Scott) so I was naturally intrigued with their themes. But around June or July of 05 there was some pretty strong dialog on the forums about 3rd party themes and how you could and could not use them etc... So much of it seemed really stupid to me so I decided to start my own little business developing themes. I was already familiar with html and was learning the ins and outs of css pretty fast. In the early days, it was seyDoggys' "abLe" theme, RapidIdeas "Diamond" theme and Multithemes themes that really opened my eyes as to what could actually be done with an RW theme. After some time, Dave approached me about buying him out and things just fell into place.

seyDoggy: For a while you ran both Pioneer Themes (your "own little business") and RWT in parallel. Is this still true today or has RWT pretty much absorbed Pioneer themes?

Gary: Originally my intentions were for it to be the other way around. I wanted for Pioneer to be the "mothership" and eventually do away with RWT. But I soon realized how powerful a name can be. (example: I could sell the exact same themes on Pioneer and RWT and the sales from RWT would be 10 times what Pioneer would be)

seyDoggy: You and I have seen RapidWeaver come up from being a small time app with a great community, to a critically acclaimed app with an unbelievably vibrant and lively community. Do you think you would be developing themes today if RapidWeaver were just as big but without the great community?

Gary: I seriously doubt it. A great part of what makes it so rewarding is the RW community. Dan and Co. have done an outstanding job of creating a RW "ecosystem".

seyDoggy: You probably have the most extensive theme library of any pro 3rd party developer. What drives you most to be as prolific as you are?

Gary: The monthly bills I have to pay ... lol, but seriously, usually it goes something like this. I see a website that I like and I say "ooh, I bet I could do something like that" and so I will sit down and try. A lot of times I will get an e-mail asking for a particular type of theme and I try to oblige.

seyDoggy: Where do you see RapidWeaver and RWT one year from now?

Gary: Boy I wish I knew ;). I am they type to always see the big picture. As I see Apples market share growing more and more that tells me that Realmac and RapidWeaver will only grow. They have a strong product and a great community. I think that that will bode well for the developers who have stuck it out. (You and me would be included in that list) As far as RWT ... there are so many things I would like to do with RWT but the but we're a prisoner to the name. Our Name will always be "RapidWeaverThemes". Where we go has a lot to do with where Realmac goes. If version 4 brings us some much needed changes then there will be a lot of room for expansion. If version 4 is pretty much the same then it will be harder to expand.

seyDoggy: What changes in RapidWeaver have impressed you the most since RW 3.0, and what changes do you think are still needed?

Gary: Well, the most obvious change would be the addition of the Color Choose that 3.6 brought. I would also have to say that the 3rd party plug-ins that are now available have been the most welcome change. I would like to see RW add native support for more navigation menu's as well as native support for 2 sidebars. Being able to do more in the footer area would also be a welcome addition. Gone are the days when RW was just a good "bloggers" web app. It has become so much more and I would like to see RW incorporate those into version 4+.

seyDoggy: Final question, I promise... wings or drumstick?

Gary: Drumsticks for sure.