I assume you're trying to set up a Concrete5 site - what stage did you get to?

Free themes should work fine and are not used to try and force people to buy paid for themes.
Also, a lot of work and testing etc goes into developing themes. Frankly at $30-$40 they aren't that profitable for developers so are a bit of a labour of love anyway, certainly no one here is trying to scalp anyone.

+ 1

I got it installed and running and tried to add a theme with the automatic download function. Since then, I have tried a half dozen I have found on the net and uploaded with ftp into the themes directory. They don't work either. Nothing works with this. I guess I could just cave in and fork out the money they are trying to get out of me but I have already read where others have had no luck after paying. The paid themes would never install for them either. I can't get rid of the sample content. Even if I could get rid of the sample stuff, there is no way to add anything else. Wordpress has proven to be useless as it corrupted itself on another domain after a manual update that was necessary since the automatic update was hopelessly broken with a known SSL error. Everyone reported that in the approximately 30 hours I spent trying to research and fix that mess but only a few solutions were given and they didn't work. So, I am still in search of something that just works without needing a masters degree in programming to use. I even looked at Drupal but there are no simple themes that work for me at all. I might just end up going back to using iWeb. Old and outdated but I never had a problem with it and it just worked... Then again, there is always a text editor and simple HTML... now THAT would never have any problems...but sure is ugly in today's world.

"a half dozen I have found on the net" themes?
There are no free themes for 5.7+ , the current latest version of Concrete5, floating around the net.
That is probably part of your problem. 5.6 themes WILL NOT WORK with version 5.7+. And if you're using Concrete5 5.6, there are plenty of free themes in the marketplace (although many are "dated" and non-responsive).

Sounds like you're trying to do stuff where you haven't read and understood enough of the documentation.

I wondered if that would be an issue... Go Daddy installs give you the latest by default and you never go with the latest one. Latest is almost never greatest ... I just got done beating on the other domain and managed to club serendipity into submission on a windoze server. Very simple and no bells and whistles but for a blog with a few static pages it's fantastic, I think. I guess I am on a roll here. I'll wipe the install and install 5.5 or maybe 5.6 and see what happens. It might just be the new version causing all the problems.... it is certainly worth a shot. Thank you for the idea and sorry for sounding so harsh. I've not gotten much sleep lately trying to do this and a ton of research and writing. All work and no sleep makes Jack a very dull creep... :-P
I've installed 5.6 and there are more choices and the pre downloaded themes actually work when you change to them. Sadly, this version is plagued with the same issue so far of being unable to install any themes from the website. I can view them all day long and as soon as I click on it, there goes the spinning wheel of death. I'll leave sit there for an hour or so and take a break. Maybe it takes that long to download a theme. I left it a half hour before and it got some, I think. Perhaps it just takes an hour or more. Patience was never my virtue.... especially when highly sleep deprived and jacked up on 4 pots of coffee since this morning.... @@

See herehttps://www.concrete5.org/get-started...
and scroll down slightly, see in Big Letters "Which Version To Use"

The older version seems to work better and if it ain't broke there isn't a need in my mind to upgrade it anyway. With the Mac, I wish I could still use 10.6 ... I don't use 90 percent of the functions of the new OS... I just need a text editor and email and a browser. :-) I'll give it an hour to install the theme and if it is still having the spinning wheel of death, I shall just delete the site and try something else. I know Serendipity works but for what I want it is a bit too simple.... but I could make it work if there is nothing else that will work without taking 20 hours of effort to do so. :-) Life is too short to beat your brains in with things that are too hard to figure out. Just admit that you are too stupid to ever get it or write it off as hopelessly broken and move on. Life requires a realistic approach or your brain will melt. :-)

How did it go? If it's still an issue I do offer Concrete5 hosting, PM me for details.

It crapped out too. I am thinking I am going to have to figure out how to hand code the thing or just outright steal it from another website. Copy and paste of webpage source into a text editor is not that hard. I saw a website that does what I want it to do. I guess I will just have to reverse engineer it. I have time. I imagine that in 5 years, I might be close to getting it to work. Just one page with tabs and changing content in the middle and bars down each side. Looks like a lot of CSS for the most part. I don't have a masters degree in computer science so the best I can hope to do is to just snag pages off the net and try to beat them with a text editor until they work. If they don't then I just give up and settle for something that isn't even close. I guess that what life is all about, though. Settling. You are never going to get what you want in this world so take what you can get or you will have nothing. :-)

Don't give up.
Don't ever give up.

If my grandpappy had given up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor, where would I be today?
Why I'd be eating streusel in Dusseldorf, that's where!
Not that I don't like streusel.
It's great.

As are German beers.
So, come to think of it, maybe you SHOULD give up, have a beer, and come back and try in the morning.

Or maybe try a Simple Site.https://www.concrete5.org/get-started/hosting...

I thought it was the Japanese that bombed Pearl Harbor?