IIRC, Basic is the only Theme that actually uses a real decorator. But your point that it may be in use elsewhere is valid (in fact, I use it in the pages I added to my Currency-themed site). Since no-one today is using "shared templates" I would suggest that we can still alter the default template behaviour.
Make it such that the PageServlet (or whatever it's called now) looks for the presence of $decorator or the existence of a _decorator Page. In either case it applies the decorator. If neither of those is true, then it does not. The new shared templates should *not* have a _decorator. In the absence of shared templates, for those sites already created, I think this should address the issue. It also allows for advanced usage; those few brave Roller-hackers out there can still create decorators and make use of them by declaring the $decorator value in their pages. We can make it easier for users by eliminating this option (to all appearances, but maintaining backward compatibility). Lance
