I forgot to mention that the easiest way to use the user's theme directory was to create an alias in apache pointing to the replacement directory:
<VirtualHost x.x.x.x> ... Alias /wp-content/themes /home/users/example/wp-content/themes ... </VirtualHost> -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]