I would commission someone to create a theme framework for real people – you know, the people who “blog”.
In the whole WordPress universe this does not exist.
It could do, it’s not impossible.
You’ll just have to wait until I have the cash. Which will be never.
And do you know why this will be a good idea? Security, that’s why. Think about it.
I would write a really bad trac ticket so I won’t.
There are 6 clues here as to why one is needed:
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Adding layer upon layer of uncommented complexity.
If all I want to remove is “Posted by admin” I should not have to write a child theme, nor should I have to guess through code.
If you write themes and you want ME to be able to make MY site look how I want then you should make it easy for ME to make changes.
But you don’t.
Is there a theme anywhere that is designed solely for writing? A design that focuses solely on the words? I cannot find one and I have looked in many different places.
Call me old-fashioned but I think blogging is about writing. Not pictures, embeds, widgets, shortcodes or multiple layouts. I see that WP is used in different ways by different users for different purposes but what I do not see is a theme that has been designed solely for the writer.
Here are 4 that I think get closer than most:
Journalist is a smart, minimal theme designed for professional journalists.
Blaskan is a forever free high quality theme focused on what WordPress does best: blogging.
The Erudite – A theme for writers who want readers
Manifest – A clean and streamlined theme that focused on the content and not the distractions.
I think these along with those at http://www.plaintxt.org/ but none seem to hit the right spot where typography and overall design have been honed to perfection. The above stand out because they have no images when compared to almost every other theme.
What is stopping a designer crafting a theme that caters solely for the writer? Complexity maybe? The design would have to take fonts and all their properties along with the width of the theme, make the display of everything such as author, date published, comments, cats/tags/links customisable and optional then create some suggested defaults. Give the blog owner control of just about everything without using those two words ‘child theme’. (When a theme creator says “Just make a child theme” it should be treated in the same way as an established coder saying “Write a patch”. It means “if you can, do. If you can’t, ask someone else or put up with it”. Saying ‘Codex’ at this point means ‘go learn how to write a patch’ to which my reply would be “If you are so hot, create options in your themes not the obstacle that is a child theme”).
This post was inspired partly because this has annoyed me for a while but it was more so because over the last few days I have helped someone install WP and as a writer all they want to do is write. They have a very tidy sidebar, want no images apart from incidentals in posts and despite installing numerous themes not a single one looked or acted like it has the words at it’s heart for them. I was asked if I could help find and I could not get the answer. It looks like we’ll have to use typekit or google fonts but that’s not a great solution. What she wanted was a theme which had been very carefully created for a writer. Neither of us believe there is one.
I want to be able to link to sites easily in the blogs Link section. Ah! WP has a Link This bookmarket. I use that! Only it disappeared 4 years ago. If people used it as frequently as I do then you can’t blame it’s disappearance from core really. But I cannot find a replacement anywhere.
1. Use post formats. They’ve been around for ages and if you don’t you can’t say you make themes. You just make “stuff”. There are so few themes that do this – you’ll be on a winner if you start.
2. When you use post formats remember that these are not always what used to be called Posts. Here is what I mean.
Typical Post:
This is my title.
Post on Date by someoneblah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah blah
Tagged in something, Leave a reply
That’s fine. Lots of content and a relatively small amount of information around it.
Now for the problem.
Typical Aside as treated by so very many “designers”:
Funny link.
–empty space–
Tagged in something on date, Leave a reply
Why the problem? There is 3 times more theme content around the two words someone wrote. Why?
Here’s what is should look like:
Funny link. (link text of user’s choice)(on the same line or immediately below)
No space, no cats, no tags, no date. The user’s choice of text is the permalink/comment link. All that extra doesn’t matter for the main view on a blog. It’s not a substantial post, it may well just be a throwaway link. A little background styling might be nice – but no words.
Having all that extra text around Asides makes a theme look messy once you have a few Asides. You are cluttering it up – you are making your theme look worse. Please stop. Or at least provide alternate layouts in your theme files.
That’s how I’d like a theme anyway.
I was going to blog at some point about a really nice theme I bought. It cost $89. But the “support” is so bad that they don’t deserve any sort of link. You’d think Premium theme means “We will read your email” instead of “Canned response for the THIRD time”.
A friend of mine just started blogging and I bought her the Tiny package at A Small Orange. It was the easiest to go with at that time but it is limited space at just 150mb. As a routine check that all was well I saw that her mysql usage was 23 MB.
She has 36 posts and 728 comments and 23MB is just silly. Browsing using phpmyadmin showed a huge number of revisions. So off I went to find a plugin and Delete Post Revisions had a good number of downloads. I exported her db and set it up here on MAMP.; Then I ran the plugin. It reduced the db from 23MB to just 4MB. That is both an amazing saving and a scary one. If you are going to migrate anyone you might want to run that plugin first and if you are on a host that limits size you might want to take a look too. A 19MB difference in such a young blog is far too much to ignore.
And Helen’s blog is here: http://planetgrief.com
Got my first – that I recall – solid abuse tonight on the Playstation Network. Was playing Modern Warfare 2 on Quarry. I run into the main warehouse (for those that play it’s the one at the top with the rocket launcher) and get shot. I didn’t see it so I watched the killcam. It was a sniper at the back under the steps to the ledge. And he didn’t even quickscope me – he was zoomed in on the entrance. Nasty slimy little camper. I switched loadouts to a Tar with grenades, flashbangs and a grenade launcher. Ran past one door and flashbanged, went in through the next straight at him and threw everything at that corner – I got him. Nothing could have survived that onslaught and did I care that I’d not just shot him? No, not a bit. Seconds later I get abuse – I’m not even going to repeat it here – and a few seconds later I happened upon him again and killed him again. I got another abuse message. I don’t usually reply but I made an exception and he will have read ‘LOL’. Unsurprisingly for a camper he quit the game.
Yesterday playing this time on Afgan I called in a crate and as it dropped one of my team went to flashbang me. I saw it coming, spun round and spun back perfectly and got the crate (it was an AC-130). And after I’d used that the little cheater shot me (for those that don’t play this has no effect other than to show you are annoyed). So I grenaded him. And shot him. And knifed him. We spent most of the game I think shooting each other. I got the most kills but then with an AC-130 you should.
So that’s 2 days and 2 pathetic players. Of course on XBox I don’t get abuse just a stream of youtube links and voice messages with kids of about 8 inviting everyone to “try out for their hardest team”. Yeah right.
I have the abuse messages but will Sony make it easy to report this kid (his name was wolf1990)? No. No way to flag that message and call it abuse. For the service they offer this should be an integral part. But – and this is no bias, just fact – the voices of the players on XBox are from kids 90% of the time and on PSN from adults. Want to shoot kids? Get XBL.
In other gaming news I bought Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness in the Steam sales (along with several other games). I like it. I knew I’d like it when this was said – “HOLY SHIT!!! DID YOU SEE THAT FUCKING ROBOT?!!”
And in other gaming news I’d debating building a PC. Ask at reddit (r/buildapc) for the best spec and parts (which is the hard part I’m told, getting the bits to play nicely together) then click the bits to the other right bits. But it’s just a debate right now and it would only be for gaming, absolutely nothing else.
And in non-gaming news have you tried the Zen mode in WP? It’s fucking brilliant and in my opinion the best thing to happen in WP since version 1.5.3 (I loved that one) was released. Yes, it’s that good.
When I was a kid my Dad took some cine film of various things including my coming home from hospital (a big event), pushing a little truck thing around the garden at 11 months through to me at 15 on holiday in Menorca. No sound and the clips aren’t that long but it amuses Jacqui and the girls. Given I’m about to head over the Atlantic and half the Pacific (Akismet team meetup in Hawaii) there was sequence in 1971 which showed how far we have gone.
There is an expanse of tarmac and concrete, several piles of luggage and a lone policeman in case people got lost. Passengers – my Dad being one – quite literally took their luggage out to the tarmac and walked to and onto the plane. No luggage truck, no lines to follow. I’ve seen bus queues better organised. And then just as people drop out of the close shot the pilot starts the plane and rolls onto the runway. The days before Health & Safety – and the hijackings of the 70′s. Quaint.
I expect to be searched and stood in the plastic box in the center between the security lines. It’s happened before. But this time I have hair! Maybe this cunning disguise will mean the TSA and others won’t judge me to be a risk and they’ll let me on without the stoppage.
I’ve been watching for seats too. I hate more it than you can imagine when someone reclines their seat in front of me. As far as I am concerned I didn’t just pay for a seat I also paid for the space between my head and the chair in front. I expect to be able to read, see the film etc. I was going to hope for an aisle seat so I can at least stretch one leg but looking this morning I found that 40D was available. 
.
$30 later and it’s mine. Hopefully no family need it and if they do hopefully there are other seats on an aisle without some selfish person in front who wants to recline. Seriously, you should have to pay the person behind for adversely affecting their comfort. I’m 6’2 so the seats aren’t good anyway and reclining just means I have to bury my knees into the back of the chair in front so my back doesn’t hurt. So fingers crossed that 40D stays mine. I have an aisle seat for the LA – Hawaii part so that’s not too bad. Can’t book a seat on that one.
I really like airplane food.