Archive for the ‘Wordpress’ Category:
Scourge of the ‘premium’ Wordpress theme
So the Web 2.0 bubble has long since burst and we’re floating around in no-mans-land trying to get on with life without a label - I know, it’s tough, but I assure life will go on regardless. Some are still eager to latch onto the Web 2.0 nomenclature, predicting that web 3.0 will be (is) less about ubiquitous social networks and more about the individual: you won’t go to them, they will come to you.
And while the superfluous start-ups that still teethe on the Web 2.0 nipple watch their raison d’être slowly decline, there are certain staples to this web junkie diet that remain strong. Wordpress is one of them. Why? Well part of the reason lies in the fact that unlike many of the other start-ups it has always been Open Source and despite all the postulating on the ethical validity of Open Source software (OSS) - issues to do with quality benchmarks, licensing and peer review structures - there’s one thing we cannot take away from it: it’s free. Any OSS that’s able to bridge the gap between the ‘digerati’ and the ‘cyber peasant’ is likely to be the next best thing.
But with Wordpress you get the feeling that we’ve been so busy binging on the Open Source bottle, so caught up in a heady haze of free themes and plugins, that we’re only just starting to wake up to the reality of financial exploitation that has set in. It’s no longer just a peripheral annoyance, greed has begun to penetrate the Wordpress core; and it’s most unabated manifestation is in the ongoing ‘premium’ theme trend.
Not only is the term ‘premium’ questionable in that it suggests adherence to a standard of excellence when there is none, but it also suggests that free themes are of lesser quality. In many cases they probably are, but in many other cases they are clearly not. See Arun Kale, Natalie Jost, Evan Eckard, Ed Merritt and Design Disease for examples. But really we’re just grating at the surface, because beneath is a world teeming with these ‘little fellas’, Piranhas spearheading a deceptive usurper model that lets the whole OSS show down. It goes something like this:
set up a blog > design free themes > gain traffic and notoriety > introduce ‘premium’ themes > make some quick cash > later on down the line look back and wonder why…
In many cases the creators of free themes start out on an altruistic path, honouring the Wordpress maxim of being ‘free and priceless’ and contribute to furthering the knowledge and development of the Wordpress blogging platform. But before long ,notoriety based on good will alone no longer suffices, they have their cake and they want to eat it. The introductory paragraph to Wordpress.org’s welcome section tells us that ‘WordPress is a state-of-the-art semantic personal publishing platform with a focus on aesthetics, web standards, and usability [...] WordPress is both free and priceless at the same time.’ With this scourge of the premium Wordpress theme, the premium plugin and other such paid services, I’m beginning to think this statement needs to undergo some drastic revision, and I haven’t even begun to discuss Wordpress.com and Mullenweg’s theme marketplace…
Finding WP Themes & Making Tumblr Theme Gallery
Let’s take a quick look at some background…
Once upon a time we were all content with the Wordpress Theme Viewer. It was updated frequently, it was simple and searchable with multiple filters, in short it was everything that a Wordpress theme repository/archive should be. What it wasn’t ready for though, was the exponential growth of the Wordpress blogging platform and the consequent increase in free theme development. Keeping the Theme Viewer repository going was a lot of hard work, and keeping it running on adequate servers a costly affair. Little by little it died a slow death.
But parallel to this phenomenon was the emergence of what is now a household brand: theme galleries. The theme gallery trend began with a couple of the orginal CSS design galleries. People saw an easy opportunity to make some cash out of displaying other people’s work in nice tidy boxes, stick in a rating system and you have yourself a PR5 site in a few months. This trend caught on with Wordpress themes too, so that now it’s no longer a case of figuring out where to find WP themes but rather which site is best.
My search method
While there are many ways of going about finding themes here are some tips for sources that never fail to produce results:
• Weblogtoolscollection News: this is probably the number 1 spot for the latest theme entries.
• Flickr with the search terms ‘Wordpress Themes’ and the filter ‘most recent’: This may surprise some people, but actually I’ve come across some of the best WP theme offerings as a result of surfing Flickr photos. It’s visual, it’s large scale and it’s up to date.
• Just Skins: a slightly young collection but worth bookmarking nonetheless. You’ll notice their collection has a penchant for the ‘light and airy’ type theme. Not a bad thing at all!
• WPThemesPlugin: Straight forward. This is a personal collection of themes, currently totaling 14, but each one is worth a look.
• Smashing Magazine: Start with the link here but also take note of Smashing Magazine’s ‘related posts’ in the footer to this page. You’ll find a whole retrospective collection of themes covering the last couple of years.
• FreeWPthemes.net: The title says it all really. There are currently 68 themes on this site, many are worthy of dressing your blog with.
• Kate’s Theme Viewer: Much in the spirit of the old Wordpress Theme Viewer, this site showcases a collection of themes that have caught this blogger’s eye. Many of the other sites listed here don’t offer the ability to test out themes. Kate’s collection does.
We could go on and on but I’ll stop here. If you want more then I suggest asking google for help. But before I go, there’s just one last resource I’d like to share. It’s a theme list of my own that I’ve just started and it’s powered by Tumblr. I’ve called it ‘ThemeSpotter‘ because let’s be honest it’s a practice that’s not unlike train spotting or plane spotting. Here’s a screen shot of the site. Check it out and let me know what you think.
The one major drawback of using Tumblr to power this site is that it’s tag system is not yet functional. Once we’re able to use tags, then I’ll start adding filters (1 column, 2 column, 3 column, magazine style etc) which will make navigating the list far easier. At the moment it’s just a case of surfing through the collection. But rest assured that only the best themes get entered here.
Just a final note on how I build the tumblr site and how it works for anyone interested in starting their own free gallery. First of all you obviously need a Tumblr account. Go get one now, it’s free and takes less than a minute! Second you’ll need to download the one page of code for the theme. It’s called ‘Silo Theme‘, follow the link for complete installation and operation instructions. So once you’ve got both your Tumblr account working and the theme in place with any modifcations you may have made, I would then suggest one final piece to the puzzle: Screenlr. This is a simple image capture app designed specifically for Tumblr and it allows you to capture screenshots on the fly and upload them directly to your account.
As you can see, it also allows you to add captions with the image so really in terms of operation times this is a very fast process. Whenever I spot a new theme I like, I simply hold down ctrl + alt to capture the image, write a few lines and click ‘create post’ and a new entry goes into to Tumblr! Ok that’s all for now. Stay tuned for more blogging tips and talk.
Free Wordpress themes (part 2 - Tumblelogs)
Welcome to part two in a series of ten posts covering the best free Wordpress themes available on the net today. This list is presented as a comprehensive thematic guide, aimed at helping newcomers to Wordpress to get an idea of the variety of applications that the Wordpress theme can cater for. Part two focuses on tumblelog type themes.
A tumblelog is a variation of a blog, that favors short-form, mixed-media posts over the longer editorial posts frequently associated with blogging. Common post formats found on tumblelogs include links, photos, quotes, dialogues, and video. Unlike blogs, this format is frequently used to share the author’s creations, discoveries, or experiences without providing a commentary.
♥ The Menu ♥
1 » Free Wordpress themes (part 1 ezines) Ezine or web magazine, whatever you want to call it, using one of these themes will allow you to organise your content into multiple layers and start using Wordpress as a real CMS.
{theme count: 14 | suggest theme}
2 » Free Wordpress themes (part 2 Tumblelogs) Tumblelogs are extremely popular right now, but did you know you could use Wordpress to power you’re own tumblelog? The Wordpress way will give you full control over your tumblelog’s options.
{theme count: 6 | suggest theme}
So you want to build a Tumblelog?
T1 » Preview | Download | By Livetardy
Typographic » Preview | Download | By Yukei.net
Tumblelog » Preview | Download | By Safirul Alredha
Tumble Hybrid » Preview | Download | By Lofitribe
TumbleJack » Preview | Download | By 86Confessional
MH Tumblr » Preview | Download | By mattherzberger.com