As I said a few days ago, the Kubrick Theme is alive and well. In fact, I have in a sense been working on it throughout the weekend. So I do hope that you will forgive me the longer-than-anticipated wait, but I want to make sure that this thing is right from the get-go (I hate ‘patches’, they never propagate as far as the original.)
As you can see from the checklist, I have nailed almost all of the things that I had on my to-do list.
So as soon as I get to the bottom of the two most pertinent issues on that list, what’s left for me to do to get Kubrick out to you guys is a) cut out all the Binary Bonsai stuff from the CSS and XHTML pages, and b) decide what exactly this theme should contain.
To be quite frank, there are many many things that WordPress does ‘out of the box’, that I don’t agree with. Many of them rather small things (though I really don’t have much left over for the default design, sorry), but nonetheless. The question is if I want to put myself in the place where I bundle a bunch of plugins (or maybe just throw them all together in one super plugin) with the theme for functionality’s sake, or if I go the way of the meager and make do with what’s in the box.
“Give us an example Michael!”
I’ll give you an example then. WordPress doesn’t have any way of showing latest comments, something that I would consider a vital function on something as people oriented as a blog. I have personally lobbied long and hard to get this functionality into the core, but I guess if you want something done… be a coder. Which is fair enough.
But the point is, I don’t really know where I want to draw the line. On one hand, I don’t want to dictate to you, what you should have on your blog. But on the other, you would have chosen this theme, so aren’t you sort of asking for it?
What’s the line for themes? Should it be CSS, and that’s all, or do you – as I – think that some of the default setup that comes with WordPress is so atrocious that overrides it should be hardcoded into the theme (like the dates.)
Please use this entry to tell me what you think.
IMHO themes should stick to CSS (“the look”). Leave it up to the blog owner to determine what functionality they want, less stress for you anyway.
I suppose the other problem I have is that a LOT of Wordpress plugins don’t validate as XHTML and I end up having to tweak them so they do (or bin them). But moaning is minimal and whispered otherwise I’d get off my ass and code valid plugins myself.
Your designs always(ish)* looks great. You don’t need to worry about anything else.
( * The sweaty forehead image was not enjoyable ;) )
I personally feel put in whatever you feel is necessary to make the template live up to your own standards. As you said, the person has obviously chosen it because they like the layout as is, and if by chance there is something they find unwanted they should learn how to remove it. I would resist the css only idea, mainly because I too dissagree with much of the default WP file layout. I would not go as far as implimenting user settings and whatnot, but at least the index, css, and any other template files you may have(archives, search, etc.)
On a note about plugins, depending on the authors copyright, they may or may not allow redistribution. This of course causes an issue, and while for the most part the WP community is pretty much open, there may be a few oddities.
Mark: If I were to bundle the plugins, I would of course seek permission from all the plugin authors (since I have also altered a few here and there ;))
My feeling is that the plugins are probably easier to “unplug” and take of the template then they are to put in (and make it look like it should). So by all means in with the plugs :)
I’m all for the all inclusive theme package. I’ve been a steady reader of this BLOG for some time and have been anxiously awaiting the release of the Kubrick to implement/modify on my own site. Having to go gather plugins, bug Michael for his changes, then try to make them work to get to the same level of integration and polish may cause the theme to be withdrawn due to the level of support Michael has to put into it.
Heres the way I see it ~ and yes, I agree that some level of permission for modified plugins is probably in order if not just for the professional heads-up that you are releasing “slightly modified” code that may cause “slightly off center” support questions to find their way back to the plugin author. This is fairly standard in the world of themes from what I’ve experienced in the past. I can’t tell you how many WinAMP themes I’ve downloaded and installed that included an integrated feature of some sort that somehow enhanced how the theme worked.
I guess the risk that you run by bundling plugins is that you are in at some level jump-starting a new strain of a baseline Word Press implementation ~ one tightly integrated with some of the leading plugins of the day. If folks are not happy with the plugins, they can feel free to remove them, or disable them until they grow-into them. Heck, that’s what comment blocks are for ;)
The purpose of this Kubrick theme, if I am not entirely mistaken, is to provide a better alternative to the default Wordpress theme (perhaps even replace it?). I, for one, hail to this purpose, and I’m looking forward to seeing the result. However, we need to be very careful when discussing the default Wordpress template.
For one thing… War is too important to leave to the generals… wait, I meant to say the design is too important to leave to the coders. Let me elaborate.
Essentially, the default Wordpress theme has two purposes.
First and foremost, it is to gather a huge user base for Wordpress. Secondly, it should be so userfriendly, and so simple that the layman user that would otherwise have used Blogger, will actually consider Wordpress instead.
This first purpose, gathering a huge user base, can be helped along with a great looking default template. Debate me on this forever, but whether it’s XHTML, CSS, images, flash, it shouldn’t matter — because as long as it looks great, then what’s behind the scenes is of no importance. Let’s face it, power users will change the template anyway… so why design the template for the power user?
The second purpose, making sure that the default design is userfriendly, is equally important. New bloggers seek to Wordpress and Movable Type for comments and archiving. The rest is icing on the cake (read: for experienced or power users). But if these three basic features aren’t so userfriendly that anyone can identify, decode and use them out-of-the-box, then people will skip Wordpress for the CMS that “does it better”. Indeed a userfriendly default look will also serve to de-mystify Wordpress, and make look welcoming.
With this said, I think that such things as “latest comments”, “subscribe to comments via email” and “textile” should be inactive by default, but definately bundled with the package if possible.
Furthermore, Google loves “next” and “previous” post links at the top of individual posts (as is present on this page), but I honestly think this feature should be built in).
Finally, I would lobby for the seperation of the main template into several individual templates instead. One for the frontpage, one for the search page, one for individual posts, and one for category posts. This is how Movable Type does it, and it does so because it works. This would also serve to help people migrating to Wordpress from other systems, as it is my impression that customizing the design of “each page” in Wordpress is far from logical in the current setup.
My final wish, would be for the template to be structured slightly more Google friendly. With that, I mean moving the “about” section hierarchically above the main post loop. This way, a search for the webpage title would provide the about snippet as a description rather than a snippet of the latest post from the latest google crawling.
As far as actual design and usability issues — if the Kubrick theme follows the general trend that Binary Bonsai has taken lately, then it’ll indeed fulfill both of the main purposes mentioned here.
Give me what you will, and I will hack it to suit my needs :). As far as plugins go, if you release a theme with plugins, and a new version of wordpress, or the theme(s) comes out, then you might have to face a few upgrade requests.
So, it might be better, if marginally, to release a theme that does not change the functionality, and changes only the design.
WordPress is GPL, and that is just so that people like you can modify it, and make the changed version available, so go for it, one way or the other.
It depends on what you are going for.
If you want to lobby the wp group to replace the default template, (which I’d certainly support, since your design is really nice and you have a knack for good usability), then I’d recommend doing a “clean” template, no plugins or funny stuff.
When the WP developers decide to roll something into the core, then you can use it in the template.
On the other hand, if you want to release your own replace-o-matic thing that changes the interface and provides a set of default plugins on your own site, then go nuts. It could be “Binary Bonsais Beginner Pack” :)
Completely agree on the “no latest comments” being missing from Wordpress. I also have no idea why the calendar is on by default, it’s useless 90% of the time.
Maybe I’m crazy, but what happened to nicetitles on the main page? I see them on every other page, just not the main
The nice titles are working fine for me… Anyone else have this problem?
ya, i double checked. I’m still getting it. It doesn’t come up on the “blog” or “archive” page but on every other page including content pages.
I’m running firefox 0.8 on W2K3. maybe my version of ff is the problem
Rooney: I don’t know much about it really, it’s not my code…
well, i installed 0.9.2 and it’s fixed.
Include the plugins where NECESSARY. For instance, the recent comments thing. I agree with you wholeheartedly… as a blogger, one likes to see those most recents so he/she can run back and rejoin the discussion, be it the author or a reader.
The default index php and CSS certainly serves the purpose of being user friendly in that it is very sympathetic to viewers across a wide range of circumstances. A lot of users though want a page centred layout like this one, with a footer. Quite often they would like a fixed width layout as well. In that context though the default index is not only unsuitable as is but is then for good measure very difficult to adapt without a detailed understanding of css positioning which many new users clearly do not have. This issue has been made very much more acute by the style comp which encouraged exotic style sheets but prohibited editing of the index file. Even now newcomers are regularly pointed there as there first port of call. The result has been disastrous. For the evidence for that statement we need look no further than the winner of the comp –
Pink Lillies Please scroll down on arrival to enjoy the full effect. The WP user base is now awash with this type of broken layout. The efforts by inexperienced users to deal with this only adds to their frustration and sense thar CSS is a nightmare and that WP is only suitable for Geeks.
Ouch, yeah that ain’t too good :)