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How To Screw Up Your Image

How To Screw Up Your Image

By Jeffro on May 1, 2009

Community member Kim Parsell sent me a notification the other day containing a series of messages exchanged on Twitter between Matt Mullenweg, Chris Pearson, and Brian Clark. I’m not sure how the conversation was initiated considering the post/comment that was linked to was created back at the end of March. At any rate, here is how the conversation on Twitter went down.

@photomatt I think Brian Clark / Chris Pearson of Thesis theme just said they want to sue WordPress. about 1 hour ago from web

@photomatt @bishless Sue, an anti-GPL case. I guess they’re against Open Source enough to sue their underlying platform to prove their interpretation? about 1 hour ago from web in reply to bishless

@photomatt There’s a history of litigiousness? http://blogigs.com/the-thesis-like-theme/ “I release the rest of my internet hounds on your site to shame you into oblivion” about 1 hour ago from web

@wyliemac Whoa. Something is brewing between @photomatt and the thesis guys, @copyblogger and @pearsonified. A GPL issue. about 1 hour ago from web

@wyliemac RT @copyblogger: @photomatt No, we invited you to sue us because you think we are doing something wrong. Intellectual honesty is your friend about 1 hour ago from web

@photomatt :( RT @copyblogger: @photomatt You better watch it Matt. We invited you to sue us to settle the GPL, but libel gets you a new world of hurt. 23 minutes ago from web

Upon checking out the BlogGigs link you’ll find an announcement about a theme Costa created called Thesis Like. Checking out the BlogGigs archive and also seeing the big 300 pixel sized advertisement, it’s clear that this person is a huge fan of the Thesis theme. However, the excitement for Costa was short lived as the first comment on the blog was from Thesis creator Chris Pearson.

First off, everyone take note on what has happened here as this is the way you are NOT supposed to handle a situation like this. Although Costa complied with Chris’s requests, Chris did a great job making himself look like a big, tough, cyberbully. I’d be upset too if someone released a free theme which mimicked my commercial product and on top of that, used my products name but I would have sent an email first. In fact, if you take a look at the business opportunity here, I would have offered some sort of cool license deal or something creative in exchange for Costa to take down his Thesis Like theme. Instead, Costa gets slapped across the face and threatened with the prospect of Internet hounds putting his site into shame. The next day, Costa publishes a public apology to Chris where in the comment section, Chris admits that he may not have handled the situation correctly.

GPL Fight! – Just Kidding:

I really don’t want to go down the GPL road again but it’s pretty clear that Thesis doesn’t give a damn about the GPL license, just like the customers who purchase premium themes not filed under the GPL. They just want a great looking theme which works, is affordable, and has a great support base. If they have to pay a fee to remove an attribution link, seems like customers happily do so with no questions asked.

A part of me would like to create a theme that clones Thesis but has my own php/WordPress code, my own CSS, and a big header image that points a middle finger at the Thesis logo. But I won’t do that and like Matt, I’ll let the market decide what happens to premium theme shops like Thesis.

Now I understand how Matt can get pretty upset when he sees premium theme outlets take full advantage of the free, open-source platform that has allowed them to establish their business while on the flipside, shut out the open-source nature of the platform with their commercial product.

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Compilation Of Theme Frameworks

Compilation Of Theme Frameworks

By Jeffro on April 28, 2009

1stdesignerlogoTheme Frameworks. Those two words have buzzed around the WordPress community since the beginning of this year. Every time I turn around, someone else is developing their own theme framework. But, if you side with Dion Hulse’s line of thinking where any theme can be classified as a theme framework then there are thousands of them to wade through.

1stwebdesigner.com has put together a compilation of 20 different theme frameworks and starting resources. The usual suspects show up on the list: Hybrid, Thematic, Carrington, and WP Framework. New to me on this list is Vanilla as Alister Cameron is still working on it, Whiteboard, OnePress, and The WordPress Starter Theme Project.

Looks like our buddy Dan Cole is going to have some work to do conducting another one of his framework charts so we can see how all of these frameworks compare.

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Review Of Front End Editor Plugin

Review Of Front End Editor Plugin

By Jeffro on April 28, 2009

pluginoptionsA few days ago, I reported on a piece published by Andy Peatling regarding why BuddyPress themes were future proof and how the themes provided functions where you could perform most backend tasks on the frontend. This perked my interests because I’d love to see the same thing implemented on the WordPress side of things. After monitoring the WP Hackers List and doing a search on the plugin repository, I’ve come across a plugin developed by Scribu called Front End Editor.

Installation is simple and can be performed from the plugin section of the administration panel. Once installed, you’ll have a new option in your Settings menu called Front-end Editor. This is where you’ll find options for the plugin. From here you can enable/disable editing of the following:

  • Post/page title
  • Post/page content
  • Post/page excerpt
  • Post tags
  • Post/page custom fields
  • Comment text
  • Text widget content
  • Text widget title

The great thing about doing this from a plugin approach is that you don’t need to do anything special with your theme. This is great news for theme developers and end users alike however, as you’ll see in a little bit, not all themes play nice.

After you configure the plugin, checkout your front page. You’ll notice that nothing has changed but if you double click on post content, widget title headers, or anywhere else you configured the plugin, you’ll instantly see a real time editor show up around the content. If you’ve selected the WYSIWYG editor, a full blown TinyMCE editor will show up around the content which is great if you’ve ever wanted the ability to edit a text widget with one of these. However, here are a couple of screenshots which show the plugin not playing nice with my version of Hybrid News.

listitems topwidgetmessedup notwideenough

In the first screenshot you can see how my list item graphic shows up multiple times within the WYSIWYG editor. The second screenshot showcases the top header widget messed up when widget title editing is enabled. The final screenshot shows how the editor box appears to be wider than the content box itself.

Final Thoughts:

Other than these quirks which is probably due to the theme itself, this plugin works great. One thing I would suggest is that any editable area should have either an edit icon next to it or a small edit link. As it is currently, you have to double click an editable area such as a tag or post title in order to open the editor. I would also like the option to use the HTML version of the editor rather than the Visual version. Other than that, this plugin fits the bill quite nicely for moving WordPress administration from the dark ages to something more relevant. I bet if someone did a study of how much time was wasted during a year of using WordPress by doing all sorts of mundane tasks through the backend as opposed to a simple way of performing those tasks on the front end, I bet we would see a huge amount of time lost, like sitting at a red light.

I recommend this plugin to anyone who would like to perform simple tasks without the need to login and navigate your administration panel. Hopefully in the future, WordPress intertwines more backend tasks to the front end. Let me know if you experience the same theme quirks I did.

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Matt Takes Notice Of Gorilla Project

Matt Takes Notice Of Gorilla Project

By Jeffro on April 27, 2009

wpgorillalogo Checking out the WPTavern Twitter stream early this morning, I noticed this tweet from Matt: This could be interesting for WP themes: http://wpgorilla.org/ They should add finished product to theme directory. Taking a look into the Gorilla Project, looks like they will be producing open-source ‘Premium‘ WordPress themes.

The Gorilla Project is an opensource project created by Jeremie and Chris to overcome common issues encountered by a single WordPress theme designer.

I’ve never heard of Chris before but Jeremie should be a somewhat familiar name to most of you since he is the creator of the slick looking OneRoom WordPress theme. I’m intrigued by why these two developers are going down this road essentially doing the same thing every other theme author is doing but for a price.

I mean, everything on paper regarding this project looks great from an end users perspective, I just can’t believe there is no mention of revenue or money. I would be very, very surprised if this really was a project centered around benefiting the WordPress community as a whole, only because I’ve never seen something like this. Matt even suggested that once they have a finished product available, they should put it on the Theme Repository. If OneRoom and Jeremie’s latest project PigNews is the type of design work we can expect to come out of this project to be freely accessible to anyone in the WordPress community, that will be a huge plus not only for the repository, but for the community as a whole.

I’m going to try and get a hold of one or both of these guys to figure out what the ultimate motive is behind the project either in an interview on WPWeekly or a text based interview.

They are currently looking to build their team so if you’re interested and are a theme designer, a plugin developer, a PHP Ninja or only a graphic designer email them at joinus {a-t} wpgorilla {d-o-t} org. they also ask that you please attach a link to your portfolio if you have one.

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BuddyPress Themes Are Future Proof

BuddyPress Themes Are Future Proof

By Jeffro on April 21, 2009

buddypresslogoOver on the BuddPress blog, Andy Peatling has published a post explaining to us why BuddyPress themes are future proof. Andy explains that for folks into blogging, it makes sense to access a backend to configure settings such as your profile, etc. The software should enable you to write with little distractions without the need for flashy graphics.

However, since BuddyPress has more of a social nature to it, logging into the backend to change minute information such as your profile, or to check messages makes for a bad experience as it breaks continuity. I tend to agree. Andy then explains that BuddyPress themes contain template files and functions for displaying and updating content from the front-end. Essentially, you don’t have to drive a mile to move a foot. What this all means is that, since new features are typically handled by the administration area of the software, themes will usually work all the time with only some template functions added on occasion.

Default BuddyPress Theme

Default BuddyPress Theme

BuddyPress is taking an interesting approach to theme development as illustrated by this point:

New functionality in BuddyPress will almost always be enabled through theme upgrades. However, our policy will be that existing themes will not break and backwards compatibility will always be assured. As a theme designer it is up to you to decide which BuddyPress features you want to provide support for, and whether you want to support new features introduced in future BuddyPress versions.

If that wasn’t enough to get excited about, with each release, they plan on offering a ‘cheat-sheet‘ which will list all of the new functions that were added as well as a backlog of all of the previous functions. The default themes for BuddyPress will always remain up to date, including the skeleton theme meaning you’ll always have a clean slate to start from.

My Thoughts

Despite me not using the software, I am very impressed by what I’ve read in this announcement. In fact, I’d like to mention that I would love to see WordPress themes head in more of a direction that BuddyPress themes are in that, I would like to edit certain things from the front-end versus having to always go through the backend. For example, instead of logging into my administration page, clicking Appearance, clicking Widgets, configuring a new text widget or simply correcting a typo I discovered, I’d rather be able to click an edit button from the front page of the blog where the text widget is displayed and be able to edit the title and the content right there, on the spot. Why should EVERYTHING be done in the administration panel?

I remember a WordPress theme called Ajaxified (I think) which provided a bunch of front end editing that worked via Ajax. That project is no longer being updated. However, I know of a plugin called Front-End Editor created by the awesome scribu which appears to do most of what I want. I’ll be sure to give this a plugin a try and follow up with a detailed review. If it works as expected, guess I’ll be happy to see that theme authors won’t need to do a thing to move down this road.

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WP Framework Now On The Repository

WP Framework Now On The Repository

By Jeffro on April 20, 2009

Ptah Dunbar has been working on his very own Theme Framework for quite some time now and today, after five revisions the framework has ended up on the theme repository for download. According to Ptah, this is what we can expect from the framework:

A blank WordPress Theme Framework that’s everything you need, and nothing you don’t. With features like microformats, a traditional template structure, convention over configuration, clean semantic code, documentation, and it’s atomic templating system, WP Framework is completely extensible, flexible and the starting point for theme authoring and customization.

The initial theme is about as plain as you can get leaving plenty of room for creative CSS types to dive in and generate their own masterpiece.

wpframeworkpreview

While there has been quite a bit of fanfare surrounding Ian Stewart’s Thematic framework and Justin Tadlock’s Hybrid framework, it will be interesting to see if Ptah can make any headway in this space as it’s slowly but surely becoming crowded and based on what I’ve seen, he has much less fanfare than the others.

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P2 Officially On The Theme Repository

P2 Officially On The Theme Repository

By Jeffro on April 16, 2009

Back in March, I let you know that P2 was on the horizon for self installed WordPress users and that it was already available for WordPress.com users. Fast forward to today and Prologue 2 is now on the WordPress.org theme repository. The theme features the following perks:

Hassle-free posting from the front page. Perfect for group blogging, or as a liveblog theme. Dynamic page updates. Threaded comment display on the front page. In-line editing for posts and comments. Live tag suggestion based on previously used tags. A show/hide feature for comments, to keep things tidy. Real-time notifications when a new comment or update is posted. Super-handy keyboard shortcuts.

Here is a video refresher on the theme:

You can also see Prologue 2 in action on the WordPress Development Update blog.

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Moving Domains, Beta Testers And More

Moving Domains, Beta Testers And More

By Jeffro on April 13, 2009

I haven’t published one of these posts in awhile so without further adieu, lets see what’s been happening on the forum as of late.

Checklist for Moving Domains -I’m thinking of moving everything from jeffro2pt0.com to jeffc.me. Instead of looking up all of the different guides to move the site, I’m looking to see what you would do in my situation.

Comment Filter Beta Testers Needed – Will Anderson over the Easter holiday took the time to create a plugin based on a request I had and some other feedback. Will needs some beta testers to try out the plugin.

Media System Revamped – While we have discussed the media system revamp on the site, we have also discussed it in the forum. Chime in if you can.

TalkPress – Conorp was the first to get this ball rolling and since then, we’ve discussed whether or not hosting forums is a viable business and who would do such a thing.

Long Term Consequences – Ever stop to think about what the long term effects from choosing one theme over another? This thread highlights things you should think about before deciding to go with a particular theme.

That about wraps up this edition of from the forum. Feel free to sign up and be part of the conversation instead of lurking. I don’t mind lurkers but trust me, it’s much more fun to participate in the discussions rather than read them from afar. We currently have 155 members, help us reach our Goal for the end of May at 200 registered members.

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Theme Repository In Need Of An Upgrade?

Theme Repository In Need Of An Upgrade?

By Jeffro on April 12, 2009

justintadlocklogoJustin Tadlock, a notable theme developer in the WordPress community recently published his thoughts on why the WordPress theme repository is in need of an upgrade. Among his arguments is that the ability to update a theme via subversion needs to be added, the community needs a way to police itself and the ability to add custom sections of the readme.txt file so that theme authors can provide installation and F.A.Q. sections to their readme file. In the comments, Joseph Scott who is largely responsible for the repository responded to most of Justin’s queries.

While I enjoy the redesigned look of the repository, it sure isn’t fun to browse around. On the repository front page you’re presented with the most popular themes, featured themes, newest themes, recently updated themes and last but not least, a search box. The only time you can really click around via tags is when you visit a themes info page which displays the tags for that theme. I couldn’t find any categories as I believe they have been substituted with the use of tags.

themerepository

While the old theme repository didn’t look the best, it did provide a wealth of filters for narrowing down the search for themes which matched your configured criteria. Considering there is 702 themes on the repository right now, I’m not sure what could be done to improve browsing around for a new theme that would be enabled from this day forward and be compatible with all previously uploaded themes. Honestly, I’d like to see the number of filters that existed before, come back in some sort of slick interface. Perhaps something that works like the Screen Options button in the 2.7 administration panel which controls what shows up on the dashboard.

Quality

Now here is something I simply don’t understand. When I am in the process of looking for cool themes to use, the theme repository is the last place I look. Why is that? Not to burst anyone’s bubble but the themes on the repository are crap when compared to commercial oriented themes or themes which are not on the repository but maintained locally by the theme author. When I say crap, I mean themes which have awful color schemes, terrible layouts, and just plain bad looks. I know one thing, in a strange sort of way, I believe premium WordPress themes have furthered the development of free themes but that is definitely not evident on the theme repository.

So I wonder if the theme repository is just used to get the word out about the first theme someone develops and then as they get better, they get off of the repository and do things on their own? Whatever the case is, I think it sucks that the repository is one of the last places I look for well designed, boundary pushing themes. However, I will note that I am beginning to notice many theme authors who produced great themes for free for the community are now developing their own theme frameworks and thus, creating child themes which they are either selling for a price, or you can not get the full documentation or help on the theme without paying a price. At some point in time, the WordPress Theme Repository may be the last safe haven for themes which are free all the way around, despite their quality.

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Another Company Goes 100% GPL

Another Company Goes 100% GPL

By Jeffro on April 8, 2009

spectaculalogoSpectacu.la, a premium WordPress theme company has announced on their corporate blog today that they have decided to abide by the GPL 100%. You may remember Spectacu.la from a few months ago as it was Dave Coveney who spoke out against 200 themes being removed from the theme repository, one of which was produced by his company. Of course, this lead to many more people jumping on the bandwagon to discuss the GPL and the end result is that now, no theme whatsoever that goes against the license will be hosted on the repository.

James Whitehead who published the post on the corporate blog discusses why they had to change their model.

On the upside, GPL can lead to a larger market share. It’s also very tolerant of SaaS. Consequently we have two plans. One is to run this as a paid WordPress and Spectacu.la theme forum, where you can get help and assistance, and the other is to run a WordPress service for a particular niche we’ve been eying up.

Peter Westwood congratulated the team for abiding 100% with the GPL via Twitter:

@davecoveney Congratulations. The right decision! #wordpress #gpl #payforsupportnotcodeabout

Also as part of the announcement, the company plans on giving two years of membership access to everyone who has joined from when they first launched up until the present. That is a pretty cool deal, especially for those who invested in them during their initial launch. Congrats to David and team for finding a way to stay within the confines of the GPL while still being able to keep the lights on.

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