WordPress themes questions ...

[ColinJ]

I'm about to start developing a cycling website using WordPress. I'm familiar with it and like it, so that much is decided.

I've always used free WP themes in the past, but this site is going to be something I care more about than the other sites so I feel like making more of an effort about its appearance. I'm toying with the idea of buying Thesis and customising it to my own requirements. I might go for a magazine style, I haven't decided yet. I'll play around a bit and see what takes my fancy.

So, does anybody have experience of using Thesis? Would you recommend it? If not, what theme could I use that would be efficient, flexible, and easy for me to customise without having to get right down into the nuts and bolts of the theme? I want to spend my time updating the content of the site rather than the code behind it. I'm on a tight budget- $87 for Thesis, I can manage, but not really much more.

Another thing ... more and more people coming out on my forum rides are carrying smartphones. It's obvious that mobile internet is really taking off so I'm going to give consideration to that from the start. I've seen WP plugins that are supposed to detect whether a phone or a full-scale browser is accessing a site and serve up one theme or another to give the best browsing experience. I've also seen people complaining that the switching technology doesn't work reliably. That worries me. Is there a WP theme-switching plugin that really works?

Assuming that I do buy Thesis - would it be relatively easy to produce a simple mobile theme using it?

Well, you can see what I'm trying to do ... any hints and tips? (Except for "I wouldn't use WordPress"! )

 

[thomas]

I had to make changes to a framework before once and it was a pain in the arse. Probabyl mainly because I'm just used to making html/css changes. Different one though so that might be cool.

I used the WordPress Mobile Pack which is quite good. have some problems with images, and my old phone wouldn't load it up in Opera....so probably worth testing....but overal I'd recommend it.

 

[ColinJ]

I used the WordPress Mobile Pack which is quite good. have some problems with images, and my old phone wouldn't load it up in Opera....so probably worth testing....but overal I'd recommend it.

That's the one I was looking at earlier. It looks handy, but I was a bit worried by how many people seemed to be having problems with it.

I see that mobile themes are provided with it, which would be handy.

 

[matc]

Have used Thesis, worked fine, but never liked the people behind it. The Genesis framework from Studiopress I do like and should there ever be time to actually use it, the approach to PHP hooks is clean and flexible. Similar price, cheaper if you don't buy a child theme.

 

[ColinJ]

Have used Thesis, worked fine, but never liked the people behind it.

Oh. The support was supposed to be really good; that was one of the things that attracted me to it.

The Genesis framework from Studiopress I do like and should there ever be time to actually use it, the approach to PHP hooks is clean and flexible. Similar price, cheaper if you don't buy a child theme.

Thanks. I'll take a look at that.

I'm hoping to do what I want without digging down into CSS/PHP. I'm sure that I'd find it interesting to do it but I really don't have the time.

 

[glendower]

Hi Colin

I have used Thesis quite a lot and I think it's a great application but I have recently come across another theme recently called Flexibility that I also think is an excellent Wordpress theme.

The beauty of the Flexibility theme is that there is a completely free version which if you can upgrade to paid one at a later date. The other great thing about it is there is a load of instructional videos if you need any help. You can see the theme details here http://www.flexibilitytheme.com/flexibility-3-video-tutorials/ Hope that helps

 

[thomas]

That's the one I was looking at earlier. It looks handy, but I was a bit worried by how many people seemed to be having problems with it.

I see that mobile themes are provided with it, which would be handy.

hmm, well, I've tried it on a htc touch2 which worked ok, but not when going through a QR code and in IE not opera (or something like that), HTC wildfire it's fine...and a old nokia with GPRS (or whatever) it worked good on. I'd recommend it, if people have problems there is a link to normal site.

Or you can set it up as

m.domain.com
rather than just on the normal site (some how anyway)

Have used Thesis, worked fine, but never liked the people behind it. The Genesis framework from Studiopress I do like and should there ever be time to actually use it, the approach to PHP hooks is clean and flexible. Similar price, cheaper if you don't buy a child theme.

I hated Genesis...but I think I was just too lazy to get used to it as I only needed to make a few small changes, but did find it to be a bit of a faff to make them! It is probably good though so don't let me put you off

 

[ColinJ]

Thanks chaps. I'll give myself a couple of days to make a decision after checking out the various theme frameworks mentioned.