Warehouse Update: Scratch That, We’re Not Changing Yet.

In a previous post (which will no longer be on the site due to it’s un-importance), I expressed that I was going to be updating the site with a brand new WordPress theme to liven things up a bit around here.

However, embarrassingly, I couldn’t find a single theme that actually worked properly.

All of them basically looked the same on the outside in their promotional images and details. They all had sliders that previewed articles, they all had featured category sections and other widgets of such kind. And some had styles and colors that appealed to me more than others. I had plenty of great looking options. But I tried them all, and at the end of it I couldn’t find one damn theme that actually functioned. Sometimes certain widgets wouldn’t show up where it said they would. Sometimes the articles would come up with far too much text in their excerpts, which threw off the grid layout of the posts page. Sometimes the menu could only show up in two places (the top, and below the logo) and I couldn’t fix it to only show up in one, and once in a while my intentionally short menu would actually show up too long due to unique spacing parameters. Still other times the sliders would completely screw up the size and placement of featured images and the text overlaid above them, while half the time the sliders never showed up at all. And finally–what has been perhaps the most irritating of my issues–the options for all of these varied themes can show up in any one of four different places. That’s right, FOUR places.

Usually they show up in the “Theme Options” page under the Appearance tab of the WordPress Dashboard. And I like and prefer to see them there. It makes things really easy and straight forward to update and change. But… sometimes they all show up on the Customize screen, which shows a live preview of all of your changes. Useful, but it takes forever to make a lot of quick changes because the site grinds away trying to reload in real-time. Sometimes the options could also be in the Widgets panel, which allows you to place additional information fields, sliders, and featured images inside of theme-unique areas not usually controlled by widgets, and yet a couple of themes have made use of the widgets section to make these changes. Finally, on one or two occasions, the main theme options are found in a section all on their own, outside of the Appearance, Customize, or Widgets pages, and have their own button on the Dashboard right below the Settings tab. This is also preferable, because it takes all of the main options and more, and places them in a single dedicated area. Easy to navigate, easy to comprehend, and if they all work, then it’s all peachy keen.

Except…like I said, every single theme I tried was a complete dead end. None of them made things any better. None of them were as pleasingly simple or effective as my current theme. And all of the options for my current theme are not only perfect, but they have never once not responded or not worked. They always work. They can always be updated on the spot. And despite the lack of further expanded options, there’s no reason why I can’t purchase the Pro version of my current theme and look into making some additional changes once all the features are unlocked.

Considering everything, I might just do that. Because my current WordPress theme for this site is one of the best I’ve ever used, and it hasn’t let me down once.

But maybe ya’ll don’t care about all this. This is a media review blog after all. But I figured I should vent a little bit about this for the simple reason that I want others to know how difficult and unresponsive many of the other WordPress themes out there can be: because they absolutely are. It’s true that everyone will have a different computer, and hosting site, and everyone will have a different experience using any one of these themes. Some people will get them to work, and others, like myself, will not be so lucky. But the simple fact that so many didn’t work as indicated on my hosting site and my installation of WordPress means that something is amiss with these themes, and they really should be looked into.

So for now, this website shall stay as it is. It’s better that I spend my time now writing more articles, and working on finishing my short film. I’ll catch you all again soon.

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