I just updated the theme that provides the framework of this blog to the latest version. (Thesis, version 1.5. It’s a premium theme, but it rocks.)
A lot of the changes are “under the hood”, but I was able to make the primary content column a smidge wider. This provides a couple of advantages: 1) I’ll be able to add wider charts, tables and pictures; and 2) I was able to bump the font size up a tad to compensate for my aging eyes”¦
Widening the blog also gave me some space up in the header area to add some subscription and social networking icons.
You’ll see the RSS subscribe, subscribe by email, Twitter, and Flickr icons there. Clicking them does what you’d expect.
If you don’t know what these things are, stay tuned as I’m working on a page explaining them (and will be adding more as time permits). Update: more icons added, and a brief description page is at What’s This?
And of course, if you’re reading this in a feed reader, you won’t see any of these nifty changes”¦
Also way up at the top of the blog you’ll notice a place to join the blog through Google Friend Connect. This has been in place for awhile now buried in the sidebar (and still is, I just added the thing across the top as well).
What does this do? Not a whole lot yet. But given Google’s plan’s to take over the planet, I’m sure they’ve got ideas in store. Right now it’s another networky thing and a place where you can keep track of different sites, leave comments, “friend” people, the usual social media stuff.
Another feature added is the ability to have “threaded” comments. All that means is you can reply directly to an existing comment. Often on posts that generate a lot of comment activity, it’s tough at times to keep track of the conversations. Now if you want to reply to a specific comment, just click “reply” under that comment and your comment will be posted immediately below what you’re replying to, instead of way down at the bottom of the entire comment list.
It’ll look like so:
Comment replies can be nested 5 deep. Any more than that just seems silly to me. (But I can change it if I need to). Personally, I’ve never been a real big fan of threaded comments, but can see the need at times so it’s there if someone wants to use it. It’s one of those things that sort of has to grow on you.
That’s about it for the changes. For now.
As always, if you see something goofy or broken, let me know please!
The Phoenix Real Estate Guy was started by Jay Thompson, and I have a little blogging problem... he liked to say...
I like the threaded comments. It will make it easier to communicate with an individual or a group on a particular subject without getting mixed in with the rest of the comments on that post. Good to try out different things.
The thread comments are great, but the default styling for author replies (and those of replies to author comments) are a bit suspect (the background colour carries down sometimes, but not others), so it's worth you having a play with it. You can check the custom.css styles sheet on my site for how I fixed mine.
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Gary – I noticed that my author comment highlighting went south upon the install of Thesis 1.5. Thanks to the custom.css code you provided, I think it's fixed (and I guess we're about to find out!)
Huh, and now I see comment time stamps say "Mon. May 4, 2009, 8:10 am at 8:10 am". I'm guessing that's because I added the time in a previous version and now 1.5 also includes it — hence the double time entry. It's always something!
I had just noticed the double time thing as well, and just couldn't help but try out your comment reply thread. I have to say I like it and it will be nice for when some back and forth conversation gets started up, though for organization sake- and to keep people on the original topic- capping it at 5 is probably enough. Nice changes!
You have my complete agreement on the threaded comments, it tends to make everything messier looking.
"It’s a premium theme, but it rocks" I take it to mean you pay for it from the nice people a WordPress? I know nothing about blogging but I do have a WordPress account from way back. Maybe, I will wait for you to post a few "how to" and start to use it. I do enjoy reading yours.
Not paid to WordPress Gregory, paid to the developer of the theme. There are literally thousands of free WordPress themes available. But some developers spend a lot of time and effort developing premium themes which they then charge for.
Thesis is one such themes. It's just one of the beauties of WordPress. Since so many people across the planet use it, there is something available for everyone, at any price range. And you don't need to use a premium theme, there are many outstanding free themes available.
Thanks for reading (and for your contributions!)
@Jay – Do you know anywhere I can get a chance to take a look at the backend for the thesis theme? I would love to have an idea of what the admin user power of it is. I am using studiopress/revolutions themes that look really slick but require a good amount of tech. knowledge to modify.
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James – watch the video here: http://diythemes.com/ About half way through they show some of the Thesis Design and Options Pages. These are from the last version of Thesis (1.4) not the most recent v1.5, but it will give you an idea of what Thesis can do right out of the box.
I'll see if I can set up a "sandbox" account on a domain I'm not using and give folks access to the backend so they can explore further. Gotta figure out how to keep the spammers out first…
The changes are subtle, but nice. I am not a big fan of the comment reply. It turns into a mini forum thread if you start getting too deep. Nice idea to cap it at 5 replies.
Word Press continues to amaze me. People are really starting to come up with great themes that are extremely customizable. Nice job on the theme revisions.
a couple of changes to the blog can make it better
I like the changes you've made. And I like threaded comments; it makes it a lot easier to follow the train of thought.
**Marlene´s last blog post..New thumb drives</abbr></abbr>
What i love about this new look is the fact that you have those icons in your header. I use WP on one of my blogs and I thought about going with Thesis because of it's clean look. But I searched around for free ones and I found the Modern theme from Ulf Pettersson and went with it. LOL
I had noticed the changes-very nice! I like the bigger font and I like the way the sharing icons look over on the right.
After seeing yours (and many others) I've fallen in love with the Thesis theme as well. I was telling a coder buddy about it and he said "Well, you can do most of that by hand." I had to tell him "YOU, can do it by hand."
I am enjoying the larger text area and text size; the changes are subtle, but very nice! You have a great layout here; it is nice and crisp
**Margaret Safford-Metro Atlanta Real Estate´s last blog post..Does the Metro Atlanta Real Estate Market Mimic the New HGTV Shows?</abbr></abbr>
I'm really enjoying the subtle changes you made; the larger text is nice.