Scribblings is now up to version WTF.0 – it has changed its face again. But you can change its face however you like, thanks to diabolical digital technology! From THE FUTURE!
(Digital scoring, expanded memory and sync-sound action not included.)
As per my previous massive missive, in which I mulled the prospects of eventually ditching Facebook due to privacy concerns, I’ve been working a bit on Scribblings behind the scenes. As much as I like the Inanis Glass theme I’ve been using, it’s not playing nice with quite a few browsers. It never would load up right on my Mobilepro, which I initially dismissed as being a Mobilepro issue (it has a full set of back issues and a lifetime subscription), but when it behaved exactly the same on my tablet (which is still out of commission), I knew something was up.
Finding a new WordPress theme that I like ain’t easy. For the majority of the site I’m either using Aeros or its beefier big brother, Aerodrome. There are a few sections that I like to set apart, however, and Scribblings is one of them. I have certain criteria for this section, not the least of which is a lack of clutter, and a certain minimum width for the posts. There are sites you can visit to search for WordPress themes, with checkboxes for stuff like one or two columns, one or two sidebars, specific colors, and so on …but sadly, there are no checkboxes for “doesn’t look like cluttered crap” or “isn’t the most boring thing since plain HTML circa 1994”. That’d save a lot of time.
I downloaded about six themes to try out in preview mode; I kept one. I also played with one I downloaded some time back. I couldn’t decide between the two, so here’s a new one for you: a theme switcher. Whichever theme you’re on, go about halfway down the sidebar menu and you’ll find a dropdown menu labeled “season to taste.” And there you go. The themes installed are as follows:
Mahiwaga – the new default theme
There are still a few bugs to be worked out, but I’m pretty happy with this one – it keeps things kinda simple. If you know a little bit about what you’re doing, this one’s incredibly customizable with multiple .css files covering everything from text colors to other elements. Would you believe that in its native form, this theme looks like this?
Inanis Glass – the old default theme
I’ve kept this around, for those who prefer it. There’s still a lot I like about this theme, but apparently trying to call it up on anything and everything mobile is a baaaaaaaad idea.
Smells Like Facebook – the one that’ll be everyone’s favorite
I downloaded this quite some time back, played with it a bit, got a chuckle out of it, and went back to doing what I was doing. I thought I’d look at it again since I’m making noises about leaving Facebook – what could be more perverse to make the blog look like Facebook? Granted, it would look like Facebook did a year ago, back whan everyone liked their layout. As much as it looks like Facebook, it doesn’t behave exactly like Facebook, so have some patience. (I dislike how it handles categories, for one thing.) If you’ve got an avatar set up at Gravatar, it’ll use that as your “profile picture”; there’s the germ of something really cool here. Maybe someone should skin an install of WordPress Multiuser with this theme…
While I’m showing off digital baby pictures, I might as well point out that the forum has undergone a makeover as well…
…and on certain days and in certain areas, it gets to be a pretty hoppin’ place. True, it’s mostly populated by my friends, but there’s about a quarter of the userlist who I have no idea who they are or how they found us. Kinda cool. Also, any toasters who pass themselves off as humans and get inside and start talking to us – and by toasters I mean spambots – are summarily deleted, and their leftover posts are gleefully ridiculed. Seriously, we’ve got a whole thread for that. 😆
Another new section on the site:
…will soon be the new home of the Podcast of Extraordinary Magnitude, primarily to give it its own RSS feed for syndication purposes. New installments are in the works – stand by.
That’s it for now. Try out the new themes on Scribblings and let me know what you think.
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