Theme Choice Issue

  • So I’m kind of desperate here. Trying to start a blog, been reading a lot, and I’ve been having an extremely hard time finding a theme that suits my needs, which aren’t very complex. My goals are to have a blog with forum functionality and maps capability so people can connect. I thought the latter needs could be taken care of with plugins, but I’m finding it hard to get past the first step of having a functional theme.

    I like to tweak things and know nothing about CSS, child themes, and quite frankly find the idea of having to modify code daunting and simply don’t have time for it. I’ve seen the fancy presentations of Divi and others that look extremely user friendly, but I’ve heard bad stories about what may happen to your website if you want to leave their platform. I switched over to the evolve theme (from Publishable Mag) and have even tried some plugins (Elementor) but haven’t even got past the point of having my header picture look right, especially when you look at the tablet and mobile versions.

    Any suggestions of free themes I could use, or free themes with customizing plugins that don’t have limited free versions? Or am I resigned to purchasing a highly modifiable (and probably with much more functionality than I need) theme like Divi and accept potential transfer issues down the road? I’m also curious how much the transfer issue is from a more typical theme to another (once you’ve got a lot going on your site) – can’t imagine there are NO issues. Not interested in paying a yearly fee (which I see the upgraded versions of popular page builder plugins often have) – the one-time payment option from Divi is attractive. Thank you for your thoughts.

    MPG

    The page I need help with: [log in to see the link]

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  • You will always need to CSS/Code something no matter free or paid. In 20 years I’ve never met a client that was okay with any theme. Always need to CSS this and Code that.

    1. Use a Membership plugin like BuddyPress or BBPress, there may be a Forum plugin now as well. All plugins will adapt to your theme’s stylesheet.

    2. Best map plugin is WP Google MAP with Snazzy Map

    You can try OceanWP, a free theme with lots of option. You can create anything with it.

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