Twenty Eleven theme … are you guys joking?

The default theme is a sample, an example, a kind of a minor code repository, and a fallback if the main theme goes bad. I’ve never thought of it as something you’d actually use. Maybe that’s just me.

Yah … and as usual … no one has upgrade the posting options at www.ads-software.com to include 3.2 yet.

Cause 3.2 is in RC (release candidate). Cart, horse ??

https://www.ads-software.com/extend/plugins/resize-twenty-eleven-header/ can change the header size. I expect this’ll end up on the inevitable ‘WordPress 3.2 Upgrade Woes’ master post.

I dunno… personally, I think the Twenty Eleven is actually quite nice for a default theme. There are lots of other themes out there which look better but I think the whole point about Twenty Eleven isn’t really to compete with these. Although I do take your point about Matt’s photos… you’d think he’d have a blog to put these on… ?? (saying that, at least he’s chipping in with the project – maybe in future people will get to vote on what photos get used as default. Just an idea!).

From a design perspective, whitespace makes things easier to read. Less clutter, more focus on the content. I know that’s not how people end up with things on their sites (with widgets, banners, buttons, adverts and a whole bunch of stuff). Looking at it objectively, it’s nice being able to focus on the content.

If anything, I tend to use Twenty Eleven as a guide to building my own theme. In terms of code, it’s got some nice functionality that can be re-purposed to build something better. It’s a “showcase” theme that demonstrates what can be done – how you style it from there (with css, widgets and plugins etc.) is where the flexibility comes in.

For people who don’t know how to activate a new theme, it’s good that they have something that is easy enough to set up without being complicated.

It’s worthwhile remembering that some of the really cool themes tend to use a lot of scripting and styles which can also lead to problems with plugin conflicts and things not working. They usually have really complicated setting screens too. Who needs the hassle? It’s good to have a theme that does the job and is simple to use as a backup.

Yeah, it would be cool if the Twenty Eleven was super cool looking… but, as anyone who build their own knows, that would take up a lot of time to do. There’s the maintenance and the compatibility with releases… Who’d look after it? Well… there’s a bunch of people who give up their time to make a difference and contribute. If you want it to get better, why not do the same?

Problem with third party themes is that they are too complex and heavy, not maintained through updates, non-free, too simple, not quite right or something else.

Both Twenty Ten and Eleven have all the features most bloggers should ever ask for, and they can be customized with child themes to avoid looking like everyone else’s blog.

But Twenty Eleven has a serious flaw in that the sidebar is not visible on single posts, and there is no template to get around that. You need to do a major hack to both CSS and code to get right on track again, which kinda disables the advantages with the theme.

Dunno about you, but my regular visitors go from comment to comment with the help of recent comments listing in the sidebar. With Twenty Eleven, they have to add the additional step of going to the front page for each comment. This also puts more and unnecessary stress on the server.

Whoever came up with this scheme clearly doesn’t know anything about visiting blogs, but is a pure design freak without regard for function.

So keep using Twenty Ten.

Twenty Eleven is meant as a starting point for people. If they don’t like, it they don’t have to use it.

Problem with third party themes is that they are too complex and heavy, not maintained through updates, non-free, too simple, not quite right or something else.

Here: https://www.ads-software.com/extend/themes/ We have a lot ??

So keep using Twenty Ten.

That’s not quite the point to make. People see the twentyeleven template and don’t get the use of the theme, so they report that here. And that is a reasonable argument.

When i looked at the 11 template i get the feeling it`s overcompensating in code and yet too minimalistic in the output to the browser. So i am also not likely to get me an 11 template but use the 10 and clean it somewhat to get the same results with less code.

With 10 i was surprised by the cleanness of the code and easy way to extend to it with childthemes or create a clean new theme with it. With 11 i don`t see that (for me) hapening. Sure, check the functions and steal some ideas. But i wont see me base a theme on it.

but again, it`s hard to think of the next big breakthrough theme for automatic in a year instead of many years from the theme before 10. Get why they did it like they did.

People see the twentyeleven template and don’t get the use of the theme,

I don’t understand. What is there to “get”. You either like the theme and use it or you don’t.

When i looked at the 11 template i get the feeling it`s overcompensating in code and yet too minimalistic in the output to the browser.

As I understand it, Twenty Eleven is still being developed, so it could change. In what way do feel that it’s overcompensating in code? And some of use actually like minimalistic themes.

I don’t understand. What is there to “get”. You either like the theme and use it or you don’t.

It’s gonna be the base theme. A theme in the theme library you like or not like you said. The base theme is the base of a startup wordpress user. Like the flagship of the code, that’s a difference.

And? The minimalist look of Twenty Ten seems to have been rather popular, so I don’t why Twenty Eleven wouldn’t be in terms of looks. But you still haven’t said why you feel that it’s overcompensating in code?

It`s just a feeling i get with the code and output. Nothing bad and if i had more i shall tell you. But like the ts it’s and some other posters in the thread it just feels off. Otherwise this thread wouldn’t be here.

When i have the solution i will post it. But until then, be continued.

But Twenty Eleven has a serious flaw in that the sidebar is not visible on single posts, and there is no template to get around that. You need to do a major hack to both CSS and code to get right on track again, which kinda disables the advantages with the theme.

This is simply not true, I’m using Twenty Eleven for my website Future Web Blog and I literally had to add one line of PHP to the post template file. The rest was some minimal editing of CSS.

In my honest humble opinion Twenty Eleven trumps many of the bloated paid for themes out there today. I won’t go into detail why here, if you want to know my reasons see this blog post.

When submitting a support forum topic, 3.2 is now a valid version.

@aprea

The problem is aprea, 40% of internet users are still at 768 or 800 resolutions, not 27″ LCDs. In some markets, 20% or more use mobiles phone to access the internet. Look also at the age demographics of the net and ask yourself what older readers need (25 to 30% over 50 year old).

Therefore, 40% of your website is saying “beautiful zen emptiness”, aka nothing, from which you expect users to have to make the effort to scroll down from page after page after page … they wont bother. The will go off to another site that is more instantly interesting and informative.

And I have to say, the images on your web blog are basically faked up to make it look better than it is and text smaller.

<b>Thank you liangzai … “Whoever came up with this scheme clearly doesn’t know anything about visiting blogs, but is a pure design freak without regard for function.”</b>

Let’s me honest, all this started with 2010 and a bit of “adoration for Matt” and his lovely photographs. WordPress has always allowed him a bit of personal whimsy. But if he wants his photographs adored, he should just use one of the many excellent photoblog themes available and leave WordPress for what it was intended …

Words.

As a flagship it is wrong.

About as wrong as those stupid and immature Gravatars WordPress insists on us using.

<— Is this intended as an insult or are you just forcing traffic over to Gravatar.com to have to change it?

Automattic owns Gravatar. Clearly YMMV, but as these are the WordPress forums, they’re welcome to do what they want. On your site, you can change it.

Not liking the default theme doesn’t mean it should be removed. I recall seeing just as many complaints over the years for Kubrick, and how much it sucked as a theme. As with many things, taste is very much subjective.

If you don’t like the theme, change it.