Some might not have noticed the sudden change in this blog’s appearance last night, but it happened while I was posting that WordPress launched a new version of this theme called “The Journalist.” I was really disappointed by the new, unprofessional, clunky design, and that I suddenly had a theme I did not choose. Along with others, I got a small storm of protest going (see here, and here), and today, after some tinkering, WordPress re-released the previous version of this theme, the one I wanted to begin with. They were wrong to impose the change without notification and consultation, but at least they paid attention. In the meantime, I noticed a gaggle of groupies who post “awesome!” and “cool!” and “wow this is great!” about any template…and they do not use the template themselves. I suppose that sucking up to authority is the new cool. Big Brother will love these people — you can cut their chocolate rations and they will spontaneously mobilize for an ecstatic outpouring of support for the increased chocolate rations.
WordPress Responds
Posted on 23 September 2008 by Maximilian Forte
Posted in: "OUT THERE"
anonyjw
23 September 2008
The “first edition” of my blog used the theme… but I switched to the current black theme a few weeks later when I read about Blackle and “energy conservation”.
When I was tweaking my blog in those early days, I decided to do a search for other blogs using the same theme to get “decorating” ideas (I was completely new to blogging on WP) … that was how I stumbled across your blog! :)
I’m glad they listened though. I’m really happy with WP as a platform, and they’ve made the whole process of getting my ideas out so seamless that I never have to think about it too intently. I don’t know how many of these mis-steps they’ve made since inception, but I’m happy with the fact that they’ve listened to my suggestions in the few months I’ve been blogging here, and have tried to make my blogging experience a lot easier.
But I feel your pain… I spent a lot of time getting my blog to look “just right”. I would most definitely be pissed if the same were to happen to me.
Maximilian Forte
23 September 2008
Thanks JW. Indeed, there is template that is best suited to a particular kind of blog. I had to search a lot to get this one, after trying three others, and this one seems best for this content. Similarly, I think yours looks best for yours, because it is image and video rich, and one really needs a dark background for that.
That is an odd thing about Blackle. As my previous computer literally — seriously — melted down last week (all the fans shut down), I detected that Flash applications consumed a great deal of energy, made the hard drive spin faster and louder, and generated intense heat in the room. Before then, I had no sense that software, ethereal and online, seemingly intangible, could produce a real physical effect offline.
anonyjw
23 September 2008
Well, software runs on hardware… and with every new upgrade, we need to make sure that the iron can keep up with the paces we put it through.
Flash is CPU and RAM intensive… and both generate lots of heat when they work overtime. Hope you had your work backed up!
Strange that the fans stopped…