Chip Bennett has outlined a list of proposed changes and revisions to the WordPress Theme Review guidelines. The changes are listed in two sections, required and recommended. The required changes would take effect immediately while those that are recommended could become guidelines in the future. Some of the recommendations include: Bundled Plugins: Themes must not…
Prospecting theme designers should take note of the nine WordPress design trends outlined by Rachel Adnyana of WPKube.com. Many of the trends on her list are carry overs from last year. Responsive is definitely not a trend but an expectation. Websites that are not responsive are at a serious disadvantage considering at least 17.4% of…
You’ve probably heard the advice that you should delete old or unwanted plugins from your WordPress installation. Plugins are often on the forefront of WordPress housekeeping lists. This is probably due to the fact that on a normal WordPress site you’re usually running just one theme and then multiple, sometimes dozens, of plugins. Unused plugins…
The folks at Site5 have just added a new theme to their growing collection of free WordPress themes. Moments is a new personal blogging theme that allows you to record your life with beautifully designed post formats. It also responds nicely to mobile devices. Features included in the Moments theme are geared toward making it…
January has been a rocking month in the world of WordPress themes. With everyone kicking off their blogs for 2014, we’ve seen a gaggle of pure blogging themes released this month. If you’ve neglected your blog, it’s not too late to get started. You haven’t missed the boat. Find a new theme that inspires you…
No, Post Formats haven’t gone anywhere but theme support and their use appear to be waning. Joyce Grace over at ManageWP.com has published a great article that explores some possibilities as to why the feature is not being used, why we might see the feature make a comeback, and the SEO issues surrounding them. Outside…
This week GovFresh, a government and technology blog, launched a new WordPress theme project to help promote the use of open source software among governments. If you’ve ever visited a local government website that looks like it hasn’t been updated since 1999, then you understand the problem that the folks at GovFresh are trying to…
Progeny MMXIV is a new free child theme for Twenty Fourteen. It was created by the folks at AudioTheme, a commercial theme shop that focuses on themes for bands, musicians, and labels. Although most of the design strongly resembles its Twenty Fourteen parent theme, Progeny MMXIV is unique in that it offers integration with the…
One of the features within the Stargazer child theme we are using on WPTavern are the social icons located at the bottom of the site. The social icons are not images but rather, Genericons. As explained by Konstantin Kovshenin, Justin Tadlock used a method to add social network icons that are portable between themes. By…
PressCastle launched this month with an ambitious goal: to put every WordPress theme in one place. The site currently has more than 13,000 themes that are categorized and searchable. The themes were collected from more than 250 sites and represent 400+ theme authors. If you visit the Themes section of the site you can filter…
The last time I spoke with Jason Schuller, it was 2008 at WordCamp Chicago. He had just launched his commercial theme company Press75. Since 2008, he’s launched a number of projects such as ThemeGarden, the first ever WordPress theme marketplace that gave 100% of the sale back to the theme author. Lately, Jason has been…
There are many factors that come into play when deciding where to host your open source WordPress plugin or theme. Who is your target audience? How much support do you want to offer? Is the project open for collaboration? For many developers this choice often comes down to WordPress.org vs. GitHub. In the past, hosting…
Opus is a new WordPress theme for bloggers, now available in the official themes directory. Created by WordPress theme developer Fikri Rasyid, Opus takes a mobile first approach to responsive design and features a fluid layout. When he set out to create Opus, Rasyid wanted the theme to provide a great reading experience on any…
Fullby is a beautiful new free WordPress theme released last week, created by designer Andrea Marchetti. The theme is fully responsive, based on Bootstrap and features a grid style. This super light theme includes only two images and is fully customizable via CSS. If the design looks familiar, it’s because it was inspired by Twenty…
Blogly is a new flat style, responsive WordPress theme designed for personal blogging. The design sports bright colors and a traditional blog layout with a left sidebar. Blogly responds nicely on mobile devices and also includes support for post formats. If your new year’s resolution includes firing up your personal blog again, then Blogly might…