[wp-hackers] New Default Theme For 2.1

[Robert Deaton]

On 8/9/06, Charles <lists06 at wiltgen.net> wrote:
> > Something like this is just too much to put into the core.
>
> It's fine that you have that opinion, but I can tell you from real-life experience that human beings with average technical knowledge consider this aspect of WordPress very weak.

And also consider the plugin and theme architecture very strong. there
are hundreds of plugins and thousands of themes already out there. K2
has had great success without being in the core. Not being in the core
is not the end of the world, and won't make your theme a failure if
its as great as you are advertising it to be.

> Yes, there are many people out there capable of installing WordPress (i.e. using FTP and following simple directions) that aren't interested in becoming a web developer.

Nobody said that with the inclusion of Sandbox that they have to,
people putting words in my mouth again. Sandbox is a great base for
theme developers to work with. Having Sandbox in the core promotes
themes that are lightweight, easy to modify, etc. Hell, a theme that
derives itself from sandbox could even add an options panel to change
all the aspects of Sandbox via CSS also if it wanted.

Using a theme like K2 or anything else that aims to be configurable
through the options panel is inevitably a support nightmare. Come sit
in the IRC channel for a few days and watch the requests for how to do
what people think should be easy tasks for modifying K2 to their
likings turn into hell. Users will expect _every last aspect_ of the
theme to be configurable, a feat that simply can't be accomplished.
The harder we make the default theme to customize for the users who
just need to add some extra spacing here and there or want to add
different text or remove something that comes default in the theme,
the more of a support nightmare we create.

K2 is a perfect example of this. Its so difficult and different to
modify that it has its own support forums because the WP.org support
team simply cannot keep up or deal with all the support requests that
K2 was generating. Any theme with the same potential amount of support
load deserves to be external, there is a reason that the theming
system is made to install external themes and not originally made like
your target theme will be.

Having a very bare-bones theme in the core allows us to say "Look at
themes.wordpress.net at all the great themes available."


-- 
--Robert Deaton