BloggerVenue

Good evening fellow bloggers!

This has been a busy day for me. I have spent the last hours configuring the new design for the blog and updating the wordpress version of this blog.

A new version of the wordpress 2.5 has been released. It is in the RC-2 Version now. Still in beta though. But still, i decided to upgrade the blog. First i did a full backup of my hosting (a thing that i haven’t done in a long long time). Downloaded a backup of the blog’s database, checked for compatibility issues with some plugins i run here, and deactivated the problematic ones. Then i did the upgraded with no problems at all.

The main reason i upgraded the blog was that the theme i am currently using (options themes) is fully functional with wordpress 2.5, and has some issues with version 2.3

I have been eager to use this theme for some time now, and this was the right time to do it.

I really like the new design of the blog. I was getting a little bit bored with the previous one (structure theme, which is still a great theme). This theme gives me more Options to play around ;), but due to the great number of options it will take some time for me to reach perfection. The next thing i will do, when i finish writing this post, is to make a new header. Right know the header says “Options Theme bla bla bla”, and that can’t stay there

So, now, i ask for your cooperation. If you see something out of place, errors, or something similar please post a comment here or mail me using the contact page. I would appreciate your cooperation

While i was working on the updates i was thinking what would be the future of this blog. I mean, things are going well. I have a decent amount of traffic, my alexa score is reaching the 100,000 mark :D, but know a question appears. Should i move the blog from being a subdomain of my main website (Dahh.net) to a independent .com domain address or should i stay like this?

I would love to have some feedback from you

Justin Tadlock has become one of my favourite wordpress templates designer. He produces a style of templates that im very fond of: magazine style templates.

Recently, he created what he calls, a super theme. It is called Options theme, and it is a wordpress magazine style template. It is not only a magazine, it is a versatile theme that will fit every blogger need. As Justin says, the options theme is like Structure (the theme im currently using) on steroids!

The name says it all. This theme is packed with a load of options for you to choose. It will take some time for you to get comfortable with the options this great theme has to give

This theme is still in Beta version, but Justin plans to release this week the “final” version. He already made some changes for the current beta version.

But enough of this talk and lets head for what the options theme has to give.

Right now, the package comes with 3 CSS layouts. The original release came with a Dark css template and a light css template. This week, “new groove” style was added. You can choose which CSS style to use within the administration panel. If you know a bit of CSS coding, you can easily create a CSS layout to implement on options theme, if not, than you just need to wait for more releases from Justin or the growing community around this theme.

The homepage layout can be changed in multiple ways. There are five blocks, and in each block you can choose 14 different options.

The sidebar is totally widget compatible, and the theme comes with several widgets to help you customize the blog, from several ad widgets to flickr or a video widget.

One of the things a like most on this theme, besides the CSS customisation, is the Features Gallery option. This option uses Smooth Gallery. This allows you to cycle featured posts with a nice transition effect between posts.

If you want to see how the theme looks, and the transition effect I’ve just mentioned then visit the demo.

As you can see, the demo is using the Dark version. The light version in my honest opinion it’s nothing special. There is now the new CSS style, new groove:

image from justintadlock.com

Pros:

- Great looking theme!

- Easy CSS customisation;

- Options for every kind of blogger;

- Widget Ready theme;

- Great support from the author and form the community

Cons:

- You will need to try, try, try all the options to see what fits best for you. (is this really a negative aspect? lol)

- Hum, can’t really think of more negative aspects…. lol

To download or gather more info about this theme just visit Justintadlock.com

So, in conclusion. this is one of the best (if not the best) theme around. Im tempted to change my current theme (Structure theme) to this one. What do you thing? Should i change? Im really tempted, but i will wait a couple more days for the new release.