WordPress.com themes – from most to least popular (Dec. 2010 & Jan. 2011)

16 thoughts on “WordPress.com themes – from most to least popular (Dec. 2010 & Jan. 2011)”

1. 

   My blog was a “gift” to me from a cousin who set it up. I’ve always been afraid to change it!

   Posted by djeddieo | January 29, 2011, 21:24
2. 

   Nice gift, but why be afraid to change it? If you are completely satisfied with how it looks, fine, otherwise you can find several good-looking themes that would fit your subject. The worst thing that can happen is that your widgets may drop to Inactive and you’ll have to drag them back to Sidebar.

   Posted by Panos | January 29, 2011, 21:32
3. 

   I ditto your opinion that wordpress.com should offer more dark themes.

   Posted by Netty Gritty | January 31, 2011, 06:49
4. 

   Yeah – enough is enough with white!

   Posted by Panos | January 31, 2011, 13:39
5. 

   Oh come on guys, quit griping! Quite a number of themes have a “dark” option available or the option to choose a custom background. Now there’s fodder for a new post, Panos. :)

   Posted by Jennifer | February 2, 2011, 00:15
6. 

   Well, actually very few themes have a dark option, and purely dark themes aren’t that many either. Also, in the majority of themes you can now add a bg color or image, but you can’t turn a light theme into a dark one this way unless you have the CSS upgrade to change the text colors too.

   Fodder for new post? I don’t think so! Just an updated old one:
   https://wpbtips.wordpress.com/2009/03/24/color-customisable-themes/

   Posted by Panos | February 2, 2011, 14:40
7. 

   • In my opinion Rounded is the worst designed wp.com theme: why it’s so popular is beyond me.

   blog fodder: what, in your opinion, makes for a well-designed theme? I know you have stepped away from this question before, but perhaps I should re-phrase: why do you think Rounded is poorly designed? (or what is ‘bad design’ you see in other themes?)

   Posted by Tess | February 4, 2011, 02:35
8. 

   I had stepped away (shied away?) because I’m not a specialist in the subject, nor can I gather enough facts: I’m simply not able to give a coherent and organized reply. (Best thing I can do, if you’re curious, is tell you which themes I like.)

   To me Rounded is a botched up project of a tasteless amateur. (But you see? The moment I say something like that, I’ll also say: so what? what use is this to others?) Anyway, the main things I don’t like are: the color combination, the height of the blue top nav bar, the white blog title on whitish flowers, the flexible-width sidebar, and that smudge for the links; plus various elements in posts don’t observe the left padding (last one objectively a defect).

   And what would you say? Can you name a theme you consider worse?

   Posted by Panos | February 4, 2011, 21:21
9. 

   Hey Panos, thanks for the help with the CSS code. Still have a few issues, but at least the Sky Dancing Blog is coming along fine…

   Posted by Minkoff Minx | February 5, 2011, 08:07
10. 

    Happy Chinese New Year—judging by the parking lots at my local Asian stores it is still being celebrated… (perhaps because of the big blizzard here? or perhaps celebrations usually go on for days)

    In my opinion, as is usual with most decisions, it is easier to criticize what is wrong, then perhaps find work-a-rounds to address the problems (or to accept the deficiencies because something else makes the thing more useful), than it is to say one thing is better than another. Nothing is perfect.

    For example, z-bench is not such a great theme because it has CSS which over-rides normal table coding thus making it a nuisance to add code to eliminate the stupid borders the designers thought were attractive. It also uses images to make its distinctive blockquotes (as Digg3 uses images for other things) so it is difficult to personalize. It also makes the various “position” commands inoperable because of the way the CSS defines containers. (CSS or something else???)

    In terms of how a theme looks, w/o alterations, I’d say Banana Smoothie, Springloaded, and Green Girl are ugly. But as you say, “so what!” because others like them. I don’t have enough experience (nor do I have a desire to use them) to know if those ‘flaws’ can be overcome.

    I’m becoming stupid (or too busy) because we just bought this house: it has good bones in that it was well designed from the beginning so that one has easy and logical access to the plumbing and electrical systems, the insulation, and radon amelioration. But someone messed up the grading and drainage; nonetheless the foundation is solid even though we can’t use the room with the second fireplace due to water damage. Nothing is perfect, but the issues can be addressed.

    I’m sure each theme has its problems, like the one I use (and like this house). One has to choose what is important and what/how things can be fixed or lived with.

    So, no, and you are right, I can’t name a theme that is worse or better than another. With your wonderful blog you are already addressing the good, bad, and ugly.

    Where I work, we sell scraps from manufacturers as art supplies. A customer came in once and asked, “Where is your best stuff?” None of us could answer because ‘best’ depends on what one wants to do.

    There is still the question of what you consider ‘good design.’

    Posted by Tess | February 5, 2011, 10:15
11. 

    @MM: You’re welcome, but no need to thank me here. And, as my latest reply to you in the forum will show you, I occasionally help with CSS but I’m no expert: our CSS experts are devblog, hallluke and thesacredpath.

    Posted by Panos | February 5, 2011, 16:39
12. 

    @Tess:

    Come on, your (plural) new home is infinitely more important than Rounded (or anything WP), so spare me the bs about “becoming stupid”!

    As I said, I can’t tell you what I consider good design. For one thing, I can’t define elegance and good taste.

    Green Girl: agree, ugly as ugly can be – I’d vote it for 2nd worst after Rounded! Banana Smoothie, I wouldn’t say so; I’d just say fine if you blog about summer cocktail drinks or a couple of other subjects but useless otherwise (so I’m rather surprised it’s being used in more than fifty thousand blogs – almost as many as those using a neutral theme like Garland).

    Agree too, no theme is perfect. I told that to the theme team too when they asked me about the themes showcase: told them that for each theme I like I have a “yes, but…” to say, so I wouldn’t write “find the perfect theme for your blog”, I would write “find the theme that best suits your blog”. (But some kid there loves cheap commercialism: noticed they don’t say “108th in popularity”, they say “our 108th most popular theme”?)

    By the way, is ‘our’ Unsleepable banished for good from your Japanese Kitchen? I had grown fond of it…

    Posted by Panos | February 5, 2011, 16:52
13. 

    Oh, I miss Unsleepable too. We’d (you) got it to work so very well for my overly colorful blog. But I had thought I’d have time to refine my pages and links, and the custom menu with z-bench lured me. For all I know, Unsleepable may now have custom menus… It would not be difficult to resize the few posts with too bigger images in order to go back???

    That’s not bs about me becoming stupid (ok, put out of my comfort zone): I don’t have time or energy to read, or to think, or to execute any of the inspirations that occur to me—only to enjoy playing “house” and having fun with all this space. Putting things away, making stuff look nice. Well, sort of nice.

    GAK! I’m getting to worry about whether the Venetian blinds are dirty or what to do about the grease on the vent hood over the stove, the ceiling in the shower (pink bathroom) needs painting to prevent mold, insulation ($$$$), and grounded electrical outlets, especially those electric circuits which keep one safe from shocks in wet areas, and snow, and work… (and the other stuff with my father). J says he is going to hire a house-cleaning service…

    But even so, I’ve never made any money… So that is why stupid is apt.

    Could be blog topics for you would be explaining idiosyncrasies of themes even though you can’t make reccomendations. No, most people don’t try to push the boundaries of their themes so they’d not necessarily notice some of the quirks that bother me. Gosh. You already do that!

    Happy snow day (another one for us here anyway!)
    t

    Posted by Tess | February 5, 2011, 22:04
14. 

    “Unsleepable may now have custom menus”.

    Yes: all themes with top nav menus have been updated to support custom menus.

    Posted by Panos | February 6, 2011, 03:16
15. 

    wordpress has just announced a fantastic theme named ‘duster’. though i have few queries….
    1)will the showcase feature work for flash(.swf) files with gigya code ? not yet tried…but i guess it should…..and if yes that would be fantastic. just the way i requires ;-)

    2) how to link / aside posts of more than 2 categories(posts under these categories)…e.g. i have categories a to z..now i wish to show cat.N,G,P as links…..and cat.Q ,L, T under asides but under that particular N,G,P,Q,L,T in showcase sidebar. now if i select those post formats…they all will mix up..and the purpose won’t be served. I know it can be linked manually that way by using text/html widget. but looking for easier option ;-)

    Posted by श्रेया | February 16, 2011, 08:24
16. 

    1) Depends on what you mean “showcase feature”. The showcase template is a special page that can include a) normal static content, b) the “featured post”, c) the latest post, d) the other recent posts, e) its own sidebar. Of those, a, c and e can display gigya objects, b and d cannot (because you only get an excerpt for b and titles for d).

    2) I’m afraid I got lost with all these letters: try to explain it in a different way please!

    Posted by Panos | February 16, 2011, 20:34