Those that know WordPress would probably instantly recognise the theme on Entropy as a tweaked version of the new default “Twenty Ten” theme. The simple reason for switching to it is that there are a bunch of new features in WordPress 3 that were only available in the default theme initially.

I also discovered child themes, which allows me to build on the Twenty Ten theme while retaining the benefits of any updates the theme might receive.

Entropy has always been more of a blogging experiment than an actual blog, though. Which brings me to my latest experiment and call for feedback.

One column

The biggest change I made is to completely remove the sidebar for the time being. I was wondering how many people actually used the category listing and recent posts/comments sections there to navigate around, so I’ve moved them to the footer along with everything else.

For the sake of my own user experience (I tended to use those links quite a bit) I’ve added the “Nav” link in the menu to jump down to the footer.

Something seems missing in this “one column” layout, however. The main content of a post/article also seems too wide, but it is the default width of the theme.

What are your thoughts?

Is the content too wide? Do you prefer flexible width (liquid) designs rather than these static width (fixed) designs?

Sidebar or no sidebar?

What about the widgets in the footer: Is that a good place for some/all of them or do you have another preference (as a reader)?

Feel free to leave any comments and feedback around the design. Hopefully we can all learn something from one another.

The first attempt was stillborn. I chose a theme that simply required too much work to be simply functional. This time, along with an upgrade from 2.7.1 to 2.8 I’ve selected dfBlog as my base theme. It’s proven versatile, easy to modify when its versatility isn’t enough, and compatible with browsers as ancient as Internet Explorer 6.

Since the relaunch, WordPress 2.8.1 has been released, so I’ll need to update the Entropy WordPress installation soon as well.

I also butchered the accordion category list component from the very nice theme, Sliding Doors (by Wayne Connor at Mac-Host). I’d love to widgetise it one day but I’m skeptical of my own ability to make time to do so.

For those of you that followed W.A.M., fear not for it has been assimilated into Entropy. As the juicy news that pique public interest in South Africa breaks I’ll be sure to pass running commentary on it. I’m also working on getting a WordPress RSS plugin to work that will imp0rt RSS feeds as blog posts for The Extremist. He writes over at Hellforge now (as well, hopefully) in a column/blog he calls Extreme Opinion. Check him out there in the meantime. Hopefully his articles (with appropriate links back to the source) will be live soon.

Anyway, welcome to Entropy 1.0. Where the site’s not in beta but the writing probably is.

You may have noticed that my last post deviates from the spirit of the title “W.A.M.” As such, I would like your feedback on this proposed new content as well as a possible name-change.

A. Should W.A.M. contain my thoughts on computer games and technology?

1. W.A.M. is about socio-political commentary and should be kept as pure and controversial as possible. Keep your technobabble to yourself.
2. I’d love to read more on W.A.M. than your white-guilt-driven blatherings. It broadens my horizons and whatnot.

B. Should W.A.M.’s name be changed?

1. No.
2. To accomodate the new content, most assuredly. A name like “The blog of everything” will suffice.

The glory of maintaining ones own blog is that if no comments are received on this, I get to delete it and act as if the poll never happened… Muha! Muhahaha!

I subscribe to the translate.org.za newsletter and one of the things Dwyane Baley suggested that one does to show you care about your language is to blog in your home language. I’ve decided that I’ll be posting this blog in Afrikaans and English. I haven’t quite figured out the details but I do know that while I love my language, almost no-one else on the planet (statistically) will be able to understand me if I only write Afrikaans.