[VoyGeorge]

I'm looking for some good, basic themes for WordPress. Preferable free ones to start, though I'm not adverse to paying for REALLY good ones.

Looking for two column right now. The sidebar should be on the left, or the CSS should be clearly written enough to flip the body and sidebar.

Anyones gots their favs?

[Tigger]

Preferable free ones to start

are there any other type

I don't have any fav's just go along to w/p and check out the themes

[Itchy]

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Free Adult Wordpress Themes - WP themes for Adult Blogs

[gonzogone]

Originally Posted by Itchy

TOP SECERT
Free Adult Wordpress Themes - WP themes for Adult Blogs

if I had time right now, I'd do a screen shot of how that link renders in Opera... it's an ouch...

VG - not sure if it can be adapted or if there is a version for a two col, but 'nearly sprung' seems to be a really solid theme from a CSS standpoint. It's 3 col though.

[VoyGeorge]

Originally Posted by Tigger

I don't have any fav's just go along to w/p and check out the themes

Most of those are pretty bad, though. Not from a design point maybe (depends on what you're looking for) but from a coding standpoint. Nine out of 10 I find have really bad CSS that takes me - literally - a day to fix so that it works right across browsers, or doesn't break if I change some dimensions here and there.

I have a current fav but am looking for one or two others. I also have a Blogger theme that I'll be converting to a WP theme later today or tomorrow.

Itchy, your link showed some nice tube-style themes I might try later, though I have a couple of (paid) ones I've been using, and not so much in the market there.

S4E, I can take a 3-col to 2-col. I'll check out Nearly Sprung.

[Tigger]

we must have been lucky as so far most of the ones we have used have been fine

[VoyGeorge]

Yeah, I'm pretty particular. I like two columns because I prefer sidebar art up to 300px wide. I like the sidebar on the left because every heat map ever published show punters are more likely to click on banners and ads when they're on the left. I also tend to customize the crap out of the themes so they look distinctive.

Anywho, I found a couple of simpler themes I've been able to adapt pretty well. Still always looking for that terrific theme that is waiting to be discovered by everyone else...

[VoyGeorge]

Tooj a second look at the site Itchy's pointed out. Some seriously nice shit there. I can re-color some of the art to make it look more unique, but I think I'll be going for one or two there.

Thanks Itchy!

[Tigger]

Yeah, I'm pretty particular. I like two columns because I prefer sidebar art up to 300px wide

when I fist started blogging it was the two column themes but lately I've been using three so I can get more banners / product feeds onto the blog - plus it also means less space for the content on the posting so can fill the blog up faster

[jello]

Originally Posted by Tigger

when I fist started blogging it was the two column themes but lately I've been using three so I can get more banners / product feeds onto the blog - plus it also means less space for the content on the posting so can fill the blog up faster

Same here

[VoyGeorge]

But click maps show the narrow vertical banners have at best half the pull of the wider ones. Seems like you're throwing your real estate away. Plus, whenever need you can always make side-by-side columns of banners or feeds in a single CSS column. Just do additional left/right floats, or (horror!) use a table.

I suppose if you have a 3-column layout where both columns are on the same side you can set the CSS to allow a wider image to cross over into the next column, but that can get tricky. if you don't hand-tune the layouts.

Whether 2 columns or 3 columns, the sidebar column fills up whatever space you want and takes away from the content column, so two 150px sidebar columns equals one 300px sidebar column. The content column is the same width (or set to variable size) either way. I guess you guys are talking about some really wide sidebars!

[VoyGeorge]

Found one I like pretty well, though (like most themes) there are some rendering differences between IE and Firefox. Nothing machine

Anyway, it's StarOcean. I'm modifying it somewhat, for example making the wrapper a bit wider so that it will accommodate a 300px sidebar.

The CSS is pretty clean.

The other thing I wanted, and this one has it, is that even though the sidebar is on the left, the content comes first in the source. This way G sees the unique content text first.

[VoyGeorge]

Forget it. The theme sucks. Turns out to have some pretty major rendering flaws in IE7. Line breaks are all loused up. Looks perfect in Firefox, Chrome, and the others.

Grrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

[gonzogone]

ya gotta love IE7 - it has a mind of it's own and too huge of a market share...

[VoyGeorge]

I found a couple more and have spent the remains of the day futzing with them, and getting them to do what I want them to do. On one I had to totally redo the colors as it was way too dark, and I've been wanting lighter themes on some of these (for one thing to better match the main sponsor I'm linking to).

In the end, I think these themes are completely different than the originals, except for a couple of pieces of art...

In the end BOTH of the themes I went with had right-handed sidebars. Neither made it easy to flip the sidebars, and I just said to hell with it. I'll just have to remember banners in the lower-right will never ever get clicked!!