A couple of weeks ago, I changed the theme of my blog (the “theme”, for anyone who is not familiar, is the template that creates the layout of a blog, the way it looks visually). Previously, I’d been using a theme called Vigilance, which I chose for its clean lines, minimalist style and simple appearance. I liked it a lot, but I was never happy about the sidebar — I always felt it was hard to see where one item ended and the next began.
So a couple of weeks ago, I went hunting for a new theme and found one I just loved — it’s called Under the Influence and I think it looks great! It has the same clean lines and simple style that the blog had before, plus a few really cool features like the nifty footer at the bottom of the page (You hadn’t see the footer? Ooh, quick!… scroll down and have a look! I’ll wait for you here). And I’m really happy with the new sidebar — much, much better.
But then, about four days after I installed the new theme, I realised it had one drawback: it’s really hard to see where to leave a comment. It’s in the small print and it’s just doesn’t stand out that much.
And that’s a huge drawback, because a blog is a two-way conversation, and the comments are the lifeblood of that conversation. I love hearing from you, reading your comments, and getting your feedback. And if it’s hard for you to see where to leave a comment, then all that is going to grind to a halt pretty quickly.
When I first realised, I thought about going back to the old theme …or maybe looking for yet another one. But I really like this theme in every other way besides the comment issue, and I’d really like to stay with it.
And I probably will, but I thought I’d ask you guys as well. Do you think the new theme makes it difficult to leave a comment? To read others’ comments? Do you find it confusing …or did you not even notice the change? Please leave a comment and let me know. Just click where it says “Leave a Comment” (or shows the number of comments) right at the end of this post.
Right there… No, it’s right there. See it? Down a bit, and over. Small type, in red. See it? There you go!
I don’t think it’s bad. As a web developer, I MAY be able to help you put something more visible in the sidebar or something….
Oh, that’s so kind of you! Thank you! I’m guessing you probably could do something if this were a self-hosted blog, but as it’s on Worpress.com (instead of .org), I don’t know if anything can be done.
After I read your comment, I did put the “Recent Comments” widget in the sidebar, but even that’s not all that great, because it shows who commented on what, but not actually what they said. So, I took it out again, but might add it back in later if I think it will work…
I like the new template too! The location of where t leave a comment isnt a big deal… unless there are a bunch of links prior to it in “posted in”. At first I thought it was no big deal, until I kept looking and in some cases the comment link just gets totally lost. Template creator fail.
I agree — template creator fail! There’s some buzz about it on WordPress too, and I think either WP or the creator ought to just quickly step in and make that one change. Everything else about it is great, but part of the point of blogs is the interactive aspect and this template has totally messed that up.
Actually, looking at it again, it’s easy enough to see in this particular blog post, but that’s because this post has no categories (because it’s not about fiber-stuff). The comment link only gets lost when I’ve used a lot of categories (as in other posts). An easy way to fix that would be to just stick the Category secion on the next line with the Tag section. Or make the Comments link bigger.
Yep, I found it! I’d like to change some things about my blog template, too, and when I experiment with something else, I found things I don’t like…sidebar, widget issues, color, type/font, footer, header customization, whatever. Not 100% happy with the one I have but for now, it’s workable.
This one looks very nice. Love the header, too.
Yeah, I guess no theme has it all! 🙂 And this one is pretty good in every other respect.
Thanks for the compliment on the header. It’s on my list of things to update sometime too! 😉