Oops!… I Did It Again
Yes, I’ve done it again – and trust me, for good reason. I won’t try to dismiss my obsession with frequent redesigns as the primary reason for this one, so I’ll tell you the two main reasons why you are seeing another theme here on my site.
As I wrote a few days ago, I am in the process of developing a new wireframe for my Revolution themes. Even though I have a test site up for it, I figured that applying the theme to my personal blog here would make for a fun way to make or break the theme. Not to mention, I just love that WordPress has included the ability to have threaded comments now, and couldn’t wait to have that here.
Another reason was that I have been asked, and will soon oblige, to release the theme that I previously had on my site to the public. So yes, that theme will soon be making it’s way over to the Revolution Two.
More than anything, going back to the WordPress 2.7 thing, I wanted to use it on my personal site, and knew that a great way to test a new wireframe would be to turn it loose live somewhere, and figured this was the best place to do it. So please, if you find any bugs or weird things going in here, please leave me a comment and let me know!
So for the time being, don’t bash me since I did it again – help me test out this theme – in the meantime, there might be some spots where I haven’t added content, that will soon come.
I’ll actually be restyling the theme for my site here, but for now – come on, hit me with it…
Looks very nice! Let’s check out that threaded commenting.
Special thanks to Phil, who already helped me find a bug with the comments.php file and the “required fields” which was causing an error. See, exactly why I did this!
I love it and I want it.
Really nice.
Hey, hey, now … I get a snazzy permanent link in your footer. I can’t complain about that
Slick work, as per usual, Brian. How about a little extra padding on the left of the gravatars? Perhaps less space above the ‘briangardner beta 1.0′ header text? Very little things.
Great looking theme, Brian. Are you going to style comments by admins differently? And when can we expect this theme to be released?
wh00t. excellent.
Oh how I enjoy watching the evolution of Revolution! Great work, Brian!
Excellent stuff, Brian!
I have just one complaint — some of my readers aren’t going to be too happy when I change my present theme to this when it’s released.
Well, well, well! What have we here then Brian?
HEHE
Like you said in the post, it really is quite nice to actually test the theme on a live site, and also take advantage of the new features, like you say, the threaded comments! And I must say, they do look very nice, and fit in well with the theme.
Although you did post a pictures of this new wireframe in another blog post, it’s also nice for us (The BG visitors!) to see what the theme is like in action before you release it too! (One question though, why you giving this away man?! Seriously!…)
Just from this initial look, you can do so much more with this theme, and I’m really considering redesigning my own blog using this very theme as the basis! )See what you’ve started now? LOL) Very exciting times, from my end anyway!
On top of that, I can’t wait to see what BrianGardner.com will look like after you’ve restuled it!
Keep up this kind of work, cause I’m loving it!
Thanks
Mark
An excellent design – even better than the last.
Cool! So does this mean you’ll have your last theme available soon for us to use?
I really liked it. The only thing I would want different would be to have a Twitter update at the top of that design. It was so great! Thanks for all you do.
Honestly with all the great themes you produce Brian….I think you do well not to take each one and apply to your blog, but you have to do it once in a while
. Looks great!!
Thanks, looks good. Also, I didn’t know the new Revolution themes could be downloaded from your site here for free. Thanks so much for all you give!
I never understood that threaded comments, how reader is supposed to follow the conversation if comment are not placed in chronological order … ?
Very nice theme Brian. I hope you will release it soon. Is it going to be only in black and white or are there going to be other colors also?
Now, about the footer piece. I love how you have set this up.
First, you have created your own “personal categories”. Awesome!!
And especially the “THINGS I TOTALLY LOVE” part. I just love it.
Thank you for being so authentic and carry it all the way through out your work, Brian.
Vida:)
I generally like all your work but not that last design. I gave it a while but I never took to it.
This one is dead good though.
LOVE the new design!
Hi Brian,
Nice work as always.
Will you update for all inclusive members the previous revolution line (the “old one” not opensource – couple of weeks ago) to reflect changes in WP2.7?
Brian,
you are genius.
We should offer you a shirt saying “born to be a designer”. 
Can’t wait to get into this theme.
I definitely prefer the concept of threaded “comments” to flat—I think it better suits how people actually tend to use so-called comment functionality (for discussion and comments alike)—but I am not sure about the the look of the nested boxes. There sure are a lot of parallel lines in some places.
Very elegant theme…. the fonts and highlights seem to be working just fine. I have your themes on multiple site, and I have a quick question for you: How do you get that .htm at the end of your post URL? …because I haven’t seen that in other WP blogs. Thanks.
And this is much easier to navigate! You made the right choice, and oh – I’m fawning over those threaded comments!
I like it.
Brian,
I think the changes are great. They reflect the dynamic nature of WP and your ever evolving skill set and perspective. Keep it up.
Nice Theme!, functional, clean
. I was just asking me because I can’t find them, What about your other themes? Or you are leaving them behind? 
Sure thing Phil, I’m replying to your comment, and this is how it will look.
I like it. Clean and simple.
I wonder how a reply to a mid-range reply will look
Phil – aren’t you supposed to be working on your PhD thesis right now?
Now you know.
Thanks Bill, and the good thing is that right now my site isn’t doing the theme justice, as I’ve got the basic layout shown right now, and not many of the page templates that plan on being a part of it!
You better not, especially if you need help styling WP 2.7 threaded comments or a 4 level drop down menu! Congrats on the Elevate Themes launch, by the way!
It’s a dissertation, not a thesis. And, yes, I should be working on it. But a guy needs a break every once in a while.
Glad to help!
I’m glad you fixed the comments bug. The theme is clean and clear. My one minor problem is the content area is a bit too narrow. It would be great if it could make use of today’s wider screens.
Thanks David, appreciate the comments and the eye for the little things. I just increased the left padding on the gravatars – as for the logo area, I’m leaving it a bit big in case people want to use that space. The theme here will actually be restyled within the next week or two, so my header will be looking different anyway!
Chris, not sure about that – as much as I like different admin style, it’s somewhat confusing (IMO) to have the alternating colors on top of another color difference for admins. Perhaps I can do something subtle – any suggestions?
Woot, thanks John!
Thanks Tracy, it’s pretty fun developing it too!
Ha, how do you think I feel when I reboot every 2-3 months!
Thanks Mark, like I said before, I probably won’t do the theme justice on my site here, as I just don’t have enough content or the need to produce media that the theme can ultimately be capable of showing. We’ll see how things pan out with the restyle, just more for me to do!
Thanks Brandon, appreciate it!
Yep, that’s the ultimate plan – not sure if I’ll be able to plug Twitter code into the header where my random quotes were, but it’s something that should be easy enough to do for those using the theme.
Thanks Susan, yeah – this is certainly a theme I wanted to actually test on a live site first, as you can read from previous comments, we’ve already managed to work out a few kinks.
I hear ya, Brian.
Sure thing Robert, I just included the download links for the themes when I launched this design.
As I see it, threaded comments can go a bit over-the-top at times, and I recon it goes down to how many tiers you have. Brian has 5 enabled here, and if I’m being completely honest I wouldn’t got any higher than that. (Well that’s what I think anyway!)
When I upgrade to v2.7, I’ll most likely only enable 3 tiers. But having a test installation of WordPress up, has helped me come to that conclustion. Everyone is different, and it’s upto the blog owner to decide what they want to do.
Thanks
Mark
Matej, for the most part they comments are sorted in chronological order – just grouped by color in terms of replies to comments. It’s much easier when you have a lot of comments you want to respond to be able to just click reply and address a specific comment and have it show underneath the one you are referring to.
If you take a look at my blog, then you’ll be able to see that it’s just what a bog standard blog looks like. However for a while now I’ve always wanted to turn it more into a CMS, with a featured homepage, and seperate blog page.
So if the redesign desn’t do justice for you here on the blog, I’d quite happily take it over, but what I really need to do is learn a bit about creating some graphics!
HEHE
With time, I recon I could make the most out of a theme like this, and I know it would require work! But then, as it’s your personal blog, as I see it, you have to be happy with it, otherwise you’ll not blog too often! If you see what I mean?
Anyway, this threaded commenting does look pretty nice, although as I mentioned further down, I hope some people don’t tahe the ‘threaded’ part too far! There’s a limit to the about of tiers you can have, or at least look respective!
Thanks
Mark
Yes, but when you reply – there’s a big chance that readers won’t notice it … I find threaded comment full of flaws and personally I wouldn’t use it. Also, restricting the number of tiers is stupid if you want to use threaded comment, but you need to because of the way threaded comments are designed….
I have seen that some sites are using “@someone” link when they are replying and when you click it “someone’s” comment shows. It’s much more better in my opinion.
Also, Gawker Media uses some nice looking threaded comments….
Thanks, I’m not sure about the colors – first thing I want to do is really finish up the theme as it is, and then will decide if/how many colors it might be available in.
Thanks Vida, I’m always looking for fun and creative ways to setup stuff that people can personalize. Glad you like that section!
Love your honesty Chris – I was never fully happy with the old one – I liked elements of it, but as a whole, not one that I’ll miss a whole lot.
Thanks Kyle – appreciate that!
Ellie, yes, once I release updates for the new themes for 2.7, I’ll be going back to upgrade the old ones as well.
Shankar, read this page from the WordPress codex.
Thanks Melissa, I’ll be restyling this theme for my own site at some point soon, but yes, the threaded comments for me is the kicker with the WP 2.7 thing.
Thanks Brian… I found the exact answer in the last para on that page. Yes, I have agree with its benefits…sometimes we have replaced posts with html pages, and this can be helpful. Thanks.