Vanilla Mist

A long time ago, when I was planning on working on Connections V2, I wrote a post asking users for feedback. However, a lot of things changed since then, so this calls for a new poll.

Like I said previously, Connections 2.0 is on its way. There will be a number of improvements based on both my own observations and user input over time (via email and comments on the blog).

But I would like to hear your feedback as to what would be more useful to you in terms of functionalities and design. The obvious things, such as widgets support and full sidebar showing on individual post pages are already implemented. The kind of feedback I’m looking for are things like:

• What plugins would you like the theme to support?
• How important is it to you to have an AdSense optimized version of the theme?
• Would you like to have a 3 column version of Connections?
• How about color schemes? How useful would it be to you to have other color scheme alternatives?
• What weaknesses do you think the theme has that could be fixed (other than lack of widgets support, for instance)?
• Is there something you always wished the theme offered and would like to see in the new version?

I already have a long list of improvements and fixes (code and design wise) that I would like to implement and your input will help me get clearer idea on what matters to the user the most – which might not be exactly what I suspect to be. I can’t promise that every suggestion will be implemented, especially since opinions may vary greatly, but I will compile a list of “most requested changes and improvements” and try to implement them all.

Feel free to answer any or all of the above questions or throw in any other ideas.

Thank you in advance for your input.

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Hi, everyone! I just came here to say that Connections 2.0 will take a little longer than I antecipated. The reason is personal, I’m having to put many things aside at the moment until life gets back to its course – in fact it’s not even that, it’ll have an unexpected change in course that I’ll need to adapt to. So I hope you can all understand, I will work on Connections v2.0 as soon as I can, but it’ll take a little longer.

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I’m starting to work on a new version of Connections. I’m making new color schemes and when these are ready, I’ll work on functionalitits with Sadish. So, if there’s something you didn’t like in the original version, or something you wish there was and wasn’t there in the previous version, now is the time to tell me. I’m taking into consideration some comments made about it in the past, there are things I already know I want to change.

So, leave your comment if you have any suggestions or fovever hold your peace!

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I have many things to post about Connections – ported versions, translated versions, etc… But the information I need to compile is all scattered among comments and emails, this will give me a lot of work to put together, I’m sure. So I’m taking a deep breath here to get started, I have no idea how long this will take, so I won’t make any promisses at this point.

Meanwhile, those of you who speak german can find a translated version of Connections here. Thanks to Rolf for that.

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I’m hooked on podcasts – well, who isn’t right? I was thinking here that it will be really, really great when we can record our comments as well, something like “commentcasts” – or technically would these be called podcasts just the same? Anyway, that would be nice, I know I for one would like to hear the voices behind the comments. Just a thought, after no updates in a month!!! Gee…

In other news, Sadish and I will be working on a new version of Connections soon, making adjustments here and then, but I don’t want to get into details just yet. One thing I can tell you though, is that I will release at least another color scheme of Connections with a different top image when the new version is ready. Connections has become more popular than I could ever immagine and this is my way to say thank you to everyone who chose to use the theme and, of course, to give people at least another option, since not everyone can customize the theme enough to make it look unique. But before I decide on a color scheme, I’d like to see what base color would appeal most to people, so if you could spare a minute to leave a comment letting me know your opinion, I will surely appreciate it.

Here are a few examples of Connections using different color schemes:

http://www.pink-frog.net
http://www.sinestesia.co.uk (my blog in portuguese, not really customized in colors, but still a modified version.)
http://goringe.net/theology/
http://www.imightbeinatree.com/blog/
http://www.billvanloo.com/blog/

I’ve seen a lot more, but I’d have to search for them.

I keep thinking that I should make the new color scheme as basic as possible, that will make it easy for people to make any top image fit without fighting with the rest of the site. But, well, I’d still like to hear your opinion.

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Someone emailed me today about having the sidebar on the left side on Connections. So I inverted the position of the sidebar and the content to see how it looks. I like it this way too. Pretty simple to do, just 2 simple changes in the css. I will change it back soon, but meanwhile, tell me which one you guys prefer. I still like the original beter.

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Ioannis has ported Connections to Gallery. It’s a good idea if you already use Connections as your blog theme and also want a picture gallery. Good job, Ioannis – and thanks for sharing it with us.

See the demo here.
Download it from here.

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The Connections theme is now officially distributed through this website (as opposed to both here and wpthemes.info, to avoid version conflicts). This release carries some minor adjustments (removes a bullet that appeared next to a sidebar box and has better support for nested categories and links) and also comes with 2 added files: a static page template and the comments template. If you are already using this theme, upgrading is not necessary, but if you want to have a separate template for your pages, then maybe you should consider downloading this package and installing it over your current one. Don’t forget to back up your files before replacing them with the new ones, especially if you have made any custom changes on your own that you’d like to keep, or added stuff to the sidebar, etc. I am sending Alex this new package to replace the current one over at the competition site as well. You can download this official release from here.

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A blue and cream version of Connections. I like it!

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Matt has written a tutorial on how to apply the Connections theme to your blog if it’s hosted on Blogsome. His own weblog is hosted there.

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