Tue 13 Nov 2007
Share your input on Connections V2
Posted by Patricia Müller under Themes , WordPress , Work | 7:13 pm[63] Comments
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. 
November 22nd, 2007 at 1:59 am
Patricia, first let me say thank you for the It was exactly what I needed and I even found a port for Coppermine.
Yes, AdSense optimization would be important as well as the Widget support. I like the two column layout. Having a rotating header image would be nice. I have found a plug in for it, but native support would be cool. I use the Event calendar plug too.
I’m not too much help I am afraid, but I will think about things I would add (if I knew how
).
Brandon
November 24th, 2007 at 11:07 am
Patricia,
When I first thought to use WP to convert my old www site from html, I looked at many many designs – I was overwhelmed in fact. None of them seemed what I wanted. Finally I settled on your theme. Why? Was it the snazziest, etc.? No. Those were qualities I did not find useful. What I liked was the flexibility in the code.
If I were to offer advice, that flexibility would be the one thing I would value most. Do I want one column, two, three? Do I want Adsense or not? This widget or that? A wide theme, or narrow? Rotating header or not? Let me choose. Give me the ability to change the some of the code without breaking the theme or WP compatibility.
—
“try to implement them all.” There is an old story to the effect that a retired fisherman decided to build his dream boat – suggestions poured in. When he was finished, he invited all those who had made suggestions to come view the finished boat. They were all dismayed to see that none of their ideas had been used. When asked why this was, “Oh,” he said pointing to the rafters where a misshapen vaguely boat-like thing hung, “That’s one is yours.”
November 24th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
@Brandon:
“I’m not too much help I am afraid” – yes you are and I really appreciate your input, thank you! AdSense optimization seems to be one of the changes people would most like to see.
@Chris: this is a very different point of view, Chris, and it certainly gives food for thought. I agree that flexibility is important, each person has a different need. I am trying to compile this list of most requested features because I would like make it easier for people who don’t necessarily know how to implement them on their own to have them (or to choose to use them) without having to start working from scratch. But with what you said in mind, maybe I should consider also releasing a simpler version (besides the one packed with the most requested functionalities) for those of you who prefer to use it as the starting block on which to build upon. So thanks for sharing your perspective. I’ll take it into consideration.
Cheers,
Patricia.
November 25th, 2007 at 10:52 pm
Patricia,
Glad to be of some help! I’ve been doing sites since 1989 but all in html, so WP, php, and mysql and so on are very new to me.
While I can write html in my sleep, this new approach is very daunting to me. Maybe I’ll break down one of these days and buy a book or two – maybe.
Anyway I’ve been looking at other themes for 231 but haven’t found any that lend themselves as easily to customization as Connections.
Mostly those I’ve looked at are too narrow, use too much color, and rely on fixed custom graphics for structure. I generally like a page to be about 825px wide, with the post being 600-odd px.
Since most of what I have is text, ease of reading is very important – black type and white background are key.
I like your idea about constructing a theme using blocks which can be built on – if that’s what you meant. Like plug-ins – add this file to add this feature. Cool.
Chris
December 5th, 2007 at 3:50 am
Patricia,
Although I’ve been working in web programming for 10 years and various blogging for about 4 years, this is the first I’ve used WordPress, and I love your template! As I get more blog-savvy, I hope to give more feedback for you.
Keep up the great work!
Angela
December 5th, 2007 at 1:51 pm
hi Patricia!
i don’t know anything about web programming so i’ll be relying on whatever you’d offer.
first, i’ve seen (and downloaded) an adsense-ready connections theme. but of course, it would be better if this v2 have this ready. (i mean coming from you)
second, yes, we would LOVE to have a 3 column version of this theme.
third, may i suggest a happier color? orange perhaps (but still, on a white background) or you may stick with green but the lime shade?
December 5th, 2007 at 1:58 pm
oh yeah, if what chris suggested is possible for the colors to be customizable (like andreas09), that would be great!
December 8th, 2007 at 6:29 am
hi again patricia! this may sound demanding but how about categories and links pages (’coz i don’t know how to do that on my own)?
December 10th, 2007 at 2:10 pm
Patricia,the only things that I’d like to see added to Connections v2 would be better WordPress 2.3+ support, support for widgets in the sidebar, and an easier way to edit the “About|Home|Contact” etc. links on the top. As a sysadmin, not a programmer, I can do several of those changes myself, but having them pre-built (or even existing, like widget support) would be fantastic.
Thanks for a really great looking theme.
December 11th, 2007 at 4:43 am
i really like the connections theme. it is simple but elegant in a way that none of the other w/p themes are. my own requirements are quite simple so it works for me more or less.
i would like to be able to change the colour of the bar above the image header (i’m sure it has a name) so that it can match (or nicely contrast with) my choice of image header (which i change quite frequently).
also it would be nice if the info below the post title (posted by…, comments…) could be placed elsewhere, so that the title stands out more prominently. choice of post-title colour would also be nice.
otherwise it’s great. good job.
December 11th, 2007 at 5:39 pm
I love this template! I don’t have any issues that I can think of right now, though the editing or changing the ABOUT per Robert’s request. I like the colors, I like the ’simple elegance.’
AND? this might be wordpress and not template specific but could the editor have a font & size option (or maybe I just don’t know this?) I only recently discovered I could change font color…
Thank you!
December 13th, 2007 at 8:21 am
HI,
.
O used this theme and I like it very much.
Now for the questions.
I want to have 3 column version of the theme.
Color schemes also will be good.
Ability to change top image as options. Also the text above it.
Comment preview as this one
Archive for months and years in one widget. I made one for myself but it not look good as your widget for links for example.
December 17th, 2007 at 11:00 pm
First of all, thanks for this great theme!!!
Now, i would like also 3 columns and support for Gallery2 image system (you can see at my blog).
I can help you testing any improvement for gallery2
Thanks in advance
Sebastian
December 27th, 2007 at 5:50 pm
Hi Patricia,
I love this theme – it works so perfectly with what I need it to do. My only suggestion is to have a way to increase the width allowed for images; I think currently I can only post images that are 500 pixels wide. If I had some flexbility in that area, it would be perfect!
January 14th, 2008 at 10:26 am
I have been using this theme for long. This week I tried to use another theme for my site, but was not satisfied and turned back to Connections. And, I was looking if there is any update on the theme when I read this post.
These are improvements I wish Connections should have:
1. Widget support
2. Google Adsense support
3. A little visible color of the entry date
You may release this theme in 3-column one but please do also release it in 2-col and good for 800×600 resolution.
January 20th, 2008 at 6:11 am
Patricia,
Although I’ve been working in web programming for 10 years and various blogging for about 4 years, this is the first I’ve used WordPress, and I love your template! As I get more blog-savvy, I hope to give more feedback for you.
Keep up the great work!
January 22nd, 2008 at 1:20 pm
hi Particia… first off, I love this this. There are certain aspects and nuances that are really cool like the shadow effect that separates the content from the back image, the end-of-post image, the post’s date in the upper left of each post, I could go on with other tiny details that I really dig about your theme… I just love it.
So now for some improvements. I’m a graphics/layout designer but not a web designer. I don’t know CSS or PHP and so to have an easy, layman’s means for changing the color scheme of the background image, end-of-post image, bullet image, footer/header colors and images in the sidebar would be wonderful.
Also, allowing to choose to create a taller header image would be nice.
Maybe shadows for the blocks in the sidebar, for the commenter’s avatars and the date-posted block?
That’s all i can think of for now.
Thanks again for such a clean, aesthetic theme.
~jules
January 23rd, 2008 at 2:34 am
Hi Patricia,
You’re my theme designer! Thanks so much I love your theme, it’s just gorgeous!
The one thing I would change would be to have an option to display the pages below the header or above it.
Thanks again for designing such a beautiful template. I love it.
Lisa
January 30th, 2008 at 7:26 am
Hi there,
Thanks so much for your theme, I’m using a ported version for Coppermine and it completely solved all my needs, easily customisable and very clean and stylish.
Thanks again, real life saver!
Kev
February 1st, 2008 at 4:47 pm
We love your theme– I agree with those who suggest that options and flexibility would be a plus in the new version– 3 columns, for example, widget support, width of theme, etc.
February 7th, 2008 at 10:35 am
Patricia,
Thanks for the theme and the opportunity to give feedback. I like the idea of a 3 col option and also a color scheme option.
Jonny
February 26th, 2008 at 8:05 pm
Thank you so much for this theme. I am very new to blogging (just had my first post yesterday!) and I am so appreciative of what you’ve done here.
Thanks Thanks Thanks
March 7th, 2008 at 2:46 pm
Am I to late? lol
I would like to see the comment link at the bottom of each post instead of the top.
Someone will probably tell me I can change this myself… lol I don’t know how to yet…
March 9th, 2008 at 10:42 pm
Also.. when you open individual pages.. I’d like a page turner at the bottom of those pages…
March 10th, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Hi,
I’m still using Connections, in an highly customized way but I would love to have a new version
What for me is most important:
- Widget support
- better support for translations! This is really important for me
- Adsense support
- Templates with differing numbers of columns (I’m using a one-column template for photo display)
- keep the great look! please the colors too
- support vor NextGen Gallery, although that shouldnt be too much
March 28th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Move the Googe Ads…
They are way too distracting where they’re at, eating into your content space at the beginning of each post.
It’s pretty bad form to toss ads into your content area, unless you’re a retail site or spam blog.
March 31st, 2008 at 11:31 am
Nice that you keep working on this. Well, I also wanted to mention here the rotating header image, I did it on my page and now that the collection of pictures has been growing it’s always a surprise
(on my page there is then also a link where you can see all of them at once, thus hopefully preventing people from pressing F5 too often).
In my case I had to add the border manually, which is annoying. maybe you know a way of automatically doing that, thus the process of putting header images there would be extremely simplified …
the overall current ‘2 column’ stuff seems to be suitable for me, somehow I just have problems imagening a 3 column version of a blog, how would that be organized, do you have any working examples somewhere to get a better idea ? just make each post in 2 rows and everything broader, or is there something else, like one column for pictures from some gallery, one column for blog-texts and the usual right side column ?
thanks again for the theme
Johannes
March 31st, 2008 at 9:59 pm
Love the theme – I sort of cut it up a bit and used it as the base for a site for a friend of mine.
I would LOVE to see widget support added. I am sure I could convert it to myself if I really need – maybe in the next few days I will attempt it. Adsense integration would also help, but again that’s the lazy coder in me.
Thanks for the great theme!
April 1st, 2008 at 7:19 am
Sorry for commenting so late, just discovered your post. I join the many thanks for the nice theme design.
A good support for the Polyglot plug-in for multilingual blogs is a key element for me. I had to do a few adaptations to your theme (plus a few translations in the .po files) so that it would use ?php _e in a few cases where it didn’t. Was stupid enough not to send back the mods at the time. If I hit similar problems when you release Connections 2.0, I will try to be a better WordPress citizen this time …
April 3rd, 2008 at 9:43 am
Hiya Patricia,
Firstly let me say thank you for connections v1, it has served me well and continues to do so!
Reading your blog about suggestions, it would be great to have a “look” at what a 3 and a 2 coloumn design would look like to see what would be best? if not too hard on you, produce both
)!
The other aspect, which i think would be great if possible, is to make the whole theme as valid as possible using the validator at w3c!.
To give you an idea of plugins used, here is a list of the plugins i currently use on my blog:
AddThis Social Bookmarking Widget
diggIT
NextGEN Gallery
Preserve Code Formatting
reCAPTCHA
Ultimate Google Analytics
WP-PostRatings
The above are plug-ins that have some form of effect on the theme, either by adding a section in the post or the sidebar.
Hopefully this might help as those plugins tend to be quite popular on alot of blogs (based on the download stats on wordpress).
If you need any help or more information then feel free to get in touch! It’s the least i owe you
.
Regards,
Shadi
April 7th, 2008 at 5:37 pm
I there a way to turn off the avatars on the comments?
http://www.darrellandgwen.wordpress.com
April 10th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Hi Patricia,
Just thought I’d add my two cents…
The only things I’m concerned with are the columns and the possible colour choices. All the other stuff I have no idea what they are so *shrugs*…
I honestly prefer the two column. Sometimes having three just makes it a bit too crowded, so I would beg you to leave it as two.
As far as giving us options for colour, I would definitely say please consider it! The blog I have right now (which I just started yesterday) should really be accompanied by a pink colour, not green. But I loved your theme anyway so I’m using it. So, yeah if people had options then I think there’d be alot more using it! And not everything goes with green … lol..
I’m not much good at blogging or the best at using themes, but I really appreciate the fact that you take some time to ask for input and the time you spend on making these themes. Thank you Patricia! Good luck!
April 25th, 2008 at 1:11 am
I too would love color options! Someone else also suggested rotating header images, love the idea! Thanks
Jen
April 28th, 2008 at 3:04 am
Nice post!!!
Thanks for the great theme =]
May 3rd, 2008 at 4:13 am
Hey, I am the one who use your theme. It’s very cool design. I have problem with that widget is shown in main page and about me page but in each topic blog it was shown only “Archive”.
May 6th, 2008 at 7:04 pm
Patricia: I am probably just overlooking the obvious, but is there a way to allow people’s comments to show on the main post page, rather than having to click on the “comments” link?
May 15th, 2008 at 9:08 pm
Hi Patricia.
Thanks for your theme. Love it (like it’s never been said before, but still …)
Btw, it’s already May …. Where’s your post for 2008????
May 26th, 2008 at 1:56 pm
I am relieved that the very developer of this template is interacting with her users with a view to coding further improvements of it. Now, I know my concerns will at least get an ear (sorry, a read).
I love this template Patricia, but my blog has grown to a point where I need (make that NEED) three columns with two sidebar widgets, preferably one on each side.
Secondly, I would not mind if the top navigation bar would accommodate one more line of headline text.
May 28th, 2008 at 12:58 pm
I love your templates, but I don´t know how to change front images, is it possible?
May 29th, 2008 at 8:25 pm
Patricia,
I love your connections theme. I’ve been blogging for about a year and your theme has been the only theme I have used. And I get really great feedback from people about the look.
Pretty much the only thing I change is the picture at the top every few months.
Is there a way to include a few color choices in the latest version?
For example, spring, summer, fall and winter colors. That would be really cool. That would give the theme more ability to match more pictures.
Thanks,
Steve
June 18th, 2008 at 9:48 pm
I absolutely love VanillaMist. It was exactly what I was looking for (and I spent hours looking). I have no need to change the color scheme. It’s good for my purposes.
Since all this is totally new to me and I really don’t know what I’m doing, I have no use for widgets but I guess I will want them as I learn more.
I would love to have three columns. I would like to have a column that would have headlines and snipet then could go to another page. Or just another column to put additional sidebars, etc. would be great. I have no need for AdSense but I’m sure others would like to have it.
June 29th, 2008 at 11:02 am
Hi Patricia,
I have been using this theme for a while now on two different websites (both need some more attention, but that is another story
). I am not very good at changing things, but I have tried to change the theme to fit my preferences (www.wisnaes.com and http://www.wisnaes.net)
I would really love to see some use of the new EXIF functions in WordPress 2.5 as I have heard that it will put EXIF (I also hope it puts IPTC fields) into special fields so that they can be used by the templates.
Please take a look at http://www.wisnaes.com/ to get a better idea about what I am after. There is a story there about credit for photographers and I think it is one of the most overlooked things on the web.
Another thing I would love to see on my pages is an About page with a little addition. I wish it could automatically display the credits for the template, plug-ins etc. that has been used to build the webpage. Almost like the movie credits in film. I have seen plug-ins like this for Joomla, but never heard of anything like this for WordPress. The next step for a plug-in like this would be to be able to change the order of the display and also leave something out or add something that did not get detected. The beauty of a plug-in like this is that you do not have to update the list when you change plug-ins or update them.
July 27th, 2008 at 1:18 am
A “a:hover”, “ul li” dropdown menu (as I’m doing on this page: http://www.worch.com/?page_id=13 – if you hover over the Games menu) would be much appreciated for the VanillaMist topnav bar.
I just implemented and slightly modified VanillaMist 1.0 for my wife’s page, and it worked out great. Thanks for the theme! But the hover links for subpages is missing. Was gonna do it myself, but now I’m going to wait for v2.0 of your theme first
July 30th, 2008 at 9:31 pm
I second (or third?) the motion for better translation support.
July 31st, 2008 at 1:35 pm
I’ve really enjoyed your template.
Two things to make it even better:
1. Make the link for “[view] comments” more prominent, perhaps at the bottom of a message as well as at the top?
2. Make the title of blog entries more prominent — maybe a larger font or something? Titles presently seem to be a bit drowned out by my list of tags and categories.
August 23rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
Hi,
Great theme.
Would be good to have widgets enabled in the next version
Rupert
September 4th, 2008 at 7:06 am
Your connections theme is wonderful. I’m just started blogging on wordpress but this theme is the only one I liked.
For the questions:
1. rotatig header image
2. color schemes would be nice
3. support for translations and NextGEN Gallery plugin
4. i prefer 3 columns theme but 2 would be also nice
i’m sure that whatever you create would be perfect
September 5th, 2008 at 12:47 pm
Hello Patricia,
I love your connection theme. And I hope V2 will release as soon as possible. I change a lot of details in “my” version of the connection theme, but of course your work was very useful for me. You can find my kind of using the theme at http://www.peaceblog.de. I’m a Webmaster myself and so I can adopt the theme without problems, but your idea with different color scheme is a very good one. I’m anxious to the new release and its features. Can you say nearly, when the new release will publish?
Thank you very much for your good work.
KADO, from Germany
September 5th, 2008 at 2:38 pm
I’ve noticed that the Month (like September) spills out over the border of the date area on the posts. Can you change it so that every month has its abbreviation instead of the full spelling so that it stays within the confines of the box?
September 11th, 2008 at 1:29 pm
Hi! I’ve been using Connections at WordPress. I very much like the theme, but I need widget support in individual post pages. How’s V2 coming along? Do you have any suggestions for me?
September 25th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
Hey Patricia,
I really like the Connections theme and I don’t have many ideas or suggestions because I’m quite content. Just one thing. I like giving my blog a visually attractive look and that’s why I love the custom header – but it would be wonderfull if I could change the colour of the bar above it too, like the test on the banner.
I look forward to a new version!
September 27th, 2008 at 4:14 pm
I tried out several but yours looked the best for my purpose. I was hoping for more widgets…namely, Calendar & Hits. I’d love a rotating (slide show effect)banner. I also have a question. I noticed that there is an “About the site:” box in the sidebar. Don’t have a clue how to get to that to enter text.
September 29th, 2008 at 8:03 pm
I would like to thank you Patricia. Your theme is complete, easy and nice. I shose it for blog of mine on wordpress.
September 30th, 2008 at 8:16 pm
I have no idea how to change coding etc, or what widgets can do other than the basics, so my thoughts are on color and esthetics only.
I would love to see the green bar at the top customizable to whatever will match your own uploaded header picture. The Widget links, the top bars on the widget boxes and little curli-cues are a good color – not really green enough to clash with another picture I chose to use – I think that should stay as is – neutral.
i dont like the cranberry red of the links – something less blue-red or lighter? I know – picky
i also dont like seeing my tags at the top of the blog entry – I much prefer them below the blog entry.
i do like the cleanness of the blog, while still maintaining definite lines and boxes to contain the widgets in the sidebar. I dont like blogs that have no definition for the actual blog text area.
October 9th, 2008 at 7:07 pm
Just a quick hello.
October 15th, 2008 at 7:32 pm
I use connections for an Edublogs class site. I really like the structure and feel, but a 3 column option would be a great help and color options would be nice. Thank you for doing great work!
October 18th, 2008 at 9:10 am
Hello, Patricia
thank you very much for your template, I like it and I would be happy to have similiar nice templates in future, made by you.
I am German, living on the north of Germany near by the baltic sea.
Bye, bye
ultraistgut
December 5th, 2008 at 5:18 pm
Hi, how did you get the top of your links to have the http://www.address.com go directly to your home page without making it a page? I’m having a difficult time and even tried a redirect html code but it’s not working. Thanks!
December 12th, 2008 at 7:52 am
Dear Patricia, i use your theme for my page. Thank you so much. this page is so easy for eyes, FYI – i use the other theme from wordpress, and my friend said he got a dizzy with my posts, and i check it, i found the fact that my theme color is so sharp, so that’s why i use ur theme, coz it’s so simple.
Thanks a bunch for you Patricia. And permit me to use ur theme, will ya?
Toekang Roempi – Semarang Indonesia.
February 2nd, 2009 at 6:30 pm
hello
first of all i would like to thank you for the nice theme that im using.
i would like to answer some of your question from my point of view.
yes it would be nice to have three colums version.
yes it would be very useful to have other color schemes
i can say the comment aliment, as i use arabic language in my blog, so alway the test in comments will be from left to right, i would like to have an option to make it from right to left!..
i would like to have an option to post images for categories then text only, so that will look better
i would like to have another link on the top of the bog Leeds to my main website address and still the one i have to go to my main blog page.
finally when u gonna publish the new theme!
thanx alot
May 10th, 2010 at 3:13 am
Only thing I desperately, desperately crave is a dropdown menu. Color options are a bonus but the default works for me.
May 27th, 2010 at 3:45 pm
Hi, i’d like to have a menu bar with sub- menus!!!! many themes have it but i like vanillamist! Is it possible???? thank you !!!:-)
June 28th, 2010 at 1:34 pm
Although I’ve been working in web programming for 10 years and various blogging for about 4 years, this is the first I’ve used WordPress, and I love your template! As I get more blog-savvy, I hope to give more feedback for you. I’ve noticed that the Month (like September) spills out over the border of the date area on the posts. Can you change it so that every month has its abbreviation instead of the full spelling so that it stays within the confines of the box?
thanks info, very nice articel.