“DePo Masthead” is the WORST Theme available on WordPress.com!
You think I’m kidding, but when was the last time you browsed a blog with this theme and think… “hmm. I can find exactly what I’m looking for!” Not ever!
Before I go on, I’d like to make it perfectly clear that I’ve got nothing against Derek Powazek, the author. I think he’s a very talented guy who’s made a terrible, terrible, mistake.
I’m by no means the greatest designer out there, but even I can tell when something was haphazard and actively user hostile. I mean, have you tried right clicking on any of the “next/previous” post links on a page? And JavaScript to see comments?!
Wanna know how bad this theme is? Even the author doesn’t use it on his own site. Why can’t we have Derek’s other (far superior) theme, DePo Skinny, instead?
And I’m making this post with great difficulty because there are regular blogs I read that have this theme, and I don’t have the heart to tell them that their content will be recieved 1000x better if it were actually readable. I.E. Stop using this theme!
I can’t even believe the WP folks would have this in the allowed themes list. It’s like having box cutters dispensed via vending machines. You just know someone will buy one.
And the real kicker : The description of DePo…
“A classy template that draws on classic magazine design design for a simple, bold style.”
“Classy”? I think not! I’ll give it simple, as in simply unnavigable, and bold, like Yoko Ono only more painful. And classic like the first ever locomotive. A monsterous curiosity you would never EVER want to ride in.
Fits none of the descriptions...
I want to “read” your blogs and not just skim through. I don’t want to stick to feed readers alone because I’ll miss out on things like blogrolls and other extras. I can’t do that when you won’t let me. Please think about your readers!
You have a lot going on here, dude!.
There is expose of the parasites which I have to bookmark with your recommended link.
And this one – a meshsup theme you described as the “Worst” wordpress theme. I don’t really like that theme anyway so I didn’t even bother to preview it. But maybe this time.
Your new blog face lift is really cool! I could not imagine that it would change the way it is now the black background.
One more thing, the confusing ” Left this page thingy is gone…”
A lot of stuff happened in one day :P
Actually I moved the “This page left…” stuff in the welcome box on the index page. I figured it’ll be less of a distraction in there.
“I want to “read” your blogs and not just skim through. ……. Please think about your readers!”
Very true.
Fancy layouts might look great in a snapshot but trying to read some sites is torture.
To add…
A lot of users abuse the features in the fancy layouts like sidebar images. All to the point where all the content gets pushed out of the way.
Ack!
Kind of looks like it’s trying to be Sports Illustrated without the pictures. Which means disaster.
strange post man
https://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_s-xclick&hosted_button_id=3143569 what for what server aren’t you using free wordpress???
why not go in for hosting or blogger if you want it free then have adsense
I want to “buy” a new server server for my programming projects and for compiling and testing programs.
It’s not for hosting. It’s for workstation use.
I don’t want to bother people with ads and such, which is why I’ve setup the donation button. I’m giving away a lot of programming ideas and scripts on this blog and if anyone has found them useful, I’d appreciate whatever they can give back.
hey!
You r scum bag, who knows nothing of the design..
Every one liked this theme. except u scum bag
Thanks for the comment, Alex. I know plenty about the design, in fact I downloaded it separately and took it apart to learn more before writing about it.
“Every one liked this theme.”
Except I didn’t, nor did at least one other who commented before, thereby invalidating your whole premise.
Feel free to drop by again when you grow some capacity for logic. And, perhaps, the capacity to grow facial hair.
I like to use DePo Masthead actually :)
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
AAARRRRGH!
YEEEEEEEEEEEES
Love it
But why though?
I just visited your blog and it seems yours is one of very few that manage to look nice with this theme. But the vast majority of others really do look terrible in it.
Every time I navigate the theme, it seems so cluttered and haphazard. The columns aren’t quite columns to me. If even one of the colums is longer than the others, the whole thing looks off.
And the fact that I need JavaScript to even view the comments really drove me up the wall.
Wouldn’t you be satisfied with one of the other, far nicer, themes?
How about The Journalist theme? It’s simpler, but I think it presents all of the content in a very organized fasion.
Or the theme I’m using, Vigilance. It’s got a nice front block (that I’m using as well) that allows you to put a small description or announcement on the top of the front page.
Then there’s Grid Focus which is a really nice theme and does what DePo was supposed to do, but actually does it well. It’s not convoluted or disjointed and a completely well done theme.
And lastly Twenty-Eight Thirteen. It’s not simple like the others, but comes closer to what DePo does than any of the others. And still it’s not anywhere near as uncomfortable.
well, I have tried all of the themes you suggested. If one day I’ll nedd to change the theme, I would choose the vigilance. But till then I love DePo Masthead.
Why? Because, it is the unique theme which gives the opportunities for the first comers to see all three last post at a glance. But when you go into the archives you have all the posts one under the other and on the middle of the screen without the annoyance of the other collumns (especially those wite categories, clouds of tags, last posts, popular etc).
It is clear, gives you what you need (info) immediatly. If a post is longer than the others there is always the option of “more tags” (read more) which cuts the text.
On the other hands long posts are the probleme with all other themes as well… It’s a nigth mare posts that you don’t finish scrolling down!
DePo also put a line of pages on top of the entry page which allows the blogger orienting the readers to main topics.
Well these are all what I needed. And finally I love to put all the extras on foot of the page.
I wonder why it is not copied by other themes challenging a better outlook.
Well, it’s good to know that you’re open to switching at some point.
If your post is really long, you can use the <!–more–> tag. Say if your post is at about 400 – 450 words, you can use this tag to produce the “read more” link.
And if you don’t like the “Read more” text that it inserts, you can use:
<!–more Read on here more!–>
Where “Read on here” is whatever you want the “More” link to display. You could write it up to be unique to each post.
This way all your posts on the front page would be the same length.
On each of your individual posts, if they’re longer than about 2000 words, you can split them into multiple pages. I’ve had to do that on several posts myself.
Just use the <!–nextpage–> tag.
sure! Thank you :)
I’d say that’s an opinion, don’t you think :) I use it and think that it is clean and simple.
Tracy
http://fitbusinessmanifesto.wordpress.com/
Well of course it’s an opinion ;)
As with kucukevim, looks like yours is one of very few blogs that can pull off this theme. But it’s very rare indeed though.
The vast majority of other blogs with this theme do look terrible.