This is the obligatory “Loves me some Thesis” post that I’ve been meaning to get to for a while. The ‘obligation’ is one that I’m more than glad to fulfill, because this WordPress theme, created by Chris Pearson under the DIYthemes imprimatur, has been a great boon to me as a blogger. The delay in writing this post came from a natural reluctance to pitch a product, even one that I use everyday. Thesis is worth it, though.
Longtime readers of my personal blogs know that I’ve wandered the WordPress theme landscape like a nomadic tribe, trying first this layout, then the next. I was pleased to employ for a time an earlier, free theme by Pearson called Neoclassical, and would likely be using it even now except that it hadn’t been upgraded to keep pace with changes in WordPress, and would not be. The reason was that Pearson had put his energies into a new paid theme, Thesis, which built on Neoclassical’s customizable underpinnings and took them to another level. Unlike Neoclassical, Thesis had a clear future and upgrade path; still, I was reluctant to make the change until the Thesis-oriented design outfit DIYninjas offered a Thesis modification that incorporated the Neoclassical design. That sold me, and I paid the $87 to board the Thesis express.
In time, I became so comfortable with Thesis that I moved from the Neoclassical + Thesis mod to style Thesis directly. Thus, the layout in which you’re now soaking.
Thesis is highly customizable on a couple of levels. First – and most attractive to many – is the pair of options panels built into the WP admin pages. These controls can be used to adjust many aspects of a blog’s layout, from the number of columns and the type and size of fonts to placement of scripts and determining meta information useful to search engine optimization. Second, Thesis’ use of custom stylesheets, custom functions, and ‘hooks’ allow for even broader – yet more finely-tuned – changes to a website. As a result, a Thesis-based blog can be just about any kind of website you desire, as you can see by browsing the examples in this gallery of Thesis sites. Indeed, it’s fair to say that Thesis could be the only WordPress theme you’d ever need, as its possibilities are limited only by your imagination and knowledge.
Therein lies the only caveat regarding Thesis, and it’s worth mentioning. The two options panels do indeed bring a kind of ‘plug-and-play’ ease to changing up your site, but some bloggers – particularly those without much CSS or HTML experience – may come to believe that the options panels can do anything and everything when it comes to customization. This is precisely where the second level of Thesis’ flexibility comes into play – ‘hooks,’ custom styles and functions – yet some bloggers may overlook that, as it’s easy to get a bit spoiled by the push-button mode of the options panels. To be sure, those panels have gained more features as the theme has evolved and will doubtless gain more over time. Still, as with any theme, the highest levels of customization in Thesis will be experienced by those willing to look beyond the options panels. It takes a bit of learning, but the rewards are great.
The true back-end of a program, to me, is made up not of control panels but of people – official support and experienced users able to provide guidance. The popularity of Thesis created a growing demand for such support, and the Thesis community has responded through the official forums, the DIYthemes ‘answers’ blog and development site, individual user websites, and an invaluable Twitter stream (#thesiswp). I’ve learned a lot in a fairly short time, thanks to these resources, and I can honestly say that – as with WordPress itself – there’s nothing I’ve wanted to do with Thesis for which I haven’t found help.
So! I am indeed a satisfied Thesis user. In fact, to riff off the well-known hair club commercials, I like this theme so much that I became an affiliate. Hence the Thesis logo in the footer of this site, with an affiliate link to the DIYthemes site. I’d be pleased indeed if you clicked through to learn more about Thesis, and downright ecstatic if you used the link to buy a Thesis license. You really should, you know; Thesis could be the only WordPress theme you ever need.
