Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

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nyxmidnight
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Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by nyxmidnight »

Hello Amassment! Today I submit my WordPress blog, Fandom Fadoodling, for your review/critique.

The current theme, Lights On!, is a custom theme built from the ground up by myself with lots of help from a book called WordPress Themes In Depth. I want to build a dark theme as well, same structure, just dark bg and light text, but before I do so, I'd like your opinion on what currently exists.

So please, look around, click on things, let me know what does and doesn't work, so that I can finalize the theme and finally move on to actual blogging and building shrines again.

Thanks in advance! :music:
Join in the Tale, in the Blight, of Conquest and Lies
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dubiousdisc
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Re: Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by dubiousdisc »

NICE.

I'll leave you some specific comments on specific posts directly within it (the tl;dr being: all excellent very good), but as for what concerns the layout, I think you've got something nice going on!

Personally I'd work a bit more with the visual weight of text on the pages where the posts are all listed, because it's a bit hard to parse where does one post end and the next begin. I'd make the tags and comment link smaller, then add a little bit more whitespace before the large title of the next post in the list. Whipping up a quick mockup in Firebug, something like this:

Image
Maybe play more with bold and italic. I was trying to make the big titles be bolder, but it looks like the font you're using doesn't have a very bold bold so nevermind. You might want to try what it would look like if it were a different (but similar in character) font that has a heavier bold.

One thing that I didn't understand immediately is that each post is click-through, so maybe you want to add the classic "Read more..." link at the end of each teaser.

Probably make the footer space less tall if the copyright is all it's going to contain.

In the screenshot you can see that the search bar button is breaking the sidebar. This is on Firefox by the way.

I like the email subscribe input box! I like the font in it... :D

Maybe in the sidebar as well you might want to try more whitespace between each main item (Categories, Archives, etc.)

The comment sections are supposed to be only accessible if you register, right?

I THINK THAT'S ALL I HAVE FOR NOW you put that little fire icon and you got fire alright

Big honking congratulations on getting this started cause holy shit. Making an entire Wordpress theme from scratch is no joke.
It goes without saying that you've got a reader in me :star:
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Sofia
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Re: Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by Sofia »

Well done, Nyx! Building a WP theme from zero is quite something, I try to modify my own existing themes whenever I launch a new site to save some time XD

Back to the layout: in addition to what @dubiousdisc said, I would slightly increase the paragraph's line-break and the space between each paragraph to improve readibility. If you need some help for technical WP stuff, let me know!
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Re: Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by Robin »

HOMG NYX *high five* for WordPress theme building buddies! I built one back in 2011 and will NEVER DO IT AGAIN homg that gave me so much anxiety--kudos to you for doing it and remaining sane!! :D

I like what you have so far (color scheme is poppin') and agree with dubs and Sofia that all it really needs are little minor tweaks, mostly with whitespace and font choice. What if you chose a bigger bolder serif font for the titles of the posts, and went with a slightly skinnier sans-serif font for the body of each post? Also, what if there was a kind of medium-gray "bar" in between each post to break up ALL the whiteness? Would that be horribly hard to code? (From my frustrating experience of working with the Loop and the index page, I don't want to suggest anything that means more hours of suffering xD)
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nyxmidnight
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Re: Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by nyxmidnight »

Version 1.1!

First, thank you @dubiousdisc, @Sofia and @Robin! I followed your advice while working on it today.
  • Font and font sizes changed, added weights and italics too!
  • Dividers~
  • Read More! links added (surprinsingly unpainful!)
  • Increased line height
  • That £¤&*!!! search button should be fixed
  • More whitespace in sidebar
  • Anyone who fills the name and email fields should be able to comment but for some weird reason it seems to switch back sometimes idk
Known Issue:
  1. If a category contains only one item, the Category link in the sidebar returns a 404. I DON'T KNOW but I decided I could live with that because I'm gonna add tons of Words.
Join in the Tale, in the Blight, of Conquest and Lies
Come the Sun, to Tarnish in the Sky
Vow that we shall Tear the Light - Dark seizes the Throne
Lost in thoughts, all alone
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ritabuuk
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Re: Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by ritabuuk »

Hey Nyx, that is looking very snazzy! While I don't know enough about the particular Fire Emblem world you are talking about, the discussion on language is very intriguing to me. I am interested in this. :eyes:

The issue with the 404 with only one item in the category is sounding like some sort of off-by-one error. Do you have any control of the code of that part?
Last edited by ritabuuk on Sun Aug 27, 2017 3:05 am, edited 1 time in total.
nyxmidnight
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Re: Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by nyxmidnight »

I most likely do, because the entire is custom. I'm gonna look at it later (I tried to look now and my eyes rolled back so).

ETA: Looking at it today and since the one category with 3 posts in it correctly displays said 3 posts, I've decided I'm okay living with this issue :yay:
Join in the Tale, in the Blight, of Conquest and Lies
Come the Sun, to Tarnish in the Sky
Vow that we shall Tear the Light - Dark seizes the Throne
Lost in thoughts, all alone
dubiousdisc
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Re: Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by dubiousdisc »

!!

Now everything is immediately readable as what it's intended to be. Good job!

I love the little sun divider, actually I would even add a little bit more space before and after it maybe! (Maybe)

Good-looking!

Oh one more thing, I tried to access the comment section by clicking on the comment counter, maybe you should make that clickable too?

But overall :star: fantastic
nyxmidnight
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Re: Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by nyxmidnight »

:heart: :music: :music2: :star:

@dubiousdisc, it is done.
Join in the Tale, in the Blight, of Conquest and Lies
Come the Sun, to Tarnish in the Sky
Vow that we shall Tear the Light - Dark seizes the Throne
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Emma
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Re: Fandom Fadoodling, my fandom blog

Post by Emma »

Nyx, this blog is so interesting! Your post on literacy is fascinating.

And the theme is very easy to read and looks great – congrats on creating a v nice WP theme!
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