WordCamp Dallas This Weekend

The week has finally arrived where I can tell folks that I will be going to Dallas to attend WordCamp this weekend. WordCamp Dallas is an event that was orchestrated by Charles Stricklin, host of the WordPress Podcast.

WordCamp Dallas

Tickets cost $20.00 each and are still available. The event is located at the George A. Purefoy Municipal Center 6101 Frisco Square Blvd Frisco, Texas 75034. The first day of the event is on Saturday, March 29 and begins at 930AM and lasts until 5PM. Sunday, the event begins at 9:30AM and ends at 4PM. There will be an ATTENDEE only event that will take place on Friday evening. So be sure to purchase a ticket ASAP so you can get the 411.

For all of the information regarding the conference including links to register and purchase your ticket, visit the official Dallas WordCamp website.

Looking forward to meeting Ronald, Ptah, Lorelle, Matt, Cory of iThemes, Charles, and the rest of the gang.

RAProject Undergoes Face Lift

RAPlogo

Ronald Huereca of the R A Project.com website has finished and published his redesign of the Mimbo Pro theme. I’ve heard from a number of designers that the color brown is one of the most difficult colors to design around. Ronald however, seems to have found a great color scheme that goes well with brown. Refreshing greens, red highlights, a bit of tan, vanilla, and a big fat juicy strawberry in the footer to finish things off.

I was fortunate enough to help play a role in this design as I offered tips and critique to the mockups that Ronald gave me. I am impressed that he has been able to take an idea on paper and turn it into a reality. The new look is a major refresher when compared with the paltry blues of yesteryear. Some of the things that really stand out in this theme for me are as follows:

  • Simple Navigation
  • A big featured article block
  • The recolored carousel which features images related to the article. These images really add some spice to the part of the page where they are displayed.
  • The three most recent articles with differentiating headers. Ronald has told me that the color variations were to help differentiate the posts. However, I think it’s rather ironic that the colors go from Dark (recent) to Light (older).
  • Unlike most designs, the footer on this site features a giant red strawberry. Who doesn’t like giant red strawberries being dipped in chocolate?

Strawberry Footer

I know Ronald was going for more of a relaxed atmosphere with the new design and I really think he has captured that effect with his choice of colors and layout. Ronald, you may be a coder, but I think you did a great job with the redesign. So good in fact, I think PJ will have to add this design to her modified premium theme gallery.

Worst Interview Ever

Well, I’ve finally seen it. An article about WordPress Weekly which tells me just how bad it is. Ok, so this is one persons opinion. Honestly though, if this is how you feel about the interview or about the show in general, please let me know. I won’t know if you don’t tell. I enjoyed reading his critique. I even downloaded and listened to the show and I guess I can see where he is coming from. I think the interview went fairly well but then again, thats my opinion.

Jeffro2pt0 gives worst interview ever

Two New Ways To Get WP News

I got word of two projects today which may be valuable sources of information dealing with WordPress within the near future. The first is called WPSource.com. WPSource.com is an aggregation website that displays the 5 most recent headlines from major players within the WordPress community. The site features a fancy drop down animation once a headline is clicked.

WPSource Screenshot

A small excerpt from the post is displayed with a read more link at the bottom of the excerpt. When you browse to WPSource for the first time, it takes a little while for the page to load which can’t be blamed fully on the domain itself as it’s pulling the 5 headlines from outside sources. Even though this is a work in progress, I would like to see either fav icons of the site listed along side the headlines or some other images to really give the site some spice.

Our second contestant is adii who is building a community oriented project which will be a WordPress magazine which will highlight content from the thought leaders within the community of WordPress. The types of content that will be aggregated include: general and misc WordPress news, themes, designs and designers, plugins and development.

WordPRessMagazine Project

As you can already tell at a glance, both projects are circling around to the same conclusion but displaying the results in two different ways. Even though adii does not have a public demo, I can already tell you that I enjoy seeing the aggregated content displayed in this fashion versus WPSource. If the ability to subscribe to the specific categories will be possible in this iteration, I’ll have it give this design bonus points as it will help me condense these feeds into my Feed Reader.

When I look at this design mockup, I sometimes feel confused by where the post is being aggregated from. However, I enjoy the fact that this design will place more importance to the favicon as it’s use and importance has gone through the floor.

As it stands, WPSource is farther ahead in development as they at least have a working demo/project online that works. However, once the Magazine project comes online, it will definitely give WPSource a run for it’s money. One nice thing about both of these projects is that they are aggregating content from a wider variety of members within the WP Community instead of aggregating the usual suspects which Planet WordPress already does. May the best project win!

Jeffro2pt0 Featured On WP-Premiums

Jeffro2pt0 Image

A few days ago, PJ notified me that this blog design was featured on WP-Premiums.com. So far, the design has a total of 8 votes with an average rating of 4 out of 5. According to PJ the reason this design was chosen to be included in the WP-Premiums gallery is as follows:

I was so impressed by your great customization of the Shifter theme that I’ve featured it on WP-Premiums.com. I’m sure that your design will be an inspiration for others who are planning to design or customize their own WordPress-powered websites.

Thanks goes out to PJ for adding this site design to the gallery. Thanks also goes out to anyone who has rated this design on WP-Premiums, I really appreciate it. A last round of thanks goes out to those individuals who worked with me on their own time to provides suggestions and critiques to enhance the design. If you haven’t checked out WP-Premiums before, I highly suggest doing so as it’s a showcase of what people have been able to do to their premium themes outside of the norm. For example, my favorite design right now in the showcase is the blog of Robin Malau.

This showcase would make for a good place to get inspiration from if you are looking at designing a WordPress theme.

Some Forum Changes

ChangesToTheForum

I’ve recently made some changes to the forum. I decided to hide a majority of the forums and stick with the WordPress section for now. I admit, I’ve been lackluster in posting to the forum because there is only one Jeffro2pt0 but about 200 things and places I need to be. If you haven’t yet checked out the forums, please register an account and participate within the community.

When Will You Upgrade?

I’ve finally got around to updating the poll question on the right hand side of the site for the month of March. The question this month is, When will you upgrade to 2.5? I’ve seen a number of people that claim they won’t upgrade unless the administration area looks better. I’ve also seen people claim they will upgrade as soon as it’s released ( I happen to be one of them). So please select one of the answers in the poll and let me know.

Contribute To WordPress Contest

ThemesClubLogo

Thanks to Small Potatoes of WPDesigner.com I have 50 free accounts to give away to his special WordPress themes club. This club only cost $5.00 to join but guarantees you at least 12 WordPress themes. Considering the themes that SP has already developed, this is a very affordable way to gain access to some premium quality WordPress designs.

However, you will have to earn a free membership by participating in the Contribute To WordPress Contest.

The rules are simple. The first 50 people who leave a comment describing a UNIQUE way of contributing to WordPress will receive a free WPDesigner theme coupon. When I say unique, I mean, don’t copy and paste something into the comment field. Come up with something on your own.

Ok, go ahead and let the imaginative juices flow.