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No production system should ever, ever update automatically. It's just bad practice because you never know when new code will conflict with something or introduce a bug.
–William
http://williambeem.comI use JetPack Lite. It used to work by itself, but now it seems to require the full JetPack, and it disables most of the features.
You're absolutely right that JetPack is a pig. I shut it off when I started profiling my site and saw how much delay it introduced. With JetPack Lite, I find it acceptable.
–William
http://williambeem.comThanks. I've looked at that ZigZag Press theme before. It's very similar to the Gleam theme from Elegant Themes. The thing that turned me off was the block that just shows up over the photo. It wasn't clear to me if that could be disabled.
Also, it's another theme that's separate from my site, so it's another WordPress installation. Just too complicated and doesn't tell a story very well.
–William
http://williambeem.comMy main concern with a custom theme is displaying photography, I used to love the Minimum theme until the current revision used that horrible Backstretch technology. It doesn't allow me to determine how to display my image. Some folks here and elsewhere provided some instructions to change it, but it never worked right on mobile.
So imagine how a visitor feels going to a photography page when the owner can't do a decent job displaying a photograph? It does not inspire confidence.
As for a portfolio, I've struggled with different ideas until I saw exposure.so. Take a look at this sports portfolio page on that service.
https://skelby01.exposure.so/best-of-football-2013
Now THAT is what I want. A large display of images, interspersed with beautiful type. I don't just want to lob out a bunch of photos. I want to tell a story with major impact.
More importantly, I want to do that on MY site, not send visitors to someone else's site. I want to have multiple portfolios that allow me to do the same thing.
Having looked at the latest sneak peek from Brian Gardner and the Denali theme (which I'm starting to think we'll never see), I know the potential is there within StudioPress. I just don't expect them to deliver it in the manner that I want it.
So issues like that for my portfolio, and a few things for my home page, are what I'm hoping to achieve. The question is how best to get all the goodies I want, and how to ensure it's livable through potential upgrades of Genesis and WordPress.
–William
http://williambeem.comI never, ever want my software to automatically update without my consent. You never know when a new update will introduce a bug or incompatibility. It's best to wait and let other brave strangers discover the bugs before you update. The results could be inconvenience or being put out of service.
I'm OK with notifications. I'm OK with downloads that happen automatically. I just never want the software to update until I press a button to provide my consent that I'm prepared.
–William
http://williambeem.comThanks for the response. My career is in IT, so I see the dangers of scope creep all the time. I'm usually on the wrong end of my client wanting things that he or she never indicated. With that in mind, I think it helps both sides to clearly define the requirements and expectations, sign off, budget it, and then measure the design and results against the requirements.
That said, sometimes things sound better on paper and you find out otherwise in practice, so you may have to reconsider some things that just aren't practical. As long as there is good communication about issues and no surprises, it's usually not a problem to reach a new agreement.
In my case, I'm trying to find ways to create the home page I want and the option for portfolios that I want, but the blog pages are generally fine in most themes.
My initial opinion was to start with a custom child theme rather than convert an existing child theme. Sometimes it's harder to bend something to your will than to just build it right the first time.
My other concerns were about support or maintenance once the development was done. Little quirks appear, Genesis foundation updates, a new WordPress version update screws things up - that sort of stuff.
–William
http://williambeem.comIt would be nice to see some of those elements shared in a new child theme, though.
–William
http://williambeem.comI know there are some Premise discussions on the Copyblogger site forum. They don't have a dedicated forum for Premise, but one of the moderators said that queestions were welcome there. You may want to try that site, also.
–William
http://williambeem.comThe Avada theme doesn't appear to be written as a child theme for Genesis. If you want something with similar features that works with the Genesis Framework, take a look at some of the themes on zigzagpress.com.
–William
http://williambeem.comIt's a responsive theme, which means that the sidebar may not be available on some browsers with less resolution than your desktop. I wouldn't expect to see it on your iPhone. For your iPad, it may appear in landscape mode, but not in portrait mode.
–William
http://williambeem.comNo. I'm a writer and photographer, not a site developer. There are no wireframes in my world. I look for themes that provide the tools and design I need, or just curse at the ones that come close and screw up on an essential element.
–William
http://williambeem.comI've been waiting on this one for a couple of months since I heard about it, too. Not that there is anything wrong with the releases that have come out, but I kept looking forward to Denali every week and finding a different new theme released, instead.
–William
http://williambeem.comThanks, Carrie.
That worked. Not sure why. I figure commenting should have disabled it, but not so. Once I cut it out, the site stopped trying to load Google Fonts.
It's insidious, those Google Fonts.
–William
http://williambeem.comHi, Anita
Thanks for the post. Unfortunately, that doesn't appear to address my problem. I already have the TypeKit fonts loaded and working. However, the Google Fonts are still part of my initial load time and I'm trying to trim them out. I didn't see anything in the post that helped me completely rid the Google Fonts from loading.
–William
http://williambeem.comIt depends upon what you mean by "content." Blog posts and pages remain no matter what theme you choose.
However, some themes allow you to put in content behind the scenes that may or may not transfer.
For example, SEO options may vary from one theme to another, or may not exist at all. Themes have different widget locations, so what works in one theme may look awkward in another.
–William
http://williambeem.comSecurity is a vague term. What are you trying to protect or prevent from happening? It's always best to define your needs before throwing a solution at it. Could end up being the wrong solution.
–William
http://williambeem.comThat's why I left HostGator's VPS. Despite the "guaranteed" resources in the VPS, the host was over-committed. Performance sucked and nothing I did in the VPS was going to change what happened at the host OS level.
–William
http://williambeem.com