Everything is rethinked, everything is new, and everything is connected.

GDPR

The Post-Meritocracy Manifesto

Consistently eventual

Code To Joy

Tech Platforms and the Knowledge Problem

I Don’t Know How to Waste Time on the Internet Anymore

An Introduction to the IndieWeb

Remarks delivered at the World Economic Forum

Fragmentions for Better Highlighting and Direct References on the Web

RSS is back

Thinking about a pro version of the Log Lolla theme

WordPress.org has a clear set of rules for theme developers regarding what should go into a theme, and how. These are all constraints. Mandatory and necessary guidelines to make sure all WordPress.org themes offer more-or-less the same functionality for the end user. And that functionality is plain blogging nothing else. This makes WordPress less appealing for users―if they want a portfolio, a small business website, or anything special.

On the other hand there are other theme stores like ThemeForest with less constraints. Here one can find themes packed with extra functionality satisfying―literally―all kind of needs. This is what makes WordPress the most popular web platform of all times. By removing constraints these themes boost diversity and often times lower the quality.

Log Lolla was meant to be a WordPress.org theme to support a certain level of quality. Log Lolla Pro will build on that by adding new features which in turn follow WordPress.org standards. Combine quality with openness.

What Log Lolla Pro needs to do is to move from a plain blogging platform―imagined and designed more than 10 years ago―to a more modern tool to create knowledge from the everyday (online) activities of a person or small group.

When WordPress was created there were barely any social networks. Now it seems―after a spectacular rise―social networks are in decline due to their greedy and inhuman nature. People are migrating off the networks and they need a new tool where they can post their stuff like they have did before, but maybe with a better context, with better return of their investment. A WordPress and Log Lolla Pro combo?

This is the aim of the pro version of the Log Lolla theme: help people to post like on a social network, and, help people to get an insight about their own story. Let’s give back the meta information to the user, let’s give them tools to see their data from multiple angles, and let’s give them tools which makes them to grow, to be happy, and proud.

I’ve done this since 2013 and it works. All my knowledge―both technical and about the world―went into three self-made blogs, each with a special purpose.

Pulse is a high level technical overview of what goes around in the web design and development world + the internet sector in general. It collects links and creates a review for every year in form of keywords identifying major trends.

The Pulse screenshot

Beat is more deep in the sense of being about original posts and ideas instead of links.

While Pulse gives knowledge about yearly meta-trends in form of buzzwords Beat creates knowledge which can be used every day. It has series of posts like What to learn next, Masters of web, and Web trends which collects web design and development best practices and inspiration in a form easily translatable into working code.

If I’m starting a new project I always come here for inspiration; when I’m finishing a project I’m always updating this blog with findings; Beat is like the groove of a musician―your own knowledge and style for work.

The Beat screenshot

Gust is another story, it is about a worldview instead of a work-view. It collects ideas and thoughts through ages about the control of culture―a lifelong hobby.

As Pulse and Beat, Gust is about knowledge but in another way: the audience is not the author but you. Anybody reading through this blog has to have the same understanding as the author has. And in plus it has to provide all source information to readers to let them re-check the facts, let them render their own view and knowledge from the same set of source.

The Gust screenshot

Log Lolla Pro will merge all these three knowledge creation tools into a whole, and, using the Indie Web, it will be social in the sense of enabling collaboration and reach.

CSS: The bad bits (and how to avoid them)

IndieWeb and the Log Lolla theme

A year with the IndieWeb

Re-thinking the Homepage

Let’s Get Better at Demanding Better from Tech

Enabling two way communication with WordPress and GitHub for Issues

Faceless Publishers

This Design Generation Has Failed

Email is your electronic memory

Rethinking The Web, The Internet, And Our Roles Within

DuckDuckGo moves beyond search to also protect you while browsing.

The Economist on the news cycle’s turn against large tech companies

Owning Yourself

Google Memory Loss

Legends of the Ancient Web — by Idlewords

A Current Status Of Social Networks

Recently I’ve set up a few social network accounts for Mo’ Themes Baby. Namely Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, Dribbble, Pinterest and Behance.

A first surprise was Instagram has no iPad app just mobile; the next was how hard is to share artwork made on iPad to my Linux laptop and Android phone; another one like Pinterest doesn’t let you upgrade your profile pic on web just inside the app; the Dribbble app doesn’t let you update your profile nor upload posts; Pinterest can’t take a https://morethemes.baby url just www.morethemes.baby; when adding a photo on Behance the photos from the iPad folder are doubled; and so on.

Then I’ve posted around 25 artwork on each network with the #wordpress #themes #brutalist #websites tags, without following anyone, just to see if I can get traction at the very first move.

And the results after a few days are: Instagram 4 followers and around 30 likes; Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, Pinterest, Dribbble, Behance – no reactions at all. All Instagram reactions were done by bots; Facebook since then is trolling me with messages to boost my post for money to be visible.

Is it really worth it?

The work to unsubscribe from email notifications was more than the benefits. At the first sight all these are a time and money sink instead of being useful tools.

More Themes Baby

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