So, I did a thing. Actually, I did many things. Some of them were even new. But the main new thing I did was I refreshed the look (and feel) of my blog. It needed it. It hadn’t been updated since 2013, when I originally established the site. Which is an extraordinary long time, especially in internet years.

Positively antediluvian!

Here’s why and how I did it.

Table of Contents

• The Old
• The Process
• The New

The Old

While the old theme (Hueman) was fresh and exciting at the time (2013), it had grown stale over the years. It had received the occasional security fixes, but little else. Parts of it didn’t work as well it had originally. The theme-specific galleries (long before they became part of the core) only worked sometimes. And the right-hand sidebar wouldn’t sticky properly, and once disappeared completely.

Time had moved on

Time had moved on. The framework had moved on. The entire language, it was written in, had moved on. Still, the fact that it was still receiving even minimal care spoke volumes about the developer(s), especially given that it was a free theme¹.

After failing to find any theme that met my requirements, I chose to make my own. That was no small feat. I had fiddled extensively with existing themes, wrangling them to my needs. However, I had never designed one from completely scratch. That was about to change. I hoped.

The Process

Could I even do it?

Could I even do it? My web coding skills were very rusty. My HTML and CSS knowledge hailed from the 90s. To say that a lot had changed over the last 25+ years would be an understatement.

Now, I could have used the block system to write my theme. That’s specifically designed to reduce/eliminate the need for extensive coding knowledge. However, I personally don’t like it. It’s arcane, and the skills are not readily transferrable.

Instead, I decided to create a hybrid theme. One that would allow me to use the knowledge (albeit outdated) I already possessed, but also enabled the use of the new features the framework employed. It was the best of both worlds, IMHO.

I spent several weeks going through the videos

So, I set about refreshing my HTML and CSS skills. I spent several weeks going through the videos² during my free time, then developing a number of web pages. I played with the new features, to see how they worked. While that journey of discovery is not over (by a long shot), I felt that I had gained enough proficiency to start on the next stage.

I began coding in PHP soon after learning HTML and CSS, but I have never used it much. I briefly worked on the development teams for Postnuke and Xaraya CMSes, but I haven’t done anything serious³ for more than a decade. Those skills were extremely rusty, too.

So, to fix that, I began working on a number of projects. Some of them might even be released one day (keep an eye on my Codeberg).

The New

Then, once I felt my skills were back up to speed, I embarked upon making my theme⁴. I mocked up a webpage (or nine). This allowed me to see what worked and what didn’t. I wanted something simple, to focus attention on my writing. Not filled with assorted widgets, across seventeen different sidebars. Something uncomplicated, and easy to access. That was the intention, anyway.

The absolute hardest thing for me was the colours

The absolute hardest thing for me was the colours. Not only am I partially colour-blind, I found working out a colour scheme that worked across all elements of the site difficult. So I cheated. I ended up using monotone greys, and not many of those. The theme’s stylesheet has a total of six shades, including white.

I also wanted to reduce the number of plugins. Not only can they become a security problem, but sometimes the developer just walks away and abandons them. Usually without warning. So I hard-coded some elements instead of employing a plugin, like I had with my previous theme.

So, it’s now done⁵, and it should work both on desktops and mobile. What do you think?

Leave a comment or a reply on the Fediverse, especially if you encounter any errors.

1. I had tried to buy the pro version, but their site wouldn’t allow it. No idea why. ↩︎
2. If you’re curious there are stacks of videos online, but I mainly used these two: HTML and CSS. They’re old, but still relevant. They’re also completely free. ↩︎
3. I don’t consider the WordPress Mastodon RSS Plugin I coded up in 2022 to be serious. The entire process was a complete joke. ↩︎
4. I used this video on theme development. It’s old but it still applies for classic and hybrid themes. ↩︎
5. At least, the first stage is. I’ll likely fiddle with it some more. It’s always a work-in-progress. ↩︎