I’ve been staring at my blog a lot recently and wondering if I could choose a better theme. I’ve tested a few out, and decided to compare my current “Twenty Eleven” theme to the potential “Forever” theme. Below are a few screenshots of each for side-by-side comparison.
For more information or previews on the themes, click below:
Twenty Eleven Info and Preview | Forever Info and Preview
Anime B&B 
You need a change of atmosphere and forever fills the spot just fine :3
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Well in the end of the day its based on your taste.
it all depends which one offers more options and from the two themes I personally feel that you can play play around more with the forever theme, It seems to have more to do. Im sure you can come up with something interesting with it.
For me, Im very choosy and always wanting to change, in total I changed around 3 times to new themes since 2009 (5 normally but 2 was pre-release version because it took me time to finish it completely which is the one im using now). By saying that you never know ^^ next thing you found another theme you like and you might want to change it 🙂
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I’ve been wanting to change for a while now, but I have such a hard time finding a theme I like on WordPress that incorporates the banners I’ve already made and that has a nice atmosphere reflective of the comfy food/B&B theme I’m aiming for. If only I were as pro as you on bulding it from scratch!!
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Splash the blog with some red and feel the power of heart take over.
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Red is actually one of my favorite colors, but I find it a bit…hmmm aggressive? for the relaxed feel I’d prefer :p
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I barely notice a difference. Would this really be a theme change or just cosmetic touch-ups? I guess then the question becomes what’s the difference.
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Differences include: layout of the top area, particularly the banner, menu bar (coloration), blog title; the font is vastly different for all sections; the post titles in Forever are not bold while those in Twenty Eleven are; when going to post pages, or any other pages for that matter, the side bar remains for Forever, whereas in Twenty Eleven the side bar only shows up on the homepage; the footer section is pretty different between the two with the shading; the background of Forever includes a texture that remains even when you change the color.
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I’m sorry, my statement was ambiguous. I meant what’s the difference between a theme change and tiny touch-ups. From my eyes, these just seem like small changes and I wouldn’t necessarily call it a theme change; although, I suppose you’re basing the definition off of the WordPress templates. Really, the differences are so small I doubt many people would be affected by it.
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I think the difference between the current and ‘forever’ theme is too small to change the whole theme for it.
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Since Twenty Eleven is the default WordPress theme and so many people use it, I think moving away from it is a good way to make your blog look more unique. I just changed my own blog’s theme for just that reason. Forever looks so similar, though, that there’s not much point. Are there any other themes you might consider?
If the choice does come down to just these two, I do think Twenty Eleven looks slightly better. The top navigation bar and the footer stand out more with a colour background,
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I’ve gone through every one of the WordPress themes and have been hard pressed to find one that includes all the touches I like, particularly font, layout, and banner size and placement. I think my main complaint with Twenty Eleven is that I really don’t like the black menu bar that stretches across the top; it feels like it just mars the otherwise light color scheme.
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As you know I visit your amazing blogs from my phone so I miss out on all of this stuff. I will say if the change means I lose the ability to view your blogs I’m saying no change and it means I’m biased that way regardless because of that fear. I do agree about the black bar in Twenty Eleven though. Your blogs need a light, airy, flowing format.
Also I’m surprised you can’t create your own from scratch. I’d wager it wouldn’t take you long before you had an amazing format that suits you perfectly.
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Haha, well, I’m not sure how the new theme would look on your phone. Regardless, I will leave my decision for later on after the poll has been up for a bit. I’ve heard arguments for and against the black bar ^^ My opinion has warped and now I don’t know if I like it or no! I’m really not pro at CSS at all, though WordPress does have that function available. I would if I could 😦
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Why not make a change? If you don’t like the new theme, you can always change back or find a new one and it isn’t hard besides maybe changing a few settings or adding/subtracting a few widgets. Personally, I think making a change to Forever would be nice since it wouldn’t change your blog drastically but give it some new details in various areas. Another reason to maybe make a change now is that there are more blogs out there with Twenty-Eleven as a theme, so switching to Forever would make it a bit more different than the others.
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AHH! I’m glad you just commented. I was playing around with Twenty Eleven’s “Showcase” option and decided to give it a try. Right now I only have it available as a page called “Recommended Reads”, but may make it the default homepage if people like it.
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Ah, I just checked out the new page. It certainly is different with how everything is laid out but the sliding feature between featured posts makes it easier for you to put your favorite posts first and the rest of the content as normal. I will admit I don’t like having the titles only in the body of the page since it eliminates any images or previews on the main page for the reader to consider before clicking the link and reading the whole article. Overall, it’s functional but I think I like the current one better. Is it something you like or just something you were playing around with?
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I’m just playing around with it at the moment. I agree that it feels odd to not have images in the below section, but I tried to skirt that a bit with the option to return “Home” >< I'm also having a hard time deciding what to put in the section to the immediate left where that empty space is.
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Yeah, maybe it just looks funny since I’m haven’t adjusted to that layout yet but I’ve seen some interesting layouts since I’ve started reading all the blogs in the aniblog tourney. Maybe some of those sites will give you an idea of what you want to do with your layout?
Also, I think the only thing I don’t like about it compared to your current one is the lack of pictures and words on the page. Can that change at all or not?
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I added some images in and tried to make the showcase a bit more colorful 🙂 Let me know what you think via here or Twitter if you can! Thanks for your input, Avvesione.
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The added color from the pictures really helps since before it was mainly empty white space and just black text to the right (kinda sounds like what I do for my blog). It certainly is an improvement, I think, and the way it is set up with the featured posts on top will be nice since I sometimes come to your site and see that top post and can miss newer ones that are placed below it. If you do follow through with this version of the theme, I think it’d be useful for your blogging style. The only downside is that there are still no pictures or preview text of your articles which could potentially put off visitors who don’t frequent your blog. Are you able to add anything to the lower posts (the non-featured ones) or does that feature only exist for the featured ones?
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Yes, the images only show up for the featured/stickied posts :S I wish that whatever I had sticked would only show up in the showcase and wouldn’t take up the whole top section of my usual home page, because then my newer posts get buried, like you note. Can’t win them all, I guess, if you aren’t a CSS pro and have to depend on templates >< I'm still playing with the idea of turning that showcase page into the default or not before I go up for the Tourney. The usual home would still be available to click on, too.
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Yeah, you might want to wait until after your first poll in the tourney is over (only 2 more days!) before switching it around too much. Actually, you can ask in the Aniblog comments section when your poll is up for feedback on your blog format and what people like. I’ve been getting quite a bit of feedback for my blog (I never realized by my format is a bit boring…) and I’m sure if you ask, people will be more than happy to reply.
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