It was time for a refresh.
In addition to migrating last year from nerdvanamedia.com to nerdvana.co, the WordPress theme I was using — more specifically, my many modifications thereon — was wearing on me. I felt I had reached the limit of what Herald (a fine, fine magazine theme) could do.
What’s new?
Aside from the homepage, which is built completely on a blank canvas, the theme I’m using now is Blocksy. And I absolutely love it so far. The level of customization is pretty much just what I was looking for. I’ve long embraced WordPress’ newer, core Gutenberg block editor, and I’m realizing the results at last. There was very little fallout in the theme switch-redesign, and what bugs I did need to squash actually became opportunities more often than problems — opportunities to improve and update existing content.
Adopting Blocksy from Creative Themes and moving to Advanced Ads from AdRotate Professional has cut down the cost of my tech stack as well as increasing the available options.
I have long considered switching to Oxygen Builder, as I have an unlimited license for that theme alternative. I use Oxy to build the Pueblo Star Journal, and while I really like the open approach, adapting it to a “news” site like that one and Nerdvana has proved to be more work than I was looking for right now. Maybe someday — like the documentation I need to do for using Oxygen for a content-based site (rather than business/e-commerce/portfolio etc.).
Check out the new Nerdvana, and let me know what you think!
