In the end, it was easy–even easier than pressing the “easy” button at Staples–to get my new self-hosted Wordpress setup going. Almost as soon as I got started, however, I realized that I was not going to find myself being happy anytime soon with most of the Wordpress themes out there. I don’t profess to be an HCI expert, but I’m no fan of visual clutter and find that it really gets in the way of actual content. I’ve got plenty of clutter in my life as is, especially on my desk (which bothers me less since most of the world doesn’t see it, thank God). But there are two places where I tend not to appreciate clutter: in my living space and on web pages.
So after doing a bit of searching around (using the terms “minimalist”, “Wordpress” and “themes”), I came across the Satorii theme, which I am now adapting for my own site. It’s a nice black/white theme that supports navigation (for my key pages) and looks great (and loads fast, thank you). This template rocks, and I thank the author for his fine work
And because I absolutely need to be able to view my site properly through a mobile web browser, I found the Wordpress Mobile Edition plugin. So for those of you who are all googly eyed over your Android and iPhones out there, you can browse my site. (I’m not expecting that this is a huge number!) I also thank the author for his fine work on this much-needed (and desired) plugin.
So with Wordpress, we have a winner. I like the fact that these guys seem intent on making sure that everyone (even those who are DIY like myself) has the good stuff, not just those who use their commercial offering. Within minutes, you can get this wonderful software working on your hosting site–or even your own server, which I am also doing for other purposes–and you really won’t find yourself looking back.