The Cloisters » Site News

3.0 and the future of The Cloisters

Mina — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 21:05:36 +0000

So the site is now running on the new WordPress 3.0 and a new look. I’ve got a new theme just about ready to be released and with it we’re moving in a new direction. The new theme is based on WP’s new default theme Twenty Ten and will serve as a framework for child themes. You can see it in action here with a child theme made specifically for The Cloisters. I feel moving to child themes will give me and you guys more options and flexibility.

Anyway, stay tuned in the next few days to learn more about it!

Upgrading WordPress

Mina — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 04:32:36 +0000

With yesterday’s release of WordPress 3.0 I wanted to talk about upgrading. I can only really tell you what I do for upgrades and what you choose to do is up to you. I personally install all my blogs in subdirectories mainly because it makes upgrading easier for me.

Now normally for small upgrades that are usually just security fixes I’ll do the automatic upgrade (after ALWAYS backing up) that is part of WP, but when it comes to major version changes (1.x to 2.x and now 2.9.2 to 3.0) or when there are new functions added I’ll do a clean install just to kind of start new. This is where the subdirectories come in handy. I can get the new blog up and running and testing out themes and plugins to make sure everything is working as it should be without any downtime. Install the new blog, import my backup to get all my content in place, activate my themes and plugins and put it through it’s paces until I’m satisfied that all is well. Then simply make the new blog live and you’re good to go!

There is a great article on basic security for setting up your blog from Weblog Tools Collection that I recommend everyone read.

So that is my suggestion, mainly to folks who are new to WordPress so they can maybe avoid a disaster.

WordPress 3.0

Mina — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 13:52:42 +0000

Yesterday WordPress released the beta of the new 3.0 version so of course I had to download it to see. I’m not going to go into the new features and all in depth, mainly since it’s still in beta and also because I’m most concerned about how my themes will work with it.

I quickly ran all my themes through it to see if there would be any problems using them on the new version and so far haven’t seen any issues. Of course they may be some glitches with some of the new features that will be included in the new 3.0 but the upshot is that if you are using any of my themes you should be okay if you upgrade (which I strongly suggest you wait until the official version of 3.0 is released). So as it stands I won’t be doing much upgrading of the themes unless something major presents itself.

If you are using a lot of plugins you may wind up with issues there so that’s something to look into before you upgrade.

Where to download my themes

Mina — Fri, 04 Sep 2009 11:00:26 +0000

Due to some quirks at the Official WordPress Theme Directory not all of my themes will be submitted there. Some (mostly new ones) will be available for download from my account at 4shared.com and all the old themes (up to Quietly Simple) are still at the Theme Directory.

I would advise you to ONLY download from the link you’ll find on either this site or the link on our support forums. That is to ensure that you get a clean copy without sponsored/spam links or any other nasty stuff that some people add to themes before they redistribute them.

New Support Forums

Mina — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 08:33:47 +0000

Okay folks, we’ve got a new support forum here to make things easier for everyone with all questions & answers in one central location. Not to mention that I’ll be better able to keep track of who needs help. I’ve closed the comments on the posts and also request that you don’t email support questions to me. Some valid comments have been getting sent to the spam folder and I find that I’m missing some people’s requests. Hopefully this will clear that up.

You can find the forum here and there is also a link in the top navigation bar.

So please post theme related issues only to the forum as I will no longer be answering support request emails.

I appreciate your cooperation with this change.

Helpful links

Mina — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 14:06:17 +0000

I added a couple more links to the “Educational Links” section here at the site from HTML Dog. They cover the basics of html and css are give you a good idea of how things work. Check them out – CSS Beginner Tutorial and HTML Beginner Tutorial.

Happy Birthday To Us!

Mina — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 10:58:07 +0000

So The Cloisters is a year old now and we’re doing pretty well! We released our first theme, Maiden Voyage (very fitting name) on August 1, 2008. Here’s to many more happy and productive years!

WordPress 2.8 and the themes

Mina — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 11:33:58 +0000

So WordPress 2.8 has been released and from playing around with the development versions it really seems pretty awesome. I did notice that they deprecated the author functions which is a bit of a problem as I’ve used those function in my themes (the Author Info page, Bio blocks, etc). So that means I need to do some upgrading for my themes. I’m not sure of the extent of what needs to be done yet but will get going on those upgrades asap.

As far as I can tell, besides that author thing, the themes do work in 2.8 so keep that in mind if you upgrade to 2.8. I’ll keep everyone updated on my progress with the upgrades so keep checking back here.

Discuss this on our forum…

Spam Comments

Mina — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 11:43:29 +0000

The spam around here is really starting to increase and the spam blocker is picking it up (which is GOOD!) but unfortunately I’ve caught some legitimate comments and questions in there also (which is NOT GOOD!). I try to go through all the spam and let the good comments through but do occasionally miss some.

So I’m posting this to say that if you have a legitimate question or comment on one of the themes and you don’t see it show up it’s not because I don’t want to hear from you, it’s just a mixup. Try using the contact form to get your question to me instead.

Request for Support Tips

Mina — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:19:50 +0000

Hi Guys,

I get many requests for help (both here on the site and in emails) with my themes and I do my best to answer them all, but with a full time job and other life issues to deal with I can’t always get to them in a timely manner so I’m asking you for a little help. Here are a few things you can do before requesting support:

1. Read through the comments in your particular themes thread or even the other theme’s threads. Your question may have already been answered.

2. If your layout is broken and you are using plugins, look to them first. Try deactivating them to see if the issue goes away. If it does then reactivate them one by one to see which one is causing the conflict. And if it is a plugin causing the problem, check with the plugin’s author…I know nothing about plugins.

3. If you recently downloaded the theme and it’s messed up, it could be that the download was corrupt. Try re-downloading and reinstalling.

4. Check on the Codex and the WP forums, many times a problem isn’t with the theme but with the theme not doing what you want due to WP limitations.

5. This is very important…always include a link to your site. If I can’t see what’s going on I can’t help. If your site is not yet public and you don’t want to include the link in the comments you can always email it to me.

Doing these things first could save us all a lot of time and help make things go more smoothly.

Thanks,
Mina