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David McCan A website is the owner’s “face to the world”. People care and want a look and feel that they are comfortable with and that represents them. It is frustrating for users to not be able to achieve the vision they hold. I think that is the reason that good themes with many options are popular: they empower users to make their site look the way they want. One way to craft your theme is to target a particular niche or style. If that is done well then you can provide fewer options because of your focus. Themes that do that well garner a lot of respect because there is a refined care and elegance. There may be a bias, because of that appreciation, to think that carefully focusing the theme is “the right way to do it.” In my opinion, creating a well coded theme with lots of options, presented in a way that makes sense and empowers users, requires as much skill and is as worthy of respect. There are well coded themes with lots of options and ones with few options. Likewise with poorly coded themes. The presence of poorly coded themes is irrelevant to whether or not lots of theme options can be a good thing. I don’t think that the 80% rule applies to themes and plugins. Core can stay mean and lean because we have a wide variety of themes and plugins that allow people to customize their sites to their taste. Also, the non-technically minded majority are those who might find it challenging to create a child theme or who are uninterested in learning how to do so. A significant number of non-technical users like theme options because theme options are easier than creating a child theme and customizing it. Themes and plugins are all about choice. Themes with lots of options are like JetPack. Some people love them and others don’t but that has nothing to do with being “good’ or adhering to the WordPress philosophy.
David McCan
A website is the owner’s “face to the world”. People care and want a look and feel that they are comfortable with and that represents them. It is frustrating for users to not be able to achieve the vision they hold. I think that is the reason that good themes with many options are popular: they empower users to make their site look the way they want.
One way to craft your theme is to target a particular niche or style. If that is done well then you can provide fewer options because of your focus. Themes that do that well garner a lot of respect because there is a refined care and elegance. There may be a bias, because of that appreciation, to think that carefully focusing the theme is “the right way to do it.” In my opinion, creating a well coded theme with lots of options, presented in a way that makes sense and empowers users, requires as much skill and is as worthy of respect.
There are well coded themes with lots of options and ones with few options. Likewise with poorly coded themes. The presence of poorly coded themes is irrelevant to whether or not lots of theme options can be a good thing.
I don’t think that the 80% rule applies to themes and plugins. Core can stay mean and lean because we have a wide variety of themes and plugins that allow people to customize their sites to their taste. Also, the non-technically minded majority are those who might find it challenging to create a child theme or who are uninterested in learning how to do so. A significant number of non-technical users like theme options because theme options are easier than creating a child theme and customizing it. Themes and plugins are all about choice. Themes with lots of options are like JetPack. Some people love them and others don’t but that has nothing to do with being “good’ or adhering to the WordPress philosophy.
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