I mentioned yesterday my new urge to change the look and feel of xenogere.  I’m now rapidly approaching the time at which I’ll make that a reality.  Before I jump ship and drastically alter the universe, however, I thought I’d give you a chance to see what I’m considering and to provide any feedback you might have.

First, the possibilities: Click on each link below to apply a new theme to the site.  If you don’t allow xenogere.com to use cookies on your machine, this won’t work, but then again, a lot of stuff won’t work under those circumstances.  Anyway, click on each link to have the new theme applied.  Keep in mind that none of them have been modified to my liking.  For instance, some of them have functionality or default settings that I will change.  Nevertheless, I’m not looking for a definitive movement at this moment; I’m only interested in general impressions.

You’ll need to return to this post in order to change the theme again, and ultimately to return to the current theme.

So without further ado, here are the themes I’m presently eyeballing:

Cutline
I like this one for its simplicity and the functionality that will allow me to setup random header images (right now, those images are the defaults that came with the theme, but you can rest assured I’d change them).  It’s clean, readable, easy to navigate, and not too crowded with extras that I won’t use.  I would need to widen the default column settings and setup the random header images (including specific images for specific pages), but overall this is my current favorite.

Id Band Triplet Centered Boyish Style 2
This is a very simple theme.  There’s not much to it.  If you haven’t noticed, I’m a great fan of austerity.  It would need to be modified, of course.  I’d expand the column sizes, especially the center column, and would need to update it to support the functionality I currently use.  Mind you, that’s a requirement that applies to all of the themes I’m considering.

Mollio
While it has more bells and whistles than the others, I’m fond of this one as a second choice.  It needs help, though, especially with regards to the header code that’s pulling all of the static page data.  That doesn’t work for me.  Still, it’s neat, simple, clean, and robust.  Also, I’m content with the column settings and doubt I’d need to change that—much.  I also noticed the search function has to be recoded because it’s dysfunctional when you’ve navigated somewhere that doesn’t default back to index.php.  I suppose we can’t all be perfect.

That’s it for now.  Keep in mind I’m still looking.

So, if you’re now stuck with a different theme, click here to return to your normal viewing experience.  There!  That’s better, isn’t it?

While I’m continuing to evaluate different themes, those three represent the height of what I’ve looked at thus far.

Do you have a preference?  An opinion?  Any thought at all?

Then speak up!

Either leave a comment on this post or send me an e-mail.  Don’t be afraid of brutal honesty.  If you want me to leave it the way it is, say so!  If you can’t stand any of the current options for new themes, don’t hesitate to speak your mind!  If you have your own ideas, let ’em rip!

I hope to finalize my plans in this regard no later than early next week.  In fact, I suspect I’ll reach a final decision by then and will start work on the new theme if I choose to go that route.  Under those circumstances, my hope is to have one ready and implemented no later than next weekend, although it might be earlier or later depending on how much life interferes.

Then again, the site might just stay the way it is.