My Annoyance with WordPress.com Themes

Late last year I switched this domain from self-hosted WordPress back to wordpress.com that way I didn’t have to deal with updates, running a server, paying for hosting, and everything else.

The ease of use is superb and having it as a SAAS is wonderful for me. I can just write and share things when the inspiration hits and I don’t have to worry about anything.

However, one of the downsides is the themes available on WordPress.com. It currently shows 310 available and I’ve literally been through every single and not been happy with any and its always minor stuff.

For example, I found one that was perfect. It had a standard blog layout, my content looked great, but then it didn’t support featured images on the post details page. Then I’ll find an awesome grid theme, only to see my content look like crap in its demo. Then others where I think it’s going to work based on the theme screenshot only to find out it actually looks nothing like that.

Tonight I’ve spent so much time trying to find one that would work for me that I eventually just gave up and went back to twenty-fourteen.

I really do wish WordPress would normalize themes further or at least explain what is expected. Take the featured image. What is it for? Only for the archive lists, or for post details too? The answer seems to be whatever the theme designer decides. Another one is what is the home page? Some preview images show what I believe is a portfolio, but then when you try to just a standard blog home page it looks like crap.

Honestly, I think the crux of the issue for me is I want an old school simple blog where every theme now feels overly designed and the designers are expecting you to​ be able to add awesome images to every post.