Need some feedback, and some general questions :)

[RoomKid]

I finally re-coded my cms, anyway.

http://beta.manmohanjit.com/

So its powered by PHP and MySQL. Anyway, I used the theme by Room4 Baseline which was originally for WP. Ported it and changed the design a little bit(very little).

Anyway, I need some feedback on the theme, is it nice? okay or just plain ugly?

Also a question, why is my server load 2.x? Is that considered high? The maximum it would go is 4.x.

Thanks :) a lot!

[sweetsam]

I don't see any design apart from tabs. Got a lot of room for improvement. You could start with a better design imho.

[stereopixels]

I'm not seeing any design either - it's just a basic layout, and it doesn't look any different to your current site as far as I can see?

[Baines]

Go download and install Joomla! and try again.

No need to be like that.

I like the simplicity of the template. It's very common look for personal blogs, which is a great place to start because immediately the user knows what to expect.

From what I can tell, the sidebar appears on every page, so I think you could remove either the "categories" button at the top, or the categories list from the sidebar, as they don't really need to be in both places. In fact most of the sidebar content seems to be repeated from the top buttons. You could move the search in to the header area and remove the sidebar altogether.

I'm assuming it's a personal blog, so you'll probably be the only one posting on it. In which case I would remove the "Author: Manmohanjit" feed, as well as the "Posted by Manmohanjit Singh" lines.

[RoomKid]

@Baines

Thanks. I'll remove it in a while

@sweetsam &+nquinnathome1

I was aiming for a minimal template.

@spikey_richie

I've already worked hard on this CMS.

Anyway, thanks to everyone for the feedback.

[RoomKid]

Any idea about the server load?

[Paul]

Not bad at all - Maybe a little too plain for my personal tastes, but it's good no the less :)

[Kudos Veteran]

Any idea about the server load?

Is it shared hosting? If it's consistently that high, complain to your hosting company. If it doesn't improve, change hosts.

[RoomKid]

I run about 3-5 queries on a page, is that too much? Anyway, what is server load? Is it something to do with PHP files or the static files like images etc?

Is it really toooooooooo plain for a minimal template?

I've seen much more plainer themes on the Wordpress Gallery.

[dav0]

Is it really toooooooooo plain for a minimal template?

I've seen much more plainer themes on the Wordpress Gallery.

I don't think there is such thing as too minimal, it's just the way you go about it.

The only thing I'm not really liking is the bland template-ness of the design. Maybe adding more variation in the colours and the size of the text to add a bit more "life" could work?

[RoomKid]

I don't think there is such thing as too minimal, it's just the way you go about it.

The only thing I'm not really liking is the bland template-ness of the design. Maybe adding more variation in the colours and the size of the text to add a bit more "life" could work?

I guess. Anyway I added some text-shadow effects for the title(header). Also decreased the header height. Ajaxed the comments and a smoother navigation.

You guys are amazing, I'll try to improve it :) Thanks.

[RoomKid]

I've added a background, try out the comments and the navigation.

http://beta.manmohanjit.com/

Is the background color not blending?

[dav0]

It doesn't seem to be showing up with the new updates

[RoomKid]

It doesn't seem to be showing up with the new updates

Try clearing your history, if not just try it in IE or some other browser. It happened to me too just after I uploaded it.

[dav0]

It's showing up now. I actually really like the subtle changes you've made, definately makes it have a much nicer feel as opposed to before.

I just feel you should do something with the navigation links to make them stand out a bit more from the rest of the links

[RoomKid]

It's showing up now. I actually really like the subtle changes you've made, definately makes it have a much nicer feel as opposed to before.

I just feel you should do something with the navigation links to make them stand out a bit more from the rest of the links

:D As suggested, I did some changes to the navigation too :p Used the box-shadow CSS3 effect :p Hope you like it

[dav0]

Yeah man, it's looking better and better every time.

All I can say is just try and make the headings / titles of everything, including the sidebar, stand out from the regular text and links.

[RoomKid]

@dav0

You've been damn helpful! Thanks a lot. Anyway, now its time to work on a simple mobile version :p

[P1ckles]

Looking good, but I suggest you try to enhance the typography; choosing just the right fonts/sizes can make a huge difference. You should also try adding some sample pics to the articles...it will liven up the whole site.

[RoomKid]

@P1ckles

Sure, I'll definitely try to improve the typography but right now I need to get some sleep.

Anyway, I removed the sub-domain. Everything is on the main page now. Thanks again to all

http://manmohanjit.com/post/finally-back-up/

[dav0]

@P1ckles

Sure, I'll definitely try to improve the typography but right now I need to get some sleep.

Anyway, I removed the sub-domain. Everything is on the main page now. Thanks again to all

http://manmohanjit.com/post/finally-back-up/

Link in your post is broken :laugh:

[deactivated01032015]

Nice.

One thing that I noticed is [...] at the end of each post. I think it would be better if you also link that so it shows the entire post, same as clicking on the title.

[RoomKid]

Nice.

One thing that I noticed is [...] at the end of each post. I think it would be better if you also link that so it shows the entire post, same as clicking on the title.

Sure, I've got nothing to lose :)