Looking for a simple theme to start from scratch

  • Unknown's avatar
    sitecapc · Member ·

    Hi,

    I plan to convert the current site of our photo club (which is currently under Google Sites) to a wordpress.com site (Premium Plan). I don’t want to build a “photographer” site but rather a site allowing to inform and manage our members. I’m a former software engineer and I have already built several web sites but I want to use WordPress.com because I want other members without any computing knowledge to be able to maintain the site. So starting almost from scratch is not a problem for me.

    Hence my question : since I have to select a theme, which one should I chose ?

    Thanks in advance.

    Patrick.

  • Unknown's avatar
    themagicrobot · Member ·

    Starting almost from scratch would apply more to a site hosted elsewhere and using the WordPress.org software. Here at WordPress.com the idea is to give people a head start so they can create a good looking site in minutes rather than weeks.
    With a Premium plan you could activate any of the free or Premium themes found here: https://wordpress.com/themes You can experiment with as many different themes as you wish.
    PS: The Premium plan would give you access to custom CSS too.

  • Unknown's avatar
    sitecapc · Member ·

    Starting almost from scratch would apply more to a site hosted elsewhere and using the WordPress.org software.

    I can do that but that’s what I don’t want because I’m only one in this association being able to manage a hosting service and the installation/maintenance of WordPress, PHP and MySQL. I want this site to be able to run without me. That’s why we elected Google Sites 10 years ago but well, the new Google Sites are not exactly what we want.

  • staff-zinnia · Staff ·

    Good Morning –

    What’s the URL of the current site? That will give us a better idea of what you’re looking for.

    Every WordPress.com theme has a live demo site and a written instructional page. For example:

    https://wordpress.com/theme/exford
    https://exforddemo.wordpress.com/

    Anyone who is a contributor on the site can get help from our support team with their questions too.

    Let’s start with this and then dive in to some more specifics. Thanks.

  • Unknown's avatar
    sitecapc · Member ·

    Hi Liz,

    Thanks.

    The current Google site is private, so you’ll not have access. This site is used to announce our activities (Google Agenda), advertise our courses and allow online registration, distribute technical documents, allow access to various reports, show image galleries, etc. All that need to be done when managing a photo club. We need static pages, announcement pages (this can be a blog), pages equivalent to the Google Sites “File cabinets”, pages with embedded Google Forms, ability to embed PDF documents, etc.

    What I’m looking for is the most simple theme allowing to support all of this while giving access to most (or all) features of wordpress.com. I’d like not to start with a theme that would be too much cluttered.

    I’m not in a hurry but I’d like to start with the implementation of our future site before the beginning of next year (the classic Google Sites will be deprecated at the end of 2021 and we have no intention to switch to the new Google Sites). So, I’m planning for a smooth transition.

    Thanks again.

    Patrick
    Samoreau, France.

  • staff-doublebassd · Staff ·

    Hi there,

    It sounds like you are needing more of a membership site? Is the site going to be private and used mainly for internal use or is it going to have some external views as well?

    I think most of our current themes will work for what you are looking for, but the Collective Theme is a theme designed for members:

    https://wordpress.com/theme/collective

    Here are some others that may work:

    https://wordpress.com/themes?s=member

    I think the other thing that will need to be worked on is setting up the functionality of a members-only site. We do have several ways you can set this up. Our support page provides step by step instructions on how to set the site up:

    https://en.support.wordpress.com/tutorials/build-a-membership-website-tutorial/

    Let me know if you have any questions. Thanks!

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