Need WP veterans’ recommendations

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  gregbauman · Member · Dec 3, 2006 at 3:32 am

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  I’m looking for some of the old pros to chime in here.

  I’m building my Games blog, and I’d like it to be as robust as possible, long term.

  I need lots of various classifications on the blog – such as all the various gaming platforms (Xbox360, PS3, PC, etc) as well as all the genres (strategy, RPG, action, etc) and ESRB rating classes (E, T, M, etc)

  Here’s what I want to make…

  1) Front Page – latest posts from all platforms & genres

  2) Other Pages – platform and genre-specific posts only

  3) Ability to post one article to multiple destinations simultaneously using category check boxes – such as Strategy & PC, or PC/Xbox/Playstation and Roleplaying, etc.)

  4) Order the pages any way I wish (alpha, numbered/ranked, grouped, etc)

  5) Archive (by page, and chronological)

  6) Plenty of thumbnail graphics

  7) Variety of authors need access

  8) Maximize the WordPress categories, of course.

  So the $100,000 questions are…

  Which template is best for future customization, but balanced for ease of setup & immediate use?

  Should I go with the WP stand-alone downloadable to host on a domain?

  I’d like to get started immediately, but we don’t want to have to re-tool down the line, other than to make the site a bit more compelling, visually. We’re looking to make it work GREAT first, then look better later.

  Thanks for your recommendations,
  Greg

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  sunburntkamel · Member · Dec 3, 2006 at 4:36 am

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  for starters, you can’t edit your templates on wordpress.com that might point you in the direction of hosted wordpress right off the bat. (unless you can swing the VIP treatment here).

  Sandbox is far and away the most flexible theme, and will let you style posts differently based on their category. (xbox posts green, etc.)

  unfortunately, that’s as close as you’ll get to thumbnails without hosting your own.

  ordering posts? we get two choices here: chronological, or most popular. that doesn’t mean you can’t create your own index, that breaks out posts by category, but you’ll have to update it by hand.

  authors is unlimited for either wordpress.com or wordpress.org.

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  drmike · Member · Dec 3, 2006 at 6:47 pm

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  For template use here, I would go with the sandbox with the CSS upgrade. You can pretty much change anything you want on it since nothings set on it.

  Everything else on that list is present here at wp.com expect for the post order. Best bet would be to try using the software and getting a feel for it.