Is the Vostok Theme boring?

by javier on 6/10/2010

The Vostok Theme has become quite popular during this late year, especially after WordPress decided to bundle it by default with new installations. However some people have publicly expressed criticism about it. They’ve said it’s “boring”, that they find it “dull” or “bland”.

I say they are right.

We agree that it’s a boring theme but we’d rather call it NEUTRAL. It’s neutral, it doesn’t have a soul. It has no personality. Why?

The message shouldn’t be in the container but in the content itself. If a blog that uses the Vostok Theme is boring it’s probably because the content is boring. It has nothing to do with the “design”. The Vostok Theme is neutral because it let’s the content speak for itself. It’s your writing, your pictures and your editorial style what makes a blog interesting.

If you focus more on pictures you’d probably pick the dark version because photos contrast with the background and thus are more vivid. If you want text to be king you’ll pick the white one wich is better in terms of legibility.

To those who say that the Vostok Theme is boring I reply: yes, but it’s because of your content. And if your content is boring it really doesn’t matter which theme you use, it will always be boring. You may go for a colorful, fancy schmancy theme and catch the visitor’s attention for some seconds but if your stuff is dull… you are perceived as dull.

The Vostok Theme is neutral, it lets your content speak for itself. There is no make up, just legibility and clarity. It’s an honest theme.

There are 8 comments in this article:

  1. 6/10/2010Carlos says:

    I agree wholeheartedly! Content is king ;)

  2. 6/10/2010Lars says:

    We’re happy to use the Vostok theme for our blog!
    It’s clean and simple and therefore teh focus is on the content.
    However, we did implement two tweaks on the homepage to facilitate navigation.
    On the right we have added a column with ‘popular posts’ and our categories.
    That helps people to get beyond the first part of the latest post.
    Thanks and compliments to the Vostok Theme Developers!

  3. 6/10/2010Javier Cañada says:

    Thank you Carlos and Lars.

    Lars, it’s great that you tweaked it to match your own needs. We made it GNU in that spirit :)

  4. 6/10/2010Tweets that mention Is the Vostok Theme boring? - THE COSMONAUTS -- Topsy.com says:

    [...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Cosmonauta and Javier Cañada, Javier Cañada. Javier Cañada said: Some people say the vostok theme is boring. And this is my response to those people http://www.vostok.es/blog/is-the-vostok-theme-boring [...]

  5. 6/10/2010AlbertoBV says:

    I totally agree with you, Javier. You designed the most beautiful theme i’ve seen, because I think pretty things must be always neutral and honest.

    Ah, I would title this post: ‘Thoughts on Vostok Theme’ :P

  6. 6/10/2010Javier Cañada says:

    Thanks Alberto, you make me blush.

  7. 23/03/2011faj3r says:

    I find your theme mavelous! :-) Thanks!

  8. 23/03/2011Javier Cañada says:

    Dzenkuie faj3r!

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