Make no mistake, this is the best time of the year to buy an 8BIT WordPress theme. We have a few different annual sales scheduled but this is the biggest discount in the pipeline.
The Deal
From now through Cyber Monday all themes (and all license!) are 30% off if you use the promo codeBLACK2011.
- Standard Theme
- Live Theme
- Pro Photo Theme
- Developer Theme
Standard 3.0 Is Coming And It’s Huge
This deal will not be in effect when Standard 3.0 launches in January the beginning of the year, but if you purchase a support license today, you will get access to our download area which includes all past and future versions of the theme for life. Not to mention great technical support and access to a beta version in December when it’s released.
Standard 3.0 is a complete re-write of our Standard Framework and user interface on the front end. Here are some of the exciting new features:
- Mobile ready. You heard me.
- Major refresh of the modern look. Expect it to be cleaner, tighter, sexier.
- Distinct stylings of each post type such as images, videos, quotes, links, etc.
- Standard Framework reboot. Developers, how would you like to write your own theme admin panel in 15 mins or less? We think we’re on to something here, and it’ll be born in Standard 3.0.
Our Themes Are Active
These are not dormant, stale themes, they are under constant review and revision. This is one of the things that makes our Support License so great. Here is a sample of our recent updates:
- Current version: 1.2
- Major updates since initial release
- Localization improvements.
- Current version: 1.5
- Major changes since initial release
- Bug fix for custom menus that appeared in WordPress 3.1.4 and after
- Bug fix for galleries after WordPress 3.2 release
- Password protecting Collections, collection comments, and collection author box
- Current version 2.0.1
- Major changes since initial release
- IE8 fix for Live Countdown
- Live Countdown time zone configuration setting improvements
- Current version 2.7
- Major changes since last release:
- Replaced all ereg_replace with preg_replace for PHP compatibility
- Added a better way to include favicons that’s compatible with all versions of major browsers (including IE6/7/8/9)
- Updated mobile device viewport setting to include scrolling sharers
- Fixed a problem in how $_SERVER["SERVER_ADDR"] versus $_SERVER["SERVER_NAME"] performs
- The theme directory can now be renamed.
- Fixed HTML in post and pages titles for SEO titles
- Updated Facebook Share to Facebook Like
- Updated AddThis
- Fixed navigation issues for WordPress 3.1.4
- Fixed the sitemap template
- Renamed advertisement areas so not to be caught by AdBlock
- Cleaned up wp_nav_menu syntax
- Replaced showposts with posts_per_page (the former is deprecated by WP)
- Looked into Sharedaddy + Standard Theme. Found a reported bug in Sharedaddy
- Added an admin feature in the comments to allow comment author name links to open in a new window
- Added a canonical URL to the theme core
- Introduced the ability for the author archive page to display the author’s name
- Scrolling sharers now scroll a bit differently. They stay at the top of the post until the top of the post moves out of view and then the sharers stay with the scroll position
- Added Google+ sharer
- Added StumbleUpon sharer
- Added a custom menu location for the footer
- Now creating SEO title for year archives
- Updated TimThumb
- Replaced bloginfo(‘template_directory’) with echo get_template_directory_uri().
- Replaced bloginfo(‘stylesheet_directory’) with stylesheet_directory_uri().
- Replaced attribute_escape() with esc_attr().
- Replaced bloginfo(‘url’) with home_url().
- Replaced the_author_description() with the_author_meta(‘description’).
- Replaced wp_specialchars() with esc_html().
- Removed PHP short tags.
- Added readme.txt.
- Added data-url parameter to Twitter sharer.
- Added additional stylesheet theme descriptors.
- Added missing WordPress gallery style.
Free Starter Theme, Don’t Miss It!
We released a free “coming soon page” theme last month, it’s part of a new product we have in the pipeline. It’s still available, and still free. Grab a copy, you never know when it’ll come in handy!
When did you release ST 2.7? It does not appear to be available in the ST Support Forums.
Same here, as soon as I read that I thought I missed out on 2.7 but it is nowhere to be found in the support forums?!
Jon:
I may have released this information prematurely
. The release will drop in the support forums soon. I’ll go do it now!
Hey guys! If it isn’t in there, it will be soon. In fact… let me check on that.
It’s there now, fellas!
Awesome. Will upgrade this week!
Yea I crapped myself when reading about Standard 3.0… then crapped myself again when I thought I may have missed a new release of 2.7…
Can we just have 3.0 now? Pretty please?!
Ooohh, so sorry Dustin. We actually have a clause in the Support License fine print that excludes updates to anyone who double self-craps. I’ll be suspending your license now. I hope you understand, I don’t make up the rules! Oh wait, yeah I do…
Chris
Ooo, sucks to be you, Dustin!
Is the suspension indefinite, or can I redeem myself with good behavior? Maybe a bribe…? Or how about blackmail… that sounds fun!
What would be in the blackmail now that you double crapped yourself?
LMAO exactly.
Well, let’s just say I’ve got people… Muhuhahaha!
“double self-craps”
Good morning laugh!
Dudes,
Is there a change-log laying around the support forums? Maybe I missed it?
Just wondering if I should upgrade now, or just wait for 3.0
Hey Chris! Yeah we keep it here: http://standardtheme.com/releases
Word up, thanks Chris!
Alright. “Mobile ready.” we heard ya. Mind filling in a few details on the mobile strategy?
Really hoping there’s some media query goodness there. Quite weary of the whole WPTouch path of serving unique sites to various user agents. It’s just too much to maintain.
WPTouch? Puh-lease. Jared would re-design our faces if we tried that.
The strategy is to have one set of markup for all devices. That said, isolating certain classes to user agent-based style sheets makes sense, so we have some of that I believe.
Jared would re-design your faces, and I would ex-communicate you. I hate sites with WPTouch installed. Nothing makes me leave a site faster.
Yeah, after deploying a few of those, I got some real push-back from stakeholders, and also detected a backlash online. The thing I heard was “it doesn’t look anything like the [desktop] site”. Maybe that’s addressable with enough budget, but usually not. I like repurposing what’s used, but MAN learning all the rules & exceptions is killing me.
And especially when we can have amazing, device-friendly sites like those listed here: http://webdesignerwall.com/trends/inspiration-fluid-responsive-design
I’ve settled on a mix of server-side detection (to hide hi-bandwidth stuff from mobiles) and media queries for mobiles & tablets. iPad, in many cases, does just fine with desktop themes.
Good stuff, Allan!
This might pose as being silly, but to what extent will this “almost completely rebooted” version nullify all the coding and FAQ’s/Tutorials currently listed on the forums?
Will there be some transference of currently modified themes through the upgrade process or will all things be made new?
Due to the complete overhaul, yes, nearly all FAQs & tutorials will be null and void. For the same reason, there will not be a simple upgrade process from 2.X to 3.0. Too much code has changed to make it even feasible.
While both seem like sucky answers at face value, this is actually a good thing. Why?
1. Have you learned a lot by following the FAQs & tutorials? I know I have in writing them. Education is *never* a loss!
2. A fresh start is needed. We have gotten better as a team and as developers. The code that sits under Standard Theme 3.0 is amazing. That’s not statement I make to call to action how awesome we are. I say that because the way Standard Theme 3.0 is coded will make a lot of the FAQs & tutorials much, much easier. The upgrade process too. While a near “complete reboot”, we have taken the time to do this the right way to make it easier for our users to use, modify, and customize once they get their hot little hands on it.
3. We’ll be there, just like we always have been, to help with any questions you may have and to create content to help you all make your sites your own.
Standard Theme 3.0 is not something we have taken lightly. It has taken more hours than anything we have created before it, including previous versions. Yes, you need to expect that things have changed a lot and work will need to be done on your part to recreate your site. And we need to do a really good job of communicating that to you, our users, so we are all on the same page as we transition. But it’s all for the better, this I promise you!
Michael, love your closing remarks. Thank you for your promise! Reading these comments has made me want to upgrade to 3.0 like, yesterday!
So, should I start submitting my requests now? Lol I had already documented all my Standard mods and have them ready to implement… But it seems they won’t be of much use until the new tutorials are up.
Feedback and feature requests are always welcome! We read every single one dropped on the forum. I am *trying* to make my way back through all the current ones in the forum to mark them as “Complete”, “Planned”, or “Not Planned” so everyone knows where we stand.
Keeps those notes. They will be good to make tutorial requests when the time comes, if they are needed. But I do think that some of the past tutorials will not be needed with Standard Theme 3.0. She is a much more nimble creature!
Also, in the continued spirit of settings expectations… When the beta drops, we will not be offering support or tutorials for it. It’s beta, aka. “as is”. Too much can and will change before the final product to spend so much time in creating content before the official version goes live.
I can’t wait to be one of the first to showcase what Standard 3.0 is capable of!
That’s great. I am excited about the new version. Frankly, I haven’t had much opportunity to explore the new version. I recently just switched to WordPress and Standard theme to redevelop my new relaunch. I was aiming for November to relaunch the new site, but I digress. January will be fine for the reboot. I really don’t want to customize 2.0 only to have to do an overhaul..
Thanks for the details!
Good call, James! The beta will be available in the forums in ~2 weeks. So you will be able to start your dev efforts.
Standard Theme 3.0?
Very, very nice.
Could you go into further detail about the styling updates?
keeping it classic, but putting some lipstick on her. a splash of color and an all around “tighter” feel. you can check out a snapshot here:
http://dribbble.com/shots/321309-tabbed-widget-for-blog
Oh happy day! I’ve been waiting for a well-done tabbed widget!
Yeah, Jared too! He really did that guy up in a good way.
Nice, I’m with Dustin on awaiting that tabbed widget.
Looking clean, keep up the great work guys.
If I start with 2.7 and later want 3.x…will I have to reinstall from scratch ? I mean since it is a ‘complete rewrite’? Or will it be a simple no-brainer ‘upgrade’ script or process (for nontechie’s like me)?
Brett:
There will not be an upgrade script to go from 2 to 3. However, both will be visible in your admin panel and you will be able to switch between them. They can exist “side-by-side”.
Thanks, it’s good to know that we can switch to the new version thru the admin panel.
Can you tell if any WP plug ins might tend to break with the update? I’m new to WP, plug ins, etc… learning the ramifications of all this.
Well, we make extra effort to code as per the documented “best practices” set forth by WordPress. If you are using plugins that do the same, then typically nothing will break. You will need to re-configure your widgets when you switch to the new theme, but that is normal.
In the event that a high profile plugin was incompatible with one of our themes, we would roll out a fix for the theme. We recently did this with Pro Photo which had a conflict with JetPack.
However, with over 14,000+ plugins out there we cannot support all of them. We can only try and write excellent code to ensure the opportunity for conflict is minimized. It’s a handshake, and we do our part.
Just caught that 2.x and 3 can live side-by-side. That’s awesome to hear from an upgrading standpoint.
I made custom edits to sharer.php and standardtheme.php, so hadn’t upgraded to 2.7.x yet since I don’t want to have to remod (if needed) anything again with 3.0 drops.
My host provider has a staging site option–whenever you’re open to beta, I’d be very quick to have my staging site running the beta as a publicly accessible test site. (FYI – I’m running on WP Engine, affiliate link: http://bk9.us/wpe )
Hey Brett! Read a few comments up in my reply to James about that transition. =)
http://8bit.io/blog/treat-yo-self-to-30-off-all-themes/#comment-1816
Not to get jumpy, but do we know when 3.0 will be released in January?
Jeremy:
We won’t make our January launch goal. We have been working hard and it is turning out way better than we expected.
Hey is Standard 3.0 still releasing in January? Maybe it has and I don’t know what I’m talking about, but it still looks like 2.7 is the latest.
While realizing that it’ll drop when it’s ready, any idea on roughly when… will it a winter, spring break, Memorial Day Weekend, etc project to upgrade?
Need to know if I should check the support forum hourly, daily, weekly, monthly…
Please read the lastest blog post for updates: http://8bit.io/blog/standard-3-whats-the-hold-up/
Probably a good idea to actually read the blog, not just individual articles linked from support forum posts, eh?
Thanks for the direction.
it’s all good!
So what does that mean exactly, that they can stand next to each other?
Traditionally, a theme upgrade will completely overwrite the previous version, e.g. upgrading from 2.6 to 2.7 would result in 2.6 not existing anymore.
Both versions can co-exist on a system, 2.7 and 3.0. This is good for a few reasons with such a big upgrade–the site can still have 2.7 served to end-users while the blog admin can fiddle with 3.0 to get it ready to live… if 3.0 breaks everything, 2.7 and all of the settings are still there, etc.
How does that look? They both coexist on the admin panel then? This allows you to modify one theme around your current blog data, while the other stays live? (sorry, still new to wordpress).
Yes and no.
By the functionality built into WordPress, you’ll see them both in the admin panel, yes. For example, you probably still have Twenty Ten or Twenty Eleven on your server and see that option on your Appearances->Themes page. With the update, we’ll see ST2, ST3, Twenty-Ten, and whatever other themes uploaded on the server.
By default, only one theme can be active as a time. You can install plugins that allow visitors who are not logged into your WordPress build to see one theme (in this case, the tried and true ST2) while users logged in as admin, for example, could see ST3.
WordPress as of the most recent update will retain your widget information between theme switches too. (The old way: any widget work you had was virtually lost when switching themes). It’d be easier to switch between the themes outright too. If you switch to 3, it looks weird, you should be able to switch back to 2 and it’ll look the same without any additional work on your part.
Hope that clarifies!
Thanks for being so helpful, Brandon!