I had some initial setup problems with TwitterTools, but it seems pretty solid these days. I wonder if there is something in your theme that’s causing problems (since they seem pretty universal across Twitter plug-ins). I assume you’ve checked with the theme publisher’s forum and all that.

Much of your dislikes stem from the classic “what should be a standard/core feature and what should be an add-on” conundrum. The plug-in system provides folks with the flexibility yadda-yadda and all that.

I agree that subscribe-to-comments-by-email should be in the core. On the other hand, I don’t have a problem with Gravatar as the avatar tool for WP, and I’d argue that a CAPTCHA system is best chosen (if to be chosen) by the blog owner, rather than being built-in.

Multi-blog support (coming from MT as I am) is, I agree, a deficiency. I haven’t used the multiple author features, but it does sound like they are thin on the ground.

Overall — I’m happy with what I have in WP — and I like your layout and dazzlingly pure-white theme (though, even as a beneficiary, I’d agree the blogroll is a tad long).

Twitter tools works consistently for me.

If you want multiple authors there are plugins for that, various comment threaders and subscribing to posts.

A few points on theme creating, leave the default folder alone. It will be rewritten over when you update. rename the folder and mess with that.

I tend to create themes offline and then use a copy of default for the code. Then I copy them into appropriate parts of the style sheet, header and footer, deleting unnecessary divs and code as needed. Also you can edit different themes with out changing it via the drop down box in the editor…the preview is lacking though you can click on a theme and see a preview before accepting it.

I’m in agreement with AngryArchaeologist – this almost makes me eyes strain at the end of the day (which is, perhaps, why I found the old color scheme so palatable).

Ah, well – all’s a work in progress.

I”m not a big fan of the eye piercing whiteness of the blog. I am used to it being muted or dark colors.

#7 on dislikes:
I usually use a temp blog like you say. Not the best no, but the nice thing is it keeps you from screwing up the main blog when making changes. If you use a completely different folder for them on the web server there is no way to mess with the main blog accidentally. I think this one can be looked at as a neg or a plus.

The other points I would have to agree with.

Other than the fact that I couldn’t log in for a couple of days, until you sent me a separate login vehicle, and that I lost my avatar for a few more days, and the white background sucks, the rest is working pretty well. I suppose I will get used to it, and I always need some new challenge to keep me awake. It is YOUR site, after all. Thanks for keeping one for all of us. Oh, and I’m still in la-la land about HTML tags, but it’s coming along. I do miss the smileys, though.

I think you are aware of my feelings towards WordPress.

Well, you wanted something to tinker with

Have you written support and told them about what you want changed? I can’t really say what I want changed since I only have the one that I work with and I am pretty happy with it the way it is…but I do take it that they are always willing to take suggestions from what I hear from the message boards. They are always adding stuff too…I have updated mine like 3 times in the past 6 months since they are always changing things.

The one thing I like about the newest version is you can update it automatically…it used to not be that way and you had to download it and save your DB and then blah blah blah…now you just click a button.

I just wish you’d switch to a two column format. Every image or video link you post seems to jump out of the margins on the right. Also, while I wasn’t a huge fan of the white on black thing that you had going on, this template is rather colorless.

I think I could do without the tag cloud.

I wish your margin sidebars could be rolled up into just their headlines. I appreciate your association with so many websites in your blog roll, but after ten or so I’m not sure I need to see them each time I visit.

In fact, since you can make static pages with WP, I’d be happy if a lot of the cool stuff you’ve got going on here were just showing on separate pages.

As always, IMHO. Better you than me working with PHP