The BuddyPress theme market is really starting to take off. Webmasters are realizing that forum software like vBulletin and ZenForo are costly to maintain and simply don’t offer the plugin/support ecosystem that WordPress does. With BuddyPress, not only do you get everything included with a traditional installation (plugins, community support, robust theme market) but you also get features similarly enjoyed by the pricey (and often ugly – frontend and back) forum software like groups, email notifications, comment moderation and SEO tools.
One Community is Obviously Inspired by Windows 8
The overall layout has a Metro-inspired interface that uses the look heavily in its main navigation. It’s interesting to see Microsoft have such an influence on the design community. We’ve seen a lot of these tile-type themes pop up on WordPress marketplaces and we’re happy to see that Apple isn’t the only company moving the inspirational needle in web design. While still conforming to the 960 Grid System, the theme manages to be unique, considering it’s boxed, right-aligned navigation layout is by no means typical for a standard WordPress website.
Features of One Community BuddyPress Theme
Like most premium WordPress themes released on ThemeForest, One Community is loaded with features:
- Wide layout – One Community takes full advantage of screen real estate. 1280px wide to be exact.
- Compatible with “hundreds” of BuddyPress extensions – the BuddyPress plugin market is growing everyday and it’s important to have a theme that plays nice with the various plugins/features.
- Contact Form 7 Integration – it’s super annoying when you install a WordPress theme and contact form 7 isn’t working correctly. It’s usually caused by a conflict in the .css file.
- Clean code – HTML5 and CSS3.
Some Missing Features
Unfortunately, it appears as though One Community isn’t responsive. When sized-down, nothing changes. This is especially frustrating because it seems that EVERY new premium WordPress theme released on ThemeForest these days is responsive. People are using their mobile devices more and more to access websites and it seems cheap that they wouldn’t integrate this into the theme. Another thing that’s missing is a shortcode list. It’s nice to have the quick ability to add jQuery elements (lists, toggles, slideshows, etc.) to your website without have to install a separate plugin or hack the CSS files.
Who We’d Recommend This Theme to
It’s pretty to look at, that’s for sure. But the curious lack of features and “non-responsiveness” has us wondering if you’d be better off using a theme like Buddy that’s fully responsive and seems to have more features. But, if you’re going for an older, Microsoft-ish demographic then One Community may be right for you.
There are no comments yet.