This theme [Tumble-Hybrid] is licensed: GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE. This means you can modify it and re-distribute it freely, and – if you are feeling extra generous – leave the footer’s design credit line intact. It would be nice if people could still find the download page for the theme. So, please consider leaving some sort of link in place.
I like Tumblr’s style. I really do like the aesthetic feel produced by posting different media according to different CSS styles. So, I was immediately fascinated with Tumble-blogging, on a purely aesthetic level. So, yeah, I liked Tumblr, but I had a few serious problems with making a leap to their platform. First of all, I didn’t want to dump a few month’s worth of archives just to start a Tumblr tumbleblog. I also did not want to start a second blog. I’m already busy enough. So, I did not see a jump to Tumblr as a real possibility. Secondly, I really like having the flexibility to post the occasional essay-like post too. I didn’t want a blog merely filled with links. Finally, I also wanted to give my readers the opportunity to post comments too. There is a community aspect to personal blogs that would suffer greatly if comments were totally eliminated. Straight Tumble-blogging doesn’t offer any of this flexibility I needed. I think WordPress offers the best of all of these worlds. It truly is a flexible blogging platform. So, I set out to create a hybrid-tumblelog. I originally created a Hybrid by using Matt’s asides. Ben Gray, and a few others, however, suggested a port of Sandbox as a superior method. I tried it, with Ben’s help, tested if for a few weeks, and I 100% agree. There are zero plugins and zero php hackery involved in this Hybrid. The most required of users is the creation of the 6 Tumbled Catagories: slices, quotes, lifestream, links, video, and conversations.
So, the Tumble-Hybrid is a little bit Blog and a little bit Tumbleblog. Now, I’d like to release it to the wild, under a GNU GENERAL PUBLIC LICENSE.
INSTALLING AND MODIFYING THE TUMBLE-HYBRID THEME
Tumble-Hybrid is ready for WordPress 2.3! It is also widget ready (WP Tags appear in the default sidebar). It validates XHTML 1.0 Strict & Valid CSS! No plugins are required.
1. Download Tumble-Hybrid Theme
2. Unzip, FTP to your WordPress install’s theme folder, and activate the theme.
3. Create the following categories: slices, quotes, lifestream, links, video, conversations.
NOTE: These categories will not work in the second version of Tumble-hybrid (Deuce)! Be sure to create the following categories instead: photos, quotes, thoughts, links, video, conversations.
4. When you write a post for any of these tumbled categories, simply select the category that corresponds to the media type (see steps 5-10). You may also add as many tags to your posts as you wish, as tags will not affect the category selected. These categories are hooked to specific Tumble-like CSS styles, according to media type. So, only choose one category for the posts you want to tumble. Regular posts appear regularly and can be filed under any and as many categories as you wish. The tumbled categories (photos, quotes, thoughts, links, video, conversations) can only be filed under one specific category. Suggestion: set your “Default post category” to “slices” to make posting Flickr images by e-mail or phone smooth & easy.
5. Slices – photos & images. Note: If you are posting directly from Flickr be sure to go to wp-admin → options → writing and set your default post category to “slices”. Flickr will post to your WP installations default category, and if this category is something other than “slices” your images/photos will not grab the CSS calls for tumbled images/photos.
Also, don’t forget to tweak your Flickr blog/post layout! You can adjust your Flickr layout by going to: Your Flickr Account → Extending Flickr → Blog Edit → Layout. Copy & paste following layout in place of the Flickr default:
<a href="{photo_url}" title="photo sharing"><img src="{photo_src}" class="flickr-photo" alt="" /></a>
<br />
<span class="flickr-caption">[[string:by2:<a href="{photo_url}">{photo_title}</a>:<a href="{uploader_profile}">{uploader_name}</a>]]</span>
6. Quotes – post your quotes using the following format:
"Jesus save us from missing the point. Save us from our self-absorbed commodified version of you and your good news. Let our songs to and about you inspire us to act in the way you acted while here on earth. After all isn't that what a follower of Christ is supposed to do?"<br /> <cite><a href="http://chrisflinchbaugh.blogspot.com/2007/09/worship-as-evangelism-by-sally.html">Chris Flinchbaugh</a></cite>
7. Lifestream – short thoughts or blurbs.
8. Links – straight links to other sites.
9. Video – post your You Tube video using the following format built for standards (replace the URl with the embed code from You Tube):
<object type="application/x-shockwave-flash" data="http://www.youtube.com/v/4Q-sYEl_7MQ" width="400" height="326"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/4Q-sYEl_7MQ" /><param name="FlashVars" value="playerMode=embedded" /></object><br />Casting Crowns
10. Conversations – dialogue you want to log.
That’s it! Have fun! Take care of Tumble-Hybrid, and Tumble-Hybrid will take care of you! Also, you may want to check out CaveMonkey50’s Tumblefeed plugin, if you plan on posting 10x’s a day or more. You friends’ feed readers will thank you!
TUMBLE-HYBRID CHANGELOG:
1.0. (09.27.2007): Original release.
1.1. (09.29.2007): Added conditional statement for WordPress 2.3 tags so theme works with older versions of WordPress too.
Related Posts:
I tried writing the author of this template directly, and received no reply. Maybe he’s using another e-mail account now? In any case, I love the look of this template, really do. But I just can’t get certain things to work, am about ready to give it up.
1) Archives. Where the heck did my archives go? I’ve tried creating a separate page for archive.php, but nothing comes up.
2) Why the hovering “link” thing? Can I not get something a little more obvious to show up?
3) Why are separate entry pages indented to the right. That’s not at all intuitive.
I know I customized this page a great deal, but this still shouldn’t be quite so confusing. Please help, if you can at all. Thanks.
Ray
Hi, Ray. It’s not confusing at all. The theme, out of the box, is modeled after a Tumblr or Tumble Blog theme. That’s why the hovering link thing, as you call it, is featured. If you want an archive page, you have to add one yourself.
The theme works out of the box. If you modify it, and you obviously have, you are on your own. You will have to do the work and learn the ins and outs of modifying your own themes. I offer no support for that sort of thing.
Good luck!
Great theme! Thanks for sharing it with us!
I like this theme.Thanks for sharing.
Chad – The video you posted from YouTube seems to be what is breaking the layout. I don’t think it is WP 2.3. Everything below that post is broken.
Um, yeah. Nevermind. I figured it out. Sorry for the comment spam. I really do like the theme very much. Thanks for taking the time to create it!
@Chad: Curious. I’m not sure why your installation would have done such a thing. The theme was built for the 2.3 version of WP. In fact, I’m running it here and on my demo blog.
Here there!
I love the theme. Truely the best of both blogging platforms. I have a question for you, and I know its not your problem but I am newbie at css and php. I installed the theme and it ran great until I upgraded to wordpress 2.3. Now the alignment is all off, and I cant seem to fix it. I have ran the css through a validation site, and it says all is well.
Anyone care to help, I appreciate it.
Hi there Shawn, your theme inspired me to transfer my tumblelog from Tumblr over to WordPress! There doesn’t seem to be much active development on Tumblr and I wasn’t ready to lose all my content if it shut down. Plus WP has such fantastic flexibility!
I’m loving the tumblelog format, it’s brought me back to blogging again. I ported my Tumblr theme over to K2, check out my Tumblr page at http://inertgreymatter.com and the port over at http://sandbox.inertgreymatter.com. Let me know if you have any comments!
Cheers, Weisheng
Thanks, Will!
Very nice Shawn!
@nick: I think I’ll just hang Tumble-Hybrid on it. This act in no way reflects my extreme love for the Osmonds and their “little bit country, little bit rock n’ roll” celebrity. :)
@wess: Thanks, brother. It’s in the wild now … and under GPL, to benefit the WP community.
nice work shawn.
Dude, this is great man. I know therre are a lot of people out there who are wanting to turn in this direction but don’t want to bother with the code. What are you going to call it? I think you should call it Osmond. But that’s just me.