Posted: Thursday, October 26th, 2006 at 10:23 pm. Filed in Themes.
New Theme: ChaoticSoul
This post happens to be a little special, since this theme happens to be a bit close to my heart.
I’m (very) proud to present you ChaoticSoul, a dark 2-columned theme that is based off of one a past version of the same name for my website/blog, Avalonstar (version 12 to be exact). My reasoning behind making this a theme is pretty simple – I didn’t want it to be lost in time and eventually by the Wayback Machine, so what better way to pay homage than to convert it into a WordPress theme. Obviously, I’ve gotten it to work with widgets as well as custom headers.
It’s hopefully a welcome change from the constant black on white I’ve been throwing at you for the past few weeks. I hope you can all help to keep its memory alive. 
October 26th, 2006 at 10:47 pm
Nice, something dark and creative for once!!!!
October 26th, 2006 at 10:49 pm
I love it. Dark themes have always been my favorite – thanks for being so generous.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
love the look, but could we get some more 3-column themes.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:09 pm
WP Theme is now wearing ChaoticSoul if you want to take a look at it.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:10 pm
Woo hoo! I asked for this theme along time ago. thanks!!!!
October 26th, 2006 at 11:14 pm
Neat. This theme is purely admirable for “photoblogging”. I don’t think the theme is customizable?
October 26th, 2006 at 11:16 pm
.. I mean, the header.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
i really like the theme, but i don’t like that the ENTIRE first post is bold. what’s up with that?
October 26th, 2006 at 11:22 pm
Great theme, but I would never use it. Reading light text on a dark background gives me a headache after about 15 minutes.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:23 pm
Looks great! thanks
I’m still waiting for a code highlight plugin
October 26th, 2006 at 11:29 pm
engtech: Thanks for that, looks like there are still a few little things I have to fix up.
K: Yes, the header is customizable.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
I like it and going to put it on now!
October 26th, 2006 at 11:43 pm
Good job WordPress!
October 26th, 2006 at 11:50 pm
“K: Yes, the header is customizable.”
Oh now it is. Tricky.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:53 pm
Sorry about that guys, little hiccup on my part. Yes, now the header is customizable.
October 26th, 2006 at 11:54 pm
I really like the theme, but bryan, it does not have a customizable header, where is that option? Because is not on the presentation menu.
It would be great also, that we could have a 2 pic header option…
October 26th, 2006 at 11:58 pm
Great! Now it’s perfect!, I still think that it would be grat to have a 2 pic header… just an idea…
Thanks!!!
October 27th, 2006 at 12:10 am
O.k. Cool! I put on my custom header and I likes it. Gonna keep this theme for a very loooong time!
October 27th, 2006 at 12:10 am
This theme is really creative and different. I was going to use it but its a little dark for my tastes though. Its a great theme though, looks really nice. Always awesome to see new themes swinging by wordpress.com.
October 27th, 2006 at 12:15 am
About dual images:
I would have loved to put it there but unfortunately the current custom header code doesn’t support two separate custom headers. I’ll try and work to make sure that changes, I’m sure a lot of themes could benefit from more customizable images.
October 27th, 2006 at 12:20 am
Great one! I’ll look into changing into this beauty next weekend.
October 27th, 2006 at 1:15 am
Nice looking theme but I really can’t read white text on dark backgrounds for more than a few minutes.
October 27th, 2006 at 1:16 am
very nice
i love the ‘almost tag cloud’ on the archives page, that’s something i’ve wanted for a long time.
October 27th, 2006 at 1:19 am
Beautiful theme, i like dark background,
but most of my friends suggest me to change to light color… hahaa
thanks~
October 27th, 2006 at 1:35 am
It’s dark, and not only is the font tiny, it’s a hard to read font as well. I’ll stick with easy to read white on black.
October 27th, 2006 at 1:46 am
Finally, a good theme with a black background!!! Thank you.
Too bad that my soul is already chaotic enough as is. Not really wanting to make sure all my posts look good on a dark background after so many light ones.
October 27th, 2006 at 2:46 am
Cool.. Great theme.. looks very nice..
Thanks so much.
October 27th, 2006 at 3:58 am
No prob Bryan, that’s what it’s there for.
October 27th, 2006 at 4:04 am
Just a thought, you could always create the image such that it has the “bar” in the middle of it and make any header image a dual-image.
October 27th, 2006 at 4:24 am
Actually, that’s what it does now. It’s a single image with that overly in the middle. So you could have two different images, just in one image.
So problem solved… dunno what I was smokin’.
October 27th, 2006 at 4:46 am
It is a really beautiful alternative. Thanks Bryan!
October 27th, 2006 at 5:11 am
i really like this theme, and i bet others do too, so there shouldn’t be a problem of keeping its memory alive, bryan.
October 27th, 2006 at 5:31 am
Looks great! I like things nice and dark. However, it would be nice if there were dates/times/categories on the entries you make. People aren’t going to know when you wrote something if you use this theme.
October 27th, 2006 at 5:35 am
Oops, I forgot another thing. A link so people can go back and read previous entries, not just what’s on the page. But other than that, like I said before, everything looks great!
October 27th, 2006 at 5:39 am
Finally a dark theme! It’s easier on my eyes when I’m typing at night with my lights off
October 27th, 2006 at 5:41 am
now… perhaps it’s time for me to change from “connections” to chaos!
October 27th, 2006 at 5:44 am
getting closer to what i want; still plays havoc with my photos.
October 27th, 2006 at 5:48 am
Great Theme,
and now we waitng for this theme : http://utombox.com/download/4u.png
http://utombox.com/downloads/
October 27th, 2006 at 6:13 am
nice
October 27th, 2006 at 7:10 am
Cool!
I love dark themes and don’t even get a headache while reading light text on dark background. I even adore the otiginal header, so I think I’ll stick with it for a while.
Great theme, Bryan. ^^
October 27th, 2006 at 7:29 am
Halloa! Nice theme that! Dark Themes are here to stay /
October 27th, 2006 at 8:26 am
WoW
what a theme here
that good and nEw !!!
October 27th, 2006 at 8:52 am
Lol i saw this theme while ago and i was wondering if it will be ever added to the default wp themes…great!
October 27th, 2006 at 8:56 am
Thanks for the feedback.
I’ll get to the lot of this in the morning!
October 27th, 2006 at 8:59 am
ZOMG!
I requested this just a few weeks ago and have been checking WP news every day to see if it’ll actually be added.
Thank you soooo much!!!!
Much
October 27th, 2006 at 9:11 am
I love this theme and also the fact that it makes colourful pictures really stand out, but (and yes there’s always a ‘but’ isn’t there? lol) as someone else remarked, nothing is date-stamped at all, and sometimes they really need to be.
October 27th, 2006 at 9:39 am
Nice! I’ve liked it at first sight. I’m only afraid it will be hard to read white on dark, that old and boring disadvantage of some people’s eyes
(mine too). But dark themes are so beautiful!
October 27th, 2006 at 10:11 am
Love it.
October 27th, 2006 at 10:17 am
Using it. Brilliant. Make some more! Make some more! (Hmm. Maybe I’m being a little demanding…)
October 27th, 2006 at 10:20 am
Fun idea. I prefer light themes myself, but I love the way you’ve found to pay a tribute to your old site.
October 27th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Great! Thanks, Bryan!
I DO love dark themes, they are much easier on my tired eyes, they’re elegant and pictures are perceived much better as they appear brighter.
ChaoticSoul is really beautiful, and I’m seriuosly considering the switch from Emire, which is nevertheless another beautiful theme…
October 27th, 2006 at 11:14 am
This theme reflects my style and aesthetic best yet. I am getting a headache with making my custom photo fit into the header size but am up to the challenge, it will be time well spent tinkering. Thanks again.
October 27th, 2006 at 11:23 am
Thanks a lot.. I was really looking for a dark theme.. Hemingway was the only option earlier but it did not show full posts in the front page. This is one of the coolest themes..
October 27th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Beautiful!
October 27th, 2006 at 12:26 pm
May I suggest a further step toward perfection?
Would it be possible to have pages tabs somewhere? (for instance, on the bottom of the image bar)
I woud be reeeaaaally grateful….
October 27th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
It’s perfect for photoblogging alright ^^; Thanks!
October 27th, 2006 at 1:32 pm
Grrreat theme
Immediately switched to it on lulando.wordpress.com.
Thanks very much
October 27th, 2006 at 2:31 pm
I really like this theme, though I wish it had support for tabbed page links (horizontally oriented) like a lot of other themes have. That would seal the deal.
October 27th, 2006 at 2:44 pm
pretty!!!!!!!!
October 27th, 2006 at 2:53 pm
Bryan, You rule \m/
Have been waiting for this theme for ages…. Thanks a lot.
October 27th, 2006 at 4:40 pm
I love it ! thanks !
October 27th, 2006 at 5:30 pm
Thanks for this, my blog looks great. One problem: the Search function is invisible now, the black lettering renders it so. And the tags, they aren’t showing up on my posts, but whatever on that…
October 27th, 2006 at 7:38 pm
The search box thing can be fixed by creating another text widget below it and naming it “search”. Example is on my blog.:)
October 27th, 2006 at 8:01 pm
While on the dark side (so to speak), what about the magnificent fauna theme with the darkfrost flavour (not to mention updating wp.com fauna’s itself)
Please!…
http://levibuzolic.com/projects/fauna-darkfrost/
October 27th, 2006 at 9:46 pm
Nice, using it now
October 27th, 2006 at 10:12 pm
I really like it, but the ONLY problem is the font size. Can you do something about it?
Thankx
October 27th, 2006 at 10:15 pm
Bryan, this is a really beutiful implementation of CSS, and visually stunning to boot! However, the posts definitely need a visible post date, the tags need to be visible, and the search field needs a title/label.
Keep-up the good work!
October 27th, 2006 at 10:45 pm
I love this theme and I changed from my old theme to this one right away after I saw it.
EVEN THOUGH, my tables are gone ;(
Could you pleaseeeeeeeeeeeee kindly fix this problem.? Because I never have this problem with other themes.
pleaseeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
A greeting from Germany
October 27th, 2006 at 11:57 pm
WHOAW. Finaly a clear and legible theme! I love everything about it…! *changes his current theme to this one*
October 28th, 2006 at 2:17 am
cool !!! very cool! i liked!
October 28th, 2006 at 7:44 am
Font size, style, and color can be changed on any blog already just by using html. There are examples and more at my blog.:)
October 28th, 2006 at 10:07 am
Where is the Smiley. Every wordpress blog has a signature smiley in the theme somewhere… but this one I was unable to spot… Sure this is chaotic
BTW I liked the theme…
October 28th, 2006 at 12:41 pm
It’s a beaut, and since we’re still tinkery, I agree tags for sure, that’s where the snark goes! I noticed some other blogs have the comments below the post rather than next to the title, is that an option, and when you make changes, do users re-load the theme or does it automatically show up?
October 28th, 2006 at 2:45 pm
Love the theme – custom header with an overlay – looks great!
I have been looking for the right dark theme and this is it!
Great job.
October 29th, 2006 at 6:29 pm
Good !
October 29th, 2006 at 10:02 pm
Hey, you people!!!
What I love most is something that has more than one way to look at it. So here it is, a new way, or old, or is it? Ever have a chance to look through one of those “StereOptican” gadgets, those 3-D viewers from around the 19th century or sometime back there? If you want you can that with this theme, and use your speaker’s badge to separate the two fields of view for your eyes, and have a 3D header! (or not!) It is remarkable that someone can please so many of us (and get the predictable suggestions for “improvement” etc.) so OUTSTANDING JOB HERE, GUY (Bryan)! I just *might* have to leave this one turned “on” as the theme for my main blog now instead of just wearing it for a while to show everyone how great it looks! (as if it were “mine” to show off!) It makes my eyes smile more than before…
–g
October 30th, 2006 at 12:09 am
Hey,
Great look and I love the title. I am new to this blogging thing, but finally how found a view that is me.
Thanks very much, and keep on with what you are doing!!
October 30th, 2006 at 11:35 am
Awesome theme! Great work!!! As soon as I read about ChaoticSoul I changed to it.
But I found a minor annoyance: when you put Youtube videos into your posts there is a white border around the video. Is there a way to fix that?
October 30th, 2006 at 10:39 pm
Great theme!
One question though:
How are readers supposed to get to the next page of posts?
October 30th, 2006 at 11:35 pm
I love it as well and have now switched. The only problem is the date and time stamps for posts. If that could be added it would be fantastic!
October 31st, 2006 at 2:06 am
Nice work. I think the move to the darker theme is a fantastic change. It brings in a bit of a change to the WordPress themes.
October 31st, 2006 at 2:35 am
I love it but…where are my tags?!
October 31st, 2006 at 4:27 am
Best so far –
October 31st, 2006 at 4:37 am
Great..
November 2nd, 2006 at 11:10 am
I love the new theme. Can you change the size of the text? It’s SSSSSSSSSOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooo small. And on a dark background, it’s doubly hard to read. And also, is there a way to view ‘other pages’? I can’t see mine in this theme. While pictures look exceptionally good against this background, some of my text widgets look totally out of place. (white background). Is there a way to change that? Probably not, thinking about it. Anyway,I love the header. This is a great theme! Good job.
November 2nd, 2006 at 1:34 pm
I love it. I used it for my blog. My wife loves it. Great work.
November 2nd, 2006 at 2:23 pm
Love the theme. it sets off photos really well!
But it would be great to have Next/Previous links at the bottom of the page– and also a neater archives template.
November 3rd, 2006 at 3:01 am
Great theme! Am using it now. I notice there’s a slight glitch(?) though.. Whenever I post 2 different blog on the same day, they will repeat themselves on my blog. Is this a feature or a bug?
November 3rd, 2006 at 4:28 am
I really liked this and it would be perfect for my blog but I have trouble reading the print because it’s gray and my vision isn’t great.
However, that doesn’t take away from the fact this is a very cool design and I hope to see more like it.
Anita Marie
November 3rd, 2006 at 12:30 pm
twilightmelfina wrote @ October 27th, 2006 at 5:31 am
“Looks great! I like things nice and dark. However, it would be nice if there were dates/times/categories on the entries you make. People aren’t going to know when you wrote something if you use this theme.”
She is right, I really miss the date/time/categorie below an entry. The lay-out is verry nice (probably since I like white on black. Custom header works fine, the widgets are okay as well. Pretty colour scales, only that date/time/categorie
November 4th, 2006 at 3:30 am
Yes, actually the header is customizable, and I have changed over my blog to this.
Like it much but:
Please make it adjust the width of the columns to the screen resolution.
I hate fixed width!
November 4th, 2006 at 4:39 am
Oh, and the date and time of posts were added, but the date a date come in all crunched up partly overlapping the title of the post–need more space.
And feature request would be to: be able to choose the fonts…
November 4th, 2006 at 12:59 pm
Is it possible to remove the ‘written with love…’ bit?
November 4th, 2006 at 1:18 pm
I mean, it just seems a bit feminine, plus, posts aren’t always written with love. How about anger? Or laughing? ‘This comment has been written while laughing’? Or feeling generally down. Or not feeling anything much.
November 5th, 2006 at 3:09 pm
ah, i see you’ve added the next/previous tags. great!