Title: Help Make (the) Friends (Plugin) Pretty Author: Alex Kirk Published: November 22, 2024 --- # Help Make (the) Friends (Plugin) Pretty November 22, 2024 While I keep maintaining my [Friends plugin](https://github.com/akirk/friends) for WordPress, there is an area where it could do better because I am not great at it: the visual appeal. From pretty early on, I designed the plugin in a way that it 1. can be mainly used on the frontend (i.e. not in wp-admin), 2. is based on [granular template files](https://github.com/akirk/friends/tree/main/templates/), 3. and [each template file can be overriden](https://github.com/akirk/friends/wiki/Overriding-the-template-files). Over time, some of this has changed or improved. For example, you can now see [your friends’ posts in widgets on your wp-admin dashboard](https://github.com/akirk/friends/pull/346), or, I’m making progress on [providing a block theme for Friends](https://github.com/akirk/friends/pull/362) so that it can be customized with the site editor. ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/current-friends-ui-1024x517. png) This is the current Friends default theme, based on the [spectre.css framework](https://picturepan2.github.io/spectre/index.html) ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/friends-current-user- view-1024x543.png) This is a user view with full posts in the current design ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/friends-widgets-1024x450. png) Dashboard filled with Friends’ posts, [Netvibes style](https://www.netvibes.com/) But, even as I wrote in the [Friends Wiki](https://github.com/akirk/friends/wiki) on how new themes can be created, I think this has remained unknown to users. So, a year ago, as a demo, I created the [Mastodon-Like Interface plugin](https://github.com/akirk/friends-mastodon-like-interface). This is what the Friends plugin can also look like: ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/mastodon-like-interface- 1024x733.png) Unfortunately, this remained under people’s radar. So in the latest version of the Friends plugin, I have now made it more obvious [that the theme can be changed](https://github.com/akirk/friends/pull/393), by slightly adjusting how themes are loaded, giving the user more control over which theme is loaded: ![](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2024/11/friends-theme-selector. png) In the course of this, I have updated the Friends Wiki with a more specific guide on [how to write themes for the Friends plugin](https://github.com/akirk/friends/wiki/Writing-Themes). There have been some case studies about what a network between WordPresses could look like. For example, [Mike McAlister](https://mikemcalister.com/) has designed [some screens](https://dribbble.com/shots/20028090-OpenPress-A-Decentralized-WordPress-Community) for [what he called OpenPress at the time](https://olliewp.com/finding-a-new-home-for-the-wordpress-community/). And the mockups look great: [[ [Finding a new home for the WordPress community](https://olliewp.com/finding-a-new-home-for-the-wordpress-community/) I would love it if the community could help with creating some more themes to give people a choice. Recently, [Livia Gouvêa](https://github.com/liviacarolgouvea) has contributed [some layout improvements for the current sidebar](https://github.com/akirk/friends/pull/384). This is a great start, thank you, Livia! If you have a new theme, you can add them with [a pull request to the THEMES.md file](https://github.com/akirk/friends/blob/main/THEMES.md). As soon as there are some themes, we’ll make it easier to install them. It is quite likely that people were detracted from getting started with the [Friends plugin](https://wordpress.org/plugins/friends/) because they don’t like the current theme (hat tip [Robert Windisch and his talk at WordCamp Karlsruhe](https://wordpress.tv/2024/10/12/wordpress-als-soziales-netzwerk-eine-vision-um-publishing-zu-demokratisieren/)) but this would be too bad, because I believe it is an empowering tool, allowing you to become less dependent on third-party vendors, even if you’re “just” using it to [make your own WordPress your full featured, personal Mastodon instance](https://alex.kirk.at/2024/06/13/your-wordpress-as-your-personal-mastodon-instance/). Looking forward to more Friends themes, this would be an awesome addition! ###### Fediverse Reactions * [ ⌊Mad Mole⌉ ](https://mast.madmolelabs.com/@madmole) * [ ⌊Tomi the Slav and 1024 others⌉ ](https://mastodon.social/@po3mah) [Web](https://alex.kirk.at/category/web/) Read this next [Setting Up a Local Ollama Copilot via LSP](https://alex.kirk.at/2024/11/15/setting-up-a-local-ollama-copilot-via-lsp/) ## 3 responses to “Help Make (the) Friends (Plugin) Pretty” 1. [Reblog of Alex Kirk: Help Make (the) Friends (Plugin) Pretty – John Eckman](https://johneckman.com/2024/11/22/reblog-of-alex-kirk-help-make-the-friends-plugin-pretty/) 2. [November 22, 2024](https://alex.kirk.at/2024/11/22/help-make-the-friends-plugin-pretty/comment-page-1/#comment-87906) 3. […] Reblog via Alex Kirk […] 4. [Log in to Reply](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Falex.kirk.at%2F2024%2F11%2F22%2Fhelp-make-the-friends-plugin-pretty%2F) 5. ![Carsten Avatar](https://herkenhoff.com/photo/profile/l/22?rev=1731005036) 6. [Carsten](https://herkenhoff.com/channel/carsten) 7. [November 24, 2024](https://herkenhoff.com/item/ad679b5b-7892-461a-a3f8-5876b6d9a224) 8. Thank you very much for this plugin, I like it a lot. But I have some problems: I tried to install the Mastodon Theme and selected it in the backend but it’s not showing up. Also, within Mastodon Apps posts by e.g. Mastodon don’t show up, only WordPress-Posts. I tried this with different blogs on shared Hosting. 9. a. ![Alex Kirk Avatar](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2025/06/cropped- 2025.Alex-512x512-1-48x48.jpg) b. [Alex Kirk](https://alex.kirk.at/) c. [November 24, 2024](https://alex.kirk.at/2024/11/22/help-make-the-friends-plugin-pretty/comment-page-1/#comment-87909) d. Thank you and thanks for reporting! There was a bug in loading the main theme indeed [https://github.com/akirk/friends/pull/398](https://github.com/akirk/friends/pull/398), and a bug with overriding some templates. Will be fixed in the next version, you’ll need to re-download the mastodon-like theme plugin, sorry about that! With Mastodon Apps do you mean the Enable Mastodon Apps plugin? The content should be the same that you see in /friends/. In the “Registered Apps” settings, click on details for the specific app and ensure that the right post formats and post types are selected. e. [Log in to Reply](https://alex.kirk.at/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Falex.kirk.at%2F2024%2F11%2F22%2Fhelp-make-the-friends-plugin-pretty%2F) ### Leave a Reply 󠀁[Cancel reply](https://alex.kirk.at/2024/11/22/help-make-the-friends-plugin-pretty/?output_format=md#respond)󠁿 Only people in [my network](https://alex.kirk.at/friends/) can comment. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. 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