So, how do you like the new digs? Pretty different, eh?

If you’ve been following me on Twitter, then you may have caught yesterday’s tweet about a new theme on Beyond the Rhetoric. As you can quite plainly see, the new theme is up and running, but it’s still in “beta” stage. There are probably some kinks that still need to be ironed out, so if you catch anything strange or out of place, do let me know.

The new custom WordPress theme comes courtesy of Matt Freedman, a long time reader of Beyond the Rhetoric and a good friend. He will be offering his blog design services at some point in the future through WeblogDesign.ca, but I have no idea when that service will officially launch.

In case you don’t really remember what the old Beyond the Rhetoric (v2.0) looked like, here’s a screenshot from a couple of days ago:

Beyond the Rhetoric, v2.0

And here is a shot of the new Beyond the Rhetoric, in case you’re reading this in an RSS aggregator or via the free email subscription feature. (I still encourage you to visit the live site to get a better sense of how it looks.)

Beyond the Rhetoric, v3.0

While this list is certainly not exhaustive, here are some of the changes and new features that you’ll find with the new theme.

  • Full custom background image. Will change based on occasions. May be offered as ad space later.
  • Trio of 125×125 ad blocks near the top of the page. Will rotate through max of 6 ads.
  • Flickr photostream in the footer.
  • Completely redesigned sidebar and header navigation links
  • ShareThis widget added to end of each post
  • Comment moderation notification
  • Recent comments in sidebar
  • MyBlogLog widget removed from sidebar
  • Content area and sidebar are both slightly wider.
  • Removal of Kontera ContentLink

As always, I’m open to whatever feedback (positive or negative) that you have to offer. You can do so through the comment section at the end of this post. Thanks!