WordPress switched it’s framework that the old themes were built on, to one that supports social media and mobile media. All the new themes don’t have sidebar widgets but the widgets follow at the end of the blog. All the old themes are considered retired and no updates are being done on them. They have been trying to fix issues for the ones that they can still work with. Last week wordpress did a site update and some of the blogs that had old themes ran into trouble with their side bars. This was an answer that came from one of the techs when asked about it a few days ago.
But as with any software the code eventually becomes dated, the theme no longer supports all the features on WordPress.com, and the continued cost of maintaining it just becomes too high. At that point we retire the theme. We don’t send out notifications when this happens.
You can keep on using the theme, but as the different coding languages evolve and we introduce new features and software updates, eventually the theme will start breaking. We still try to fix any bugs that occur, like in this case, but there will come a day where something will break that we simply won’t be able to fix.
I ran into trouble a couple of years ago. I switched themes but I didn’t really like it so I switched last Spring to one that they had just started offering. It works well with food and craft blogs. If you are using a theme from before 2015 I would consider switching to one of the themes they are offering now. I am still updating. I have recipes that I have to recode to make them printable. It is something they added in the recent couple of years. It takes a while to do 175 recipes.
Most of the early reblogs I did here the links no longer worked so I cleaned them up this past week. I still have a few more to go. I just simply deleted them.
I just wanted to give everyone here a heads up on this.
Once Upon a Paradigm 
I am using Dyad and they just updated recently to Dyad 2. Before I updated to the second version they showed what it would look like on mobile devices. It is really nice looking on all the different sizes.The picture was on top of a android phone with the recipe under it. Then the Ipads the picture of the food was on the side with the recipe next to it. One of the things that happened when I first switched to Dyad last year was my traffic jumped. Google now sends me between 35 to 50 readers a day through their search. What they are looking for is a copycat recipe that I have had posted since 2012 but google didn’t pick me up for it until last year. I need to improve the picture on it. I have learned a lot since then on how to stage food pictures. This week I did two blogs showing my needlework and giving the patterns. I also added a link to my Etsy store. I started it last fall. I only sold 3 things over the holidays. I saw very little traffic on my ads. After I posted my two blogs I have sold 3 items this week. I saw no sales in Jan. or Feb. I know it came from my followers this week because Etsy promotes you when you buy that option. It is way more then I would ever make on needlework.
The theme I am using is a free one. So you might want to look around in what they are offering free that matches your blog that is set up for mobile devices.
I wonder if that is why fivethirtyeight.com was displaying weird a few nights ago.
I saw other ones too. I have a lot of followers and I usually return the likes. It was from one of the people I have been exchanging likes with for the last 8 years that posted what the techs told him when he asked for help.
They have added some new tools and features the last year. I am still trying to figure out all that. They moved my draft file this past week. LOL…It took me a couple of days to find it and I really just stumbled over it looking for how to code something different on a recipe. The theme I am using might be a beta offering.
Ahh my dear Momoe, some of the recent problems I’ve been attributing to my own inadequacy are beginning to make sense. My theme is old but it is more that I”m just having a little more trouble navigating the site. Thank heavens, I never got too sophisticated so I think I’m safe for now as long as I remember to actually look and read instead of just peering. Thank you for the heads up.
As always, ~~dru~~
I suppose a lot of the blame lies with the co-founders of this site — one of them being me. I think the co-founders have given up. I am no longer willing or able to maintain this site, unfortunately.