Hugo looks so great but wow am I frustrated with the existing themes

Using Themes
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Just some feedback for the community.
I’m very new to the whole concept of SSGs but really like the concept of Hugo. It seems relatively easy to wrap one’s mind around. I was able to install Hugo and set it up (extended) with Visual Studio Code to get to work.

But how hard can it be to make a theme available that actually installs and works? It is embarrassing how many themes linked to on the https://themes.gohugo.io/ page are out of date or their documentation just does not work.

Part of the problem is that free theme makers stop supporting them and move from MIT to a paid support model, which I get. But they are turning off a lot of people who are investigating Hugo when they find that the free stuff doesn’t work.

I have been able to get Hargo to work and am learning the "in"s and "out"s of Hugo with that. But try to create a simple Hugo blog site with an attractive free theme (after that) is an absolute nightmare.

Now when I create a new Hugo site, I’m not even getting that I have the extended version, which I did install and worked with Hargo.

Can anyone suggest a free Hugo theme that works well with images as a blog and is responsive?
TIA.

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Finally found one that works as advertised: Tella

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I can’t be happier with Wowchemy, with a Discord community of over 1400 members.

Disclaimer: I’m one of the moderators of its Discord community and my website is built with it.

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Thanks! I was unaware of Wowchemy. But honestly, my first impression is that Wowchemy is on the road to turning Hugo into the nightmare that is Wordpress. Am I wrong?

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I’m not sure I understand what you mean with that. You’re free to use Wowchemy for very simple one page websites or more complex ones using the provided widgets and more advanced features.

I encourage you to take a look at it and see for yourself. The Discord is very active and we’re all always learning from each other how to make our websites the best possible.