Comments on: A Bit of a Makeover

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 16:34:55 +0000

Things still to do:

* Remove the comments logic from pages – I’ve had people leave comments on them that aren’t really relevant, trying to use the “About me” page like a guestbook.

* Clean up the single-post template (the one you’re reading)

* Get a new header image for the SF and Gaming pages because the current one just looks awful.

Anything else?

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 21:23:14 +0000

New front page now gone live.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Mon, 22 Oct 2012 12:31:12 +0000

Another tweak – Increased the “recent posts” from three to four, and removed reviews from that list, so they only appear in the column-list section.

Not 100% sure of this – Might mean new reviews don’t get enough prominence, since they’re “below the fold”.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 21:32:54 +0000

And that proved straightforward enough to implement, so I’ve done it. Only catch was one of the reviews had some accompanying photos, but they’re hosted on a different server, which means WordPress can’t create a thumbnail, which meant I had to download, crop, and re-upload it.

The other “issue” is that because one of the three most recent posts is a review, and there’s code in there to exclude duplicates, it’s only showing two record reviews instead of three. Probably just need to exclude reviews from the recent posts queries.

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 21:10:48 +0000

That’s something I’ve considered – A lot of my reviews do have an accompanying photo, but I don’t always take my camera to every gig I review.

By: Michael Orton

Michael Orton — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 21:07:26 +0000

Interesting ideas there.

I like the summary and continue reading via link style as if I don’t want to continue reading I can get to the next post quicker.

The “portrait” style layout for your reviews at the bottom seem quite pleasing to look at. It would be nice if you could add a small graphical element to the concert reports though. Perhaps an icon or two denoting the performers?

By: Tim Hall

Tim Hall — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 15:28:55 +0000

I’m not going to change it to a “forum” view. What I may well do is show only summaries rather than full posts on the front page, and highlight the category sub-blogs a bit more.

By: Thor

Thor — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 13:50:02 +0000

Tim, the putative new look has potential. But please do not go to a forum format where one has to have been in the discussion from the beginning in order to follow the theme. As a generalist, I am happier with an eclectic blend of esoteric, if not arcane, thoughts and topics, in contrast to discussions so specialized that the writers barely know what the theme has become and degenerate into fifty-five ways of sticking ones head up ones fundamental orifice, troll-style.
Cheers
Thor