This blog
I wasn’t really happy with the layout. In theory, i don’t like to “make” visitors click twice to read anything, but with my posts being quite wordy, scrolling down could be a pain and it isn’t really easy to find a WordPress theme that displays text-walls in a nice way.
It seems i’ve found a solution with this current theme. A visitor still has to click through to a certain post, but if you were visiting the site, i think it now looks more appealing. I’d like to get some feedback, as well- do you like the new layout? Don’t worry, it’s nothing i created – it’s a one-click-installation. Is it bothersome to click through to a certain post? Or do you read this in a Feedreader anyway and only click through if you want to comment or something?
There’s some administrative work to do- i added “featured images” to the posts appearing on the first site right now; it will look different when you click back to the second page. But the first thing, still easy to do with a free blog page here, is bringing my categories and tags in order- they’re a mess and i have too many.
I also don’t like the Blogroll on the right. While i follow those blogs you can see over there, they’re basically just a selection made by WordPress in a way i haven’t looked into yet. I’ll have to look at ways to improve that. One thing i really like and what i’ve seen others do is a list of recently published posts from other blogs. I’d like to look into that, as well as other customization- i like this place and want it to feel like my own.
We’ll see how it goes. I’ve contemplated self-hosting, but that isn’t free. One thing i know for sure is that i won’t upgrade this blog with WordPress themselves. It’s 100$ a year, i can go and self-host 3 years for that kind of money.
The Secret World
I fired it up and decided on one character to continue. Returning is hard, though. A full inventory, mobs taking strangely long to kill, not knowing what stats to look for in equipment and so on. I managed to do two quests and see to my equipment.
Elder Scrolls Online
I’ve done a few quests, killed my first dozen-or-so vampires and their lord (great atmosphere but too easy to kill in the end).
Nuria’s approaching Level 25, but i think i’ll create my other crafters next. The full inventory on body and bank slows me down more than i’d like, especially with those short sessions i had this week while our whole family was sick.
Tonight, we’ll take a look at Orsinium. I’m really looking forward to that.
Party Business 
I always read on mobile phone so I cant tell. Still a wall of words here but a nice wall:):)
Thanks! Well, do you navigate straight to one singular post? Because the homepage should show excerpts instead of whole articles now.
Hehe, i’ll also need to select the images with more care in the future. The characters are always behind text on the front page.
Ay always straight to a posting so far. Will try out the homepage and report back if i find any difficulties:)
Having to click twice to have a cleaner front page doesn’t bother me. I use that kind of layout for my blog as well. I usually read all my blogs in Feedly RSS reader or from the WordPress app, so either way, I get the full article there, and click through when I want to comment.
To get the blogroll some of us use, you must have two WordPress plugins installed: Link Manager (which allows you to add links on the back end like the old style WordPress blogs) and WP Social Blogroll (which can be sometimes buggy depending on your theme). I don’t know if a WordPress hosted blog allows for you to install your own plugins, however.
One more note I want to make, I noticed that this theme treats Windows 8 like a mobile viewer. I don’t get a sidebar to the right. Instead I get a mobile “Menu” box in the top corner that I have to click to actually view your sidebar. Sometimes that happens with some sites and layouts – they seem to see Windows 8 as a mobile OS, especially when used on a laptop. Just wanted you to be aware of that!
Here’s what I see:
Thanks for the feedback! Yes, that’s what it looks like for me, as well- and i kind of like it, to be honest. The menu was too big anyway. I’ll have to cut it down somewhat.
Free wordpress means no plugins for me- that’s the primary reason for thinking about moving myself. I also can’t customize code and so on- it feels a bit like playing SWTOR as a free player 😉 At some point i saw an item shop allowing you to spend on things you like, but i think WordPress became a sub-only service. Also….the earlier i’d move, the less i’d have to migrate over and it would on the whole be easier. It’s still a possibility.
No worries, as long as you’re aware of it and it’s working as intended!
I’ve never actually fiddled around much with the WordPress hosted blogs, but I had a feeling they kept some restrictions on plugins and themes. Fair enough, though, because those are the things that can mess up a site if you’re not super careful with them.
I can’t remember what your old theme looked like (because I just read posts through Feedly) but I really like this one. The only thing that seems a little off about it is the long menu but you already know about that. Too bad you can’t put it in the footer or something.
I had trouble deciding whether to have the full posts showing or just the excerpts, so on my theme, I compromised by having the latest post in full text and all the others in excerpts. It’s worked pretty well so far.
It’s too bad that WordPress.com limits your themes and plugins, it’s one of the best parts of software imho. It’s the reason I switched to self-hosting ages ago, although I’ve been doing my own hosting for even longer before that. I’d say it’s worth it but I can understand the appeal of free, low-maintenance blogging.
Thanks for the feedback. Yes, that’s what i thought- that most who read here would use a feedreader anyway and you still get the whole posts in there, right?
I could do that, as well- display the first one on the homepage and the others in short form, but i actually liked that new layout- except that menu, of course.
After thinking a bit about it yesterday going self-hosted is now a strong possibility. I’d like to have more ownership, i think.
Yeah, a feed reader shows the whole post unless you set it to only show an excerpt. But I’ve always found it annoying when that happens.
If you got self-hosting, the theme you’re using could be edited to show the first post in full on the homepage. It probably wouldn’t take me long to do. And if you wanted to move some of the menu stuff to say the footer of the page, that’s possible too (although you probably wouldn’t want infinite scrolling then).