A Mad Post 01/06/2005 I have been reading a lot about the history of blogging just lately and it has made me realize that I am pretty fortunate to have entered the game in the way that I did. The fact that the blog rides upon my son's website has given me considerable say in how it looks and I am not constricted by the design of the blogging platform. Of course, this also means that sometimes I have to wait until Mad has the time to attend to a request for an extra feature or a necessary tweak. But, more importantly, the blog remains lean and clean, without features that I do not want and will never use.You might wonder how Mad and I manage to liaise with him in England and me in America. In fact, we talk almost every day through Yahoo Messenger and the state of the blog is a subject that is always on the agenda.One of the matters that is under review at the moment is whether to keep the advertisements. The Google Adsense ads were introduced some time ago as an experiment and I maintain that they have now had their chance. In theory, they bring in money; in reality, the amount they earn is not enough even to be considered pocket money and no payment is made until you've amassed $100.00 anyway. At that rate, Mad might get a check in about 2020.There is a disadvantage to the ads beyond mere financial considerations. They add to the clutter on the sidebar for a start. We have limited the number of blog directory buttons because they interfere with the cleanliness of the design - only those that matter are allowed to remain and this is under constant review. Whilst Google ads are not unsightly (although Mad had to work hard to force them to fit with the overall color scheme), they are still an addition that we could do without, in my opinion.On some computers the ads leap about independently of the page when scrolling; when the page is viewed inside a frame (as in the traffic exchanges, for instance), the ads lose their relevance to the post they accompany; if Google is slow in delivering information for the ads, the loading of the blog is delayed. All of these factors indicate one thing to me: get rid of the ads!So the ads might disappear in the near future. And I am hoping that two other changes will happen soon. The first is to do with the chameleon header.He has served us well, that old chameleon, and makes the blog instantly indentifiable. But, at the same time, both Mad and I feel that the design could do with something new. It was always intended that the header would become a random selection between several possible pictures. To see what I mean, go to the MadTV site and refresh the page a few times. The header picture will change with each refresh.That is what I would like to see happening with my blog header. I would keep the theme of the chameleon (and my old friend up there would remain as one of the alternatives) but a bit of spice would be added by never knowing which particular chameleon would be greeting you next.Another change that I want to see is more in the nature of an addition to the blog. For some time now I have been itching to get to work on my next book and I would like to do this through the blog. For various reasons, I could not do this without introducing some viewing restrictions, however. So I have asked Mad to add a section where I can work on the book and to make access to those pages through username and password only.You can see that I keep Mad pretty busy. This post is in the nature of being my little thank you to him. He has saved me from having to wrestle with the idiosyncracies of Blogger or one of the other blogging systems out there. It's true that I supply him with plenty of content, frequently updated, and he will freely admit this. The fact is that it's a mutually beneficial arrangement.Mad works as a web developer for one of the major car dealership networks in Britain. Developers need to be strong in two areas: programming and design. As a programmer, he will be concerned that the code behind a site is efficient - the most important thing for a website must be that it loads quickly and works as expected. And, as a designer, he must care about the aesthetic appeal of the site - if it's ugly or cluttered, it will only turn customers away. The designer has to think about the construction of the site, too. Is it logical in how its components fit together and is navigation easy for the user?I think that Mad's site demonstrates his strength in both areas, a combination that is much less common than one might think. Nothing is ever perfect, however, and Mad is open to suggestions of how things might be improved. Remember that compromise is often a factor in web development as its elements can sometimes conflict with one another.As an instance, I was asked recently why there was no RSS feed to my blog. Well, the answer is that there is a feed to it; it's just a little difficult to find. It's down at the bottom of the page - the button on the far right. Aesthetics dictates that it is not given due prominence but we may have to consider whether its positioning is correct in view of the importance of RSS these days.So there we have it - my post of thanks to Mad. Count your blessings now - just how grateful are you to Blogger or Typepad or whatever system you use...?
Clive
josh Huzzah to Mad. :) Huzzah I say! As far as how grateful I am to my blogging system, well, that is quite impossible to answer. Well, I could pat the designer on the back without much trouble. ;) Date Added: 01/06/2005
Gone Away As I've always said, Josh, if for some reason I couldn't have Mad around to do the tech side for me, it's to you I'd come begging. ;) Date Added: 01/06/2005
Ken Your site does look good, Gone Away, and it loads swiftly, too. Methinks, you're lucky to have a son with so many relevant strengths and talents. As for Blogger, there have been infuriating moments, although things seem much better since the last scheduled maintenance downtime and, since I don't have or intend to learn the skills necessary to become independent, I remain very grateful for their services. Like you, I prefer clean lines and an uncluttered look, although I would sometimes like a change of colour. People tell me that the smoky dark blue of my template makes for easy reading; I, naturally, am unsure! As for the Google ads, I did read up on them and am pleased to note that your judgement supports my own, albeit from a more informed viewpoint than my hunch. Date Added: 01/06/2005
Gone Away Thanks, Ken. Your site loads pretty fast for me and it's clear and easy to read. Those are the elements that a good blog needs to start with. After that, it's content and you have no problem with that at all! Date Added: 01/06/2005
Mad *Blushes humbly* Oi! No sniggering at the back! Date Added: 01/06/2005
Gone Away *Trains the spotlight on Mad some more...* Date Added: 01/06/2005
keeefer I think the sites great. clean and uncluttered with the links in relevant places. The google ads make little to no impact on the site and in all honesty are irelevanthere. Axe em Bru all you are doing is promoting the google brand.....either that or pay yer lil bro to sit at home clicking em all day, that way you may just get enough for a beer by the time yer birthday comes round. How grateful am i to blogger????/.....hmmm well not at all. its web based it should be free....in fact not only should it be free but it should be a fundamental right for any caffeine induced nutter. In fact id go as far as to suggest a change to the American constituion over the whole thing......FREE THE WEB from the tyranny of Microsoft send in the troops NOW! Urrrrr....i'll get my coat Date Added: 01/06/2005
Gone Away .oO(There goes another happy Blogger user...) Date Added: 02/06/2005
Ned The site is great, the muted colors are easy on the eye, nothing too flashy and yet distinct. Flashy sites are usually only a cover-up for no content. The best way to show off good writing is not to detract from it, but showcase it elegantly as Mad has done here. I won't say anything terrible about Blogger, it got me started. I didn't like any of the templates much, and well, wanting to change mine got me learning some HTML just so I could change the template. So, my Blogger experience was not a wasted time. I am happier with my new site, but it still isn't exactly right. Maybe some day, I will be able to design my own. But I doubt it will be anything nearly as elegant in its design as Mad's site. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away Your new site is excellent, Ned. It's just a pity that it comes with those ads at the top. They vary but sometimes can be very distracting. But it's true that one learns so much in setting up a blog. As soon as one wants to customize a template in the usual blogging systems, the learning begins... ;) Date Added: 02/06/2005
Ned I am not too crazy about the ads, but they are the price of some other nifty features I didn't have before. Blogger only occasionally gave me email notification of comments and then only for some commenters. The new site always notifies of all comments, even anonymous ones and provides me with site stats that go far beyond just adding a counter to a Blogger template. I know occasionally the site pops up an ad but I can only suggest that people use Firefox for a browser. The site looks better in FF and no pop up ads appear. I thought you were going to get rid of that squished up picture under the Technorati link... Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away I tried for a long time to get rid of the squished Technorati image - and, according to what my browser sees, it has now disappeared at last. Are you telling me you can still see it? :O Date Added: 02/06/2005
Ned It doesn't show in IE but it does in Firefox. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away It's cached in Firefox then, Ned. It'll go away eventually. ;) Date Added: 02/06/2005
Josh This is great market research for me, please, expound. :) As for the image doodad, gone, I still see it in firefox and opera, and not because it is cached. Only real way to get those buggers to "disappear" is to wrap the script in a span and use a little style magik to hide them. I went through the same rigamarole with the technorati site and the "show image" thing that never worked. Stick the technorati script inside a <span id="techno"> </span> element, and then add this to your stylesheet, and you will never see them again. :> span#techno img { display : none; visibility : hidden; /* just to be sure */ } just a heads up from a bored html guy ;) Date Added: 02/06/2005
josh whoops, forgot the <br />'s duh. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away I don't understand a word of it Josh - hopefully Mad will. But the pic has disappeared from my browser so I can't see how Technorati are still delivering it elsewhere. I took it off the profile as soon as I realized what was happening and it no longer shows up there. So I figured it had to be the cache... Date Added: 02/06/2005
prying1 Your page loaded real slow for me this time. perhaps because I'm on dialup - Running Blog Explosion - Blog Rocketing - Checking email - Checking sitemeter - and have 2 other blog sites loading. - It did load however while one other window stopped in mid stream. - Continue to thank the Lord for Mad - I feel like this site is my home away from home. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away My blog does load slowly on occasion, Paul, almost always because it's waiting for either Technorati or Britblog to wake up. But, of course, running 50 other windows at the same time doesn't help... ;) I do know how much I have to thank God for in Mad - and delight in embarrassing Mad by saying it! :D Date Added: 02/06/2005
Ned HA! Vindicated. Just clicking through on BE. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Glod "but a bit of spice would be added by never knowing which particular chameleon would be greeting you next." That is sheer genius. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away There ya go, Mad, Glod says you're a genius. Date Added: 02/06/2005
John (SYNTAGMA) Interesting thread, Clive. Much to comment on. BTW you can talk to MAD free if you both download SKYPE (again free ~ my specialty). You can then talk over the internet and it's just like a telephone call ~ without a bill.Writing your new book behind a password has its ups and downs. For instance, an unscupulous writer or publisher could simply apply for access under a false name. If you were to post it normally under a Creative Commons licence (Some rights reserved), you would be protected against flagrant plagiarism, but would benefit from the viral effect of extensive quoting. I agree though, it's a hard one to call.As for Blogger, you can now do quite a lot with it, especially by adding free services like Haloscan, Feedburner etc. If you need really deep logs, or eCommerce facilities that's a different matter. But it's surprising what you can do with Blogger. And it's getting better. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away Oh, I agree that Blogger gets more capable all the time, John. But sometimes that can be a disadvantage. Take Haloscan as an example - very often it's the cause of a blog loading slowly. And the more outside sources that a blog has to call when loading, the higher the chances that one of them will be slow and impede the loading of the blog. Hence my point about not having anything connected to my blog that I don't need. As regards writing in a password-protected zone, the point of this is that I would choose the readers and they would be very few. It might mean that some would feel insulted if refused access but hey, I would have to draw the line somewhere. ;) And the SKYPE thing - Mad and I could voice conference in Messenger if we ever wanted to and it amounts to the same thing as a phone connection, but I think we're both happier in text. I've always hated the phone - perhaps that's why I'm a writer. But thanks for the suggestion anyway. :D Date Added: 02/06/2005
Jaws Well I sat here read all the comments and then looked at everyones pages that link them. Gotta say I feel like a flashy one that you all don't like so much but god made us all different I guess. My friend Rachel helped me out with mine. Glad ya have your son to throw ya some tips and help there. I like Blogger but then blogger was my first. Only complaint against them is a few days out of the month they will run real slow. I don't have adds but I do have a few things to give people a idea and feel for where I am or what its like here. Gone Away, you have a classy look and I like it. Loads fine for me. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away Thanks, Lady Jaws. :) Blogger is very important in that it gives a way for non-technical people to blog. Considering the number of people that use it, there was a massive need for such a service. But, as you point out, it does have a few drawbacks and I'm just glad that I have the freedom to blog in the way that I want to. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Way The cleaner the better, Gone. Personally, I like Mad's overall layout, and I think it's the best I've seen anywhere so far. This page of yours, for example, is one of the easier ones to read, altho I'd vote the ads off, since I never read the pesky things anyway. I have enough to do as it is. Here, all I want to do is see what you have written next. I don't mind the old chameleon greeting me every day, but I'd bet that whatever you (or Madson) might put in his place will have the same amount of ompf. Maybe make that to read Class. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Jodie I like the idea of changing chameleons, since that is what they do, after all. :) I like Mad's design and ease of use of your blog. And getting rid of the ads is a good idea if they're not helping at all. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away Thanks very much, Way. And thanks too for the support in getting rid of the ads! ;) Date Added: 02/06/2005
Gone Away Ahah! More support for getting rid of the ads! Thanks, Jodie. :) And good point about the changing chameleon too. Date Added: 02/06/2005
Josh FWIW, I never liked the ads. It just never seemed to jive with the whole literature thing. :) that and they bounce like crazy on every system I've ever checked in on. Date Added: 03/06/2005
Gone Away Yeah, they bounce like crazy on my machine too, Josh. Now all I have to do is persuade Mad to give them the boot... Date Added: 03/06/2005
josh Oh yeah! I was really bored at work today and I got to searching one of my favorite stock photo sites. In the process I came across about 2 dozen chameleon pics for your perusal, Gone. Whenever you get your rotator up and running remember to email me and I can log in to the site and grab them for yee. :) Cheers! Date Added: 03/06/2005
Gone Away Will do, Josh! :D Date Added: 03/06/2005
$@M YOu didn't play for spurs did you? trying to make money from google advertising so if you want click on the ads and I get money but you don't have to if you did i would be most grateful but not as grateful as the grateful dead thats impossible but I would be happy if you did click as happy as a happysam http://www.warwick.ac.uk/~poubae http://afganisam.blogspot.com enjoy people of the world thanks Date Added: 03/06/2005
Gone Away Incredibly, Sam, that's the first time I've been asked that question since I started this game. And the answer is no, the QPR and Spurs Clive Allen is much younger than I am so, in fact, he was named after me! :D I can also say that I will be visiting your site (no need to ask) but, as for clicking on the ads, that depends on what they happen to be for... ;) Date Added: 03/06/2005
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