A Mad Post

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...?