And one of these days they’re going to get chopped off. You might notice something a little different around here now, like a new theme. I have been pondering the migration to a new theme for quite some time, and just last night I decided to make it happen.
There are a few reasons why I made the switch, most notably:
- I wanted more flexibility with my homepage
- I wanted something a little more engaging and nice to look at
- I wanted a few more widget areas
- I wanted a nice way to promote certain posts instead of watching them rotate out to page 2 and never be seen again
- I wanted nested comments
- I wanted to provide the ability for visitors to find more of my content easily
I think I have all that and more now with the theme I installed. The theme is titled Arras and was written by Melvin Lee. So far I’m quite pleased with it, but I’m still tightening things up a bit around here. So far I haven’t found any real show-stoppers with this theme.
One of the downsides, if you even want to call it that, is that I’ll want to apply some image for each and every post now. Not necessarily a bad thing at all since it makes the homepage look nice. But it does cut into the amount of time it takes to build a post. I’m not terribly worried about that though, the theme makes me happy to click about. I’m not sure if that’s just me, or if that same feeling will transfer to my visitors as well. Time will tell I guess.
All the comments are now threaded, which means you can respond to a comment itself instead of lumping your comment into the line of comments. It’s my belief that this will encourage more people to comment and engage others that are also commenting here.
Finally, one last thing I’ve done also, WayneJohn.com is completely DoFollow. My goal is to make every link on here a DoFollow link, and so far the plugin I’m using seems to do the trick.
Now that I have my new toy installed, maybe I can get some work done and keep my hands to myself. Don’t count on it.
What do you think? Kill me with your comments people!
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That’s a really nice theme. For my point of view you should check the space between first paragraph and the ads. For me it’s hard to follow the text – just my opinion…
Stan@Tagesgeld´s last blog ..Vergleich Festgeldzinsen
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Thank God for a great blog that’s dofollow
Great for all readers!
its a beautiful theme i like it very much thanks
خلفيات سيارات ´s last blog ..صورة قلب وسط الزهوروالفراشات
This template looks great. Its professionally designed. Loved the sideshow and then your recent posts. They are eye catching. Congrats to you!
Have a great day!:)
Mr. Stupid´s last blog ..How to do just about anything!
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That’s really cool to hear, thanks. It’s amazing what a new theme will do for your inspiration too. Like a new suit…not that I’m approving of wearing a suit.
Hopefully that comes through in the writing too.
Speaking of changes what do you know about Haloscan comments changing to Echo? I just heard from fellow blogger Busted Knukles of Ornery Bastard that blogger was changing to Echo on Feb 19 and you had to pay a $12 fee to do so or lose all your comments. I looked at blogger help and and googled it and found nothing about this.
Like the change by the way.
Demeur´s last blog ..It’s that time of week
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Nothing other than what I might find through Google, sorry. I didn’t see anything that was current on the topic of blogger comments either.
Thanks Demeur, I’m finding the change very refreshing and inspiring. Might be just what the Dr ordered.
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Probably just an ornery bastard who likes to create rumors and watch people squirm over them. Theres lots of those on the net.
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
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not to mention i have NO IDEA why people choose blogger over wordpress.. Why give yourself MORE limitations?
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
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I have to admit that as cool as the threaded comments are for conversations, its REALLY hard to find out where the newest comments are. I had about 4 things in my inbox that said you had new comments, btu I only see one.. otherwise I looked through every thread on here to see if one popped up behind the longer threads
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
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New comments are posted to the top too…thought I’d give that a go and see what happens. It probably doesn’t help that I replied to a different message than the one I was actually responding to due to not being able to respond because of the depth. (does that even make sense, think I ran that sentence into the ground)
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No i get it.. New comments not replying to anyone are always at the top.. BUT if someone comments to someone else’s comment, it will be way down below.. does that make sense?? So I can read the new comments not replying to anyone because I know they will be at the top.. but when Joe replies to Dave, I will really have to search for that reply.
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
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Damn, never thought of that, and you’re right! Wonder if there is really a solution to that, other than going back to linear commenting.
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What about linking to the actual comment in the email?? I know that the comments have numbers, and there are some blog templates where you can link to the comment so that when you click the comment that’s new is in the center of your screen.
That you definitely help.
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
I like the theme. It’s given me some additional ideas for my own site. Youda man.
-Dan
Dan´s last blog ..Don’t Be a Money Mule!
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I love hearing that Dan. It’s one of my hopes that all the “stuff” I do on here might inspire others in that way. Show off when you’re done making changes!
Weird coincidence I haven’t stopped by in along time and now your do follow
Things are looking up 
I started this co owned blog it’s do follow we started it Jan 1st and Got plowed after the first week with some brutal DB infectionS 
Other then that I have been doing pretty good on the drinking and screwing up laying low and still stuck in San Antonio.
I was glad you stopped by peep our new project if you get a chance.
Maybe going to NY in March
As far as I can see everything here loads and looks Fine
Thanks
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it’s awesome to reconnect with you John. I’m going to take some time to check out what you’ve been up to this weekend. Cheers!
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Re: branding
You know I’m here for you buddy! You helped so much with the coding/migration side of our magazine, that I’d love to help you with anything you need and desire for this new template with regards to graphics.
But I do see you’ve already got that conversation happening with Lindsay – who obviously knows her stuff!
I look forward to seeing what happens here over the next weeks… and months
Manz´s last blog ..Moon (2009)
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Manz, you are awesome to offer up your help! Graphics were the last thing on my mind, but I think Lindsay may be right. I need to do something more around here.
You both know your stuff, and I’m quite happy to have you guys around to flip me shit and help me out! I’m going to see what I can pull off for myself. Will probably take me a bit, but I want to try something first.
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I like the theme, but the one thing that I feel it lacks is any branding. When you come here it looks not different to the tens of thousands of news-style blogs ou there. That might be fine and dandy if you were a news blog, but you;re not.
I definitely LOVE the magazine style front page, I’ve always been happy with IndoMagz theme which i use here:
http://webdesignforidiots.net
but I did customize that a bit as well.. And I love adding pictures to my front page and my posts, so that was never an issue.
If you want to make adding pictures easier, use stock exchange (free stock photos) or you can use deviant art. That’s what I tell my clients who’s blogs i have built for them. I try and get them to put a picture inside every single post.
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
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I actually use a few different sources for free images, but I need to look at Deviant again. I just like that name.
You pointed out the very reason I didn’t initially switch to a magazine layout, I didn’t know if it would really work out. Like you said, I’m an individual, not a magazine, right? What I’m trying to do is allow the branding to define itself. If I try to force the branding, I’ll end up spinning my wheels for weeks on it. I do have some ideas in mind, and you’ll see those as time moves along and I can get to working them out.
says:
Hm.. you are trying to let the branding define it’s self? What exactly do you mean by that?
I mean, there is a LOT that goes into branding. Color, fonts, and of coarse the logo. You dont have much of that in this blog design, but i guess you didn’t have that in the other either.
I do, however, feel that you can use the CSS to edit the colors of this template and maybe some of the graphics like the gradient image that is at the top of all of these boxes can be replaced with something that is more your brand.
I guess the first order of business is getting yourself an identity in order to do that.. from there you tweak your theme to work with it.
With wordpress i’ve done it both ways. I’ve taken a theme and tweaked it to work with my identity and i’ve taken a theme like sandbox and built the thing almost from the ground up
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
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Brand itself, by allowing time to go by and making little changes here and there. Eventually, I guess I might end up with either crap, or something I like. Not so unlike a concerted effort to create a brand up front, it just takes longer. lol We all know this isn’t the only iron in my fire.
I did a new favicon, are you saying that isn’t enough? hahaha I’ll have more changes over the next few weeks, and a logo will be one of them. I had an idea after your first comment that I think I like.
says:
Ha, i didn’t even recognize the new favicon as yours, thought it was one that came with the theme.
as for your branding, I know that branding definitely takes a long time. I had changed the branding of my business about 3 times before I settled on what I really was happy with.. I just mentioned it as a part of something to think about when you add a new theme.
SO many people add a theme and then thats it, they completely forget that you really should make that theme your own. Something thats memorable to YOUR business/blog.
Anyways, since branding is one of the main things that I do in my business, its something i am always aware of. If you’d ever like to pick my brain about such things, please feel free to shoot me an email.I’m always open..
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
says:
1.) I thought the brand was a bald guy holding a cupcake?
2.) Another good choice for images is Fotolia, but I know you know that already.
3.) Upgrade the Brand, have the bald guy on a Harley, holding a cupcake, that would pretty much cover it.
I am here for ya as always.
David Cooley´s last blog ..CyberTweets 2010-02-03
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lol, I feel the love.
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I will take you up on that Lindsay! I don’t feel I have a choice really, especially when it comes to graphics.
I’m lucky I can color coordinate my attire sometimes…lol
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Why dont you have a choice with graphics?? because you dont have graphics programs? I can definitely help you out with them.. Like i said, its what I do for a living.
A good place to start is with a logo, or someoen who can design a logo for you (ahem). You need to know what you want in your logo and all that, and from there you move to the rest of the identity.
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
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Because I suck at graphics. I’m not a designer by any stretch of the word. It’s like asking Sheldon on Big Bang Theory to paint a nice landscape. I get all twitchy. lol
I have a few ideas, and know enough to create something incredibly slacktacular. You’ll laugh and we’ll all have fun with it, lol
says:
How about you create something slack tacular and one of us cleans it up for you..
I have noticed more and more that the developers of the world suck ass at design.. The ones that REALLY scare me, though, are the ones that think that the are great designers. I remember one guy in particular that had the phases on the moon animated on the front page of his “web design” website. Cool that he was able to create a script based off of some bizarre moon phase / time and date feed and create graphics that change with the phases.. but the design was HORRID
I offered to work with this guy.. I said that I would happily offer my DESIGN SERVICES to go with his web development projects and the guy flipped his shit. He as like a little kid “I DONT NEEEEEDD YOUR HELP”
oh i wish i remembered his website.. it was so sickeningly ugly
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
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I’ll totally take you up on that.
Damn, are the star lining up for me tonight? Both you and Manz are awesome.
I just installed Paint Shop Pro…lol
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It might be easier for you to just hand draw and scan in no?? I mean, it would be the same process for me if you designed in PSP or in pencil and paper..
Just saying!
Lindsay´s last blog ..Playing Catchup
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I need to first figure out what I would want in terms of graphics, and that’s the hardest part. I don’t have a clue really.
Did you know this page has two description meta-tags?
I only checked because it happend to me a couple months ago when I did a wordpress theme change, & added the AIO-SEO plugin.
I like this theme, looks clean with a nice header.
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Thanks for bringing that to my attention. I haven’t yet taken a look at that.
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I like it, nice clean and fresh. You know I am not one to change things just to change them, but this is an improvement. IMHO. Now, get back to work, lol.
David Cooley´s last blog ..CyberTweets 2010-02-03
says:
Thanks bud! I grew tired of the old theme, found it a bit inflexible.