Critique please

  • thecat

    (@thecat)


    20 years, 4 months ago

    I jumped into blogging several months ago. It’s been an enjoyable experience, but I have not had the time to put basic features, or know if they are already available.

    I get emails like “Do you have a permalink page for my post?”

    Thanks to support here, I quickly sorted out the email “I #$@%!!! can’t post on your blog!”

    Well, I briefly looked into permalinks, and it’s still greek to me [plus I’m time limited]

    Since this is an excellent resource for getting right to the problem without flaffing around [I tend to wade through the help with glazed eyes], I thought I come here and throw my blog out for comments.

    I want what everyone else wants. To have my blog gain as high in the search engines and to be as easily available as possible. In addition, I want to make sure I have the basics and a couple of whistles, so if you could suggest any I’d be grateful.

    Note: right now I am going through and putting in the ‘abouts’ on each link. As I was so strapped for time when I put this one up and started updating, I figured that one more thing would take too much time. Now that I see its value I’m working my way down the list. Slowly.

    A couple of things I’d like help with:
    permalinks
    an ‘about’ page
    rssi feeds
    technorati
    ?

    ps: yes, I really intend on keeping ‘target blank’. It’s an issue with me. I have rsi and hate it when I come to a url and have to use both hands to get a new window so don’t close a window by mistake.

    Thank-you in advance. I am amazed at how quickly the response is from wordpress support. Everyone here is brilliant!

    Designers who blog
    http://www.designers-who-blog.com

    cat

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)
  • moshu

    (@moshu)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    OK, to one of your requests:
    About page. Go admin panel > Write > Write Page and give it the title “About” and write the content you want. Click create new Page. You are done.
    If you want a link to it, there are 2 otions:
    – check in the Manage Pages the page_id=# and hardcode it where you want to appear
    – use the Template_Tags/wp_list_pages tag to display your Pages.

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    This article from the Codex Using_Permalinks and what you have in your Options > Permalinks page would be enough for the basics.
    Actually the “permalink” is somewhat misleading.
    example.com/blog/page_id=23 is also a kind of ‘permanent link’ – it’s just difficult for humans to remember.
    Using the method described in the two places I mentioned above, you will get
    example.com/blog/about – if that’s the Page’s title/slug.

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    And now the critique part: for a “designers’ blog” I wouldn’t expect a huge horizontal scrollbar in FF 🙁

    Thread Starter thecat

    (@thecat)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    Thanks moshu,

    I’ve now got an about page [needs more work], and i’ve sort of dipped into permalinks. I followed the link to an article which explained a bit more. Question, now that I’ve defined my permalinks, how do I show them? Do I add in the html? I know this must sound like an odd question, but I’m just not sure how much of word press is done by the cms, or how much we are supposed to do.

    The scrollbar is a new glitch. I’ve passed it over to the programmer I work with as it’s just too much for me to figure out. Thanks for noticing as I’m on a mac, not PC. And since I’ve already looked at the design in PC when this all started, I didn’t think I had to continue.

    again, thank-you for your time.

    cat

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    re: Permalinks
    Other than following the guide(s) and hitting the Update button in your permalink section in the admin, there is nothing you have to do.
    As I can it works, just click on the permalink/title of any post.
    Out of curiousity, did you put the word “archive” in the field called ‘category base’ on the Permalinks settings page? And, are you on a Win server?

    Thread Starter thecat

    (@thecat)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    “Other than following the guide(s) and hitting the Update button in your permalink section in the admin, there is nothing you have to do.

    I’ll have to double check back to make sure I’ve followed the guide as there is nothing showing up (permalink/title).

    “Out of curiousity, did you put the word “archive” in the field called ‘category base’ on the Permalinks settings page? “

    No.

    “And, are you on a Win server?”

    Not really sure. I’ll have to ask.

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    as there is nothing showing up (permalink/title)
    Well, that’s not true. It’s just difficult to find where the title/permalink of a post is – due to the quite confusing, not user-friendly design.
    The titles that are links to the permalinks of a post are those tiny lines above the date. Hovering over them it will say clearly it is a “Permanent Link:…” and clicking on them will take you to an address like this:
    http://www.designers-who-blog.com/index.php/archive/ilovepdg-integrated-marketing-experiences/

    The reason I’ve asked about Windows: you need the index.php in the permalink only on those servers.

    Furthermore, if below the mentioned date line you click on any of the category names where it says “Filed under:…” it points to a link having the word “archives” in it, which definitely means you have that word in the ‘category base’ field on the Permalink Settings page.

    Thread Starter thecat

    (@thecat)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    “Furthermore, if below the mentioned date line you click on any of the category names where it says “Filed under:…” it points to a link having the word “archives” in it, which definitely means you have that word in the ‘category base’ field on the Permalink Settings page.’

    but that’s only because I rushed off and placed it there after you mentioned …

    This is fantastic, thank-you. I now have permalinks.

    Question, since they are so obscure, wouldn’t it be better if I linked them where they could be found? You mentioned ‘user friendly design’ … so that means the theme I chose?

    moshu

    (@moshu)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    but that’s only because I rushed off and placed it there after you mentioned …
    It was already there when I asked… More exactly: I’ve asked, because it was there 🙂

    Question, since they are so obscure, wouldn’t it be better if I linked them where they could be found? You mentioned ‘user friendly design’ … so that means the theme I chose?
    They are obscure because of how you modified the style of the titles – compared to the original theme. I mean in your posts everything is visually more outstanding than the title of the post. I just can’t see the reason for that.
    In a blog environment one expects the “permanent links” to be found either by clicking the title of a post or by seeing a link that says: “permalink”. Or both 🙂 Now your problem is that your titles are not user friendly.

    But hey, it’s your blog, so it’s up to you. Not to mention, your site says you are in the web design and development business, so why am I “teaching” the pros here? 😉

    Thread Starter thecat

    (@thecat)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    “It was already there when I asked… More exactly: I’ve asked, because it was there :)”

    The place to insert was empty so I inserted ‘archives’ and I hadn’t done that previously. Perhaps it’s automatic?

    “They are obscure because of how you modified the style of the titles – compared to the original theme.”

    Ok, then I’ll have to redo the css. ‘Permalinks’ is not something I’m used to dealing with in web design.

    “I mean in your posts everything is visually more outstanding than the title of the post. I just can’t see the reason for that.”

    I couldn’t see what you meant for a moment because I made sure that my titles are in yellow (which does stand out imho), and linked to the featured blog.

    “In a blog environment one expects the “permanent links” to be found either by clicking the title of a post or by seeing a link that says: “permalink”. Or both 🙂 Now your problem is that your titles are not user friendly.”

    As a newbie to blogs, I was unaware of this point. Thanks.

    “But hey, it’s your blog, so it’s up to you. Not to mention, your site says you are in the web design and development business, so why am I “teaching” the pros here? ;)”

    ohhh, snarly 😀

    Please note: This is my first ‘real’ blog, and more of a hobby than anything else. Yes, I’m a web designer (please put the emphasis on ‘design’), but I work with a team of programmers who handle the more difficult parts of web work. I design the look and feel, then work on parts of the html, a bit of php, etc. And although I would love to drag them around figuring out how a blog works, blog standards, etc, (hanging head, I have asked) it does not seem fair for me throw the whole sink their way.

    Which is why I’m here … asking such a sweet person as you 😉

    Thread Starter thecat

    (@thecat)

    20 years, 4 months ago

    “In a blog environment one expects the “permanent links” to be found either by clicking the title of a post or by seeing a link that says: “permalink”. Or both 🙂 Now your problem is that your titles are not user friendly.”

    Wait a sec, I just checked a wide range of blogs from DWB and this is not the norm …

    If it is supposed to be so, could you please point me to a site which has the standards?

Viewing 11 replies - 1 through 11 (of 11 total)

The topic ‘Critique please’ is closed to new replies.

Tags