Beta Than Ever
OK, I think I've resolved most of the technical issues that have plagued me this week (a some a little previously). Trying to fix one smaller problem (not being able to see how much feedback had been posted) has led to some major problems (having to rebuild everything from scratch). On the upside, it's given me a chance to go back and hopefully improve a bunch of stuff.

The look of the main page is different, but function similarly to the first version of the site. Graphically, I'm fairly pleased with most of the changes. I'm happy to have the bears in the header instead of the sidebar (more bears will be coming soon), I find the color scheme brighter and a little more attractive, I like having something for the title other than just plain text (though Lain thinks the title should be more logo-esque, and that may be a later change). I still need to fix the archives so that old feedback can be read, and that is coming, I promise (I'm just trying to figure out how to do it in a way that won't break my new Google links). Unrelated to the template changes, I also this week started including inline graphics.

Hopefully, I've arrived at a feedback system that will work for a while. The numbers show up on the main page again, and the posts appear in descending order. I liked the feature on the last one I tried that let you see from the main page who had posted last, but it doesn't work with this system. I've tweaked the colors of the feedback system to match the colors of the blog, and I think I've done so in a manner that everything should be legible. I'm not 100 percent pleased with everything, but it may be getting close to as good as it gets. Certainly, I have far more control over this feedback system than the original one (I'm still working on adding smilies).

This week has pushed the limits of what I know about Web site formatting, and much of what you're seeing here is still Frankensteined together piecemeal, though much, much more of it is mine than in earlier versions. I had seen several blogs that used the same template as I was using originally, and thus looked EXACTLY like mine, whereas now I have a look that is distinctively my own, which is a good feeling.

Anyway, I really would appreciate feedback, both on the changes to the main blog page and to the feedback system. And, heck, if you've got anything to say about the blog in general, here's your big chance. Thanks.

:: :: 15:33 :: David :: [permalink] ::