Time for a makeover?
On October 13, 2008, a little over 7.5 years ago, the first post on this blog went live. Since that day I have published 2290 posts, which have been commented on just shy of 30,000 times. That’s a lot!
While I’ve messed a bit with the page structure over the years, I have not done any major revamping to the site. While I’m of the belief that content trumps flash any day of the week, the newer, more-modern WordPress themes are better able to accommodate the wide variety of devices that people are now using to visit our site. And so, with that in mind, I think I’ll invest some time and money into an upgrade.
With the huge number of posts that we have online, an upgrade like this is going to take some work. Fortunately, I’ve had a loyal supporter volunteer his services to help with the transition. Please wish us luck. In the meantime, if you have any suggestions for features that you’d like to see on the site, or for that matter, content that you’d like me to post about, feel free to add your ideas here in the comments section.
just an fyi, lately the pics don’t show up in the emails for me. On more than one device. Just thought i’d let you know.
Interestingly, I turned off the ability for images to be hot linked one year ago! Only just the other day did I change it back again, and I can verify that they do show up in the email feed as I have subscribed myself with two different email addresses (both gmail in case that matters).
I have to agree with Rick. The pictures in your emails have been broken for me for the last few weeks. I usually use Gmail on a Chromebook. On the other hand, they are not broken when I use my iPhone.
Hi Jon. Sorry about that. I would recommend unsubscribing, and re-subscribing to see if that fixes it.
My only thought is to hang on to the old site anyway, at least for a year, even if you don’t use it. I’ve given up sites in the past and it bit me. Twice with businesses they were taken over by porn sites that tried to blackmail us into buying it back. We told them to get stuffed, but it was still a bother. Easier to just keep it. Hide it from search engines and put a link on the home page.
We’re not really changing sites. All that is being updated is the theme. The hosting, domain name, content, etc. is going to be the same, at least initially. I have some plans for further updates/additions, but in time.
Hello! I’ve been a big fan of your website for many years. Once I discovered it I went back and read every log that you have published. You asked for reader feedback regarding the new website layout. I am not a fan of the “read more” button. I much prefer seeing the entire entry (or entries) when I visit your site. I don’t mind scrolling. For some reason I just don’t like having to click to see the rest. I know I am just one voice. Others may prefer the new layout. Keep doing what you do. I appreciate you sharing your travels regardless of the format.
Hi Tex. Thanks for reading, and for offering your critique. I think the benefit of “read more” feature is that it allows readers who don’t visit every day to get an overview of recent material without investing all the bandwidth to load 100% of the images, etc.