Blog Update
Dec 30, 2006, 3:40a - Blog Update
I've made some updates to the guts and skin of my blog that I wanted to share.
First, I've fixed/masked the slow commenting problem. Now when you submit a comment you'll receive immediate feedback that the comment has been received (via AJAX), instead of watching the browser spin forever. It still takes several minutes for the comment to be published, but hopefully I'll fix that soon. Right now the blog is more than 2500 statically generated html files, so at some point I should migrate to a dynamic php setup.
Second, I've updated the homepage to load faster. Instead of showing every single text post and every single album, it now shows just the last 10 text posts and the last 7 albums. This reduces the homepage's file size as well as the number of connections (used to retrieve each thumbnail) substantially.
Third, I've added an archive page which links to monthly index pages. This way it's easier to browse by time and every page loads faster because they're chunked into smaller pieces. You can access this page by clicking the "Browse by month" links at the bottom of the homepage.
Fourth, I've updated the homepage to include my list of pledges, recent books I've read, recent movies I've seen, and blogs I read. Some of this information was buried before, so I wanted to make it more prominent in the interface. This does cause the photos to be pushed down the right side of the page a bit, but it seems like a worthwhile trade-off so far.
Fifth, each page (except the homepage) now includes a breadcrumb hierarchy, so it's easy to see where you are in the blog and to navigate up the hierarchy. For example, if you're viewing a photo in the Tree Trimming Party album, the breadcrumb displayed is Home > Archives > December 2006 > Tree Trimming Party.
Other minor improvements:
- Comments are now displayed with time stamps so it's easy to see when someone left a comment
- All displayed dates (except on comments) are now linked to the archive page for that month so it's easy to see what else was published during that time
If you have any comments on the design tweaks, let me know :)
No comments - Write 1st Comment
« Jesus for a Million
-
Our Culture of Caution »
|