Is it just me, or does this
place look kind of…different all of a
sudden?
Although, one can’t
help but wonder…just who is that pink-haired lass on the right side of the
header? Lloyd is on the
left, of course, and you can guess who's in the middle, but I can’t quite seem to put a name to
that face. Could it be that there’s some
hidden element to the blog? Or perhaps a
taste of what -- or who -- is to come?
/facetiousness
All right, then. As the webmaster, let me be the first (and
only one) to give a rundown of the changes to the blog. Bear in mind that things could change over
the next couple of days, though; a part of me wonders if anyone happened to
watch the blog change every time they loaded a page. So let me present to you, fair readers…
Cross-Up ver. 2013 Changelog
--New header. I might change the background sometime in the
near future, though, since I’m only about 80% satisfied with it. Unless I get too lazy; the header took the
most time to get ready by a long shot.
--New background
image. I was curious to see if I could
add in my own background instead of a premade one via Blogger, and it looks
like I managed to put something together.
Side note: don’t underestimate the power of PowerPoint.
--New tab layout. If you’re the type to search for content via
the tabs, you might have to break out of your habits. The order’s been refigured a bit -- and if
you’ll notice where everything is in relation to the header, you can probably
guess why.
--New color schemes/fonts. There’s a preponderance of greens and grays
now, with one of the chief changes being the backgrounds of the posts. Time will tell if it’s a good idea to put
black text on a gray background, but we’ll have to see for now. I’ll know something’s up if it starts to hurt
my eyes. (And indeed, the same applies
to the text.)
--Community gadget
tweaked. There’s still a link to the
Facebook fan page, but I only just learned that there’s a difference between “liking”
a page and “following” it -- so in an effort to avoid displaying my utter
failure to comprehend social media, I’ve added in buttons that SHOULD allow
both. So feel free to do so. Likewise, there’s now a button to follow me
on Twitter -- though the tradeoff is that the lists of tweets has been
removed. If there’s demand for it, I
might bring it back; for the moment, though, I’m content with leaving it off.
--New Challengers gadget
tweaked. I’m following a crapload of
blogs, but the gadget never really reflected that little fact. No longer; from now on, there’ll be a hefty
load of blogs for you to investigate and follow on your own, arranged via
alphabetical order. (Indeed, if you’ve
followed this blog for long, you may recognize a name or two on the list.) We can’t have a community if there aren’t
enough proper addresses, right?
--New gadget:
High-Level Posts. Ever wanted to see
some of the most popular posts without having to dig deeper into the site? You’re in luck; from now on, the top four
most popular posts will be listed and ready for access with one simple
click. It’ll be interesting to see what
stays on the top the longest, and I might change the timeframe for the top
honors (last month vs. all time, for example), but let it be known that the
best stuff is right there and ready to roll.
--Increased number of
posts displayed on main page. It’s hard
to say whether or not people are going that far, but if you scroll to the
bottom of the page you’ll be able to see the ten most recent posts instead of
eight. That’s not quite a month’s worth
of posts, but again, they’re being offered, and the hope is that it’ll help
make things easier to find without much searching.
--In the process of
tweaking “under the hood” stuff. I threw
up that “Follow by Email” gadget a long time ago, but I never knew if people
actually used it or not; I assumed not.
Imagine my surprise when I find out that they ARE, and that the numbers
are notably higher than the World Warriors gadget further down the page. (Hard to say how much overlap there is at a
glance, though.) Of course, that means that I need to start paying attention to
it, i.e. figuring out what the hell I’m supposed to do instead of…you know…NOT
knowing all those options exist.
And I think that’s all
of it. So yeah, here’s hoping that the
new look might be beneficial somewhere down the line. As for what’s next…well, it’s another post on
Final Fantasy 13-2. I know, I know, you’re tired of hearing about
it and I’m tired of talking about it, but I wouldn’t have written it if I didn’t
have something I REALLY needed to say.
More importantly, it may be one of the best things I’ve written in a
good while -- so if you want to see me cut loose, be sure to check back tomorrow.
If nothing else, I’d
recommend at least skipping to the end of that post. There’s a pretty good chance of some unexpected
developments…
Did I remember to close
my facetiousness HTML tag? Well,
whatever. See you guys soon, I hope.