Site updates and maintenance
By Psyche | June 30, 2010
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We're so Web 2.0.
I’ve been making gradual updates to blog functionality and thought I ought to let you know what changes have been implemented, and ask your thoughts on whether this improves things, or if you have other suggestions.
WordPress Upgrade
ahrfoundation.org runs on WordPress, and on June 17th we upgraded to WordPress 3.0 “Thelonious” along with a significant portion of the blogging world.
Only a few of you may notice any differences, those who log in to comment (which is not a requirement for this site), and those who log in for guest posts. On the front end everything looks pretty much the same, and behind the scenes the changes are minimal, though there are over 1200 bug fixes and other enhancements that took place between this and the last WordPress release.
Indeed, with the insane amount of new customization options now available a new theme upgrade may be in order in the coming months.
Geeze, it doesn’t seem like that long since our last redesign, but I guess it was almost a year ago.
New Features
Liking comments
This feature was actually implemented a few months ago after a particular discussion took place where I felt that rather than repeating myself or others in the thread, it would be helpful if readers and commentators could “like” a particular response.
So, now you can.
There is no “dislike” button because I feel, as a rule, you guys are pretty civil about how you interact with each other and there’s simply no need for it. If you dislike what someone’s saying, a reasoned response is almost always more helpful than noting a negative sentiment.
Retweet button
(Apologies if the image on the right is a little small. You can click to enlarge it.)
The blog has had various Save & Share options for my favourite social media sites since its last redesign, but they’re kind of small, and if you’re not on those sites you may not be familiar with them.
By now though, I think pretty much everyone’s heard of Twitter. It’s one of my favourite places for sharing links and info, and while some of what I share there ends up in the Saturday Signal, most of it doesn’t. If you’re interested in following me there, I’m @plutopsyche. (Be sure to let me know your username in the comments so I can follow you, too.)
So, the retweet button. It tells you roughly how many people have retweeted the link to a post (for some reason it’s not always accurate, I’ve noticed it misses a few) and provides an easy way for you to retweet it to with a simple click that redirects you to a confirmation page which allows you to alter the automatic text and hash tag it supplies.
I’d love if if you guys retweeted my links, if and when you think they should be seen and commented on by others you think would be interested. ahrfoundation.org is a small blog with no budget and it’s you who makes it work.
Facebook like & group
I put this button up briefly, then took it down. Is it something you think you’d use? If so, I can add the button again, but honestly my preference tends towards Twitter, but we can certainly do both. Thoughts?
We’ve had a Facebook group for a while, and I love that our numbers are steadily rising (at present 207 of you are members). I’d like to do more with the page, make it more interactive. I’ll see what I can come up with.
Advertising
As you know, I recently resigned from my job, and while ahrfoundation.org has offered advertising for a while, even launching dedicated ad space earlier this year, we haven’t really had a lot of takers.
My income has undergone a dramatic change, and I’d prefer if this blog were self-sufficient. At present it’s not, and I’m working on ways to make this blog climb its way out of the red.
Your feedback here is essential, as I would prefer not to drive away readers with over-the-top garish advertising. If it starts to annoy you rather than interest you – let me know.
I’d still prefer direct ads from interested people and businesses over Google ads, but, honestly, I’ll take what I can get.
Right now I’m experimenting with AdvertiseSpace.com for the top spot on our righthand sidebar in addition to the direct-sale options already available. This hasn’t yet been wildly successful, though it’s only been a few months. Are my prices too high, or the spaces to small?
I’ve also added an Amazon.com bar of books we’ve recently discussed on the blog, so those interested can purchase directly from the site.
As always, I’ll continue to post only links which I think are worthwhile, and when a book says something shifty or it sucks, I’ll say it straight. But I’ll also include an affiliate link.
If you’re going to buy a book anyway, why not buy it through one of these links and help out the site? All purchases made within 24 hours of clicking on one of these links results in an affiliate sale which contributes a tiny portion to our hosting and other associated costs.
Each book sale averages about $0.34 cents to me. It’s not a lot, but hey, every bit helps.
Your thoughts & suggestions?
I think that covers the major changes of late.
I like to keep you up to date on the status of the blog because, well, as I keep saying: it’s your space too.
So, what do you like, hate, or think should be improved?
Popularity: 9%
For RT and sharing, have you considered Sexy Bookmarks? I use it @ Sophrosyne Radical, and find it quite functional. I tried using one of the “like” plugins but it was made redundant by Disqus. Lastly, I can’t offer any helpful feedback on monetization.
I’ll think about Sexy Bookmarks. They do look sexy, I just worry about the time it may take to load. How have you found it?
I looked into Disqus, but I didn’t like their platform, I’d rather host my own comments, and again, the time it takes to load Disqus can be irritating. There are some sites I’ve visited that use it, and for whatever reason it’s been down, or didn’t load properly, and I’ve been forced to abandon responses because of it.
Re: monetization, no surprise. ;)
Thanks for your suggestions.
I haven’t noticed any load issues with Sexy Bookmarks, but it’s one of those “your mileage may vary” things, I think. Some plugins just don’t play well together but you never know until you try.
Re. Disqus, I switched to Disqus from Intense Debate, which I was quite displeased with. The development team at ID didn’t inspire confidence, and it filtered *all* comments through their moderation queue, at their site. So when someone made a comment – even if they were a registered user with previously approved comments – it would stop in Intense Debate’s queue until I visited my moderation panel and approved it. Annoying for me and users, or so I figured.
Disqus had several advantages over ID, first of which – for me – was it’s open source-ness. Other advantages were its integration of syndication, “like”, OpenID and a legion of other APIs (like Facebook, Twitter, LiveJournal, etc). This allows users to login and maintain some connection with multiple identities, and I have found it helpful in expanding the breadth of potential commenters.
Disqus isn’t without its faults, though. For starters, I’d like there to be more menu-based options in its layout. I’m an incompetent coder, and finding bits of code to get it to work isn’t my preferred way of going about things. Further, when I make updates to Disqus it forces users to enter their login details again. Sometimes people forget their login details, can’t be bothered to look for them, and pass on by w/o commenting because it’s “too much hassle”. Admittedly, that’s a minor quibble that may be altogether unavoidable, but it’s still a concern.
As for monetization, I looked into different plugins that could help monetize my blog. But I’m not a very good capitalist, and decided against it. In my case I have no worries about financing my blog as it’s hosted through a friend – a tech guru who has more than enough space/bandwidth to help out a colleague. But if I were paying for my blog out of pocket, I’d still probably view it as an act of love. *That’s* why I said I can’t offer any helpful feedback. Regardless, I suspect monetizing a blog is often easier with daily updates. And networking with/through other bloggers. But I just don’t know enough specifics to be helpful here.