Posted by Rex Crockett
We have several new things going on now.
The first thing is we have a new theme. It is based on basic2col. This is a very solid theme with all the modern stuff. In particular, it provides optimization for Internet Explorer. It was designed from the the beginning to be a base theme for for further customization.
All the new code is fully protected by the Gnu General Public License. The right to redistribute will not be denied. However, no support is provided for this code. Use of this theme by anyone obligates no one to assist in any way. Nor is any access to the source beyond what is ordinarily available to users accessing the internet provided or promised. Anyone who wishes to provide support may do so and may charge whatever fees they deem appropriate. No one may contribute code without agreeing, in writing, to at least two witnesses to the above stipulations.
I do not consider the theme done by any means. I would have just as soon kept the old version, fixing whatever problems it had, but it became necessary to make the change because certain parts of it were claimed as proprietary code. This had the potential to become a legal issue and thus threatened the very existence of Art & Perception. Not knowing which parts of the code were considered proprietary, the site had to be rebuilt from scratch using “blackbox” techniques; that is, looking at the result, and writing new code to achieve similar effects.
The results are less than spectacular in appearance but are pretty solid internally. There are far fewer WordPress generated errors. The pages should display more consistently on Internet Explorer. Font resizes will not break the layout.
You will note the sidebar has been re-ordered somewhat based on what is my best guess of frequency of use by visitors. When you go to the comment page on any post, you will see the sidebar changes, and there is more inviting text at the top.
You will also note that above each post it says, “Filed in …”
It so happens that search engines really pay attention to that information. I put it right up top front as a means of encouraging posters to select an appropriate category. Just pick one, no more, and uncheck “Uncategorized.” This is an important SEO (Search Engine Optimization) thing. It will also help our visitors find similar posts.
Classic, tried and true usability guidelines have been applied; for example, the links are all underlined and blue.
There will probably be things you don’t like and things you do like about the new look. I tried to make it all work in a similar way to the old theme, since so many design decisions were achieved through discussion, but I’m sure I’ve missed things, and at this writing, I’m not sure what is broken since I’ve only tested it all off the web on my own webserver.
But I will be online regularly for the next 24 hours, so now is your chance to have a look and test things out as well as give and receive if not immediate feedback, then feedback relatively soon. But please take the time to test a bit. You may find that with just a little familiarity the new design is actually really fast and functional.
In summary, I’ve concentrated on function, not form. I did up the site as an administrator, not an artist. I’ve left my own taste for dark, edgy stuff completely out and went for clean, clear, and simple.
The second thing is the blogroll. Right now we have none, and so we violate the “social contract” of blogs and blogging.
My first stab at doing the blogroll in a fair way was to base the list on some statistical criteria, like:
How popular is the linking blog
How much traffic do we get from them
Well, it’s very difficult to determine how much traffic we get because once someone finds us, they may just come directly rather than from a link on someone else’s site, so there are difficulties with that approach.
Arthur suggested that a fair way to do the blogroll would be to have you all simply suggest two or three links you would like to see. Links that received more than one vote would get bumped in priority.
He insightfully pointed out that the current linking blogs are the present, and if we are interested in the future, we would do better to link to blogs we liked.
I think that’s a great idea, so go ahead and suggest some links.
Third, I may have already given you too much too think about, so further site development ideas can wait.
Lisa,
Great points you have been making. Granted, “A multidiciplinary dialogue” sucks, and I think I can take the blame for talking Rex into that in the first place, although I’m not 100% certain about that. We started with “A conversation” a long time ago. If it were love at first site, we would not still be debating the tagline at this point. So I agree, “A conversation” just ain’t good enough.
How about this: “drawing | fiber | painting | photography” to borrow from Ed, and to give us something that can grow with the site? (e.g., sculpture, music, poetry, etc)
Interesting discussion about the blogroll. Here is my take. We already have a great blogroll to art sites — our own sites. If an artist has a good blog and wants to be linked to, why aren’t they an Art & Perception contributor (as in, author or guest author or comment writer)? I would favor linking to all good contributors, authors and commenter writers as well. That is enough art stuff. Who says the non A&P contributor blogroll should have anything to do with art? Where did that assumption creep in anyway? We could just as well assert that the non A&P contributor blogroll should only be to sites mostly not about art. That would be much more interesting to me. If I want to see Lisa or Arthur or my favorite art sites, I can always go to personal blogs and click away. But cooltools, hey, that is neat and I never heard of it before.
[Suggested] conclusion: if you want to get a sidebar link on A&P, participate on A&P. If you want to find a cool non-art site, look at part II of the A&P blogroll. We might end up being more popular for this than anything else. By the way, it is trivial to list the titles of the latest posts in other blogs using the RSS feed. So we don’t just have to link to our favorite sites, we can also list the headlines. That way we can use A&P to easily keep track of the stuff that we consider collectively cool.
A bit distracting? Maybe, but remember, it’s in the side bar down low anyway. And it’s not as if Art & Perception is the only thing to see on the web. If we are going to have people leaving, we might as well send them to something good (to borrow a phrase from Mr. Useit.)
Well, maybe this is nuts. But if we get into non-art links, this is where it could lead us.
Rex,
I am certain about those faint blue lines, but they are FAINT. They could be good to have if there were a bit more visible, they separate the comment list nicely.
If an artist has a good blog and wants to be linked to, why aren’t they an Art & Perception contributor (as in, author or guest author or comment writer)?
Because they don’t have the time, perhaps? I don’t have the time or inclination to post comments regularly on all the blogs I link to (not even the majority). Of course, it would be great if they did. But I don’t see why would we should make it a criterion for blogroll inclusion. Good comments (or even posts) don’t guarantee a good blog and vice versa.
Who says the non A&P contributor blogroll should have anything to do with art?
I do. This is an art site; we (should) want to link to other art sites. We can link to other kinds of sites as well.
If you want to find a cool non-art site, look at part II of the A&P blogroll. We might end up being more popular for this than anything else
Right there, that convinces me we don’t need a blogroll. If the most important part of the A&P blog is the blogroll, we’re so seriously screwed that I lack the words to describe it.
No one can agree on what should go in the blogroll. Leave it out.
Marshall McLuhan’s views to the contrary notwithstanding, the medium is not the message. The medium is the medium. The message is the message.
If you want readers, work on content. If you want to drive readers away, having endless discussions about the sidebar is an excellent way to go about it.
I am certain about those faint blue lines, but they are FAINT. They could be good to have if there were a bit more visible, they separate the comment list nicely.
Karl – I’m going to agree with you here. I looked at this site on 3 monitors today (5 year old home computer, huge monitor at work and brand spanking new lap top) – basically could not see the lines in any meaningful way on any of them. The lines are just enough there to make me think I’m losing my eye sight.
If you want readers, work on content. If you want to drive readers away, having endless discussions about the sidebar is an excellent way to go about it.
Paul, This is exactly my point (maybe I was a bit too subtle) and has been my position from day one, as was noted by me putting an end to the discussion when I was admin. Personally I still believe that these discussions (which are going to have to be had at some point) do not belong on this blog but in a separate email list as now all we see from those not listed in the contributors is radio silence and they are probably rolling their eyes and saying “oh geesh – they are at it again”.
Although I do believe that the popularity of the off topic posts indicate to me that this blog is a bit dry and we would all love a chance to be a bit less formal and yammer on about things a bit less serious from time to time. Just maybe we could find a topic a bit more interesting than sidebars and tag lines.
So – has anyone check out the new copyright notice yet?
Well. You guys had an interesting chat while I was out enjoying some Sierra sun and snow.
Guess what? You all win.
I’ve decided I’m just gonna put your individual recommendations in the blogroll. Everyone who wants to gets to suggest three. Those who suggest none will have your three divied up. If no one takes the opportunity to suggest additional ones, I’ll just go with blogs that link to us until I get more input.
Maybe later we’ll go with four or five, but for now, I have enough typing to do.
Except I’m pretty much too buzzed on endorphins to concentrate on the computer. I’ll have to wait until I’ve returned from a nap before I get to work. Probably around two, three, or four in the morning, when I wake up.
So thanks for the links.
(Of course, if no one likes that solution, you can fire me.)
Lisa,
“oh geesh – they are at it again”
That may indeed be readers’ silent comments. I suspect that although readers might not be interested in our working discussions in detail, they probably find it positive that we do it in public [although Rex did choose a nice off-front page location]. This is “transparency,” right? People want that, I understand.
Lisa, you are Lisa Call, right? We had some unpleasant interaction on-line in public when I was in San Francisco. It was painful to me personally, but I deserved it for using the original Art & Perception Theme without asking permission first. I apologize for that. Whatever I thought the licensing of the Theme was, it was discourteous to use it without asking you first. It was discourteous because you put a lot of work into it and I could have asked so easily. I will not make the same mistake again.
Paul,
I mostly agree with you. That’s why I was against a blogroll last time we had this discussion in November. Yesterday I got carried away by the implications of the cool stuff blogroll, but that was a useful process of fantasizing I think — I know, reading your comment.
I don’t see any problem w/ us having this discussion here. It’s taking place off the main page (so it’s easy to skip), and it’s mostly been pretty amicable.
If this were a gazillion e-mails I’d probably just tag them as spam.
Maybe we need to make another website for these discussions, and another to discuss the technical and formal issues that come up in creating and maintaining that one, and so on ad infinitum.
I propose we have these discussions at THe Thinking Eye. Arthur, should we bring beer?
Whoa, a lot to process. I lean toward those who care more about the content than whether we have a list of blogs or sites and who decides what we link to. Not being an avid blogger myself (still can’t figure out where you all find the time to maintain, read, and comment on all these blogs and still have families, day jobs and make art), I find links to individual artist sites the most interesting. I want to see lots and lots of art. Art I hate and art I love. When I have time, I will read the deep and not so deep thoughts about the art and everything else on the blogs, but first and foremost I want art!
When I find a site I like, whose content (art or writing) I respect, I look at the links that person has chosen and ususally find more stuff I like. Because there is such a variety of content on this blog because we are all so different, why do we all have to agree on the links? We could put a goofy disclaimer on the list like: “these links do not necessarily represent an official endorsement by A and P or its underwriters.”
I like the idea of having a blog or site of the month and then a long list as well…
David,
We most certainly would not agree on the brand of beer, but I could bring a variety pack!
Good point, Leslie
We don’t have to agree. We can each put up our favs. Three each for now. Which ones do you want?
Like Leslie, I basically just have time to read the posts and keep up with the comments.
I only sometimes click on the links within the posts (though I do click on the name of the person who wrote it), and hardly ever check out links in the sidebars of blogs. It’s not that there isn’t interesting stuff there, if anything there’s too much (basically endless). It’s just that, well, I have other things to do.
PS – I promise to drink the beer and not look at the label.
My current favs
http://www.phyllisplattner.com
http://www.orangesideout.org
http://www.artnet.com/artist/18196/xiaoze-xie.html Xie does not have a site as far as I can tell, so I don’t know if thsi will fit in with your other links
Yes Karl it is me – I’m just too lazy to login. Thank you for the apology and I’m sorry for any pain I caused you.
I do like the suggestion of moving this discussion to Arthur’s blog. He was looking for an increase in traffic the other day pondering if he would be better off posting on A&P or just his own blog. This discussion could boost his stats for a while.
Yes, that’s right, I only ever mention my blog in order to boost stats. There isn’t anything there of value–why would I think that?
I’m headed to Arthur’s blog now… See you all there!
Don’t forget the booze.
Just wanted to let you all know what I’m doing with all these suggestions.
First, I have an offline version of the site. I do all my experimentation there. I have (easy access to) a brand new Mac, a PC with the worst versions of IE and Windows, and several versions of Unix on several machines. I check everything out on all of them.
Second, I have a file with all your names and all your suggestions summarized. Repeating elements get bumped in priority. Strong feelings get bumped in priority.
Third, I have a file with all the link suggestions. That’ll happen soon.
My own feelings are that the fonts, particularly the title and header fonts, need to be tweaked quite a bit. The look is too blue. Some touches of subtle warmth, like Lisa had going before would be just the the thing. I’m working on that right now.
Also, I work on my own art now between noon and eight every day Pacific Time, so you can count on me disappearing during those hours. (I do check in for spam and comments that got wrongly moderated during my break, around four though.)
So just because you don’t see something immediately implemented, does not mean I’m not on it. I care very much what you think, and I want you to like your site.
Thinking over this discussion, the idea that stays in my mind as most important is Lisa’s comment that every page could be the front page. There is no way to control how someone enters the site. There is no purpose to control this. So every page should function as a front page. For example, the authors should be in the post itself, not only in the sidebar. Also, keep the side bar content of the sub pages containing the list of authors. I use this list all the time.
Karl, the sidebar is broken again. On IE it displays all the way at the bottom when looking at the main page.
Problem seems to be related to “Please Move On” post, as it persists when you look at it by itself (like when you click on comments). When I click on any other post, the sidebar appears as it should.
Thanks David!
I made an adjustment.
Please let me know if it’s fixed on the front page.
The text on the sidebar and in some of the front page posts now looks very large, but at least it is showing up in the right place.
David,
Thanks, I found the problem, I think. I need to reformat the guest post. For the moment I took it off the front page.
Everything should be okay again now.
Karl, the sidebar text is back at the bottom of the page. The guest post is still on the front page. Also, the second image in that post has the word “perhaps” hanging out in the column to the right of it, which may be causing the problem.
Hmm,
I don’t know. I took the post off the front page. I’ll have to study it further. Is all okay now?
Okay, I got it! There were multiple problems with the formatting, but your clue about the “perhaps” was the key. All my fault, but a good learning experience. Thanks for the help, David.
Karl, it all looks good now. From past experience, I’ve found that “perhaps” is often the culprit :)
… David, I needed a good laugh this evening!
Glad to help with both :)