…just seemed like the time. I had to take some kind of break from the movie-thing thing, but I also haven’t done any work on the blog for a long time, after a year at least of making threats. Since in a couple of different ways the blog will be linking up to the movie-thing thing… well, well that was motivating, too.
Got furtherer to go, of course – and there may be big changes later on down the line. For now this is just a thread for any of y’all to make suggestions or point out problems, also for me to explain what I’m after a little.
Name: I kind of like what I dud with the name, but, then, again, I guess I would, wouldn’t? Or would I? You tell me. As ever, am open for great suggestions.
URL: I’ll probably move the whole blog to “ckmacleod.com,” but for a good long while you should be able to get to it via “zombiecontentions.com” as well. For the time being, you can use either address.
Layout and media: I wanted a wider layout so that we could present visual and audio-visual material more appealingly, in part because I intend to be putting up a lot more of just that kind of material, much of it made by me… Otherwise, I like the look of this template, which I’ve already begun to customize, but I’m not married to it. You’ll also see that I’ve cut down on the number of posts on the main page, and have added a “recent posts” sidebar item that includes images with post excerpts . I may eventually promote this approach to format even more. That brings me to:
Things for authors to think about
I’ll have more to say on this subject, but the main thing I want to discuss right now is featured images.
The key thing to understand when putting up posts with the featured feature I’m featuring in mind is that you can specify the featured image, even though you might often get away without doing it.
Now, if you’re just putting up a headline item, don’t worry about any of this: Headline/Wreckbrow-type items are excluded from featured image considerations for now. I may later add other categories that you can know ahead of time will be excluded.
Here’s the thing for all other posts: If you do not specify a featured image, it will automagically make a thumbnail out of the first “owned” image it finds in the post. “Owned” has nothing to do with copyright, it’s just the word I’m using to differentiate between images we have appropriated, and images that you’re merely embedding from somewhere else with a link. The function will NOT recognize the latter type of image: So fuster’s Clouds and 3-in-1 Oil posts are represented under “Recent Posts” with the current default thumbnail based on the twisted tunnel of pseudo-infinite auto-regression, rather than with the images he embedded via link alone. How sad for us!
Since, as I noted, future designs may make even more use of featured images, please make the Web Tsar happy by familiarizing yourselves with the image Upload/Insert and/or Set Featured Image routines.
Upload/Insert is initiated just above the post edit area. When you use it to insert an image in a post, after you’ve clicked on the icon and initiated the routine and chosen or uploaded the new image, you’ll find a “Use as Featured Image” link right next to “Insert into Post.”
Set Featured Image can be found independently down near the lower right of the regular post-editing screen in its own little area.
Note also that you don’t need to down/upload the images: You can use the routines to insert them in your post and set them as “featured” via URL. It’s not best practice – it’s bandwidth theft, and it puts you at the mercy of someone else’s image hosting habits – but a lot of the time it may be adequate blogging practice. And if you’re just putting up a little post, or even an “Aside,” going with the default image won’t hurt anyone. As for “Aside”‘s: On the editing screen, choose “Aside” from under “Formats,” and see what it leads to if you’re curious.
More later. Now please fire away on the design or on any problems you’re already running into.
the place is very dark and good-looking. looks like a phrog could find a dimly-lit corner table and have a quiet drink with a friendly mouse.