Fixed site problems + Enhancements + Some Advice!

construction Fixed site problems + Enhancements + Some Advice!

Hi everyone,

As some of you will know there have been some technical issues for a while with my Wordpress template. This included the following issues:

1. In Internet Explorer 6 and lower site menu’s would not display (and hence Entrecard widget was missing)
2. Some images were displaying out of alignment in Internet Explorer (all versions)
3. The title under individual posts was missing a separator line casing it to look… well… strange
4. Tags in posts and on main index page were overlapping rather than displaying on separate lines
5. Comment form was a static size which meant I could not add things to it

 

 

Enhancements:

I have installed a few additional plugins recently for Wordpress which I hope will make people’s life here more enjoyable and easy. Firstly is SezWho, for those of you that don’t know essentially SezWho gives readers the ability to rate not only the content on a blog but the comments that people leave as well (among many other things).

I have also installed a plugin to allow you to subscribe by email to comments. I hope that this might encourage more people to comment and join in more ongoing conversations (rather than comment then not return). For those that are interested the plugin I chose for this job is Subscribe to Comments.

I have also installed Broken Link Checker which will allow me to ensure that there are no broken links on my blog (which there are currently around 10, so I do apologise for this, I will be fixing these up in the near future).

I have also done a few other plugins that are more for background management sort of things so I will not bore you needlessly. Unless anyone is actually interested in me doing a post on my recommended plugins and why… thoughts?

 

Some advice (both giving and receiving)

As I mentioned in one of my earlier posts I have been using RentACoder to get a lot of these issues fixed. I started up a few projects and within a week had all these problems resolved. If you have an issue on your blog and need to get something tweaked (or really if you have any issue with coding, templates etc at all) you can post a project and get coders from around the world to bid on it… too easy!

Also my other piece of advice for today is get your hands on the Broken Link Checker plugin mentioned above it is one *invaluable* one that will show you any broken links on your blog so that you can fix them up *before* they cause your readers issues.

Finally, a few questions for you to ponder (and hopefully give feedback on):

1. If you could change/fix one thing on this site what would it be and why?
2. I am thinking of cutting down the ad’s on the site to free up the space in the left hand menu, what would you like to see the space used for instead?
3. What is the one thing that you like best about Secluded Habitat?

Thanks all and hope you have a loooovely week.
Stuart ;)

 

This entry was written by Stuart and posted on July 28, 2008 at 6:15 pm and filed under Site News. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Trackbacks are closed, but you can post a comment.

14 Comments

  1. Kim
    Posted July 28, 2008 at 10:29 pm | Permalink

    I have no advice for you. I just wanted to come in and say thanks for dropping by my blog with your last comment. I really did enjoy the “hug”.

    Again, thank you.

    Kims last blog post..Mixed emotions

  2. Stuart
    Posted July 29, 2008 at 7:14 am | Permalink

    Hi Kim,
    You are most welcome I hope that it put a little smile on your face.
    Stuart

  3. Jitendra
    Posted July 29, 2008 at 8:09 am | Permalink

    Hey,

    Jitendra from SezWho here…

    Thanks for the mention and welcome to the community. Let us know how you like the service.

    Thanks, Jitendra

  4. Stuart
    Posted July 29, 2008 at 8:14 am | Permalink

    Hi Jitendra,
    As a site owner I have been really loving it, I think it has helped promote more people to leave comments on my blog and has really kick started some good conversation (just look at my 3 most recent posts for proof of that ;) ).

    As a commenter however I really only have one major gripe, on Blogger blogs I cannot seem to get my SezWho account recognised at all. I always comment with OpenID (to make life easy) but I know that is not currently supported.

    So I am finding that as a commenter a lot of my comments are going unchecked (well… every single one on a Blogger blog).

    Other than that, I look forward to seeing how the community builds (both on Entrecard, Sezwho and my own blogs) and what SezWho has in the pipeline as far as development is concerned.
    Stuart

  5. Jitendra
    Posted July 29, 2008 at 8:36 am | Permalink

    Stuart,

    We should recognize the OpenID based comments…Can you point me to the blogger blog where you are seeing the issue?

    Thanks, Jitendra

    Jitendras last blog post..First part of network changes

  6. Stuart
    Posted July 29, 2008 at 8:48 am | Permalink

    Hi Jitendra,
    I have not been keeping a note. When I finish work for the day I will take a look over a few of my favourite blogs and get a list together for you.
    Cheers
    Stuart

  7. Nishadha
    Posted July 30, 2008 at 1:15 am | Permalink

    One thing that I try to do with my sites is make them valid XHTML transitional , which makes sure they look the same in almost all valid browsers. Many of these errors can be fixed easily. Check out my post , http://rumblinglankan.com/how-to-look-good-in-any-browser-1/

    Nishadhas last blog post..Get free traffic from tutorialized.com

  8. Jitendra
    Posted July 30, 2008 at 3:57 am | Permalink

    Stuart,

    You should also add your OpenID URL as an identity to your account…This should address the issue with the comments not showing up in your profile…Let me know.

    Thanks,
    Jitendra

    Jitendras last blog post..First part of network changes

  9. Stuart
    Posted July 30, 2008 at 7:15 am | Permalink

    Hi Nishadha,
    Thanks for that I will take a squiz at it (as I am aware that this is one problem with the original template, not being XHTML transitional).

    And Jitendra, I may know the issue that is causing this. I will drop you an email about it however so as not to spam up my own blog LOL.
    Stuart

  10. Sir Robbie Rob
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 3:20 am | Permalink

    That’s awesome to hear about RentACoder. I have a bunch of projects I want to get off the ground. Most of them are waiting for me to learn a bunch of different technologies. I would probably be better off paying someone to do it.

    Sir Robbie Robs last blog post..Apartment Living; Only for the Tardcore

  11. Sir Robbie Rob
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 3:27 am | Permalink

    I think your ads are fine. If you’re set on getting rid of them, I would go with nothing. It will give you a cleaner look…to your already clean look. Which what I love about the blog. The one thing I would like to see, a different header than the gradient one.

    Peace

    Sir Robbie Robs last blog post..Apartment Living; Only for the Tardcore

  12. Stuart
    Posted July 31, 2008 at 1:23 pm | Permalink

    Hi Sir Robbie Rob,
    Thanks for your comments. In regards to RentACoder, I was in the same boat as you, and I decided that it was just easier to pay someone to do it. LOL mind you I said to myself that I would not do it until I have been blogging for a year (OK OK… so I did it a *month* early hehe).

    Oh and thank you for your suggestions, I will have a look but if people like you do not find them intrusive then I may as well keep them… they earn me a dollar a month or so haha and I will have a look at playing around with a different header, it would be nice to have something that is more tailored to the site.

    Thanks for your comments.
    Stuart

  13. Beau71
    Posted August 5, 2008 at 10:37 am | Permalink

    1 - A nice graphic banner across the top.
    2 - I am thinking about going to three columns and I imagine ads on the right, content and navigation on the left.
    3 - The color combination, especially the blue (minus the Google Ad blue)

  14. Stuart
    Posted August 7, 2008 at 3:11 pm | Permalink

    Hi Beau71,
    Thank you for the comments, I will take this into advisement. A few people have said to me that they would like to see a nicer banner so I think this will be the first thing that I look at getting fixed.

    Thank you for the visit (and sorry for the delay in approving your comment).
    Stuart

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