rumblestrip: new layout, upgraded backend
Once again, rumblestrip.org has a new look. This time it’s based on the neoclassical theme by Chris Pearson. Very clean, and with a rotating masthead graphic (currently randomly selected from eleven images, more to come).
The bigger news is that I’ve upgraded to the latest version of Wordpress. The new version supports tagging, which allows me to assign tags, or keywords, to each post. This allows a finer-grained content definition than the traditional “categories” I used to use. One nifty feature of the new layout is the new “tag cloud” feature, which displays all the tags in my blog; the more a tag appears, the larger the tag shows up in the cloud. This simply offers one more way to select posts by topic. Categories remain, and are selectable from a pulldown menu (as are monthly archives).
I’ve also changed the way images are sized, and as a result (and in order to assign tags to older material) I will be combing through my old posts to update them; in the meantime, old posts’ images will not display correctly nor will the tag cloud reflect the actual total content of this blog for a litle while, until I have a chance to go through them all.
I’ve finally joined the modern age and added a digg section. You’d think that with one of my friends and blog readers being an employee at this up and coming internet company, I’d have latched on by now. Well, now I have a “Digging” section that will list my latest Diggs, or links to things I find on the internets that I find interesting or amusing. My first one is a real doozy, and recommended reading!
Lastly, my static pages are not accessible yet, but that’s ok because they largely said “coming soon” on them. It is my sincere hope that this change, once and for all, motivates me to comb through all my old posts and fix typos, dead links, add tags and, finally, add in all my old static content from my original websites that were online as far back as 1996. Should be fun.
Oh yeah, and if you read my site regularly, you may have to force the css file to reload (ctrl+refresh or command+refresh) to get the images to display correctly. If the pics of Elle are huge, then you need to do this.
Bear with me as I bring all my content up to snuff and online. Onward!
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12 comments
Is that a smiley in the copyright? Sweet layout and I think that I now finally understand the difference between tags and categories. Thanks! One thing though: how would one how this post is tagged/categorized to find similar posts?
Anyway, I am sticking to the old WP because I just don’t really care all that much about the new features and want to go through another case of upgraditis. I’ll catch up eventually.
+1 for the Digging section :)
Hey Perry, it’s supposed to be a copyright symbol! Yeah, tags are a nice addition, I think. You can assign a lot more tags and the tag cloud gives a really nice visual diagram of what the blog content is all about. I like it. Once I assign tags to all the posts it’ll be sweet.
As for showing the tags, I’m sure there’s a Wordpress tag to show the tags, just as there is one for categories and other post attributes. I’ll have to search and see. It could clutter the posts though, since I assign lots of tags per post. I plan on tweaking all of those little things. Thanks for the feedback.
You should consider upgrading, depending on what version you have. v2.1.x had some serious security issues. And the latest version has had three bug fix updates and none in almost a month, so it looks to be settled down. Think about it!
The new skin on the log looks good.
Thanks, holmes.
Are you still with Dreamhost? I ditched those ass clowns after their latest batch of issues and billing most of their customers for 1-2yrs of hosting in advance by accident. Dumb. Now I’m on 2mhost.com and on MT 4.0 … so far, on day 2 (touch wood). it’s working a treat, email is fast, and MT 4.0 is nice too. Man, maybe I also need to have digg’s… so glad I had a mysql backup!
Hey Mike, Yeah still with DH. Have had my share of problems, but I’ve also had enough shared hosting experiences to know that they are somewhat par for the course. I was one of those caught up in the billing snafu too, but they corrected the problem by the end of the day so I wasn’t too pissed. But I would like to hear how you’re doing six months from now. I’m always looking for something worth the hassle of switching hosts! You should really check out WordPress, it’s a great platform with loads of plugins and easy to customize.
P.S.
Just won an auction for a Merckx with full Record, can’t wait to take it for a spin! (Sorry about your crash too, man…)
Rob,
I’m running 2.0.7. I did some research a while back and could not find any security issues with it so I stuck with it. I’m not sure if the latest version would break some of my plugins or not and I really don’t want to find out right at the moment. But in due time, no one can escape the grim reaper of upgrades. Let’s have a new slogan:
Hey Perry,
ok well I know the big red alert that I saw was regarding 2.1.x, so maybe the flaw is not present in the 2.0 code. But I don’t know for sure. Regarding the plugin concerns, that’s certainly valid. But there is a nice plugin that I used that checks all your installed plugins (and themes) for any potential problems with v2.3, so you can know before you go. I believe this is the one I used:
Wordpress Upgrade Preflight Check (Smiths R Us)
Unfortunately I’ve already deleted it from my installation, so I’m not positive, but I think this is the one!
Rob,
Thanks. Checking that preflight plugin out right now.
It’s telling me everything is A-OK for upgrading. This means that I have to actually do it now. DAMN YOU! ;-)
Any tips? Or just follow WP standard operating procedures for upgrading?
Nope, the Wordpress site has excellent instructions, step-by-step. If you have shell access it’s even easier. Go for it!
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