I got kinda tired of looking at the old thing (meaning the blog), so I changed the template around recently. I used one of the prefabbed doodahs in the template designer under "dynamic views." Ooh La La. I liked the little slidey down thingy on the side that listed a bunch of past posts by title, and I liked the little tweet option at the bottom even though I have never once twittered or tweeted anything. But I found that format a bit hard to read for some reason. Maybe because I refuse to wear my reading glasses. I don't know. It also does not have the little "sign in" thingamajig at the top right like most of the templates do. That bugged me, because getting to my dashboard was a bit of a pain, and how else am I supposed to read all of you lovelies!? I am pretty sure that some fancy google reader business I hear about is how, but c'mon, we all know I am not changing at this point. Also I noticed in the dynamic views that I picked up a lot of traffic for some reason, but no comments. I tried leaving a comment myself and it was just quirky and wouldn't do it sometimes. Blech. I don't get tons of comments, but if someone tries and is not able to, well that is just unacceptable in my book! Am I doing something wrong?
Needless to say, I went back to "simple" which, I know, is probably where I should have stayed in the first place, but changed the background and colors so I can hold my attention span longer. So my questions are not very specific, but for any of you who are blog savvy what is the best template in your opinion? Do you go only by looks or do you care about features and function? I notice a lot of people with the comment protection on so that we have to enter the crazy words, and a lot of people without it. Do you find you get a great deal of comment spam without the protection on or not?
I've only been at this for a year and a half, so I know less than you, I'm sure (and you are one of my only commenters). But I do like your background! Esp. since I'm getting anxious for spring!
ReplyDeleteCute background! And I hate leaving comments on blogs that require verification. They get, far, far fewer comments from me because they are so buggy. No, log in first! No, you got the words wrong! Okay, now we're not going to show you the words at all, just a box with a red x in it. Sorry suckah, but you just wasted 7 minutes trying to leave a comment, haha!
ReplyDeleteSo yeah, I hate verification. FTR, I left a comment on your blog the other day while it was in the "dynamic" template, and it was very, very slow to load and took me several tries, so I think you were smart to switch back. But you still have word verification turned on--I used to have it, but then I took it off, and I've never had spam. I think you can safely remove it. (please? lol)
I really don't know. I'm using a very simple design myself.
ReplyDeleteI like the cute but simple background. I'm not a huge fan of the sidebar approach, but there's nothing wrong with it. It's just not my favorite. Since my blog is mostly about photos, I like the snapshot view as an alternative, but again, that's just me. This is fine - nice, clean, simple.
ReplyDeleteI like to be able to scan a blog quickly to see what it has to offer. if it's too cluttered with buttons and awards and other stuff, sometimes it's hard to find the meat and I move on. Short attention span.
As for word verification, a big pet peeve. I hate hate hate when bloggers make me do that to leave comments. It's mostly just an annoyance. I don't have it turned on on mine, and I seldom (almost never) get spam. And when I do, the spam blocker catches it and puts it aside for me to decide what to do with it. Soooo, if you want my opinion, don't use the word verification. It'll just keep people who want to leave legitimate comments from doing so.
Haha...you ask questions, you get answers. :)
Yeah, I' trying out the dynamic views too with my new art blog, and I'm very ambivalent about it, for the same reasons as you posted, so I may meander to an older template after a while... I don't think this is a copout post - it's just how much time one wants to, or can invest:)
DeleteThanks you guys! Seriously...So much. I really needed the feedback and the advice. I think (think) that I have turned off the word verification thing. If someone comments and gets the verification let me know! I am trying the dynamic again to see if I can get the bugs worked out of it, but I am with Emille, I may go back to tried and true! Thanks again...
DeleteI don't know much and sure can't give advice. My daughter usually helps me out. That pop in and out sidebar was different. I very much dislike the word verification - whew! such a pain. Any spam comments are caught w/out it as far as I can tell. Like your place ... asking questions is a good thing. ;)
ReplyDelete