Do Metaphors Annoy You?

Posted on March 13th in Blogging, Personal — 12 Comments so far. Got something to say?

There are certain parts of our respective languages we enjoy more than others. Personally I enjoy comparing things to provide a broader scope of understanding for the reader. This post poses a question to you (the reader), regarding my writing style. Should I tone down the comparisons?

In the past I would never have doubted my personal style on my personal blog, but in the end I don’t want to confuse anyone by mixing analogies trying to get my idea across. The act of comparing one thing to an everyday, simple thing will never stop for me, but I want to find the limit.

What Happens with no Restraint

In an article a couple days ago, I wrote what I thought was a great piece of work. Titled, “Simple Elements to Great Blog Design” the article as a whole was overlooked. A couple days later a new commenter, Matt, started the comments by saying this (it was a nice long comment, and I’m only looking for the one piece):

…although you mixed in a lot of metaphors in one post which was a bit annoying.

- Matt (March 8th, 2008)

To be fair, there over seven or eight different comparisons in that article, excluding winding adjectives.

Most of them really help to push my point across the border into the country that is your brain. Some of them were shots at humour, but still function as point-pushers. So, now as someone that reads or cares, should I tone down the metaphors?

I’m not saying I’ll change anything regarding the way I write, but I’ll reconsider letting about ten of them loose in one article next time.

Posted in Blogging, Personal with 12 Comments.

Hey, I’m Movable Type. And I’m WordPress.

Posted on March 11th in WordPress — 10 Comments so far. Got something to say?

So Movable Type decided yesterday to give an upgrade guide for WordPress 2.5. How nice of them. Although, instead of WordPress’ two step install system, they offer one: upgrade to Movable Type. One of the main points in the article is how pretty their administration area is. Next, they’ll be saying WordPress can only do spreadsheets.

Reversed Roles

In the metaphorical sense, WordPress would have to be a PC, and Movable Type a Mac. This seems kinda backwards because, first of all I’m a Mac user, and Movable Type is taking a not so subtle shot at WordPress.

But, the idea is that Movable Type is the smaller brand trying to move in on some space in the market. The only difference is that the Mac/PC commercials are funny, and work. They work because the Mac guy never actually says anything. He kinda just watches the self-deprecating PC go on about his short comings.

Good Competition

It is true, one major flaw in WordPress is the administration design. But, hey, life is good when that’s the problem. No one but yourself really sees it, so you’re not really losing anything is the process.

There’s no shortage of community made mockups for a new idea. While I think the new 2.5 interface doesn’t quite solve much, it shows that they’re finally willing to change. With Movable Type pushing now, I think this would be a good time for Automattic to blow them out of the water. Let’s look at Anil Dash’s main points, and what Mr. Mullenweg and the boys can do:

“Get Better Tech First” - [...WordPress users have had to wait months or even years to get capabilities that Movable Type has pioneered.]

First, before I move on, I have to say that this guy just seems mad that things MT did first have been caught up with. Who cares if you do it first? Isn’t more about who does it better? If you can have the latter argument on your side, then you can go for it.

The solution for WordPress: Well, add support out the box. Sure, I could go download a plugin for OpenID on comments, but including the option by default would make Anil mad.Not only that, but it’s encouraging users the use these new technologies.

“Takes a Digging, Keeps on Ticking.” - [Question: How should you greet the onrush of visitors to your site when you get onto the homepage of Digg or Reddit? Answer: Not with a Database Connection Error.]

By now, the “WordPress can’t take traffic” is like calling someone fat. Sure, on the outside, to everyone without understanding it’s true. But if that kid was smart he would make an effort to ched the pounds. Likewise, WordPress can display static pages. But who wants another plugin, right? This one’s included by default. It’s WP-Cache.

Set your cache time really high under the pressure of a digg. Email your host telling them it’s coming. It’s not hard.

The solution for WordPress: Everyone knows about Akismet, so make sure everyone knows how to use WP-Cache, or make a new caching system that varies cache times depending on server load.

“A Dashboard That Measures Success” - [So MT4's completely customizable dashboard has a powerful set of visual representations of your blog's behavior, from charts of the number of entries your authors have created to sliders that let you zoom in and understand why you got more comments on certain days.]

I love how our new friend Anil doesn’t say anything about the hundreds of statistical plugins for WordPress. Or anything about plugins this time. Why? He references MT’s own plugins. Now isn’t that the pot calling the kettle black? I guess I’ll go further into the whole plugin thing when I get to that point.

As for the actual point- I’m more of a third party stats guy, so it’s hard for me to really make a point, but if anything, I like this feature. WordPress should adopt it, and make it better.

“Design Matters” - [Movable Type was the first blogging platform to use completely CSS-styled, standards-based templates by default, and since then we've worked like crazy to give smarter, prettier tools to everybody for customizing design.]

Another part of WordPress I don’t use: The Theme Editor. It’s not because there’s no built in options for doing things (I don’t see why that matters anyway), but more I use Coda for a faster paced environment with multiple files. Also, I don’t need premade tools to help me design a comment display (or whatever they do).

Solution for WordPress: I wouldn’t even worry about it, to be honest. I think he wanted to talk about the admin design some more, but didn’t want to beat a dead horse.

“Plugins Are Good. Not Needing Plugins Is Better.” - [As the platform that first popularized blogging plugins, Movable Type has tons of them. But even better, there are a huge number of features that would require either the installation and configuration of a plugin, or moving to a completely different platform like WP-MU if you were using WordPress.]

I actually half disagree here. I would rather have the lighter, less featured WordPress and then build it around what I want. It’s also really good for MT that they popularized plugins. I’d pat you on the back if I ever saw you.

These features that are so highly regarded as what MT has over WP are in the end personal preferrence. I don’t want OpenID, multiple blogs in one install, or even tags for that matter.

Solution for WordPress: They got you on the WYSIWYG editor. TinyMCE kinda sucks. I’d either do something original, or find something that doesn’t mess with HTML code when I enter it.

“Get Support Right From The Source” - [...paid users can simply file a help ticket and get access to the best support team in the business. ]

Emphasis mine. How can you argue that you have better support when you’re looking at hundreds of dollars for licensing and updating, just for support? The WordPress community is aptly equiped and problems get solved.

Solution for WordPress: No harm done! I don’t know what this guy was thinking when he included that point. Want the best support? Come over to Movable Type. We’ll welcome you with open arms if you come with an open wallet!

The Real Way to Win

Just do things better. Simple as that. If you came out fixing everything this guy says is bad, what left can he say? All of his points pretty much fail with epic bad anyway. Also, getting back to the original point - the Macs can never win. Just saying

Also, sorry for the long rambling post. I’m not a huge fan of propaganda especially when it’s attacking something I use everyday personally and for clients.

Posted in WordPress with 10 Comments.

Make Youself Stand Out: Styling Author Comments in WordPress

Posted on March 9th in WordPress — 49 Comments so far. Got something to say?

The most asked question I get regards the way I style my own comments. It’s another one of those things that through some simple tweaks to your WordPress theme can make a huge difference in reader experience and overall style. I will show you how I do it with WordPress, and your readers will never look you over again!

Playing With Fire

Unlike my Gravatar guide, this time you could potentially mess your theme up if you’re not comfortable with using simple PHP. This is the official warning that you’re going to be editing comments.php by adding simple PHP code inside your comments loop. You’ve been warned. I just don’t want to be personally responsible for any problems.

Speaking of the comments loop…

WordPress is based on “loops”. To the everyday user this may not mean anything, but this simple aspect of programming drives the dynamic web. The two loops you see are for posts and for comments. We’ll be dealing with the latter, and you’ll know it by searching for this:

<?php if ($comments) : ?>
<?php foreach ($comments as $comment) : ?>

That’s what you’re generally looking for. Those lines may not always be together or have the exact some variables, but the foreach statement is the main aspect you want your code under.

Edit the List Item

The basics of what we’re doing is this: change the CSS class depending on who it is. This can get more complex depending on who you’re looking for, but in the end you only really want three things:

• Alternate. Whether you style alternating comments differently or not, it’s always good to have this in place.
• Author. This can either be the author of the article or a specific email.
• Nothing. This unlucky commenter is neither the author or an alternate comment.
• Both? I don’t like to have alternating author comments, but I’ll explain this at the end if you really want it.

Now, for the inexperienced WordPress user, this is the tricky part. In best practice, your theme uses a list to show comments. Ordered or not, it doesn’t matter that much, but you’re not using a list, you have to find the container surrounding the comment display.

If you see <ul id="comments"> or <ol id="comments"> you’re good to go.

Find the HTML tag <li>. To do this, you should be able to search the document for “<li“. Your theme may already have the alternate comments set up, in fact it’s likely to be there. Here’s what you want your <li> to look like:

<li class="<?php if ($comment->comment_author_email == get_the_author_email()) { echo 'author_comment'; } ?> <?php echo $alt; ?>" id="comment-<?php comment_ID() ?>">

That will have the author’s email checked against the commenter’s, and if it’s a match then it will print “author_comment” in the class. With the alternating comments, if you want that to work, below your comment, add this code:

<?php $alt = ($alt == 'alt') ? "" : "alt"; ?>

Simply put, if the variable $alt read “alt”, then we have to switch it so it alternates, and vise versa. If your server doesn’t like PHP shorthand you can always revert to a full on if/else statement.

Keep in mind when doing this that every theme you work with will have its differences. Unfortunately there is no widely accepted framework for things like this (including other more complex comment tricks). Just keep in mind that this is a general guide. It won’t match every theme (it doesn’t even come close to mine), so a little brain power is involved.

Styling with Consistency

Consistency is something I strive for in my styling. I aim to have all my comments the same underneath some special features. I’ve been laying off the metaphors, but imagine every comment is a sibling. Same upbringing, different individuals. That’s what we want. Some example CSS code for your comments:

ul.comments li { padding:10px; background:#fff; float:left; width:400px; } /* general things */
    ul.comments li.alt { background:#f9f9f9; }
    ul.comments li.author_comment { background:url(images/author_comment.png) no-repeat top right; }

Just generalize and then single out styles for the separate situations. In my comments section the alternating comments just go back between white and light gray, and the author comments have a blue background. I’ve done some other things to it to make it stand out more, though. Other things you can do:

• Put an icon next to the author’s name and their other info (or post meta).
• Add a background image over the solid colour. The top right corner is a good place.
• Add the comment’s number with rotating colors. I did this at Blogtrepreneur by request (that design will soon be gone, though).
• Give the authors special privileges, such as using a plugin to display their blog’s last post.

The possibilities are endless, just be creative in trying to add something different to your comments.

What Else can you do?

Now that you have integrated Gravatars and styled specific comments differently, what is there left to do? Here are some ideas I have:

• Separate trackbacks from comments. I do this here and it’s something that takes a bit more know-how and confidence in your skills. My favourite way is how Ben from BinaryMoon teaches.
• Integrate plugins. There are many ways to boost (or the opposite- be careful) the commenter’s experience. Threaded comments, AJAX posting, paged comments, OpenID login, comment trackers such as CoComent, etc…
• Whatever you want. WordPress’ kicker is that it’s infinitely extensible. If you can think it, you can find a way to do it. This is brought to fruition for most by plugins, but a little bit of PHP know how and the ins-and-outs of the software will have you well on your way.

Just try not to do too much. Wouldn’t want the readers to get discouraged and not leave a comment

Posted in WordPress with 49 Comments.

Last Chance for a Free Design Review

Posted on March 8th in General — 5 Comments so far. Got something to say?

Your final opportunity to get a totally free design review here is upon us. This weekend will mark the last days I will accept new sites, so if you want an in depth look from a designer’s perspective, now is the time.

I think by now I’m ready to start going back to my regular posting, but with a little bit of a different focus. I might write 3 or so articles a week, but the time will reflect upon the detail, length and overall value to those reading. I’d like to thank the three readers who have participated so far in having me poke at every detail in there site. You can find their sites and reviews here:

• PushStandards, Tom Ross’ blog, reviewed here.
• Micade, a flash game site, reviewed here.
• Zach Kollegger’s blog, reviewed here.

For something of a similar matter to your own site, head over to the contact page and send me an email. As usual, you must pass the idiot/spam filter.

I have had to turn down some sites because they just don’t relate. Any blog is pretty much fair game, a site about SEO, design, or anything web development is good, but please no web hosts, corporate sites, etc… This is more for people looking for an opinion, things to improve upon and if you want to know what I think. Not so much just for a few hits.

If you’re in it for the traffic, you’re in the wrong place. I get quite modest levels myself

Posted in General with 5 Comments.

Simple Elements to Great Blog Design

Posted on March 5th in Design — 5 Comments so far. Got something to say?

The saying goes, “you must eat an Elephant one bite a time.” I may not have any hands on experience in the matter, but it sure does apply to designing websites. More specifically, weblogs. Designing for a blog specifically usually pins you into some certain aspects that are more or less expected of you. They key is to identify these aspects and make them work together.

You know, like a team or something.

In the Left Corner, The Elements

So, lets get on with this supposed revelation. Team sports may not be your forté, but you can be sure your new blog designs will be picked first for dodgeball this time around. In order of importance:

• The header. Usually at the top, but who knows. Conditionally will contain important information that must be seen immediately. Logos, site name, a subscription box perhaps, maybe some form of navigation.
• The content area. This is where you’re going to make your sales. You’ll want this to be some sort of focal point.
• The sidebar. No one’s saying this aspect is mandatory, but you’ll definitely be the “different kid”. This vertical melting pot for virtually useless information can make or break the design… kind of like any other part.
• The footer. You may be jumping on the extended footer bandwagon, or just sporting a simple notice to terminate your pages.In any case, you’ll want to at least have one.

Hey, but you knew that. Now to prove the worth of you actually reading this (you’ve gotten this far, right?) I’ll share my designer’s perspective full of generalizations.

Making a Good First Impression

Being a predominantly top left to bottom right reading society, it only makes sense that the first place we’re looking upon arrival is… the top left. Which is convenient, because that’s where your logo is.

This isn’t to say you’re wrong for having it in the center or the right, but you’re not getting 110% out of your first impression if you don’t.

The main thing in the back of my mind when designing this first part of any site is balance. I know there is likely going to be logo or title in the left side, so then I have to come to terms with it’s counterpart.

Assuming you’ve got your logo to the left, you could use the empty space for an advert (for maximum uglification), a search box, navigation links, some design aspect, some important information (your picture, some text, subscription info) or even some sort of quote. The only way to know it’s balanced, is when it looks… balanced. Think teeter-totter.

Making the Sale

This is the personality of your site. Where people can see you, for who you really are. Whether or not that’s a good thing, you want people to want to go right to the main content area right after having a looking around the header. This usually goes on the left. Just because it leads the eye properly, and a lot of people like that. If you say a two column blog with a left sidebar, no doubt it wouldn’t look “right”.

I like the setup the content so that it will sit on a flat colour and the actual posts and their details will do the talking. You can set up all the formatting options you’d like to try and make it look good on a day to day basis with new content, but it’s always a good idea to put some time and effort into the buns of your post.

Buns? 

Think of your core content like a hamburger (or any other sandwiched delight). You have the top bun, which will hold the title and any information you’d like. You have the meat (or 100% no meat processed meat food for vegetarians) which is your post, and finally you conclude with the final bun, containing summary information.

The buns are likely referred to as “post meta” more commonly. Make them work for you.

A Side Order of Fries

While beating the dead horse that is my fast food metaphor, it makes sense that your sidebar would be just that - a side order. Something to compliment, but not steal the show.

Let me put it this way: You want a backup dancer on the side of your page. Looks good, but not that good. People won’t be thinking about the sidebar. You want all the attention for your star - the content.

Make sense? Just blend in, while subtly adding something unique. No one cares about your stupid blog categories anyway. They don’t need to jump of the page.

Beginning of the End

Some people decide that they want a seriously big footer nowadays. This is a bad idea. If something is significant enough to put it on the site, why put it where no one will see it. Maybe that’s what you want. If so, very well played, sir. If not, think about another column.

A simple notice will do. Though cliche, throw in a © and the current year. Nothing special. The footer notice is usually also a credits of sorts.

But, the one thing that drives me mad is imagery in an extended footer, John Chow style. You learned the feather tool and opacity control, good job. Best leave that out of your website. Not to mention these images are almost always off topic and out of context. I digress…

What’s it all About?

For those non-lemmings, this is quite simply about one thing, and one thing only:

Use the elements of a site to your creative advantage.

You’ll notice the best blog designs out there don’t break the mold. They set out to put their mark on the world in their own way, restricted by their market. This is why John Chow doesn’t have an artsy portfolio design (or a… Hmm, better not say that) and why Flash developers don’t host forums on their front pages.

Just imagine you’re a gambler: “Know your limits, play within them“.

Posted in Design with 5 Comments.