What I have wrought, Part 2: (Re)Design Philosophy
Previously covered - Part 1: Investigation & Evaluation
Still to come - Part 3: Rebuilding the Foundation & Superstructure
Now - Part 2: (Re)Design Philosophy
While this is the second phase of describing my grand redesign of Territorial Bloggings, it should be noted that the content of this posting is very much the antecedent of the previously described investigation & evaluation. Put more simply, if it wasn’t for my desire to redesign things, there wouldn’t have been anything to investigate, much less evaluate.
The past two years of blog reading, writing, and provisioning has been an ongoing learning process for me in a great many ways, not the least of which is figuring out how I want to present my thoughts from all the stuff that I read & all the decisions I’ve made. In other words, trial by error. The distillate of this learning process was a design philosophy that could be summed up in four main goals:
- Simplicity in administration
- Necessary complexity
- RSS primacy
- Membership encouraged
1. Simplicity in administration: One thing that my brief dalliance with Textpattern showed me was that it was not only possible to administer a blog through the web interface, it was actually a good thing. Thus, my first goal was to construct my redesigned blog such that I could run the whole thing via the “built-in” web interface without having to use any outside applications (like FTP programs, external editors, etc…), including the writing of posts/entries. While Wordpress’s web interface isn’t as “clean” as Textpattern’s, it was/is more than capable of enabling me to meet this goal, even without the addition of plugins. I’ve rediscovered an appreciation of the functionality inherent in WP’s interface design. It works, and it works quite well, even right out of the box. And, with a little tweaking, it works even better!
2. Necessary complexity: Flowing out of the first goal is the second goal, namely to keep things as simple as possible and as complex as necessary, both for the admin tasks (i.e., my stuff) and for the web presentation (i.e., your stuff). While this one might seem both obvious and nebulous, I really think it’s important, especially when it comes to selecting & tweaking out a theme/template. It’s all to easy to bog things down, performance- and usability-wise, by making the presentation of a blog way too complex. I flirted with some very minimalist themes, and really tried to keep myself reeled in as far as the “gadgets” that I built into the new design. This goal, then, speaks to the tension that exists between doing too little vs. doing too much…
3. RSS primacy: I do all of my primary/initial blog reading via blog aggregation software (FeedDemon/Win, NetNewsWire/Mac, NewsGator/Web), as it’s really the only way to efficiently wring useful information out of more than a handful of blogs (e.g., the number that I read, even after having recently pared down the number of entries on my blogroll…). As a result of this realization, I decided that I wanted to make my blog very, very, very easy to follow via syndication (check out the buttons in the ‘Subscribe’ sidebar on the right…). So now, it’s not only easy to subscribe to the feed for the main blog entries, but it’s also easy to subscribe to the feeds for any/all comments! However, in no way do I want to punish/penalize those folks who still come here directly via their web browsers — by all means, come and visit me every day! It’s just that it really makes me happy when I see the number of subscribed readers in the Feedburner button under the ‘Analytics’ sidebar go up, that’s all. Feed subscribers are, from what I’ve been reading, the wave of the future in terms of ensuring readership levels.
4. Membership encouraged: Finally, that leaves the fourth goal, membership. I very strongly toyed with the idea of requiring that folks register/sign-up for an account here before they could post a comment. Not so much as an anti-spam measure (although it could help in that regard, no doubt), but more for the purposes of fostering a sense of community, which is also very important in sustaining a loyal readership. I haven’t done that yet, although I still might, particularly if y’all chime in & say it wouldn’t offend and/or retard participation. This goal, ultimately, is the one that I have the least idea about how to actually meet/pull-off. If you have any ideas, I’d be glad to hear them…
That pretty much sums up the philosophy that went into this latest redesign project. I know it’s not that deep, complex, or involved, but it’s actually been quite a pleasant surprise for me to see, in hindsight, just how helpful it has been to have even this limited outline of goals and/or purpose.
In Part 3 I’ll move from these more strategic considerations to the more tactical tasks of how I’ve actually used WP & various plugins to achieve my design goals.
-ghp
Introspection & blogging value
Amy (Not Your Typical Pastor’s Wife) has a really good pair of posts (#1 & #2) dealing with the topics of why we blog, what we hope to accomplish by blogging, and the tone with which we do all of that.
I identify quite a bit with the ambivalence that Amy reports, as I’ve often wondered why I go to all of this effort. I’ve found her soul searching to be both interesting (in a voyeuristic sense) and useful (in an introspective sense), and I recommend it to you if you haven’t already read it. (Note: the posts are from 6/21 & 6/24, so I’m a bit late to the party… what can I say — I’m catching up on my blog reading… 
)
-ghp
A gift for big sis
Yup, I think that this might just be the gift for me to give my big sis, in order to help keep her Starbucks-addicted self on the straight path (get it? Straight Path! — HA! — I slay me. Thank you, I’ll be here all week…)
And here’s why big sis probably wouldn’t be a willing space explorer…
-ghp
(man, I am sooo gonna pay the next time she sees me… :shock:)
Thanks to The Captain
The Captain — Steve Yzerman — has announced his retirement, closing a 22-season career.
Click here to view a slideshow of Yzerman photos
Some brief career stats:
- 22 seasons — all in Detroit
- 19 seasons as captain — the longest tenure in NHL history
- 1,755 points — 6th all-time
- 1,063 assists — 7th all-time
- 692 goals — 8th all-time
- 1,514 games played
- 3 Stanley Cups — 1997, 1998, 2002
- 1 Olympic Gold Medal — 2002
I remember the day that the Wings drafted Stevie Y back in 1983. He was the first draft pick under the new Ilitch/Devellano regime. Pat LaFontaine was the pick that most folks wanted, as he was a local boy from Waterford, MI. It didn’t take too long, however, for us to all see just how lucky we were that Stevie fell to us at the #4 pick.
I was at the game vs. Buffalo in 1988 when, just after netting his 50th goal of the season, Stevie lost his edge & went knee-first into the goal post & hurt his knee. I’ll never forget just how quickly the mood of that arena changed from joy to devastation. Back in the late 80’s Stevie was an offensive machine, surpassed only by #99 & #66 - but I wouldn’t have traded #19 for either of them!
Over the course of the 90’s, it was amazing to see the transformation that he underwent, morphing from Stevie Y into The Captain. He was always an offensive threat, but he became the consummate leader & a stellar defensive player as well. While many would hail Mark Messier as the best captain of the 90’s (if not of all-time), once again I would maintain that the title rightly belongs to #19.
I’ll never forget those wondrous nights in 1997, 1998, & 2002 when The Captain hoisted The Cup. Particularly in 2002 when he played the post-season on a right knee that would’ve kept most normal folks from even walking, he showed otherworldly dedication, leadership, & willpower.
And now, he leaves the game with that same level of dedication, leadership, willpower, and class fully intact. Outside of Detroit, he won’t get the same level of accolades as Gretzky or Lemieux did, but he certainly deserves them. I look forward to his taking some well-deserved time off with his family, and I have no doubt that he will soon get involved in the Wings’ front office such that he eventually will lead the organization to at least as much success as Joe Dumars has had with the Pistons.
My dad had Gordie Howe as the Wings icon during the same relative years of his life that I’ve had Steve Yzerman. I grew up as a legacy Wings fan, knowing how great Mr. Hockey was (meeting the man in 1993 was a surreal treat!). But when it comes to Mr. Hockey vs. The Captain… well, I wouldn’t make that trade. Nope.
So, as an age-group peer, and a life-long Detroit Red Wings fan, I thank you Steve Yzerman for making the past 23 years so very, very enjoyable & memorable. Men like you are why sports will always be relevant & meaningful!
-ghp
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