angeliexists
shorthanded
davidasposted
Dan+
Blog organization
Posted by davidasposted on March 3, 2009
I admit, I am a stickler for organization when it comes to entries and categories. As I understand things, every new post we submit is dumped into one page (“Home”). We can differentiate between types of posts by applying categories, and then click and/or search through categories to find every relevant entry. This is a nice feature, but I wonder if, in addition to it, we might also have a few dedicated pages for specific things? For example, could we segregate posts relating to the page I just created for “ideas, research, writing” to that page, so that instead of searching for that category I could click on the page tab?
I imagine this blog as similar to the DevonThink 2.0 database I use on my computer for organizing files for my research. Yes, the program allows me to search through everything in the database with a category function, but it also lets me create folders (here: pages) to organize that information as well.
Also, is there a way to create a page in the above manner and with access restricted to specific authors? I would love to share certain things with you all about my research and get your input/opinions, but I do not want the information freely available via search, for the same reason Bellee stopped submitting poetry to Society back in the day. I want to make ideas accessible to interested parties, however in some cases (such as outlines, articles) it is in my best interest to keep them private until I formally publish them–I cannot get a job in academia otherwise.
Edit: also, how do I edit the header…?
Note: this all relates to my desire to use the blog more frequently. I am just working out the kinks.
angeliexists said
As far as I understand things, a page registers the same way a post does: a single entity that can collect replies (if enabled). This means that you could:
1. Post a beginning message on a page and we could respond as we already do to a regular post.
2. Keep a revolving post that is always up-to-date and track our conversation over time.
3. Post a home page for yourself – a mood board, a Dave banner, whatever you’d like. Then you can start the conversation process below as the first reply. (recommended)
These pages can be marked as private or as a password protected page. I’ve just set your new page to be private.
I’ve seen the future, David, and it doesn’t have folders. Things get lost or overlooked in folders. Filters are the future. You should see my new and improved Gmail workflow. You would cry at the beauty.
I will look for better solutions elsewhere. I think that I would like to see a page with a private area, an open-source idea exchange area (for anyone that happens by or people we invite), and a more polished curated public offerings area with an archive (art collective style). Apart from these sections, I see a section on each of us with either a bio, brief CV, or statement of purpose.
Frankly, I’d like to see Google’s offerings mature. They own Blogger, Google Sites, and Google Pages. Obviously there’s some redundancy there. I’d like to work with Google because of their expanding suite of web based products and their evolving ability to work together. This would allow us to better harness web 2.0.
If we need to move this site, we need to move it. If one of us wants to brush up on our site admin skillz, we can move WordPress to our own web space and do whatever we want with it.
As far as changing the style, poke around on the dashboard. Everything you need to know is laid out there and is worth a little exploration time.
davidasposted said
Thanks for the response. I checked out the dashboard and did indeed poke around a bit. I’m a little hesitant to make substantive changes because we’re a group blog (I do not like the colors of design available to us for this template for example, but the ones I DO like might change the widget options and/or not have three columns, etc.). If it is okay for me to play around with this, like me know.
As for the blog more generally, I would like to continue using it. I try to keep on new posts, though like the community of old we tend to go long periods without new activity. I would use it as a general observations/personal blog, but I’m not sure if I want to get into everyone else’s business here. I was considering making a personal blog just for fun, but perhaps I can integrate it here? My only concern is that I don’t like putting too much time into learning/designing one software or site and then changing over to a new one shortly after. Do we think wordpress is good for us? I’ve seen some pretty nice-looking, wordpress-integrated web sites which suggest to me we don’t need to change software.
I’d be interested to hear others’ opinions too. Why hasn’t James gotten into the habit of posting?
angeliexists said
I am looking at other resources for improving this site. I’m going in two directions: looking at better uses for what we have available to us in WordPress and I’m also looking at Google products.
From my limited experience, I see good and bad points to both options.
My initial research took me to WordPress because it is extremely open to what we want to do with it, it doesn’t carry ads, and it can be moved onto our own server if/when we’re ready. The highest level of customization is reached through hosting it ourselves.
Google offers greater control over the structure and look of the site. (Although, I’d like to see the interface improved a bit.) I am not happy with the absence of tagging, smart built-in tags, and ability to set individual page/post privacy. There are some cumbersome bits (like listing the page author under every page in the nav pane) that really get on my nerves. On the other hand, the site works with most of Google’s other products very well. The site also has a google search (which is good, but expected) and a few filter pages (i.e. an automatically generated site map, recent activity listings, etc.).
I should really be preparing for a critique I’m not ready for on Monday, so I will do more on this later.
Don’t mess with the format of the blog until it’s backed up. I don’t know the likelihood of losing content, but it’s better to be prepared. If you want to back it up, feel free to tweak things.
Incidentally, I’m sorry for not responding sooner. It seems that I’m not getting updates anymore. I’ll correct that. I usually don’t check the blog unless I get an email update.
angeliexists said
Also…
I wish you were here. I’d like to actually sit down with you and Ed to map our needs/wants out over a few cups of coffee (or hot water). :)