I didn’t want to comment on the the suggestions everyone had in the contest and risk turning people one way or the other, but I have indeed read through all the comments and appreciate all the feedback. Here are my responses:
The Good
- The Interviews: I am really happy that several people mentioned they like the interview series. These interviews actually take me a ton of time to do, because Ender and I really do go through and read a good percentage of the interviewee’s archives.
- CJAS: I was indeed in CJAS for a year, and it enlightened me on the wonder that is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. I think I am the only one on our team who was involved in CJAS, and I just went to viewings.
- Blog Design: I’m glad you like the new design, especially since I found out last time that people are not shy about telling me if the page is fugly. Considering how much CSS customization I had to do, I’m quite proud of how it turned out.
The Bad
- Navigation: I completely agree that the extensive archive is getting unwieldy. In fact, interviewing other bloggers has helped me really appreciate the importance of good navigation. I don’t like having navigation arrows on the top of the front page, but I think in the near future I would like to add paged navigation to the archive, search, category, and tag pages. I am also continuously on the lookout for plugins that will clean up the archive and make the archives an even better resource. One of these days I will decide on a tagging protocol that works well for both editorial and summary pieces.
- Osaka Banner: I tried it out in the header template, but the colors do not match very well. Don’t worry, Osaka will always fly high in our hearts.
- Editorials: We try to spice things up with a little variety from time to time, but I know that summaries are our bread and butter. Perhaps Ender might be interested, as he is our explorer into the depths of the anime unknown.
- Old School Anime: I’ve done some retro entries before, but no one ever comments on them, and the numbers imply that almost no one ever reads those posts. I will occasionally throw up a review of a not-so-recent series if I happen to marathon a great series from the past.
- Afro and Goatee: I can’t grow an afro, and the goatee would probably look all straggly and gross on me (unless I get one of those stick-on facial hair kits). I suspect this goes for both Ender and Kungfucius as well, although Kungfucius has been known to use five o’clock shadow jutsu seals from time to time.
- The Green Squares: Their only purpose is to tie in the green in the banner, and to keep the theme from being too blue.
- Power Plays: Damn that Ender, always challenging my BOSS status! I don’t know if I need to get a I AM BOSS shirt, or drink coffee, or fly down to his computer and manually log him in, but this insolence cannot go unpunished!
I wish I could have convinced more people to participate, but those that did comment left very thoughtful responses. Thanks for helping us make Sea Slugs! better =).
Related posts:
7 Comments
Send me the image and tell me what colors/design you want and I will make it for you. :P
No more excuses!
I’ve been wondering where those rotating images come from. Could it be that you *gasp* illustrate them yourself?
I was directed to Extended Live Archives, which I’ve found to be immensely useful because, like you, I have over a year’s worth of posts that run the risk of disappearing into obscurity. There’s a mod that allows for the version 2.3 DB change as well if you’re interested in it.
I do not illustrate the rotating headers, they come from various image galleries. The idea of using Photoshop to adjust the Osaka picture’s colors never occurred to me, oddly enough. Hmmm…
I had heard of the update to ELA, but it looks like support of it has not been very good, so I am avoiding that plugin at the moment.
The soaring Gundam Osaka clip we used before clashes somewhat with the color scheme…but a simpler picture of Osaka in her summer uniform might work.
no osaka, no sea slugs. We want our osaka back!
“I was indeed in CJAS for a year, and it enlightened me on the wonder that is JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure.”
I had a similar enlightenment with Haibane Renmei. Of course there’s always the good and the bad, and we also saw stuff like the Pretty Sammy OVA, which was fun in it’s own way but drove everyone from the showing. Good thing it was the last thing shown during the night at that time.
I was involved enough to become a member of the Executive Board, as well as an officer of the club for one year. Sooo… yeah…. :3