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| Page Two is up... |
| 2004-03-11 |
| I knocked together Page Two this morning. Presently it looks like the WoT Index page, only with the inverse set of articles. After I've made it look a lot more like the front page, I'm going to move non-WoT items there, rather than having them display up front. Then I'll have to teach the headlines to look for the appropriate page... There were lots of good ideas in last night's discussion. If you have more suggestions, post them here. I'm still digesting them, so be patient. One idea was to have only one "Africa" category, but I think we need an Africa: North and an Africa: Subsaharan category, and maybe an Africa: Horn. I'd like to have Home Front: Politix, Home Front: Culture Wars, and Home Front: WoT categories, too, but at the same time I don't want to end up with 150 separate categories. Too hard to keep track of. So keep thinking... |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #22 Fred - Understand multiple pages greater than 2 downstream - and I offered the categorical breakdown as one alternative to front/back limitation. To clarify, I see these (e.g. Breaking News / Analysis / SAST / etc.) as pages, not sections. Sorry to confuse things! Re: contest No prizes, just pride! I'll check out the new cats for articles, Thx! |
| Posted by: .com 2004-3-12 12:10:58 AM |
| #21 A minor tidbit. I notice someone new posted an article by posting it as a news article (which only shows the link and headline) and then attaching the meat of the article as a 'comment'. Might want to have some verbage on the posting pages describing when to use which. Or perhaps a 'how to post articles' page :-) to help newbies.... |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-3-11 11:59:11 PM |
| #20 Yeah, but what about when we go to three pages, or four? I'm thinking about putting only the most recent posts on the main page, say, the latest dozen or so, with the full display on page 1 and page 2. That'd reduce page load times nicely, and having the split between WoT/non-WoT would keep the other pages loading (relatively) fast. Today we've got 42 WoT articles, out of a total of 72. The page will load a lot faster with 42 than it will having to pull all 72, plus five hundred and some comments. BTW, I've changed the posting categories, trying to be logical. Hope they're not too confusing until we get used to them... I dunno about "contests." I never signed up for coffee cups and tee-shirts and that sort of stuff, so I don't have anything to hand out. |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-3-11 11:10:22 PM |
| #19 I submit (heh) that Front Page / Back Page are better names. And I'm sure there are others which might be better or different categorical breakdowns (e.g. Breaking News / Analysis (Deep Thoughts!) / SAST actually works best for me) Fred - why not post a "contest" for suggestions and you pick what floats your boat? |
| Posted by: .com 2004-3-11 10:18:08 PM |
| #18 How about giving us the ability to sort the posts by number of comments? |
| Posted by: Puddle Pirate 2004-3-11 9:58:40 PM |
| #17 I've made minor changes to the comments pages. I hope they all work right the first time... |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-3-11 9:58:15 PM |
| #16 yeah, a separate category for friggin' Darfur? /sarcasm |
| Posted by: Frank G 2004-3-11 7:51:15 PM |
| #15 I just realized something problematic with the Africa categories. News about the Sudan could conceivably fit into all three categories, depending on who they're invading (or sending the LRA against, which may be roughly the same thing) that particular week. |
| Posted by: Phil Fraering 2004-3-11 6:31:48 PM |
| #14 Whoa! But be careful with the fonts. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-11 5:45:32 PM |
| #13 Fred: If you like it, I like it. |
| Posted by: Shipman 2004-3-11 5:44:39 PM |
| #12 I've been screwing with a sort routine for awhile. It works on another site I maintain (for work), but refuses to do anything but expend CPU cycles on Rantburg. I'll eventually discover what's hose and get it working... At the moment, I make the page 1/page 2 assignments myself. Naked headlines default to page 2, articles default to page 1. I'm planning on putting the choice on the guest poster page. |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-3-11 4:52:19 PM |
| #11 I like having the comment count (or ---) be the quick link - it makes the lines more 'compact'. Any chance of being able to sort by ascending last-comment-time by clicking on the 'Cmnts (Latest)' heading? Just a thought. Could change back by clicking on the Headline colum heading.... How do you post something directly to page 2? (perhaps that isn't done yet). |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-3-11 4:11:49 PM |
| #10 Done... I'm not sure I like it, though. Comments? |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-3-11 3:37:43 PM |
| #9 To extend my comment you could delete the popup article link from the index entirely and have that link from the comments listing instead (putting in "---" for comment-free articles maybe)... Saving a bit of horizontal space. I also like growler's Page 2 suggestions. (Is Rantburg turning into espn.com?) |
| Posted by: someone 2004-3-11 1:49:20 PM |
| #8 That sounds good. The new look is great - I like it. Good job Fred. |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-3-11 12:12:13 PM |
| #7 I'm liking the new-and-improved Rantburg a lot. Some things, though: It's running wide on my screen. I have to scroll right to see everything over there. Is it just me/my monitor that's the problem? Loading awfully slow today. Just because of the under-the-hood tinkering? Instead of the Page Two link being in that little yellow box I never look at, why not make a prominent link at the top of Page One, under the Rantburg logo? Change "Post a news link" to "Post a news link on Page Two." Makes it clearer to newbies and stupid people. I liked the category listings separating all the headlines at the top of Page One. Anyone else miss them? And I completely agree with whomever it was who proposed displaying the last three or so comments on the main screen, to make it easier for those who visit more than once a day to see if the discussion had continued along interesting lines. All that said, I love Rantburg. I read LGF every day, but the comments section has grown overwhelming. Here, for now at least, it's not. And what commentary there is, it's smart and funny. And I can't think of another site that regularly brings me so much info about the world at large. So, thanks, Fred. |
| Posted by: growler 2004-3-11 12:03:51 PM |
| #6 Any chance you could get the Rantburg XML feed working? Feed Validator: Rantburg |
| Posted by: joe 2004-3-11 11:52:39 AM |
| #5 Fred, did you see my late-night comment about being able to click through to comments from the index? |
| Posted by: someone 2004-3-11 11:45:26 AM |
| #4 Wow - looking good Fred. I had another idea for all the world regions. Maybe a pic of a globe with hyperlinks in the pic tied to that region. I don't know how hard that is though. |
| Posted by: Yosemite Sam 2004-3-11 11:23:30 AM |
| #3 Pres. Election would fit under Politix. News Media would fit there, or under Culture Wars, I think... |
| Posted by: Fred 2004-3-11 10:31:03 AM |
| #2 How about a 'Home Front: Pres. Election' cat? I know there are a number of posts her about Kerry, his wife and their antics. 'Home Front: News Media' ? |
| Posted by: CrazyFool 2004-3-11 10:27:59 AM |
| #1 Fred, I've been meaning to suggest the Horn of Africa cat. |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2004-3-11 10:20:41 AM |