What Can I Do To Improve This Blog?!?

Posted by Kyle Eslick on October 4th, 2007 | Category and Tags

A couple of days ago I was tagged by Karthik to participate in the latest meme, known as “How Can I Improve My Blog.” 

I’ve never been a fan of memes and choose not to participate in them, but at the same time I’ve never really had a problem with other people participating in them.   As a result, I decided to instead convert this opportunity into a non-meme post that offers readers the chance to participate and help shape the look of this site, or even help guide the path that Kyle’s Cove takes in the future.

I’ve been blogging for about a year and a half now (with all but 3 months here on Kyle’s Cove).   A few of you have even been here for most of that time (*poke Garry*).  I’d like to think that this site has continued to evolve over that time and improved for the better, but I of course am a little biased.   So, after reading Karthik’s post I decided it never hurts to get some reader input. 

What can I do to improve Kyle’s Cove?   I’m open to web design suggestions to improve the layout and usability of the website, as well as various topics you would like to see me spend some time on. 

Current ideas I have on my to-do list for this theme:

  • Add a better secondary color to the theme and use it a little more, instead of all the different shades of blue. 
  • Move some stuff to the footer that isn’t needed in the sidebar. 
  • Improve the appearance of the feed subscription area. 

Current ideas I have for the subject matter on this site:

  • Be more interactive with the polls.   Possibly feature the poll in a post, then do a follow up post after a few weeks and examine the results.
  • Add a few weekly feature type of posts, like I used to do with the Firefox Extension of the Week posts.

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    1. Comment by K-IntheHouse on October 4th, 2007:

      Thanks for taking up the tag and making a great idea out of it buddy. I am by no means an expert on this but here are a few things that’ll make your excellent blog even better:

      - More prominent RSS subscription buttons
      - Readable navigation links.. the current one looks cool but may be hard to read for some people

      Otherwise I love the design improvemnents you have done lately and the logo has a killer look! Also, mixing up a secondary color would definitely make the design out a bit more. A site like ColorLovers might give you some inspiration.

      One other thing is may be adding the WordPress plugin that lets the commentator edit their own comments for a certain time. I should proof check but I do miss it quite often! :-)

    2. Comment by Kyle Eslick on October 4th, 2007:

      K - Thanks for the input! Quick question…

      Readable navigation links.. the current one looks cool but may be hard to read for some people

      Are you talking about the menu at the top next to the search engine? Or the navigation links at the bottom of the page?

      As for secondary colors, I was thinking about some maize to go with the blue…. :D
      I had an AJAX edit comments plugin for awhile but didn’t really like it (it was kind of buggy). I may download a few of those and give them a try this weekend. I am all for it if I can find a decent one.

    3. Comment by K-IntheHouse on October 4th, 2007:

      I am talking about the links in the header region. I guess you were inspired by my Spartans color, huh? :-)
      The one I am using seems pretty solid but I guess I wouldn’t know of any bugs at Shankri-la as I mostly use Better Comments Manager (seems to support threaded comments now) plugin when I respond to comments.

      Between, what comment plugin are you using in the sidebar. I like this look better..

      I needs it. I wants it! :-)

    4. Comment by Kyle Eslick on October 4th, 2007:

      Spartans? Grr…. It will be nice to get our annual crushing of the Spartans later this season, then we can get crushed by you in basketball :D
      Maybe we should put a friendly wager up on the game since the Spartans are looking better this year and we are down? Loser does a guest blogging post or something!

      It is possible that a new one has come out that works better, as it has been at least 6 months since I last tried an Edit Comments plugin, I would say.

      Between, what comment plugin are you using in the sidebar. I like this look better..

      I needs it. I wants it!

      I believe I am using Brian’s Latest Comments in the sidebar (the same guy that makes the threaded comments plugin). If I remember correctly, I had to do some minor hacks to the code to get it to look like I wanted, but for the most part it looks like that out of the box.

    5. Comment by Garry Conn on October 4th, 2007:

      Man, your blog is looking great dude. I have seriously watched this puppy grow from back during its TypePad days to what it is currently today. All in all, you are one of my first true “regular read” blog sites. I am totally pleased with everything you have done. I can’t name anything off hand that I would do differently. But I can say this… when you roll out a new idea, typically I really enjoy what I see. So, keep up the great work… and you can’t fix something that isn’t broke, so don’t go changing too much! :)

    6. Comment by Kyle Eslick on October 5th, 2007:

      Garry - Thanks, your confidence in me means a lot! I’ll try not to change to much.

      Thanks again for offering your help with some of my blog issues the other day.

    7. Comment by K-IntheHouse on October 5th, 2007:

      Sounds good, Kyle. The bet is on for the next Spartan/Wolverines game. Honestly, I don’t follow Colleg football as much but living in East Lansing I gotta do the right thing, eh? :-) Let’s see who gets to guest blog on Nov 3rd!

      I will check out the Latest Comments plugin tonight.

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