Chikorita157, Josh and Kabitzin on blog redesigns

Finally have some time to post here now that I've cleared my aniblogging backlog at SS!AB. Given my lack of knowledge of CSS and general nervousness with tinkering with the WP backend, I usually follow the lead set by others - which is why I found the following posts to be very useful in guiding me through the changes I've made recently.

Via Chikorita157:

WordPress Mobile Pack. No idea if it works though as I don't own a mobile device. Decided I couldn't ignore this any longer since even one of my relatives, who is in his mid 60s, uses an iPhone now.

WP-Page Navi. I had loads of trouble finding, commenting out and adding the CSS when I implemented Post Archive by Author but this was a breeze after I finally started using Firebug. The PageNavi plugin really does make navigation easier compared to the much slower pace of the  Previous/Older and Next/Newer tabs that I use the backend's Edit Posts view much less now.

Banner. While rummaging around in my old laptop, I managed to find the PSD file of the old banner featuring Lunamaria fanart by Kabitzin and the Byakuya loli by Tinkle. Had previously lost the JPG during a LightWord one-click upgrade. Also have been fiddling with the pink background (pink seems to be considered by at least two readers as the blog's default colour ahaha~♥) and went with DeepPink (FF1493) as it's the closest web safe colour to Lunamaria Hawke Zaku pinku though some might find it obnoxious. OTL Tried to save some money by using GIMP with this new laptop but it has been so frustrating (lack of macros, don't understand its layer management system); I'll cough up cash for Photoshop Elements in the near future.

Via Josh:

Tag cloud. I've removed the tag cloud in the sidebar and am using Simple Tags to generate one on its own page. Integrated this into the theme using a template page which included the php call. I like the cleaner look of the sidebar, the reduced loading time but without sacrificing an additional mode for navigation.

Via Kabitzin:

Font size. The old default of Tahoma 11px was just too tiny. Have switched to Verdana 13px.

Ozh Who Sees Ads. Disabled ads for regular readers and focusing on serving them to readers who arrive via search engine.

Post Archives by Author Implemented

re: WP hacks, I will gladly recognize Kabitzin as my personal blog saviour (sorry, J159)

Putting category bloat to fire and the sword

I've been thinking about this ever since the Act of Union of the Holy Hontounia Empire (which, like the Holy Roman Empire, is neither Holy, really really nor an empire). Obvious duplicates were eliminated then but there was a lot of legacy stuff from different stages of development of both blogs. More recent impetus via Author and Kabitzin. I apologize in advance if this broke any permalinks.

Ending the vigil, letting in the light

Someone call the Child Support Agency!

I'm too technically incompetent, too anxious and too lazy to attempt major changes but I've just switched from Vigilance to another Kabitzin-approved theme, LightWord. It all started out so innocently too.

Zaku AFK Notification

I'll be travelling from 29 Sep to 9 Oct; access to the internets is uncertain so I may not be able to blog during this period. At the very least, I will schedule the next 4koma for publication on 6 Oct.

Mister Stripey, you has the con.

EDIT: Yes, I can has interwebs access.

Hontounia Einigung Stage Zwei

After the initial relief that the new blog, domain and my computer have not exploded (like Reiji's apartment), it was time to get into the nitty gritties and tweaking needed to bring Hontou Ni up to full functionality (where's Cal when you need her?).

This post reports on my experience compared against the list provided by Kabitzin's trusty blog absorption guide:

Prep Work. I didn't do any of this (other than backing up just in case) because I was melding the two export files into a new blog rather than fiddling with an existing one; if it failed, I could just delete the whole thing and try again (or not).

Hontounia Einigung Stage Ein

As with many of the movings and shakings in the Holy Empire of Hontounia, this partcular event was triggered, yet again, by Sea Slugs! Overlord Kabitzin when he put out a call for new cannon fodder contributers.

Having been exhausted by a spate of hosting and other backend problems, I contemplated leaving all these duties behind by joining another team blog while Stripey would move to WordPress.com or even back to Blogspot. But we quickly abandoned these notions; we did not want to consign four to five years (and hundreds) of entries and comments to the oblivion; but if we wanted to keep the legacy blogs and entries in place (and generally not contribute to the scourge of linkrot), we would still have to maintain the domain as well as keep the WP installations and plugins up to date. Which defeated the initial purpose.

Hontou ni Fort Knox this isn't

Coming to you soon via every nook and cranny!

While hosting your blog on your own domain is nice in terms of the latitude to customize, it's a bit of a pain when it comes to ensuring security. Especially when problems come in all shapes and sizes. The destruction of Heart's Content was one of the more dramatic negative demonstrations of this issue.