New Website, Need Eyeballs
So I've finally got my domain name set up with a temporary "coming soon" page at http://www.kirkmcpike.com/ -- and I've got almost all my pages ready to go. But I need a larger pool of folks to take a look and tell me what they think before I can be sure I'm ready to launch.
So if you would like to do me a great big favor and take a look at:
http://www.kirkmcpike.com/beta.html
and poke around a bit, and let me know what you think, I'd be overwhelmingly grateful.
This site is going to be something of a foundation for new non-fiction writing endeavors, encompassing my weblog, weekly columns (mostly on matters political or technological) and independent essays. None of the new content is up yet, but you can check out the columns in the "Print Columns" section, where previously-published material of mine is available for perusal in HTML or PDF (including my award-winning column on gay marriage ).
Who knows, if you like what you see here, you may want to swing back by in January, when the weekly columns Finally start rolling out.
Stranger things have happened.
But if anyone wants to take a look and tell me what you think (either by PM or here -- discussion is a good thing), I would love you forever. Or maybe just like you very well for a long time. :-)
So if you would like to do me a great big favor and take a look at:
http://www.kirkmcpike.com/beta.html
and poke around a bit, and let me know what you think, I'd be overwhelmingly grateful.
This site is going to be something of a foundation for new non-fiction writing endeavors, encompassing my weblog, weekly columns (mostly on matters political or technological) and independent essays. None of the new content is up yet, but you can check out the columns in the "Print Columns" section, where previously-published material of mine is available for perusal in HTML or PDF (including my award-winning column on gay marriage ).
Who knows, if you like what you see here, you may want to swing back by in January, when the weekly columns Finally start rolling out.
Stranger things have happened.
But if anyone wants to take a look and tell me what you think (either by PM or here -- discussion is a good thing), I would love you forever. Or maybe just like you very well for a long time. :-)
Comments
Good luck with the site Kirkland
Fellows
Dean is from Vermont, not New Hampshire.
Appreciation:
I quite enjoy the content and I like the straightforward layout, which is appropriate to the material.
Quibbles:
I had to text zoom to 120% to read the text comfortably.
Without changing the straighforward layout, I might suggest adding just a bit of colour, done very simply and tastefully.
Originally posted by Fran441
"Dean?s record in New Hampshire is one of fiscal conservatism mixed with social liberalism"
Dean is from Vermont, not New Hampshire.
See what happens when you blog from work?
Originally posted by Chinney
Very quickly, a few comments.
Appreciation:
I quite enjoy the content and I like the straightforward layout, which is appropriate to the material.
Thanks.
Quibbles:
I had to text zoom to 120% to read the text comfortably.
Without changing the straighforward layout, I might suggest adding just a bit of colour, done very simply and tastefully. [/B]
The size of the body text has been a constant struggle. 2 pixels larger than where it is and it's too big. Where it is seems to small to some. I've nudged it 1 pixel, if you'd like to look again and tell me what you think.
Clearly I chose to eschew color as much as possible, aside from hyperlinks (and at one point they were also shades of gray). I like the newspapery-look. There will be color from time to time, and when it is, it should be pretty dramatic (check out the "About Me" or "Colophon" pages for how much color stands out).
Thanks for the comments!
Originally posted by FellowshipChurch iBook
Zoe is cute and I like your new G5 setup!
Yes, Zoe is the cutest ever. She's my .Mac screensaver as well. :-)
Good luck with the site Kirkland
Thanks!
Originally posted by Kirkland
The size of the body text has been a constant struggle. 2 pixels larger than where it is and it's too big. Where it is seems to small to some. I've nudged it 1 pixel, if you'd like to look again and tell me what you think.
It is still a bit small for my taste. If I bump up my text zoom to 120%, however, all is fine. I guess it will just be one of those pages for which I do this. My tired old eyes...
2) You should probably either redesign your blog or move to moveable type or pMachine for handling it. There are better features all around, and you can customize to your heart's content.
Doesn't editing those things require knowledge of PHP? I think customizing movable type to work and look like the rest of my site would be beyond my abilities, technologically. Say what one will about Blogger, but it is very easy to customize.
As a temporary workaround I'm going to set the LiveJournal page to open into a new window like any other external link.
Kirk
Originally posted by Kirkland
midwinter,
Doesn't editing those things require knowledge of PHP? I think customizing movable type to work and look like the rest of my site would be beyond my abilities, technologically. Say what one will about Blogger, but it is very easy to customize.
As a temporary workaround I'm going to set the LiveJournal page to open into a new window like any other external link.
Kirk
Not really. You need to know a little about CSS, but not all that much. I'm by no means a whiz at this stuff, and I'm able to make my blog look like I want it to. It's really just a matter of recognizing what is what (that is, what MT tags do what) and then sticking them in the right places in your HTML.
As for LJ...the problem with it is that, to my mind, it's just not very professional. It smacks of 17 year-old schoolgirls bitching about boys they like. The blogger and MT and pMachine communities tend to be older and much less "today in class Tommy looked at me funny and stuff and I was all, you know, like, whatever." Feel free to take a look around my site (in my profile) and rifle through my links. There are lots of sites there for you to get a sense of what I'm talking about.
Cheers
Scott
If it's just CSS, i can probably handle that. My entire site as is is built in CSS and HTML.
Originally posted by Kirkland
I went with LiveJournal for a blog because it gave me comments (which lame old Blogger won't do), and I liked the communities features. I'll take a look at your site, though.
If it's just CSS, i can probably handle that. My entire site as is is built in CSS and HTML.
That's really all it is. MT and pMachine (which I've also used) give you comments and trackbacks natively, and other than the calls to the actual software, you don't have to know anything about PHP to dink with it.
Cheers
Scott
Originally posted by Kirkland
Calls to the actual software?
I meant, PHP tags to get the software (moveable type or pmachine) to do things besides its default settings.
My bad.
Seriously. I know JACK about all of this, and I have no trouble getting around in it all.
Originally posted by Kirkland
I'll look into it. Thanks! Would you recommend movable type or some other service?
I've used both, and right now I'm using MT. pMachine, however, has gotten awfully cool since I gave it up.