Maddenation
A Note about the Sidebar
Over there on the right are several quasi-stable features that I’d like to tell you about.
Calendar: This shows which days there were entries to the site (in the current month) and lets you link directly to them.
Search: This allows you to search the site for specific entries. I don’t know how well it works.
Archives: This links directly to all the entries for a particular month.
Categories: This links directly to the categories that have entries in them (and shows how many entries there are in each). In other words, you can find past entries by date using the “Archives” or by subject using “Categories” (or by searching for them). The site’s backbone is a database, so these pages are created automatically from the same ingredients (i.e. there’s no real redundancy, and nobody has to make these pages by hand). Note that currently there are only a couple of categories displayed. There are many more available, and as we post entries that belong in them, they’ll appear here.
Please always select a category for any entries you post. This will make the server save them in the right place. You can also select secondary categories (and tertiary, etc.) if you like. More on this when I post instructions on how to post.
Most category names should be self-explanatory. And I’ve tried to be exhaustive. But I’ve also tried to be parallel in category names. I did this because I’m insanely type-A perfectionist. So, category names are all one-word plural nouns. Update: Now (as of 16/2/2003) you can choose a new category if your entry doesn’t fit into one that’s already available. Please use this only as a last resort, and please choose a plural noun for your category name if you do. Here’s a rundown (Movable Type keeps them alphabetically, and so will I):Connections: Connections of different events or emotions or ideas in new, interesting ways.That’s it for the current categories. If you feel we need more, please either post in “Suggestions” or email me. Please offer justification for your request, and please phrase your category in the form of a plural noun.Funnies: Funny stuff: jokes, riddles, funny pictures, etc. [Q: Do we want “riddles” to be its own category? What about word games like anagrams or palindromes, etc.?]
Histories: Stories from the past, especially genealogical stories about our ancestors (got this idea from Dad’s interest in genealogy). Also could be world history or ancient history or whatever. Note that this is not the same as “memories” below. [Q: Should the category be called “genealogies”? Is it stupid to force a pluralization of that word?]
Ideas: Ideas. You know, the things that come into your head with a “what if?” attached.
Instructions: How to use the site, mostly, though I can imagine there might be other instructions that other people would want to post.
Memories: Stories from our own past. Remember?
Movies: Short movie files, not reviews of Hollywood movies. Please use “Reviews” or “Recommendations” for that.
News: Current events, whether in our lives or in the world at large. I imagine this’ll be a big category. Seems like one of the main purposes of the site.
Pictures: Photos or drawings or stuff from other people’s sites or from the news. Note that you might post pictures with an entry in “Ideas” or any other category, then you could choose “Pictures” as a secondary category. Or if you have a collection of photos from your vacation, then this might be your primary category. More on “Pictures” later, since we’re not yet able to post them (I’m working on the system). But get in the mindset already that pictures are heavy memorywise, so we want to use the site to highlight, not to show everything. We’re also going to have to use some photo-editing program to compress the file sizes. And to keep our pixel sizes uniform. And other things (remember how I’m fanatically perfectionist).
Plans: Either tell us yours or use the space to discuss plans with others. This category isn’t meant for your blueprints, though I suppose they could be posted here if you think that’s necessary.
Questions: Questions about the site and how to use it, or questions for the family or individuals.
Quotes: Quotes from movies or from family members. This is kind of like a subcategory of “Memories” but I thought it might warrant its own category, so like it and weep. And stop making in front of me.
Requests: Requests, which are sort of like questions, but more specifically asking people to do something as a favor.
Reviews: Reviews and recommendations of books, movies, music, websites, etc. This is a place to share things we like and warn about things we don’t like.
Sounds: ReverseVoice ™? “Panis Angelicus”? Uncle Jeff’s guitar solos? The Tords? There are lots of possibilities, but we’ll have to be careful about file sizes and stuff, because sound files are even heavier than image files.
Stuffs: This is the miscellaneous category because miscellaneous is not a plural noun. Word courtesy of Franklin Newton Kalu.
Suggestions: Suggestions for the site or for family members in their personal lives. This is where you can say “We should get one of those cool Weather strips in our right-hand column” or “We need a riddles category” or “Dan, you should shave your beard in a heart shape.”
Links: Most blogs use this space to link to other blogs. I don’t like that idea. We don’t want to fill this up with everybody’s Internet Explorer Favorites lists, but we do want something here. I’ve begun by putting some general-interest big sites. But let’s hear some suggestions about what you’d like to link to. Be reasonable.
Mailing List: We and others can sign up to be notified by email of major site updates. This doesn’t happen automatically when the site is updated, but I can use it when I want. I don’t know if this will be much good, but let me know what you think.
Login: You don’t need to log in to read the site or to post comments to entries, but you do need to log in to post entries.
Powered by Movable Type: Because the program we use to manage the site content is free (we paid them to install it), they ask that we do this small advertisement for them and link to them. I don’t mind doing it. Please don’t mind either. It’s not like it’s a pop-up ad or a flashing banner at the top of the page.
Okay, that’s it for the sidebar. Remember that the sidebar is supposed to be utilitarian. If you think something should be added, let me know. If you think we should remove something, let me know. If you want any other changes, let me know. I’ve tried to make it worthwhile, but if you’re checking out other people’s sites, you may see something you’d like to have (for instance, one thing I’ve seen, but don’t want, because we’re all spread out, is a “Current Weather” bar; or many sites have links to “Recent Entries” which I found redundant since the entries are there on the page). Let me know and we’ll discuss it.
Patrick • Instructions • 02/14/03 • 4 comments
Comments
Dad • 02/17/03 • 11:27 PM:great idea linking the calendar numbers to the postings made on that day. maybe the days with postings could be highlighted a little better. I find it hard to see the difference between regular days and those slightly darker ones with links. could these be made a different color?
Dan • 09/26/03 • 9:13 PM:does anybody know this guy? i’m assuming it’s a guy.
Dad • 09/28/03 • 8:42 PM:This could become a bad trend. Can we sic some savvy, relentless hacker bent on mayhem on to his site?
Patrick • 09/29/03 • 9:20 AM:I deleted the offending comment. Here’s a weird question: I tried to check the guy’s IP address so I could block it, but it turns out that everyone has the same IP address: Dad, Dan, AJ, Kathleen, and the evil spammer. I’m checking on this, and meanwhile trying to find a way to block all spam of this sort. The content-management program we use, Movable Type, is an open-source kind of program where lots of hackers help out.
By the way, I’ve learned that these comment-spammers usually post on older blog entries, so that if we didn’t have the “recent comments” feature, we would never have known. But I don’t get how that helps them any. If they post on an old entry, chances are nobody will ever see their spam, nobody will click through, they won’t get any hits, etc. Kind of like those pop-behind windows, which, by the way, Netscape 7.1 can block for you. I’m liking Netscape again after a long time without it.
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