Blog update: getting it working

20 August 2010

This blog feeds Google with links and words to promote my up and coming bands. Maybe my silly little creations will, at some time, get a push from it too. The point I’m trying to get at is this. What you are reading (if at all you are) is optimised for programs over humans. The grammar isn’t particularly good and the copy is a little dry. However, it’s fun to write and I hope some day in the distant future, real people could enjoy reading it. You never know, enough practice and I might get good at it.

Anyway, on to the geeking. I’ve been messing with my hosting service trying to get WordPress fixed. For various technical reasons I couldn’t update it. So it all went stale. It’s okay now though, it’s all been fixed.

I decided to upgrade my blog to the latest version of WordPress. I’ve also altered the theme again. The one as of this date is called Boxes. Because it’s got boxes in it. Get it? It’s based on my original draft for this blog, just a bit different. It’s also built entirely using CSS3. No images this time. Get me eh?

I’ve also installed a program called Disqus. It’s a threaded commenting system that is really good. Readers can log in using credentials from other web-sites like Facebook or Twitter and post to articles using those details. Disqus is also a service that tracks your comments and replies from all the blogs a reader has contributed to, and notifies them when they’ve received a reply. It also tracks opinion of your feedback, with “Like” and “Dislike” buttons. Neat huh?

Looking ahead

If I can maintain enough self-interest I’ll polish this theme up some more. The problem is my tastes keep changing. (There will be a post on that.) I’ve effectively started thinking about my next theme, even though this one isn’t yet completed.

What I’m about to write gets written by me all the time. I’m aware of this and I’ll keep echoing the same sentiments. I’m looking for a brand. I can’t keep calling me, the blog, my services etc, all madness Jack. It doesn’t mean anything! It originates from before I had Internet access. I was very young, and I dreamt of running a website called madness-at-jack dot com. Yes, I didn’t know the difference between a URL and an email address. I used to write websites in MS Word. One day I got around to writing the raw HTML. It was a good day.

The trend has just kept going, and it’s time for a destruction and a fresh start. I need something catchy, cool and anal. Like all bloggers on the Internet have. I need a strong brand. I have the ability to create it, design it, promote it; just not the imagination to make it original. Also it needs distance from the personal nature it currently has. It’s too mardy at the moment. (OMG you noticed!!?!)

If anyone has any tips to setting up an Internet brand, please let me know. For now though, do admire my cleaned up blog and nice new theme.

Attribution
Photo “The View” by Ludovic Bertron