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Layout Experiments
What do you think of this layout? Too annoying? I have some ideas to tweak it but I need to get some MF’ing sleep… Suggestions welcome.
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September 15th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
I think the right justification (ha) takes a bit of getting used to, but ultimately, I like it.
September 15th, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I was going to send you a bug report, actually. : )
it doesn’t appeal to my symmetry-loving sensibilities, but that could be just me. aside from the alignment thing, it also seems pretty cluttered. did you have borders / dividing lines before?
I don’t know, it depends on what you’re going for. you might want there to be less distinction or visual space between ads and your own content, and that may be more important to you than aesthetics, but you’re talking to a person who gets antsy in a messy room and can’t see a crooked picture on the wall without straightening it.
September 15th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
Just noticed all the advertising on this website after having disabled adblockplus… That’s unfortunate, unsubscribe from feeds, delete links and never come back. This layout sucks too. =( bye.
September 15th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
Dot
So, like your plan is that by leaving, you will make Tim feel so badly that he will break all ties to capitalism?
Or do you feel like Tim has defiled you with his capitalism and you need to leave in order to remain pure?
I am really cuurious, I am not being totally sarcastic. Maybe you are dunno….
As for the layout, Tim, I keep thinking a bunch of stuff will pop up on the left hand side but it never does.
I like the Truth exchange feature though. Facilitates better interaction.
September 15th, 2007 at 2:15 pm
Yeah, do what you have to do, “Dot.” I’m not here to force you to make any particular decision about your life. Why try to attack me emotionally over it?
I agree that this layout doesn’t especially work. But there is an element that I think is interesting in it. So I want to hit the drawing board again with it. I just was up way too late last night…
I’m thinking of potentially putting the TRUTH EXCHANGE on the left hand side in a third column, but it needs even more than that.
September 15th, 2007 at 2:47 pm
The problem with this layout if that it makes you feel like you’re on the edge of a cliff… there’s too much expectation with no payoff. It’s like a horror movie where nobody dies!
September 15th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
There, it is at least centered in the screen again. That alleviates some of the tension. Still needs work though
September 15th, 2007 at 3:50 pm
Totally screwed in IE right now
September 15th, 2007 at 4:09 pm
I like it bettet centered.
September 15th, 2007 at 4:17 pm
me too
September 15th, 2007 at 4:18 pm
I just realized how this doesn’t add up:
Just enable your ad blocking software again!
September 15th, 2007 at 5:43 pm
Mostly fixed now!
September 15th, 2007 at 6:21 pm
[…] I don’t like to give away all my secrets, but I do like gloat over how clever I am. You’ve probably noticed all my interface changes here over the past few days. One of my favorite things that I added, which I want to specifically highlight because I’m so proud of myself is the way which I changed the “Submit Comment” button to say “ADD + VALUE”. […]
September 15th, 2007 at 7:18 pm
The ads on now ask me if I need to reverse memory loss or need market research done via MRI. Do they think your site is for the brain damaged or those who like to study the brain damaged?
Always be keeping the plain white background w/black, easy to read font type. Always be keeping Truth Exchange. Always be keeping the alternating gray/white in the comments section. I like the old way of ending a post too but you may not be keeping the catagories. If you’re not going to continue to list posts by catagory at least keep a page with the old catagories somewhere. When I go to a big site I’ve never been to before one of the first things I look for is some kind of overview to decide if I want to invest the time or not.
Since I’m not used to well designed corporate logos on this site my mind is going ‘ohhh, pretty colors’ and clicking on them. Don’t let them blink.
I know you’ve only been in this new phase a little while but don’t forget how you got those 3000 unique links in the first place. One of the UNIQUE products you are selling is your WRITING on Pop Culture/Occult.
From my perspective you’re saying “Hey, I’ve got the mall and the parking lot and the big box store and you guys start your businesses here too and we’ll all attract customers to each other’s stores.”. But, if you are the entryway, the introduction point to the mall, you have to keep product on your shelves.
September 15th, 2007 at 7:41 pm
I’m not sure I understand what you mean.
I’m not actually selling anything at all, technically.
September 15th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Oh wait, are you making an emotional comment in so far as you’re worried that I will veer away from the subject matter which drew you here to this site in the first place, and in which you found a shared value community?
Or am I reading into that too much?
September 15th, 2007 at 8:41 pm
You’re not? I thought that was the direction you were heading. When I hear talk about ads, rankings, etc. I think about money.
No, you’re not. I valued the content and community feel even and before I started posting comments and I would feel bad if there were only traces of that left. I could refer friends by saying ‘read this article and if you like it you’ll find a lot more you like’ and they did. When you changed to a more imagery based dialog I knew I could refer my more artistic friends and they liked it and understood it much more than I did.
So, I’m thinking, “He’s trying to increase business, how do I help?”
and I can’t think of anything. If they want to learn about tech they don’t want philosophy. If they want philosophy they don’t want tech. I hear your voice from experience on your site but someone new would be confused.
You get “referrals” via links from other blogs. I’ve only seen links to your site on sites that had a spiritual bent. Someone who clicked on your site from that type of site wouldn’t stay very long so in effect you would lose customers and you wouldn’t be able to pass along those customers to friends/fellow travelers.
September 15th, 2007 at 9:03 pm
These things are practical real life issues, so I am facing them consciously and as strategically as possible. What I am talking *really* about is operating a self-sustaining web business which can grow and take care of other people and which we can all benefit from through mutual collaboration and creativity.
I know this sounds newspeaky, but it’s a matter of focusing my intention, so I have to add it in: I am not trying to increase business, I am trying to ADD + VALUE.
Who is “they”? Fuck them anyway. Few people wanted to read what I wrote when I first started out either and people gave me shit when I was strolling through imagery. So how am I supposed to judge?
Anyway, technology IS philosophy. It all comes out of the same roots. There’s not a lick of difference and I think I am in a unique position to deliver valuable information and connections between the two.
I don’t normally focus on this aspect of my site, but the honest truth is that I make almost no money monthly from regular visitors. My “customers” don’t make me any money (except through donations, which are totally awesome!). It is exactly people who surf in off Google looking for some keyword combination who make me money: they don’t find what they want, so they click on an ad and vanish.
But I don’t even make that much money off Google anymore either - they are dropping the ball.
More to the point though: the values with which I set up and always ran this site are not now under threat. If anything, they are about to experience a fuller and more comprehensive and valuable expression than was before possible when I held a number of limiting assumptions as fixed Truths needlessly.
September 15th, 2007 at 9:18 pm
This is coming through when I read the current stuff.
That’s interesting. What changed at Google?
That’s good. That’s probably what I was asking about.
September 15th, 2007 at 9:30 pm
Good question. I suspect a variety of small technical issues on my part, which I have been trying to single out and change. But it seems to be a wider more systemic problem perhaps with the increase in other types of technologies (see this). I could also pontificate about changes I see occurring on the ground with Google’s attitudes towards the small business people upon whose backs they stand, but that is an issue for another time and place.
September 15th, 2007 at 9:55 pm
My Mom is involved in Cable Access TV and all over the country they’re having the same problem. One company buys another and the buyer decides to eliminate Cable Access even thought that’s what they bought and that’s the agreement that allowed the ground to be dug up to lay the cable in the first place.
Here in Chicago they have the bond in the bank (or wherever bonds hang out) to fulfill their agreement and they tried to claim they didn’t have the money.
It’s hard to think of the internet as a bait and switch scam but that’s what you’re describing.
September 16th, 2007 at 1:36 am
I’m not sure it’s as simple as a bait and switch scam!
September 16th, 2007 at 2:02 pm
Thanks for the laugh Julia!
Whenever I see ADD, I think Attention Deficit Disorder. Perhaps I just haven’t become adjusted to the new format, but reading it makes me feel like I have ADD. Too jumpy?
I like the way you’re adding the “money” links. I admit, I’ve been reading your site on an almost daily basis for the past 3+ years, and it wasn’t until yesterday that I finally clicked on advertisement. So yeah, good work on that.
I really find interesting your thoughts on Google, Technology of the Future.
Remember, even the aliens consult Google to find the “leader”.
;)