Day: September 26, 2021

Not super happy, but this seems to work….

Murder by Death

EDITED:  I’ve removed the plug in after a bit more discussion.  We just couldn’t get it to look nice across all the pages, and it was the only plugin that allowed us to change the location of the author without paying for a ‘pro’ version.

I did some investigating today about how we could put our names/avatars at the top of each post.  This is apparently called an “author box” and there are several plug-ins that will allow you to modify this, but, it turns out, few that will allow you to put it at the top of the post (without paying for a ‘pro’ version) and fewer still that will display the author box on the blog feed page, which is where we really want it.

The one I’m using here, set to it’s minimal setting, is called Starbox.  It works, but in order for the avatar/name to show up on the blog feed, you have to add a shortcut tag to the top of the page, in this case (without the spaces) [ starbox ].  Since there are several of us, we might have to make that starbox id=”login_name” with the brackets.

It gets the job done but I can’t say I like it.  There’s a better template in the settings but it doesn’t seem to play nice with the theme we’re using and it jams the avatar too far to the left.

Thoughts?  Do we do this manually instead?

Buddy reads and other stuff

Christine

Christine; 09.26.2021

After I posted, it occurred to me that it might be helpful for us to identify who is posting in the post title or using a byline. I added my avatar image to the top so it looks sort of like the old BL posts, doesn’t it? Without identifying the author in the title, it’s a mystery until you get to the bottom!

Once Themis arrives, I’m interested in getting an understanding of what the “project” function can do for us.

It also occurs to me that this format might work really well for buddy reads – much more similar to the old BL feed. If anyone wants to give that a try, let me know and we can see how it works (maybe with one of the Appointment with Agatha October books). I’m read to start Death at the Dolphin anytime. My library hold came through.

I’m also wondering about the Ultimate Book Blogger Plugin. Do I need to create a form to use it, or have we not made it available on this site? I am going to post a book post today. MBD, I think it is worth having available if we can get it for free. If we decide to go this direction, depending on costs, I might also be willing to pay for it.

Which also brings me to financial questions. Is it possible to Venmo you money from the US if we do decide to go this direction? I don’t want you to end up financially on the hook for anything more than nominal expenses. I think we could reasonably expect users to contribute some relatively small amount in order to use whatever we come up with. Mike Finn had some ideas about even creating a non-profit to use to finance it.

Let’s plan to play with this until at least the end of October. I think we’ll have a good idea at that point where the limitations are.

I would also like to bring Wanda in, if no one objects. She uses blogger, and I think it would be good to get some perspective from her on how the two platforms differ. She also posts quite a bit on her blog, and it would be easy for her to cross-post here and see how she likes it. Plus, not gonna lie, I love her food posts!

That’s all for this morning…

Posts without images are boring, so here’s a pic of Gus with his face in the water!

Site image organization

Murder by Death

Given that we could, conceivably, have upwards of 50 people using the permanent site, and that we have unlimited image storage, I thought it would be a good idea to install an image organization plug-in.

I’ve created a folder for each of us currently here (and it’s easy-easy to add them) and I’ve dragged the images we’ve uploaded so far to their respective folders.  I’ve also created a General site folder for images that are related to the site as a whole.

And now, so I can test the uploading, I give you a Pikachu in an apple tree:

ETA:
That worked really well – I was able to choose my folder before I uploaded the image, so it went straight to the right place.

MbD checking in after doing some googling…

Murder by Death

Ok, so it seems that changes made to either pages or portfolio/projects won’t update on the feed.  Which I guess is still ok?  Players can have their own page or project or whatever so they can have a place to keep track of all the details, but then do regular blog posts for updates and book reviews, etc.

Anyway, here’s the current state of my card:

I just did a screenshot, because doing my regular card would require uploading a LOT of images.  Which brings me to a question:  On my regular site, I use a plug in that allows me to keep seperate folders for different images (photos, graphics, book covers, etc) and I was wondering if it would be helpful to get that plug in (it’s free) and create a folder for each user so everyone can better track the images they want to use?  I’m imaging 50+ people uploading images, and then trying to find the ones they want to post.

The sorting isn’t automatic, and would rely on people policing their own uploads to ensure they ended up in the correct folder, but it might be better than no organisation at all?  And there might be a better plug in then the one I’m using, but as a concept, thoughts?