Yes, Virginia, there is an editor
I finally had some time to do a little updating on Horse Bloggers. I’ve run through the profiles and cleaned them up (added screenshots, removed some non-blog sites, removed some duplicate submissions, fixed a couple profile pages that weren’t displaying correctly, etc.).
Next step: some articles, some new features, some news announcements. Maybe it won’t take me four months this time…
I should just make a Horse Bloggers category
I debated posting this, since theoretically everyone interested in Horse Bloggers checks that site for news and updates. But I decided that, while I’m not the queen of publicity by a long shot, I do know one thing: buzz is good.
So here are the latest cool features (and an overview of what’s next):
- Members can rate blogs now (one to five carrots). You don’t have to own a blog to be a member—anyone can join the site. So feel free to sign up and rate your favorites!
- Blog syndication. I’m really excited about this one. If your blog has an RSS or Atom feed, I can syndicate it on your Horse Bloggers profile. See it in action here. You don’t have to ping Horse Bloggers or anything—just provide your feed’s URL. The site checks it every six hours (four times a day), and if you’ve added a new entry it updates your profile page. Cool, huh?
- A newsletter. Because the Declaration of the Rights of Webmasters clearly states we are allowed to have them. Ok, I might have made that up. The Declaration bit—the newsletter is real.
You know, every time I get through another chunk of my list, something else comes up… why is that? (In an unrelated note, I figured out today that I can in fact use Expression Engine to make a site I’ve wanted to do for YEARS. I thought there would be a licensing issue but there isn’t. It’ll probably take a few months to get the site up and running, but I’m so excited that I can get moving on it. Finally!)
It’s the little things that make me go Woot!
I’ve been slowly plodding away on the Horse Bloggers site. Today’s major milestone: there is now a member registration/login area.
Register an account, login, and add/edit your blog profiles! Quick, easy—what more could you want? (If your blog is already in the database, there’s a slightly more complicated claiming process to work through, but it’s not difficult; it’ll just take a little email correspondence to confirm that you’re actually the blog owner. Or, if you prefer, send me $100 in non-sequential, unmarked bills…)
I will tell you, though, that setting up the member management area was… oh my gosh. Every time I forget that software engineers have the logic of six year olds (which is to say: it makes sense to them, but woe the person who walks in unaware), I do something like this project. Fortunately, I love this kind of thing—which is why I do it—but oy.
Just as a random example, so we can all sit in a metaphorical coffee house somewhere and roll our eyes at how weird software engineers are:
When you log in to a site, the software’s job is to distinguish you from anonymous visitor #67. So, since its entire reason for being is that it is supposed to know you are Xenon876 and not MaryLamb, you would think—wouldn’t you?—that it wouldn’t be too much to ask for it to put a “Hi, Xenon876!” at the top of the page. Right?
Apparently, that is too much to ask, unless you circumvent the entire system. Which I did. Because y’all deserve a cheery welcome message.
The important thing is that it’s working now. Check it out—there’s a new design, too. Getting the member management up was a lot more work than getting the rest of the site working, but now that it’s up, I’m all giddy and excited. Possibly from lack of sleep, but still.
Major step forward for the site, and now all the basic functionality is there—so from here on out it’s just tinkering. Endless, ongoing, perpetual tinkering. Woot!
Update, Update, Update
Ah ha! The secret HorseBlogs announcement at last!
So, my little server move last week did have a purpose, but it’s not one that’s really relevant to anyone reading this blog except for two things.
One: you can now access this blog by going to haltnearx.com. That’s for anyone who hates the dashes in the URL.
Two: I’ve moved HorseBlogs to its own domain. The reasons are many, and complicated… yeah, ok. Not so much. I could, so I did.
In the long run, I think it’ll be healthier for the database this way. For instance: suppose someone liked the idea of the database but thought that I was a raving lunatic? This way, unless they actually read the About pages and follow the links (and who does that?!), they’ll never, ever know I had anything to do with it. Sneaky, right?
Also, this makes it easier to credit/give fair weight to anyone else working on the database—there’s more neutrality this way. (And suddenly I crave Swiss chocolate…)
Now, I’ll admit it’s not quite done. The design is a bit rough, and I haven’t even looked at it in Internet Explorer, but I can think of at least three layout errors it’ll have off the top of my head. (So why didn’t I fix them? Good question. Because I loathe Internet Explorer with the fire of a thousand gas grills and I refuse to put in the hacks to fix all IE’s problems until the very end.) So you’ll have to excuse the rough edges until I get some sleep and can add those hacks in.
Also, you’ll notice that not all the new features are up and not all the blogs have been moved over. All my excuses sound like whining, so I’ll just point out that what is there, works. That’s something, isn’t it?
So, without further rambling—the new site: http://HorseBloggers.com
Oooh, I love site launches. Even half-complete site launches. They make me feel all fuzzy.
All Ahead Full
The server move is done, so comments are back on. I am going to put the HorseBlogs submission form back right after I post this, as well, so that should be working too.
I will eventually get around to making a non-techy post. Really.