SlapPop

If you don't know, this site is powered by the Drupal CMS. It's fast, powerful, scalable, and overall pretty damn hot. But aside from a few minor gripes (features not built-in that should be such as blogrolls, comment notification, etc etc), I like it a lot. Save for one major issue.

Upgrading an install.

You may have noticed the rather empty-looking ScratchBack widget to the right of this. Notice how it's never had anything donated/whatever? Yeah... I believe that it's time that I get rid of it. Why? There's a few reasons...

It seems that I'm never happy with this site... I go through phases of what I think it should be, what I think I need, ways to increase traffic, ways to make it more enjoyable for readers... And then it just all gets ripped down in my head a month or so later.

The lame part is that I don't have time to work on this site like I'd like to. Partially because I have a full-time job and a wife and a house to take care of, and partially because I'd rather play Guitar Hero/Rock Band or WoW. So, some of it's my fault, some of it is just life. That being said, I really do need to prioritize my web-based ideas a lot more, and try not to minimize attention on other things that are more important.

I really need to avoid information overload. Maximize screen real estate, minimize clutter, and make the best out of the promotional tools that are at my disposal. That's something that I've been attempting to do here and there, but since I haven't made a completely focused attempt at overhauling my blogging practices, it's fallen to the wayside. As you can tell.

So hopefully within the next month I'll have this place refined, redefined, and much more efficient. As well as a couple of other web venture ideas I've had stewing around my brain for the past few months. We'll see what happens there.

Finally got ScribeFire to work with Drupal, didn't realize I had to turn on the BlogAPI module... so it works now. Let's try a test post. :)

I know that sometimes people get carried away with their blogs, putting in all sorts of crap, extra ads, links everywhere, cluttering things up. I switched this site over to a three-column layout because I wanted more space "above the fold" for key items, and while it feels functional to a point, it's slightly cluttered, I think.

I'd like to hear some of your opinions on this site, other sites, examples of what to do and what not to do. Peeves of yours, or favorite ideas on how a blog layout should or could be set up.

I've come to a few conclusions while blogging... One is that I'm usually much more boring than I'd like to be. Another is that I never blog enough and usually go weeks without doing so. But the reason for this one's a pretty good one, I think: Sponsored blogging is NOT for me or my blog. Why?

Simple. Coming back to conclusions 1 and 2 above, I'm not blogging enough to make it worth it, and I'm not insane enough (or whatever) to come up with crazy shit that makes reading sponsored blog posts intriguing enough to keep people reading them.

So, looks like I'm a genius and forgot to verify my site with MyBlogLog... So I'll do that now.

Undergoing MyBlogLog Verification

And... done! Good stuff. So, be sure not to let yourself forget to do the same for your site(s), with MBL and others that require it. If you do, chances are you're missing out on something cool.

And while you're at it, check out the Featured Site of the Day, PopSense, brought to you by Entrecard. No, not just pointing PopSense because of the name similarities, it's a pretty fun little site with a ton of random and entertaining stuff. Be sure to check it out.

To all you other EC'ers out there, I'm going to try and do more about promoting those sites I like, so please don't feel left out, I'm just very, very lazy at times.

And don't forget about the tip jar to the right of it too! It'd do a ton of good right about now... Tips, or good job offers. I'll accept either. :D

I don't like writing about myself for a few reasons. One, don't have too much to write about, other than random statements belying my geekiness. Two, with what I do have to say, I don't like sounding full of myself, or egotistical. Which I don't think that what I have to say is that great, it's just one of those things of mine. So, with that in mind, I wrote a lot of random observations in my About section. Go read if you're bored enough.

I've been tweaking with the comments systems here, and trying to get it as easy as possible, among other things. I hate spam (duh), and have taken steps to eliminate it: Enter Mollom, yet another brainchild from Dries Buytaert, the creator of Drupal.

Drupal is new to me. Very new. But I like to think that I'm learning the quirks and ins and outs pretty well. Every once in a while I end up with some major issues that take me a day or two of stupid head-bashing to get fixed, but after a while it falls into place and I think to myself "Erm... wow, that was easy". Such is the case with the comments here.. What'd I do? Just keep reading.