Comments on: Blog Content Accessibility http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/ Trapped within my own mind Wed, 23 Jul 2008 17:07:20 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Jim http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14327 Jim Mon, 17 Sep 2007 13:50:56 +0000 http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14327 Honestly, angel, I'm glad to hear it. This is just my personal opinion, of course, but I think that excessive use of the 'More' tag actually does more to interrupt flow than to aid it. Basically, my own philosophy is that I like to make my blog as accessible for my readers as possible. Part of that is allowing my readers to be able to scroll down my blog continuously and be able to read everything without having to click into each entry individually in order to get the whole story. I know I don't like doing that, and I won't usually spend too much time on a blog that makes me have to click into each entry in order to finish reading. It takes time to do that, and I don't usually have that kind of time (Hint: I have 123 blogs I follow on a daily basis). As I've mentioned before, about the only time I'll ever use the 'More' tag is to hide spoiler information. Aside from that, it's a free-for-all with my content. Honestly, angel, I’m glad to hear it.  This is just my personal opinion, of course, but I think that excessive use of the ‘More’ tag actually does more to interrupt flow than to aid it.  Basically, my own philosophy is that I like to make my blog as accessible for my readers as possible.  Part of that is allowing my readers to be able to scroll down my blog continuously and be able to read everything without having to click into each entry individually in order to get the whole story.  I know I don’t like doing that, and I won’t usually spend too much time on a blog that makes me have to click into each entry in order to finish reading.  It takes time to do that, and I don’t usually have that kind of time (Hint: I have 123 blogs I follow on a daily basis).  As I’ve mentioned before, about the only time I’ll ever use the ‘More’ tag is to hide spoiler information.  Aside from that, it’s a free-for-all with my content.

]]> By: bs angel http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14314 bs angel Sat, 15 Sep 2007 19:32:27 +0000 http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14314 Sorry for the double post (will I score a triple on your blog?!) but I wanted to give you a quick update on this subject. About once a month I try to go through my categories and just check the flow of each one. Sometimes I tag things weird at the moment and don't discover that it doesn't really fit in there until I am browsing my own categories. So I was doing this yesterday as my monthly clean up and decided I didn't like my use of the -more- tags. Long story short, I pulled those tags probably from about half of my articles. It took the better part of the day but I like the flow of my blog better. I had a specific length that I would use those tags in and I made that length longer. Overall, I am happy with the change. Sorry for the double post (will I score a triple on your blog?!) but I wanted to give you a quick update on this subject.

About once a month I try to go through my categories and just check the flow of each one.  Sometimes I tag things weird at the moment and don’t discover that it doesn’t really fit in there until I am browsing my own categories.  So I was doing this yesterday as my monthly clean up and decided I didn’t like my use of the more tags.  Long story short, I pulled those tags probably from about half of my articles.  It took the better part of the day but I like the flow of my blog better.  I had a specific length that I would use those tags in and I made that length longer.  Overall, I am happy with the change.

]]> By: bs angel http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14169 bs angel Sat, 01 Sep 2007 21:21:51 +0000 http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14169 Interesting. If they ever develop such a feature, be sure to let me know and I will implement it. :) Interesting.  If they ever develop such a feature, be sure to let me know and I will implement it.  :)

]]> By: Jim http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14166 Jim Sat, 01 Sep 2007 11:15:26 +0000 http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14166 Well, you actually use the tag judiciously. There are some who use it simply to drive traffic to their blogs, and those are the ones I was complaining about specifically. If you were using a hosted version of WordPress instead of the .com version, I'd recommend a plugin that lets you have two different feeds - one that displays excerpts and one that displays full posts. Actually, that causes me to think that maybe I should leave some feedback for the WordPress development team to request that feature. I know I'd much rather be able to read full posts in my feed, regardless of where the 'more' tag shows up. Well, you actually use the tag judiciously.  There are some who use it simply to drive traffic to their blogs, and those are the ones I was complaining about specifically.  If you were using a hosted version of WordPress instead of the .com version, I’d recommend a plugin that lets you have two different feeds – one that displays excerpts and one that displays full posts.  Actually, that causes me to think that maybe I should leave some feedback for the WordPress development team to request that feature.  I know I’d much rather be able to read full posts in my feed, regardless of where the ‘more’ tag shows up.

]]> By: bs angel http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14161 bs angel Sat, 01 Sep 2007 00:22:49 +0000 http://shamuswrites.com/2007/08/28/blog-content-accessibility/#comment-14161 Oops, I suck. LOL ... In all seriousness, I don't use RSS feeds. I visit all my sites through bookmarks. So I organize my blog the way I use other people's blogs. I use the "more" option because I know all my articles do not appeal to every person. That way when someone comes to my site, they can gather enough information to find out if they want to read the article and then spend the time to do that, otherwise continue on to the next one. I assume people are only going to stay so long on my page so if they spend too much time scrolling through 2 articles they aren't interested in, they will leave without finding the stuff farther down that will interest them. Does that make sense? Plus, sometimes I get rather verbose. And by sometimes I mean frequently. : ) Should I change that? Is it less than optimal? I don't do one sentence teasers or anything. I do a handful of paragraphs before using that tag. I'm such a noob with this stuff. I'll take constructive criticism if you have any to offer on my site in particular. Oops, I suck.  LOL …

In all seriousness, I don’t use RSS feeds.  I visit all my sites through bookmarks.  So I organize my blog the way I use other people’s blogs.  I use the “more” option because I know all my articles do not appeal to every person.  That way when someone comes to my site, they can gather enough information to find out if they want to read the article and then spend the time to do that, otherwise continue on to the next one.  I assume people are only going to stay so long on my page so if they spend too much time scrolling through 2 articles they aren’t interested in, they will leave without finding the stuff farther down that will interest them.  Does that make sense?  Plus, sometimes I get rather verbose.  And by sometimes I mean frequently.  : )

Should I change that?  Is it less than optimal?  I don’t do one sentence teasers or anything.  I do a handful of paragraphs before using that tag.  I’m such a noob with this stuff.  I’ll take constructive criticism if you have any to offer on my site in particular.

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