Help Wanted
Apologies for not posting today, but occasionally I have a real job that gets in the way of such things.
I’ve mentioned before that TS 2.0 is close to completion. I thought that I’d engaged the services of a WordPress coding guru to help me get over the final hurdles, but a lack of communication has left me thinking that she doesn’t really need the work.
So…….I’m thinking about doing the changes by myself and just structuring the site to suit our needs.
Problem #1 is as follows: The architecture that I’m planning to use doesn’t post articles in reverse chronological order as you see here now. The new system is more of a magazine style, organising info into categories. You’ll see the categories listed, and then the most recent story for that category is shown.
Problem #2 is that this site has over 60 categories of information. Naturally, I wouldn’t want to confuse everyone by showing them all on the front page. And that’s where help is needed.
If I’m going to get this show on the road, I need to come up with around 6 or 7 critical categories to show on the front page. All future articles will have to be classified in one of those 6 or 7 categories. Why 6 or 7? It’s just what I see as being a practical number.
So, my initial thoughts (in no particular order) on what those categories might be:
Saab News - This one should be self explanatory. All the news about Saab, from sales to model developments, to motorsport and company/personnel stuff.
Rants - I need the outlet from time to time. This one is optional, but some of my favourite writing is in the Letters to GM category.
Saabology - Thoughts about the brand, the culture and the ethos of owning a Saab. This is currently one of the biggest categories on the site.
Saab O The Week - I’d really love to make this more of a feature again. The joy and pride of Saab ownership. This could also incorporate the occasional month of Saab lovin.
Non Saab Specific - Writings on other areas and thoughts about car culture, as well as the occasional personal writing when appropriate.
The Drive - Coverage of road tests or people’s personal stories of driving and loving Saabs, or driving other marques and comparisons with Saabs.
Saab Tech - Some Saab mods and related stuff, car maintenance stuff, car care stuff. Something I’d like to learn more about.
The Rumourfile - The home of Djup Strupe. All of the latest insider info, easily categorised for your perusal.
——
Those main categories will control what shows on the front page and where. There’ll also be tags on the stories (or subcategories) so you can find other stories on similar subjects.
There’ll be other sections of the site, like a showroom for generic information about current model lines. There’ll also be pages for things I have here already like the shop, downloads, etc.
——
Please feel free to have your say in comments.
Do the broad categories I’ve listed there cover most of what we see here at the moment? More importantly, do they cover what you want to see here, and if not, how can they be tuned a bit better?
Again, my apologies for not getting more Saab stuff up here today, but life took over. I’d like to make TS the best it can be and tuning it to your expectations (and keeping it within my limitations) will go a long way towards doing that.
Any advice or assistance with the above would be most appreciated.
Cheers,
Swade
-
More from this category
- Thursday Snippets - rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, for now…
- In defence of the Pontiac Aztek, and other Snippety things
- Saturday Snippets
- Saturday in Vancouver MegaSnippets
More from this author
- Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Thursday Snippets - rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, for now…
- Let Saabs be Saabs
- Nordic adventure in Åre, Sweden
Subscribe to this author
Recent Comments
- zippy on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Beren Erchamion on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Beren Erchamion on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- BrianL on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Ken B on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- SaabLance on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Kroum on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Adam on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- joemama on Edmunds provide puzzling Saab Turbo X road test
- Dippen on Thursday Snippets - rumours of my demise have been greatly exaggerated, for now…
Swadey’s Rumourmill?
Swade
Can I suggest some sub categories e.g. models as some people would liek to go to specific information on a model sometimes rather than ploughing through a load of articles.
Swade, the categories seem to cover the comprehensive gamut of content you still amazing provide consistantly.
My main concern is getting us “hooked” readers learning to use, get & read all the content that would be now “split” 7 ways. Personally, the way I read your blog is that I scroll to bottom of the page & scroll up to read each post in chronological order.
Am I the only one who does that? Or are there others of you who do the same, as well?
My blog (http://racingready.com) is formatted in the same way - posting the most recent content at the top.
So, what’s the consensus of blog reading styles out there?
Hey Swade,
No apologies needed for having a slow day! I *GAVE* you the day off, as your birthday present to me. Didn’t you get the memo?
Anyway, those categories sound great. So great that I almost didn’t comment, but then I thought I’d at least give them a vote of approval.
Swade, can’t you ad a photo archive & movie archive. ItmMakes the total a nice nine.
I will be adding a page that’ll have a full list of the old categories so that people can get to them that way.
I’ll also have a link in the sidebar for posts on each model of car, so you can get to those quickly.
Wilfried, there will be a weekly video in the sidebar, and I think I might be able to add a link directly to videos there.
Dan S.,
When there are more than one new post, I also scroll down and read the posts in chronological order.
I like this blog style because all people get everything. If it’s divded into categories, I fear many people will just look at the one or two of those that seems to be of most interest and miss out on other things.
I like the idea of a magazine style thing, but as I said before I think it’s because of TS being a blog that it caught all the attention. And I really like the idea of gathering all the amazing material that have been posted here. Can’t you keep the blog thing and just move “old” stuff to the magazine site for easy browsing?
Anyway, I think it’s a good advice to think about the categoris for a while. When you think they are perfect, think another week. They have to be really distinctive and clear.
For regulars ti would be enough to have reverse order RSS feed.
But for new people who get here from other sides where you are referenced as blog (like autoblog, forums, or even spoken word), the search for stuff in categories might be confusing.
If you really want to go with categories, i’d add somewhere to the top of main page just the titles of last 5/10 entries in reverse chronological order with a link to see more.
On the other hand it also depends how you are going to populate the categories. I guess you want to promote (=stay longer on mainpage) the more author like content (rants, etc.), while the news items will be phasing out faster.
Yeah and the frequency of entries comes in play too, just calculate how many will/can be displayed (per category ?) vs. how long you want to stay them there (how soon will they be pushed out) plus consider the simplicity of searching for pushed out items.
Usually for time related search people don’t go more than a week back (catching-up after holidays).
I hate to rain on swade’s parade, too, but I agree with the others that presenting the content in categories is going to require that readers look in multiple locations and will be a publishing metaphor more akin to print newspapers than the current online fashion.
Might I suggest that TS 2.0 have the section-y presentation that swade’s wants with a section or link to a blog-”traditional” reverse-chronological listing. That way, the front door can be what swade wants and help new/occasional visitors find content by topic while also letting regulars continue to read everything without lots of clicking around?
P.S. I’d offer to help you do this, swade, but so far I have only mastered reading WordPress.
Doesn’t need the work — she’s just playing hard to get.
Sounds ok to me.
Personally, I like the setup the way it is because I can immediately tell if there is something new. Then I can just read to the last articles. Simple.
If you can swap an item’s category fairly easily after it’s been posted, you could add a ThisWeek category and reshuffle every few days (provided it’s quick to do that …) which would still give the most recent postings in one place.
I like the new lay out. If you have an interest in Saab a few clicks should not be a problem.
I am greatful that I still have this site to click onto. Thanks Swade.
Swade,
Don’t ever apologize for not posting enough. Look back at the news from the past week… Now look back three weeks. This blog is shut down, remember? :p I think we all agree, we’re just happy to have you posting at all.
I think it should be made clear that your limitations should ALWAYS come before our expectations. Capiche??
Here’s a question: Has anyone asked to have content on the front page divided into categories?
The existing feed works well and is mirrors how blogs are posted and read worldwide. Is there a compelling reason to shake up that model that your readers have learned to use and expect?
If I misunderstand that problem #1 as stated above is not going to be fixed, then I apologize. It seems I often have a similar conversation with developers/designers that come up with concepts that are innovative but not necessarily an improvement. Quite often these innovations decrease usability and utility.
I think you may find that the majority of your readers are interested in content that spans multiple categories and the current scheme of newest content at the top works very well for them. But I am always happy to be proved wrong.
In the end, as long as the feed isn’t changed in my reader software, I’ll continue to be very happy reading TS. Thanks again for all you guys do.
I think your idea requires something more than wordpress. You should look at drupal or joomla. Your goals are really not what wordpress can do, but with either drupal or joomla (or plone) would be a snap.
beren
Call me old fashioned but a plain, new first, layout for the main page is my preference. Still I guess I could still read the feed for that? (it’s how I mainly do read anyway)
Thanks for the feedback, everyone. I’m getting the message pretty clearly that the current latest-first format is the preferred way. I will do what I can.
Swade, I see that you already saw that people seem to like the current format, but I’d still like to say that…I like the current format :p I hate, loathe, and despise the layout you described…if you switch to it, I won’t stop coming here, but I won’t be happy about it.
Yes, the current latest-first is very friendly. I do like the idea of categories for archived items (say, after 3 to 5 days), instead of multiple layers of “previous items” after missing a few days. I’d welcome a link to “the drive” on p. 1.
However, whatever you do will be fine with me! How is the new more relaxed pace of S itself working for you? I am quite content and can sense the reduced stress. It’s just as informative and entertaining.
B