(aka, Bryan Veloso)
I wanted to congratulate you on winning a web award at SXSW. We didn’t get a chance to meet/talk at the festival, so I felt like sharing here. To be honest, I don’t read your blog, but have heard nice things about it (good writing, design, etc).
With that last bit of info in mind, I thought it was time to dive in and check out your posts. I read the first one on the home page… then the next one… and then the one after that… oh wait, it’s dated January 1st, 2005. Oh, I see the (A post from the past.) sub-heading now; it must be a random entry from the archives. Okay… so how do I get to previous posts? I hope the Bryan’s Journal button does it.
Ah, the archives… where I now have to click on the Chronology tab… pick 2006, then April. Quite a bit of clicking to get beyond the 2 posts on the homepage. Now I’ll click on « previous 15 posts to see more …oh, not a link. Do you see where I’m going with all this? Also, I’m all for personality on a blog, but I have no idea what your menu options are supposed to mean. Is colophonics even a real word? And what are your thoughts on an active nav state for each section?
ps… I subscribed to your feed and hope this means we are now internet buddies :) …after all, I too am an anime fan.
Comments:
- by Jared Christensen (April 6, 2006)
This sort of archive system seems to be slowly popping up around on blogs, and I can’t stand it. For a thoroughly frustrating experience, I recommend checking out the binarybonsai.com archive. For the record, I loves me The Bonsai, but that archive system has GOT TO GO. Like Avalonstar, it takes at least 2 clicks just to see the most recent articles (beyond the ones on the front page). And why do both archive systems START OFF with the fist post even made on the site? Is there some study that shows that people going to an archive page want to start at the beginning of a site’s history and move forward? Seems highly counter-intuitive to me.
Good call, man. ;)
- by Joshua Lane (April 6, 2006)
- by Bryan Veloso (April 6, 2006)
Funny how I find this through my referrers. Well, I’m flattered that you devoted a whole entry to the site instead of emailing… but I guess the archives were one of the last things on my mind when I was making the site. This was a mistake on my part and is something that will definitely take more priority as I start to redesign.
Thanks for the constructive crits, as I’m always open to it. No, colophonics isn’t a real world, but I like making up words. And yes, I do think we are internet buddies. :)
- by Joshua Lane (April 7, 2006)
- by Nathan Smith (April 7, 2006)
Joshua / Jared: I’m with you there too. For an archive, I say just give me the full listing. Ajax calls are funny, because you’re basically retrieving text, so the filesize you save in the initial loading is negligible. It’s just another layer of separation between the user and the info they’re seeking. On the opposite end of the spectrum is my archive page, which is a totally tasteless brain-dump of both articles and external links.
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