Monthly Archives: February 2012

Had an idea

Think I’m going to code up a “Holiday” page that will display with a little widget on the front page around holidays ( and the associated contests on the sites where I post )

It will link all the holiday-themed stories for that season I’ve posted, giving you easy access to some holiday cheer 🙂

Probably won’t work on it today, but the idea hit me so hard that it will probably happen.  The widget will probably be directly below the link bar on the main page, and will only have a link to the holiday page + a little image that fits the season.

I’m planning for the Holiday page itself to be dynamic by adding an entry to my database for holiday themes.  That way, the page can automatically generate just by me flipping a switch on the backend of the site.  I’ll probably have the main image also be dynamic, changing according to the appropriate season.

Putting more work on the artist’s plate *laugh*  At least it can be a gradual thing over the course of the year 🙂

Back to working on Sanctuary.  That’s my priority right now, with such a long-standing tradition.

Share

Chugging along

Chugging along on Sanctuary of the Wood when I can.  Had some longer hours at work and a lot of other stuff on my plate, but it’s coming along.

I’m concentrating on it for the time being because of the contest deadline ( which while still quite a ways in the future, can be a problem if I encounter muse issues ) and the tradition I have of posting one every year.  I don’t want to break that.

I’m enjoying the change-up from the last few.  I mentioned it a few blog posts ago, but this one is a different type of story, though it will still be easily recognizable as part of the series.  I’m just blending the more recent stories with the first in the series.

Thought I’d drop a line.  I also make posts on the forum and sing out on the shoutbox there, so there may be stuff there even when I don’t update this blog.  If it looks silent for a day or two, check those other places and see if there’s something going on 🙂

 

Share

Much better

The new direction of Sanctuary is one I’m much happier with.  It doesn’t have that draggy feeling the original was giving me.

I went through the blog subscribers and eliminated around 70 that either showed up in the spam database, had names that looked plain spammy, or came from the .ru/.pl domains.  Hope I didn’t get any legitimate subscribers, but I’m trying to clean up things now that the new anti-spam plugin is catching the spam subscribers before they can clutter my database 😀

I am so loving this spam database.  It’s like the Roach Motel for spammers.  They check in, but they don’t check out.

Not that I’m complaining about the standard plug-in that catches spam comments.  It does a wonderful job as well, and hasn’t let a single spam comment come through.  It just wasn’t stopping spam registrations, and this one is 🙂  It’s the double-whammy.

When you combine that with the same spam protection on the forum, my website is now wonderfully free of spammers.  I smile every morning when I get up and evening when I get home from work as I review the error log of banned spammers desperately trying to log in or post spam.

I’m going to try to remember to start adding tags to my blog posts, in order to better index in search engines.  That’s good for everybody, because it can lead to more feedback, which helps my motivation, which gets more stories out.

Share