I'm gonna start a blog about sports

[Reed John]

Here is what I've got so far. The posts there now are some old crap I wrote a while ago. Right now, I'm just trying to figure out how to edit and post and mess around with the layout.

Here it is.
http://thedailymope.blogspot.com/

I would appreciate any comments, compliments or constructive criticisms. Non-constructive criticisms can be shoved up your ass.

[jason voorhees]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Made my historic first comment.

My criticism ? Not enough posts. Get thee to work.

[G-Man]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Nice one, Reed. Linked to you over at my place.

[Incandenza]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Nice Reed. I saw FF (or maybe it was someone else) big this up on Twitter this morning, and didn't know it was your blog.

[Reed John]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

It's not yet. I still need to get working on it.

I just wanted an excuse to practice writing in a non-journalism style and figured sports was a good topic because people are interested in it and there's lots of stuff to write about.

[Etienne]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Good luck Reed!

OK, if you're looking for constructive criticism on the layout:

I personally prefer blogs where after an intro paragraph you have to click on a link to read the whole piece. I think it's less necessary if you are going to be posting irregularly and if you're sticking to broadly the same topic though. But it does make it more difficult to scroll through for someone who (say) is interested in your writing on baseball but not on other sports (or vice versa).

I'm not convinced by the colour combination on your title bar. The white on red looks odd to me. The white on green looks great though.

Are you going to just have your own writing up there, or are you going to include contributors? If the latter, then I think you need to have a writer credit at the top of the post. If the former, then it's fine as it is.

Don't know if this is my browser or not, but I get a medium green side bar and dark green headers down the right side. I think it'd look better if both were dark green.

[Reed John]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

I personally prefer blogs where after an intro paragraph you have to click on a link to read the whole piece. I think it's less necessary if you are going to be posting irregularly and if you're sticking to broadly the same topic though. But it does make it more difficult to scroll through for someone who (say) is interested in your writing on baseball but not on other sports (or vice versa).

Well, I'm using one of the stock formats in blogpress. I don't know if it's easy to make that change (which I agree with) without messing around in the html. I could learn to do that, but it might take me a while.

Are you going to just have your own writing up there, or are you going to include contributors? If the latter, then I think you need to have a writer credit at the top of the post. If the former, then it's fine as it is.

Are you offering? I never imagined anyone would want to contribute, but maybe I should.
Again, it's a stock format so I'm not sure how to create a line for the author.

I'm not convinced by the colour combination on your title bar. The white on red looks odd to me. The white on green looks great though.

I tried lots of different things. White just seemed to work the best with the picture that seemed to work the best. It's a picture of a model of old Crosley Field that I took at the Cincinnati Reds Museum. It seems fitting somehow.

Don't know if this is my browser or not, but I get a medium green side bar and dark green headers down the right side. I think it'd look better if both were dark green.

No, that's actually a choice. I wasn't sure which looked better, but I figured that the template designer thought it needed to be two different colors for some reason so I went with that for now. I'll try some other options.

[Incandenza]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Reed of the Valley People wrote:

I personally prefer blogs where after an intro paragraph you have to click on a link to read the whole piece. I think it's less necessary if you are going to be posting irregularly and if you're sticking to broadly the same topic though. But it does make it more difficult to scroll through for someone who (say) is interested in your writing on baseball but not on other sports (or vice versa).

Well, I'm using one of the stock formats in blogpress. I don't know if it's easy to make that change (which I agree with) without messing around in the html. I could learn to do that, but it might take me a while.

I'm not a huge fan of the click to continue, unless it's a long post. But as long as you're listening, I read blogs mostly in Google Reader, and I really don't like it when some blogs which have long posts like that get cut off in Reader. Not all have this problem--I see read others where a long post you have to click through on the main blog site shows up in its entirety in Reader (and other feed readers, I assume).

[Etienne]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Inca makes a good point actually. I tend to use bloglines to read blogs and that does kind of reduce the need to hide long posts behind the cut. If you do decide to do it though, it should be pretty straightforward. I don't know blogpress, but on wordpress there's just one button you need to press and its part of the standard options, no need to fiddle with html at all.

Are you offering? I never imagined anyone would want to contribute, but maybe I should.

Heh, I'm not committing myself to anything! But it depends what you want the blog for. If it's just for a personal outlet, or it's specifically to showcase your writing, then you don't need or want other contributors. If you want to get a wider readership, then it can really help to have other contributors as there are bound to be times when you don't have the time/energy/ideas to update yourself. Goldstone's Pitch Invasion blog is basically my idea of exactly how it should be done if your going down the latter route - his work primarily, and his thinking sets the tone, but plenty of other voices to broaden the appeal.

If you do decide that you want other contributors, there are certainly going to be people willing to do so. You'll just have to sift through the ignoramus/know it all/whiner etc types!

As for the title bar, the photo is fine, I'd just want to have the text over the playing field rather than the stand. But it's not a major point.

[Reed John]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

As for the title bar, the photo is fine, I'd just want to have the text over the playing field rather than the stand. But it's not a major point.

Me too. Should I center it? What's the tag for that?

[ursus arctos]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Reed, not that it has anything to do with you, but it isn't the Reds logo in the on deck circle in that model anachronistic for Crosley?

I'm pretty sure it only came into use after the move to Riverfront, and this usually authoritative source backs me up.

[Reed John]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Reed, not that it has anything to do with you, but it isn't the Reds logo in the on deck circle in that model anachronistic for Crosley?

Hah! We think alike!! I noted that too, although I wasn't entirely sure if perhaps they created that Mr. Red Logo in the late 60s before the move or just after. Sportslogos.com confirms it was after, but that just made me like the picture even more, somehow.

I'll note that somewhere on the blog. And maybe write a stern letter to the CRHOF.

I was hoping to do some work on it last night - fill out the profile section and so forth - but my internet connection died for a while and I spent most of evening trying to get that sorted (never figured out why it died. Probably not on my end) and then the rest of the evening was devoted to sending out CVs and cover letters to potential new jobs.

[Heliotrope]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

I don't remember if I have a Google account to comment, so I'll just post my one-side-of-a-cell-phone-conversation bit here: a woman pushing her small child in a stroller barks into her phone, "I hope you DIE!"

[Reed John]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

That's outstanding.

This morning, the weirdest dude in our office - a short fat guy who recently almost came to blows with a much larger fitter man over the question of whose job it was to order the coffee - came around corner saying "Well, it was tight as all get-out, I tell you." WTF?

It's not sports-related but I posted that on the blog just because I liked it and I needed something to post as a test post. I wrote that a long time ago for AmericanNerdMag.com, which is archived but defunct.

[G-Man]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

I personally prefer blogs where after an intro paragraph you have to click on a link to read the whole piece.

I don't like those. I tend to spend less time on sites where I need to open loads of tabs.

[Reed John]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

How do I put more space between the date line and the post title line?

[blameless]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

I'll just post my one-side-of-a-cell-phone-conversation bit here: a woman pushing her small child in a stroller barks into her phone, "I hope you DIE!"

So that's where she was at the time.

[/kidding]

The best ranting half-a-conversation I ever heard was when I was stuck on a bus, and the woman two seats in front of me was having one of those conversations, which lasted for a good 30 minutes.

At first I thought she was talking to her psycho-ex-boyfriend, but as the phone call went on and on (to the irritation, fascination, and profound embarrassment of the other passengers), it became clear that she was talking to her psycho-ex-bit-on-the-side, and that her boyfriend had found out about the bit-on-the-side, and now the boyfriend was acting like a psycho too.

A couple of months after that, I saw phone woman on a railway platform waiting for the same train as me. She wasn't talking to anyone at the time, but I wasn't going to take the chance - I went to a carriage at the other end of the train.

[blameless]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Oh, and Reed: for what it's worth I think the red, white and green colour scheme works very well as a complement to the photo.

What sports are you planning on writing about?

[Femme Folle]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Incandenza wrote:

Nice Reed. I saw FF (or maybe it was someone else) big this up on Twitter this morning, and didn't know it was your blog.

Twas I. Just did it again, too.

[Reed John]

I'm gonna start a blog about sports

Thanks!!