wordpress

As a new incentive for my readers to post comments, I have incorporated a gravatars plugin into my commenting interface. The comments from this old post of mine gives an idea of what it looks like.

A gravatar is an avatar - that is, a small picture you use to represent yourself - that appears next to your posts or comments on any site that uses the gravatar service. On the official site they say the term gravatar stands for “globally recognized avatar.” I suppose that makes sense, but I prefer to think of a gravatar as an avatar imbued with a particular aura of prestige and authority.

Now all I need to do is hope you guys sign up and make your own gravatars (it’s free). I personally get a kick out of how they have you assign an MPAA - style rating to your finished gravatar, i.e., G, PG, R, or X. Currently I have this blog configured to show gravatars rated G, PG, or R. So there it is, people - don’t bring your X-rated gravatars here, ’cause C&B ain’t havin’ it. There are plenty of places on the web to post dirty pictures without me providing another one, anyway.

What would a gravatar have to consist of to justify a PG rating as opposed to a G? If we’re really using the MPAA as a guide, then I guess Humphrey Bogart with a lit cigarette between his lips would get you a PG. As for an R, I for one can’t conceive of representing myself with an image that would require a web user under the age of 17 to be accompanied by a parent or guardian. But whatever floats your boat, I guess. An R gravatar would have to show… I don’t know, maybe the word “fuck?” According to the ridiculously arbitrary MPAA quasi-guidelines, I guess someone’s head getting blown off would be OK, but an animated GIF of two people having sex showing three or more thrusts would be an automatic X.

So enjoy your non-X-rated gravatars, good people. Mine is rated G; maybe it’ll make me as popular as Finding Nemo. I’m aware that many knowledgeable bloggers would say that if I want more comments I should forget about gravatars and, you know, post more frequently. Point taken, but with all due respect that’s “inside-the-box” thinking. What good is killer content without bells and whistles? …OK, on second thought, don’t answer that.

No, no, do. Do answer it. I like comments.

Hopefully you’ll notice that I’ve done some sprucing up here at the HoC&B. Specifically, I’d like to direct your attention to the new About page. Inspirational credit is due to Lorelle VanFossen, whose post hit me like a cattle prod.

I’ve tried to include both user-friendliness and a bit of “zazz” with the column of pretty feed buttons in the sidebar. If you haven’t yet learned about feeds, I recommend doing so - there are plenty of simple and helpful explanations available. I find feeds to be extremely convenient (and, of course, tasty). I also opened the HoC&B up to social bookmarking sites, hence the little row of buttons at the bottom of this page… although I must admit that what happened to Evolving Trends has me a little paranoid.

As before, any constructive feedback about the About page or anything else on the blog is welcomed. In fact, I might even welcome destructive feedback - it could give me something to mock. Hey, you never know where good content might come from.

My Binary Blue period turned out to be but a brief dalliance. Look around and you shall see that I have settled on the Tarski theme, augmented by a little caffeine in the header image. So, yes - I believe I am just about done mucking about with theme customization, which means I’ll have to focus on actually writing. Well, fancy that.

You may have noticed that the blog looks a little different. What’s going on is that I’m switching to another theme that is a bit more adaptable, specifically the Binary Blue package. Aside from being tricked out with a lot of cool plugins and whatnot, BB incorporates the new wordpress sidebar widgets feature so that you can arrange stuff in the sidebar pretty much any way you want by dragging and dropping. This kind of idiot-proof configurability is a life raft to someone like me, who wants a stylish-lookin’ blog but whose CSS, PHP, and HTML knowledge might generously be described as “enough to be dangerous.”

I guess I should just be thankful that the real coders out there have made the sidebar widgets breakthrough. And I am, truly. But greedy bastard that I am, steeped in the American ultra-consumer mindset and barely having returned home from the mall before I want more, more, MORE, I am already yearning for widgets that can control the other parts of a blog page. Header image widgets, menu bar widgets, footer widgets, post meta bar widgets… you name it, I wanna widget.

Oh God, even I find my rapacity disgusting. Really, I’m sorry you had to see that… kind of. I guess if I’m going to be greedy and disgusting, at least I’m doing it about blogging technology - as opposed to trampling people when the doors to the mall are unlocked on the morning of December 26th.

Anyway, returning to the point - soon (knock wood) when you click back here to C&B you will be greeted by the new, improved, widgetized layout. I’ve got the resized coffee cup header, so now all I have to do is change the color scheme of the background images to suit the coffee-flavored feel I like. And change the font. And change the format of the post meta block. And, do these things without it breaking the theme.

No problem!