As per discussion in my previous post, I decided on adding a by-date archive on SOP. Kelvin pointed out that sitemaps are generally more for search engines (a list is good for spiders to figure out how your content relates to each other, as well as pointing any results to the correct place), and I kind of agree. Personally, I went by what would be the most useful for myself and for readers. Having one big list of all posts, no matter what category or page things are posted on, is handy. Having one by date makes it less redundant, as well as providing me with an easy overview of what was posted when. (Granted, the backend of the blog can be browsed that way too, but there’s a lot more bits and bobs in the backend that sometimes makes it easier to view a simple list like that on the frontend)

You can see most of the work here: http://www.schoolofpuppetry.com.au/archives.php. I’m hoping to add month/year headings to separate the posts out and add a bit more visual aid to it. What I like about the list is that it shows the date, title, and the page the item was posted on. It makes sense to have the page listed, rather than the category, since as I pointed out on Monday, articles can be in multiple categories. Initially I had also hoped to have the post avatar in the list, but it looked all a bit hodge-podge with each avatar being a slightly different size.

Additionally today I resolved a couple more problems: the URL for the contact page, which was incorrect. Seems a silly thing, but actually, the way the blog platform is designed, there’s no real ‘contact’ page, just a link to a form. There is actually an example template for a proper contact page, but it breaks every time you try to make it look like the rest of the site. As the the link to the contact form includes a parameter to call the correct contact person (ie. me), having a short URL wipes out this parameter and causes no form to appear. Luckily for me I finally tracked down the correct piece of code in the message form file and tricked the whole thing into pulling a contact page up on the incredibly short http://www.schoolofpuppetry.com.au/contact.php URL. (As compared to something like: http://www.schoolofpuppetry.com.au/contact.php?disp=msgform&recipient_id=1&redirect_to=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.schoolofpuppetry.com.au%2Fcontact.php. Naturally, the shorter URL is not only prettier and better for search engines, but it also prevents spam/hacking attempts by those who actively search for default settings in order to spam/hack)

… Now, you may also notice I’m not posting on my regular 5-day-a-week schedule. And that’s because I’m going to reduce it down to 3 days a week (Mon/Wed/Fri). This will allow me to focus more on writing better content, as well as prevent any potential burnouts. Additionally, in this time of transition, it allows me to have a bit more thinking/breathing space as I formulate plans for the PIM site.