The microdevelopment of the site continues apace.
- We’ve removed the Quick Takes section from the main page, thus allowing more seamless presentation across platforms. While the site looks different on very small screens than on tablets and above, all posts now appear on all platforms in the same order and with the same basic functionality.
- We’ve placed the front-page excerpts on post pages as well, under the headlines. It’s something I’ve seen on a handful of sites and find helpful. Very long headlines are problematic for a variety of reasons. Yet readers instinctively form impressions about the article from the headline; having a subhed can add clarity and context from the outset.
- I’ve been experimenting with different ad networks and placements. Let me know if you see anything particularly egregious in terms of ad behavior. I’ve already cycled out a couple of networks that were serving particularly ugly ad units.
- We’ve made some minor tweaks to the way site caching behaves that may improve some of the comment-lag issues several users have noted. My developer thinks they’re most likely on the way users’ devices handle caching rather than how our side handles it, making tracking the issue down trickier.
- For now, I have the Gravatar logo showing up rather than a blank token as the default icon for commenters whose email is not associated with a Gravatar. I’ll likely restore it to blanks again in the near future but made the switch to nudge regulars to sign up. It’s free, quick, and non-intrusive. Gravatar got bought out by WordPress some time back, so they’re seamlessly integrated into the backend. Even the front-pagers’ author byline photos are served that way.
- Relatedly, the About page is more-or-less revamped. It’d been ages since I’d cleaned that up and nobody mentioned it, so it may be that nobody actually looks at it. But it was close to a decade out of date. (And I signed up for probably ten Gravatars for defunct authors to populate the images. Did I mention that it’s quick and easy?)
- We’ve also cleaned up some menus, particularly in the footer, and made the way various archive views (Blog, Author, Category, Date, etc.) display consistent.
- A certain annoying commenter who got banned at least once under a previous pseudonym has been banned again under his new one. We’ll see how well it sticks.
I’m sure there are some tweaks I’m forgetting. There are a handful of minor ones still coming, including quite probably the move to a new, more capable server in the near future.
