Comments on: Readers Sound Off: What Do YOU Want On the bkmacdaddy Blog?

By: Emily

Emily — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:19:59 +0000

You could definitely increase your overall content width, to help with page length too; but I think people expect blog posts to be longer than other websites as well.

I have often stayed within 800px wide before, but I’m trying to get more accustomed to the 960px – 1000px range, which can still fit comfortably on most monitors. It often makes for more comfortable reading, especially since I tend to hover around 10pt for the base text size.

Good luck with making a new theme, whenever you have the time

By: bkmacdaddy

bkmacdaddy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:40:41 +0000

Thanks Christian. I truly appreciate your support, friendship and encouragement.

By: bkmacdaddy

bkmacdaddy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:39:49 +0000

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions, Beth! Great ideas for blog topics. I’ll see if I can put together some useful info/posts along those lines soon. Feel free, if you think of any more topics, to add them here or send them to me. Thanks again!

By: bkmacdaddy

bkmacdaddy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:37:02 +0000

Hehe…you are not the first and probably will not be the last. But thanks for the chuckle!

By: bkmacdaddy

bkmacdaddy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:36:34 +0000

Thanks for the comment, Pam. You are correct – in this case I am defining “community” more in relation to the interaction that can and occasionally has happened here in the comments section. I also see the results of regular visitors and readers in how we begin to engage with a bit of familiarity. For me, this extends beyond the social media network interaction – or maybe just enhances it. But on Twitter, conversations are cut off at 140 characters. On Facebook, they are scattered about and, for me, too cumbersome to truly follow and engage with people. So my hope has been that this would be a place to interact a little bit more.
Thanks for the encouragement!

By: bkmacdaddy

bkmacdaddy — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 10:26:36 +0000

Thanks Emily. The font size is DEFINITELY an issue for me too. I literally threw this blog together to get started and I customized an existing theme to accomplish the quick start. Unfortunately, when I redesigned the whole site a few years ago I made the decision to go with a smaller width than what is now much more common. So the existing space for blog posts is very limited in this setup. I am anxious to put together my own theme design that will accommodate what I’m doing better, including larger font size for the posts. It’s been driving me nuts! For now, I will experiment with making it a bit larger, but I’m concerned that the page will scroll on FOREVER, so I’ll have to see what works best. Thanks for the insight and suggestions!

By: kovshenin

kovshenin — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 09:56:09 +0000

Brian, what you’re doing here is totally correct. You don’t need to change anything, keep doing what you’re doing because you’re totally awesome. I love the way you think, the way you design and I really love your Twitter and blog postings. And umm.. I know that I need to say something mean and ugly so you don’t relax.. But.. Oh well, I don’t like the spinning tag cloud on the right, it makes me sick ^_^

Cheers brother! You’re cool ~ @kovshenin

By: Conrad

Conrad — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:53:02 +0000

I’m sorry. But When I first saw bkmacdaddy. I wanted to say Mustard & Pickle only. LOL! Only kidding.

By: Pam - Ryvon Designs

Pam - Ryvon Designs — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 23:36:42 +0000

Hi Brian,

I think one thing to keep in mind is a blog is just that, a blog for you to do just as you have been. Write off the cuff, what inspires you, your opinions, etc. And we’re all happy to read it and post our own comments

Although there is some interaction, it’s hard not to confuse it with the “community” you can achieve on a forum, or even a small community website. From your video, it sounds like you want more of an interactive medium, but correct me if I’m wrong?

If you are looking to expand into a forum to achieve that community, Great! But I think your blog should stay what it is, you’re doing a fine job! ^_^

Pam

By: Emily

Emily — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 18:28:48 +0000

I think Feedburner stats are related to activity in feed aggregators. If more people are actually marking posts as read on a particular day, the numbers will appear to be up.

At least, that’s how I understand it, after looking at the stats for a few blogs I work on.

As far as critique goes, I think the body copy of your posts shows up rather small on my screen. It’s about 2 mm on my screen (just under 6pt, which is a bit on the uncomfortable side). Can you please increase that to 8pt or 9pt? Instead of the percentage you use now, which is reducing based on pixel settings defined in browser preferences.

I’m sure it’s fine with lower resolutions; but my screen is 1440 x 900; and a lot of text gets reduced when it’s based on the idea that 10px is readable (which is only true sometimes).

Considering your audience is mostly designers, I think it’s fair to say that many have larger monitors. So I’m probably not the only one who finds it small.

That’s my only complaint, really.

I don’t actually subscribe to your blog as I tend to click on your links to your blog posts and that’s faster than checking in via Google Reader since I subscribe to a lot of feeds. But I do try to check out most of your posts, even if I don’t always comment.