SciFiFry: In a Parallel Universe

One of the excellent members of the Wired Science blog team, Damon Gambuto, will be blogging about Science Fiction books each Friday. He will have plenty to blog about, and this series could continue forever.

When I read his blog, it reminded me of that Environmental Blogging Day I participated in last October. Many bloggers who love science fiction and science could write about science fiction on Friday. This is an idea that could work, especially if we had a bit of organization behind it...a widget or a badge to a weblink that listed all science fiction friday bloggers who are members of the Wired Science group. This is only a kernel of an idea, but I think it would be really cool!

45 "Smashing" Blog Designs

Really cool article with links to other equally cool posts on CSS, AJAX, web design, layouts, and design in general. This clip is taken from an online magazine called Smashing, a mashup of various technology topics.

clipped from www.smashingmagazine.com However, not every weblog should look like a typical blog. After all, not every blogger wants his or her site to look exactly like hundreds of other ones. In fact, there is a small bunch of creative, outstanding and individually designed from scratch blogs. the designs listed below were selected for their attention to small details. he blog needs a solid visual structure, a profound hierarchy of site elements; it also has to be able to build some kind of a bridge between the content and its presentation. precision, minimalism and sound use of illustration. criteria were the ones we’ve used to select the designs listed Below you’ll find 45 excellent blog designs which impress with creative approaches and attention to details; hopefully you’ll find new ideas you can develop further in your own designs.

RSS: Witchy Woman - Sometimes

Sometimes, I act in a witchy way. Yes, that is a play on words for the times I want to make a point, and the point is a complaint. Yes, a complaint...wwaaahaaahaaa...a bone to pick.

I have a bone to pick with bloggers who don't make their RSS feed easy to access. I have a bone to pick with bloggers who don't make their blog feeds accessible to a variety of feed readers. I have a bone to pick with the rss feed links that take me straight to My Yahoo! My Yahoo doesn't even know who they are right now, ooooh that is another witchy woman story.

Not only do I have a complaint about various rss feed faux paux, I wonder why they even bother? If you want people to subscribe to your blog, you should make the blog feed subscription links easy to use in as many reader formats as possible.

What do I want? What can make the witchy womany happy? Well, in a perfect world, there would be a little popup window or an icon that starts to flash faster (with a 10 second timer) on the blog guiding me click here to subscribe. Then the subscription will be sent directly to my reader, or I can request the reader I want to access for the subscription.

I am more likely to want to subscribe right away.....if I don't have to give my email address....If the blog is good, I will make time to comment...then the blogger will have my email address. Let's say hello and get to know each other before we show our personals.

Subscribing takes time, and I don't want to hunt around for the rss feed link. I know it's not a perfect world, and I have found some subscription methodologies that I do like. Wheuuw! Aren't I special? HAHAHA! Yes, today I am the Witchy Woman!

As a minimum fallback position, I want to have a noticeable rss feed icon, so I can easily copy the link location to paste in my feed reader. Not My Yahoo! They don't know who they are right now...oh yea! That's another story!

The best feed link I have seen is the type that gives me several feed reader options. I really like it when they include Pageflakes. If they don't, the link can usually be copied....to any other rss feed reader. Ahhhhhh!

I like this multiple option type of rss feed subscription setup so much that I have subscribed to blogs, just because of all these accoutrements.

BTW: These complaints apply to all other feed formats. The take away messages are: Is it easy to subscribe to your blog? Don't you want it to be an easy process?

MMMMhhhmmmm! While I am looking for the splinter in everyone else's proverbial blog eye, I guess I had better go check for any possible logs in my own blog subscription options, icons and opportunities. WWaaaaHHHaaaaHHHaaaaa!