Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Time to jazz things up a bit. Maybe.

A while ago, Nell-Jean at Secrets of a Seed Scatterer wrote a very good post (she always writes very good posts) about why she liked people's blogs. I found it very inspiring. "Hmm," I thought, "I must take a good objective look at my blog, and see if I can make it more user-friendly."
That was in, ahem, October. I'm now just about to do a few tweaks and I'd be grateful for any suggestions. I'm not going to do a radical redesign, as I quite like the general look. But what do you like/dislike about the layout? Is there anything you'd like me to make clearer?
Do you find the blog roll (the list of blogs I like) useful? I was thinking of ditching it, as I never seem to keep it up to date. Some people have moved their blogs, while other people don't post regularly. Would a straightforward list of blogs I find interesting be better?
I like VP's idea of having a list of bloggers she's met and a list of people she'd like to meet. And I like Esther's technique of clicking on a picture to get more information about something. I think I might snitch those.
I'm not planning to change the comment system. I like being able to moderate comments - not because I think someone might post something unpleasant or obscene (they never have), but because it makes me read your comments carefully and take note of what you say. And the word verification (WV) doesn't seem to be too intrusive on the Blogger system.
I'm not sure what brought on this sudden desire for change. It's a bit early in the year for spring-cleaning. But I've just had the piano tuner here and I find listening to all those octave repetitions and the detangling of all those jangly notes quite therapeutic. Johnny, the tuner, always ends with a flourish of jazz or blues. (Every piano tuner I've ever met seems to be able to play brilliant jazz piano.) Maybe it's inspired me to jazz things up a bit too.