Aug 02 2006
Mudsongs.org’s “To Do” List
As EVERYONE knows, mudsongs.org is Phillip’s other corner of internet, where you gotta get it between your toes, “it” being the artistic side of things. I think. Anywho..
I’m creating the site, modifying a theme Phillip likes to suit his needs. This post is meant to be my To Do list, where I’ll be crossing off items as they’re done and he’ll be adding items, cause my life isn’t busy enough as it is.
In order of priority:
- In the right-hand menu before “Archives,” add a heading “All Categories” and then list all categories — even when new ones are added if possible.
- Under “Stuff,” add a “Resumé” link that opens to the Stuff I’ve Done page.
- Let’s change the font back to SWT’s font.
- At the top of the right-side menu, can you display the following text? Phillip Cairns ● Independent filmmaker ● St. John’s, Newfoundland ● Director of I Want It All, with “I Want it All” linked to the I Want It All category?
- Add as “Last 30 Comments” comments link after the comments in the menu just like SWT.
- Add “Last 50 Posts” to the bottom of the right-hand menu (past the RSS feeds etc.), and keep the “Last 10 Posts” where it is (that’s right, TWO post lists now).
- Make everything more rounded. No sharp edges.
When you hover over a link, it becomes bolded and actually pushes the text aside a bit. It doesn’t need to do that.Get rid of “You gotta get it between your toes.”Remove all the background colour. Make it all white.Replace that text with, LINE 1: All original content © by Phillip Cairns. LINE 2: “Mud Songs,” “Mud Radio” and “Mud Songs Films” LINE 3:are registered trade marks owned by Phillip Cairns.Make the blinking MUD SONGS sign look better.Re: comments box for each post. They don’t need to be numbered.The links change colour once you click them. They shouldn’t (however, the colour they change to now; that’s the colour I want them to be all the time).The same goes for webcast (see below).Remove the WWR button — but add WWR as a category.It’d be cool if I could post under the RAMBLINGS category without the posts showing up on the main page. That means, the only way to read the blog entries, is to hit the RAMBLINGS button. So the category would work like a HIDDEN BLOG. (That way, the main page is still a news page about wonderful old me, but not a blog where I just post junk.)I would prefer if the category descriptions were more HTML-friendly — and not centered. (Having the title centered is fine, but I’d like to insert line-breaks and edit it like regular HTML.)All the links in the right menu have underlines. Keep the links. Get ride of the underlines.The FAQ page doesn’t need comments. It should be like the About page.In the right menu, posts should come before comments.Re: comments box. “Comment by” should not be ALL CAPS.Make “In Print” a static page too (I’m looking forward to editing all these static pages for each category).Change to font to look exactly like SWT.Make all the text behave right, so that when I format it, it does exactly the same thing it does on SWT.The bolded words shouldn’t be so fat they’re unreadable. So I want all that shit to be just like SWT.Sticky post for the site (whichever post I happen to check or uncheck as a sticky).Static page for EVERY CATEGORY (now this may be tricky).All categories are displayed as buttons under the banner (so there won’t be much).NEWS is an obsolete category, because whatever is news will be posted to the site as a sticky post.In the right side menu, display the following (similar to SWT):Message Board (create page just like SWT)FAQ (create page just like SWT)Last 5 commentsArchives (displaying TITLES of last 10 posts)Archives (displaying dates of posts just like SWT)RSS Feeds (Bloglines, whatever).
But listed underneath that static page are the most recent posts posted under that category.Sticky posts for each category would be nice too.For every category (eg. Film/Video, Photos, etc.) (there won’t be many categories), I want I guess what you call a static page, like a mini-post that explains the category and is always at the top of the page whenever you click that specific category button (like the ABOUT page).Add an “In Print” button under the banner (it’s already a category).Change the header (or post title) fonts to look exactly like SWT.(I changed my mind.)There’s a line around the Mud Songs banner. Please make it go away.Put the date line at the botton of the post, not the top (just like SWT).And have it say, “Phillip wrote this on Wednesday, August 2, 2006, 12:23 pm,” just like SWTDon’t make the fucking post title a link.Display the Permalink, Comments, and Category at the bottom of the post.The block quotes don’t need some stupid fucking line wrapped around them.Change the background colour to brown (see what that looks like).the BLOG category can be called BLOG without the “Phillip’s Room” because the category will have a static page that links to “Phillip’s Room” at SWT. ALSORemove PODCAST category.Add “Downloads” as a category (graphic button is good enough for now). This will cover anything like podcasts, posted videos, whatever — everything except photos.
Seemed to be an unnecessary amount of cussing in that post.
That made it entertaining though. Lists need more swears in them cause lets face it, lists are usually kinda boring.
> NEWS is an obsolete category, because whatever is news will be posted to the site as a sticky post.
So you don’t want an archive of News items? Or will you just add on to the one sticky post? If it was a category, you wouldn’t have to update the data all the time. Or, you could simply create each new News item as a post, marking the new one as a sticky post, unmarking the old one from being sticky.
> So you don’t want an archive of News items?
Well, maybe it would be better to have a news archive too.
It would simplify things.
Just about everything would be news, though (except the “Blog” junk).
> Or will you just add on to the one sticky post?
That’s what I was thinking originally. The sticky post for the website would be the latest news.
> Or, you could simply create each new News item as a post, marking the new one as a sticky post, unmarking the old one from being sticky.
That’s what I was thinking. (I thought this is option is the same as the last one.)
Yeah, I’m making things complicated. Make News a category just like the rest of them (with its own little static page I can always edit — the the ABOUT page).
The font looks better. But the underline in the links disappear after they’re clicked. They shouldn’t.
The font for the post titles looks fine the way it is — except I don’t like it being a link.
Do you want ONLY posts in the “News” category showing up on main page? So if you post something new in “Film/Video”, it won’t show up on the main page except under “Recent Posts” in the right menu.
OR
Do you JUST want a static page as the home page, where you have to update THAT page for news items. I’m thinking it’ll work like this:
The main page will be a static page. When you post News items or posts in other categories, you update that static page under a “What’s New” heading (inserting new items to the top of the list, pushing old items down), something like:
MUD SONGS
About - Film/video - etc
[THIS NEXT PART IS THE STATIC POST]
Mud Songs is about me. I’m to blame for all its content. blah, blah, balh
What’s new:
Aug 4, 2006: Podcast posted about cleaning my kneecaps.
July 1, 2006: My new film, “Give Me A Tissue”, is released in theaters.
************
That What’s New list is updated MANUALLY in the static post. The items within are links to the actually posts (plus those posts show up in the Recent Posts list on the right menu.
OKAY?! Or what?
Mudsongs.org opens to whatever I currently label as a sticky post, then displays everything else except BLOG-categorized items. The main page will not have a static page.
Okay, now here it comes. Add this to the official list if you want to.
* NEWS will be a static page
(all buttons open an individual static page, which is then followed by all the posts under that category)
* That NEWS static page, which I will update manually, will list news like:
Aug.3/06 –> My interview with David Francey is published in the Scope.
July. 22/06 –> My short film “I Want It All” plays at the Nickel.
June. 12/06 –> Caught my brother picking his nose in the kitchen.
[static portion of page ends here]
* Then you list every post under the “news” cateogory (just about everything will have a “news” label on it).
– except stuff under the BLOG category
– BLOG stuff will show up only if you click the BLOG button, and then only BLOG stuff will be displayed (so basically BLOG stuff is hidden)
* There won’t be a sticky post option for every category (but there will be a static page)
* Only the main page of the site will have display the current sticky post.
So… Mudsongs.org opens to whatever I label as a sticky post, then everything else except BLOG categorized items.
(I know you’re loving this.)
Lord liftin’… that makes no fucking sense. That makes sense to anyone else?
That makes perfect sense.
[1] I go to Mudsongs.org and I (theoretcially) see whatever has been recently posted in any category.
IF, however, I’ve designated one of those posts as a “sticky post,” THAT one will be at the top of the page, and everything else comes after it.
—————
[2] Anything posted under the “Blog” category, doesn’t show up unless you click the BLOG button. And then it only displays stuff categoried as “Blog.” (or “Blog junk,” whatever.)
So HIDE the “Blog junk” posts from the main page. (Stuff that has “Category: Blog Junk” at the end of it.)
Forget about the “Blog” category if that’s too confusing. (Maybe you should rename it “Ramblings” instead.)
————-
[3a] Click the NEWS button, and a static page (which I manually update) will be displayed. So you’d click the NEWS button and under the Mud Songs banner would magicaly appear something like:
“This is the news! Today I did something, yesterday I did something else, so buzz off!”
[3b] THEN (hold on to your panty hose!), if you keep scrolling down, you’ll see a post that says something wonderful, and at the end of that post, and every post that follows it, there’s a little line that says, “Category: News.”
That’s it for the “News” category. The End.
———–
[4a] Every other category (or at least categories that have a button) will follow exactly the same structure.
You click the category button (e.g., DOWNLOADS).
A static page (or three or four lines of the screen) will show up under the big old Mud Songs banner and displays:
“This is where you can download all my junk: Podcasts, videos, whatever.”
[4b] THEN (hold on tight again), every single post with “Category: Downloads” stuck on the end of it will be show up on the page.
THE END again.
What’s so confusing about that?
> [1] I go to Mudsongs.org and I (theoretcially) see whatever has been recently posted in any category.
Okay, like a regular blog.
> IF, however, I’ve designated one of those posts as a “sticky post,” THAT one will be at the top of the page, and everything else comes after it.
I don’t think that’s straight-forward. There are three “sticky” things:
1) A “sticky post” is meant to stay at the top of a category’s page. The main page displays ALL categories by default, so it will show up on the main page as a regular post.
2) A “static page” is a post that’s meant to not change much and that doesn’t have a category, like an About or Contact page.
3) A “static home page” is just that: static. New posts from any category won’t show up on the main content page (that doesn’t include the right menu, where Recent Comments and such WOULD be updated).
I’d have to do some hacking to have a “sticky post” on the main page.
An alternative: Wordpress Sticky Posts describes how to do a sticky post ON THE HOME PAGE with this functionality. Will that suffice?
> [2] Anything posted under the “Blog” category, doesn’t show up unless you click the BLOG button. And then it only displays stuff categoried as “Blog.” (or “Blog junk,” whatever.) So HIDE the “Blog junk” posts from the main page. (Stuff that has “Category: Blog Junk” at the end of it.)
OK. But what happened to using SWT as your blog?
> [3a] Click the NEWS button, and a static page (which I manually update) will be displayed. So you’d click the NEWS button and under the Mud Songs banner would magicaly appear something like: “This is the news! Today I did something, yesterday I did something else, so buzz off!”
OK.
> [3b] THEN (hold on to your panty hose!), if you keep scrolling down, you’ll see a post that says something wonderful, and at the end of that post, and every post that follows it, there’s a little line that says, “Category: News.”
Whatever.
> [4a] Every other category (or at least categories that have a button) will follow exactly the same structure. You click the category button (e.g., DOWNLOADS). A static page (or three or four lines of the screen) will show up under the big old Mud Songs banner and displays: “This is where you can download all my junk: Podcasts, videos, whatever.”
Right.
> [4b] THEN (hold on tight again), every single post with “Category: Downloads” stuck on the end of it will be show up on the page.
Sure.
I didn’t have time to carefully read all the emails you sent me about “sticky” things. And I’ll have to be brief with my response here too.
> OK. But what happened to using SWT as your blog?
I’m still using SWT at a blog, but the “blog” section of Mud Songs is just me-related things, whereas SWT is anything.
More later.
Tom Waits. Webcasting a non-RIAA concert at Mud Radio.