Design issue
I’ve been toying with an idea – a pledge drive – a cure for the dog days of summer – and fittingly – astrologically so – a good way to wrap up the current planet mess.
It’s a simple idea, go back to a splash page. The default page, have it be nothing but a couple of links. One would be the free horoscopes, one would be the subscriber “current” horoscopes (less than 2% advertising), sales, site index, and the fine print. Simple. Not too many links. Should load in less than a second.
The image I snapped Tuesday afternoon, on my way for a swim in the creek. I kept toying with the image, but I couldn’t figure out how to work it into a simple splash page. The key is simple.
There’s a couple of sites I hit almost daily, and one of them is an online version of a newspaper comic. Although I’ve bookmarked the URL to go straight to the dynamic page that renders the daily version of the strip, I’ve encountered problems, and I’ve found it’s easier to hit the introduction page, then click once to get to what I want. But in two other examples, I skip the splash and go straight to the content.
I tend to prefer the content being straight up on the front page. Way I like my web sites. But then, I could run this a for a little while, see if it helps with the sign up process.
Splash or not? Take the plunge?
Two-meat Tuesday
But first, a word from our sponsor? This article was almost disturbing. Except, I’m all about full disclosure. Want something plugged in this spot? Offer up some cash, we can talk. Obviously, the Amazon links work, as they call it, “an affiliate.” Doesn’t generate much cash, but every little bit helps. And is appreciated. Plus, there’s no hiding the fact that it’s a sponsored link.
I’ve tried dozens of advertising options, but only that Amazon seems to provide reliable results.
Book beats:
Radio Activity by the always funny Libra (if I recall correctly) Bill Fitzhugh. He’s a good writer, and he hooked me first with Pest Control, and it’s been long series of entertaining novels since. Besides, he heralds from Jackson, Mississippi, if I recall. There’s that “Southern” flavor that seems to run through all his texts. A proper sense of the absurd. As a little bonus, I like his “recently read” selections, on his website.
So far, with this one book? It’s a murder mystery framed around rock radio formats. In fact, I don’t care about the murder mystery – the filler is far more interesting, and what’s odd, there’s a carefully hidden skewering of homogenized, taped elsewhere, canned (think Clear Channel) formating. Gentle satire. Brilliant.
On the aforementioned author’s website, in one of the book reviews he’s written, he said that Stephen King wrote that the secret to writing is to lock yourself in room every morning and not come out until you’ve written 2,000 words.
What was amusing to me, and tickled my senses? The Bill Fitzhugh alleges that it’s a good day if he gets out 250 words, much less 2,000. Just color me someplace in between.
Commute times:
There’s a new super store that’s making, almost literally, quite a splash. A new Cabela’s, on the interstate, between Austin and San Marcos. Or, in a more general way, on the road between Austin and San Antonio. Virtually the present-day outskirts of town.
I’ve shopped Bass Pro a number of times, it’s nice enough. I suspect that this Cabela’s, from all the pre-press I’ve seen thus far? It’s about the same. Same size, same gear.
The biggest problem I foresee? That location? It’s going to add hours to my monthly commute to work in San Antonio.
The Pisces got the deal, as the oracle predicted, and the Aquarius server brought the best ribs I’ve had in a long while. Then Sandy’s for a quick cone, and back around to Jo’s for Sagittarius coffee. For just a split second, or several hours, all afternoon, life was good.
Unrelated inter-web history:
The life and death of Suck, as no doubt, linked elsewhere, is a big inter-web splash these days. I never did look much at the site, not after the first year or two. The web was narrow back then. Here’s the official timeline for my web work:
1994, monthly Fishing Guide to the Stars scopes introduced as a way to learn cgi programming. Also appears on students’ web pages.
1995, moved to it’s own ‘web space’ at the then legendary “io.com.”
July, 1995, introduced weekly scopes.
August, 1995, picked up for AOL’s astronet.
August, 1998, moved server and added the vanity URL, astrofish.net.
November, 1998, added a blog.
January, 2002, moved to a Thursday format.
July, 2005, celebrate ten years of a weekly column on the inter-web thing.
Unrelated: how we work:
I started to read this essay, about email, but I stopped short. The premise is that email is like a number of voices, rather than each message is a single message. But that’s the way I’ve treated email since I started working the web, c.f., inter-web history, above. I tend to sample email and determine what’s happening for each brand of astrology signs, as the day unfolds.
Cherchez les poissons:
I mean, it’s not much to write home about, but there are two healthy – if miniscule – examples of what fighting large mouth bass looks like. Plus a perch that was arguably larger than one of the bass. Not bad for twilight fishing from the dock behind my place.
