Freaks and Tweaks
Got to messing around with some of the material on the backend, and the last WordPress update crashed a plug-in I used on some of the sites. The plug-in itself was out of date, not current, so it shouldn’t be a big surprise that it cratered. It polled the site’s database of entries and pulled up random entries, then arrayed them on the front page. It’s a great way to recycle old content.
However, on two main sites, the display is strictly “bloggy-style,” in chronological order, latest on top, slowing rolling under into archives, and in one case — the astrofish.net horoscopes? Maybe 25 years’ of archives.
Even the ubiquitous side-project, Bexar County Line, is approaching a decade of “One Day at a Time.”
Chronological, in order. Both sites, latest on top, older material — images or horoscopes — getting rolled further down. Like an alluvial flood plain, the latest material is dropped on top.
Maybe ten years ago, I shifted to “dynamic, database-driven” formats, and eventually, WordPress.
In its incipient stages, the original “themes” (skins) usually carried two links, one for the developer and one advertising the software itself. One of my first moves was to purchase a specific skin (“theme” in WordPress parlance):
It allowed me to make a site that looked like a website with no advertising for anyone else, or no advertising that I didn’t benefit from.
After the big switch to a slightly different theme — really just a skin over a framework — in December, I recalled seeing something in the enclosed documentation that one of the settings was “random posts.” Had to dig for it, but after much trial and a few bad words, I figured it out. Part of one of the skins for The Thesis Theme for WordPress? It has that wrapped into its abilities.
Another plus was finding I could remove some excess (code) baggage; if only I could do that with my own writing, fewer words?
What this is about is poking around and looking, and then, this is about building stuff. Ostensibly, this is about building websites, but this transfers across a wide variety of areas, whether it’s deeply mystical and metaphysical or basic mechanics.
Start with a solid foundation and add as needed. Sometimes, like that — it was so cool for a while — that random plug-in? When it broke? Dig around, I’m sure there’s a replacement part available.
