Ἡ βιωτικὴ τῇ παλαιστικῇ ὁμοιοτέρα ἤπερ τῇ ὀρχηστικῇ κατὰ τὸ πρὸς τὰ ἐμπίπτοντα καὶ οὐ προεγνωσμενα ἕτοιμος καὶ ἀπτὼς ἑστάναι.
- “The business of life is more akin to wrestling than dancing, for it requires of us to stand ready and unshakable against every assault however unforeseen.”
Excerpt from the Complete Works of Marcus Aurelius, Book VI.
Top & Bottom
Top & Bottom will elicit snickers and prurient commentary from a subset of a group, but that’s not what this is about. Top & Bottom — in my parlance — refers to a web page’s header and footer.
Toying with the new layout, which is merely taking most of the old layout and just reusing the more effective parts of the installation, I was legitimately pleased to figure that I could cut down on what links I wanted across the top, “Pay,” “Horoscopes,” and “Bio/Contact.”
For the footer, I wanted to include a link to the fineprint (Terms, Conditions, EULA, &c.) as well as a search bar. The privacy policy with associated disclaimers, all has to be listed on the page some way.
The debate over the search bar is endless, but at the bottom of the page, it is a tool that I use. There are close to three decades of material rolled up into these horoscope archives and blogs, and I like an easy way to find what I was looking for. I might be the only one who uses it, but it is my site.
When did I first cite Marcus Aurelius in a horoscope?
Horoscopes 12/93.
I’m not abreast of the current legal requirements, but Amazon occasionally reminds me to have a disclaimer, something about receiving compensation for links. I would think, by now, that should be obvious, but as an author myself, I like to get whatever pittance that is, rather than just doing it for free.
Ask any independent creator.
End User Legal Agreement and/or Terms and Conditions and/or Privacy Policy and/or The Fineprint and/or Disclaimers
When I built out the first new version, across the bottom I ran with those three, •Pay | Horoscopes | Bio/Contact• then added the ubiquitous fine print as Privacy Policy and a link to my own list of links, which is really just the main Table of Contents.
Top & Bottom
WordPress itself tries to insert a link to the sign-in/administration pages on the back-end, and that’s useful, but after while, it’s also a possible security risk. I just leave it out, after I’ve developed an appealing long-standing look that pleases me.
As long as there were paid subscriptions, I had to offer a login, but that’s gradually “sunsetted.”
Looking at what needs to be there, I’m favoring a more minimal approach, as less is better. Just what I write, and a few associated links that either I want, or should be there, at the very least, to fulfill barest minimum of legal requirements.
Top & Bottom
The blog pages are going to be super-simple, starting with just those three across the top, and then, just the required privacy notice plus a link to my list of links, for me, then just a search bar.
The top bar is a convenience for all, and the bottom is what I like, or need.
See how this works out.
I was on the giant amazon site, looking for a text, and along the footer of the page, there was an almost insane amount of material, the bulk of which served me not. That’s an example of what I don’t want.
This is me, thinking on the page.
