JP suggested I add an option to allow commenters to subscribe via email. I took his suggestion and installed Subscribe to Comments 2.1, so we’ll give that a go. Don’t forget that you can read all the comments quickly (and ignore the ones you don’t like just as quickly) by subscribing to the Comments RSS.
I also moved the search box higher on the sidebar. Michele couldn’t find it the other day (I recently moved it out of the header). Getting it above the fold is a good suggestions, so thanks to Michele.
Speaking of Michele, she’s my sole non-MVP Facebook friend. I gave up on Facebook a couple of years ago, but I was recently convinced to try it again. I will give Facebook some credit in the user experience category: I clicked a button and it’s as if I never left. I’m trying to keep an open mind about Facebook. Like Harald said, there’s a critical mass that’s needed. I’m going to give it time to develop that critical mass before I give up this time. One problem I have is the term “friend”, but that’s a story for another session post.
I was having a problem the other day with the sidebar. It was fine on the home page and on some individual post pages. On others it would to display correctly. On Ego Charts, only the Google ads showed. On another one, the Bookshelf, Meta, and Google ads showed, but nothing else. Now I can’t reproduce it. Odd.
A while pack I reduced the number of pages on the home page to four (from eight, I think). Nobody complained, so I assume that’s OK. My goal was to make this site load as fast as j-walkblog.com. His loads in about 1.5 seconds and this site takes about 10 seconds. I tried a couple of speed tests, but scored better than John in every category, so I doubt the effectiveness of those tests. Then I read he pays $80 per month in hosting fees. I now assume that that accounts for the difference. I don’t pay anywhere near that. Isn’t that what Amazon pays per month?
It’s nice because you get an email notification when someone comments on the same post. You can come back to the conversation quicker, instead of having to keep checking the site (or the feed) to see if there’s any activity. And you can always unsubscribe.
Hey Dick,
I’m your “friend” on face book, and I’m not a MVP, don’t you love me!?!? vbg!
It’s a strange thing face book, you kind of collect people, and I only really look regular at the people I know on a day to day basis anyway – so whats the point of that?
Having said that it nice to see my old pals getting married and having kids and stuff, so it does have some up points!
Let see how you get on -are you still twittering?
Dick, this site isn’t that slow for me. But one thing I’ve learned, when it comes to hosting, you almost always get what you pay for.
Does WordPress have a debug mode that tells you how many queries are executed to display a page?
You’re not an MVP, Ross? You probably should be.
I don’t know if there’s a debug mode, John, but I’ll see what I can find. Approximately how fast does it load for you?
fwiw the DDOE site loads in about 4 seconds for me vs. 2 for j-walkblog.com.
Of course, I have the j-walk site set to only load the stuff that may interest me, so it take less time because of that. No point in loading the stuff that may not interest me.
This site takes about four seconds to load.
Four seconds is good. It must be my ISP, not my host.
Good strategy, chip. I’m going to start only downloading the zero bits and not the one bits. That should make it lightning fast and I can just fill in the blanks locally. :)