Personal Blog...

[obsidian]

Obsidian Profile

I just recently re-designed my blog's layout. It's ever-evolving, I guess. I always find something new that I like more than something else.

It's running a custom CMS that's been evolving since the first version I wrote in 2002. Take a peek and tell me what your think, it's much appreciated.

[Nomar]

Its good obsisian !! It looks a bit like wordpress !! but you made it yourself, thats really nice

[propstm]

I like the theme. It's simple without being plain. I like how you've got the body outlined from the darker page background with the sidebar being called out with the darker color again.

The only suggestion I may say to consider would be possibly losing the feedburner chicklet for a while. With a relatively lower number of subscribers, readers could potentially take this as a sign to either not subscribe or not bother reading the content all together. This issue has been brought up by some of the big guns in the past. (John Chow)

Hope this helps.

-MP

[Jakerz]

Originally Posted by propstm

I like the theme. It's simple without being plain. I like how you've got the body outlined from the darker page background with the sidebar being called out with the darker color again.

The only suggestion I may say to consider would be possibly losing the feedburner chicklet for a while. With a relatively lower number of subscribers, readers could potentially take this as a sign to either not subscribe or not bother reading the content all together. This issue has been brought up by some of the big guns in the past. (John Chow)

Hope this helps.

-MP

Yes, take away the feedburner reader display for as of now, but have an image and a link to where they can subscribe.

Props for making your own CMS as well, I've tried but have made nothing compared to a blogging platform. Have you considered making it public or open source? You could be the creator of the next wordpress!

[obsidian]

I'm working on releasing the source. It's not very portable at the moment, and there's not really any options for plug-ins or the such right now. I'm slowly cleaning up the code this summer, so maybe I'll get around to releasing the source code. =D

[theanand]

Originally Posted by obsidian

I'm working on releasing the source. It's not very portable at the moment, and there's not really any options for plug-ins or the such right now. I'm slowly cleaning up the code this summer, so maybe I'll get around to releasing the source code. =D

Thats great, I love the way it looks, initially I though it was wordpress itself! How much time does it take to create something like this? I am starting to learn php myself. I am not that big a fan of simplicity, so I might not really like the layout, but thats just me.

[Success Blogger]

I would suggest investing some time getting a logo. Your site is rather clean and crisp. Your logo should be following suit and fit the theme and be consistent with your message online. Great work otherwise in regards to function.

[obsidian]

Originally Posted by theanand

Thats great, I love the way it looks, initially I though it was wordpress itself! How much time does it take to create something like this? I am starting to learn php myself. I am not that big a fan of simplicity, so I might not really like the layout, but thats just me.

It's been evolving since 2002 or so. This is a fresh re-write of the whole backend, so I guess what's there now took a month or two. I keep updating and adding new features, all while trying to cut down on the amount of code and mySQL queries.

I like simplicity as well. With the blog, I'm incorporating a lot of things I don't necessarily want to dedicate separate sites to. I spend a lot of time playing Unreal Tournament 2004, but don't want to create an entirely separate site. I just want to present some information and links to commonly-needed files. If it weren't for some of my broader interests, it might just be a page full of articles with categories or somesuch on the side.

Originally Posted by Success Blogger

I would suggest investing some time getting a logo. Your site is rather clean and crisp. Your logo should be following suit and fit the theme and be consistent with your message online. Great work otherwise in regards to function.

I do want to do a new logo. The current one kind of carried over from an old layout, and I haven't had the time/money to invest in something more proper.

[navjotjsingh]

Some more things from my observation

Firstly I also recommend you to remove the feedburner chicklet count. Or you can use this http://www.netbusinessblog.com/2007/...k-subscribers/

Sounds lame but still looks better.

Secondly, I see you have banned comments for post just 4 days old?? Give readers time to read atleast. Don't expect everybody to land up on first day of posting itself. Make that 30 days atleast before closing comments.

[theanand]

Originally Posted by navjotjsingh

Secondly, I see you have banned comments for post just 4 days old?? Give readers time to read atleast. Don't expect everybody to land up on first day of posting itself. Make that 30 days atleast before closing comments.

I agree, and one more query, what do you do for the plugins functionality? hard code each feature you want to add?