Randomn3ss » Site Related

Randomn3ss Refreshed

Mike Panic — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 14:23:27 +0000

Thirty-nine months ago I launched this project known as Randomn3ss. The sole intention was to use this site as a platform to rant, rave, give reviews, complain and write about anything I wanted. A staff of sorts quickly started writing with me and now, this is the 899th article published!

During the lifespan and evolution of Randomn3ss many changes have been made and this now is the third re-skinning of the site and I’m very pleased. After using premium themes to re-launch my own site and more recently a friend / client’s site it seemed to make sense that Randomn3ss would receive one too.

I chose to go with Sparta, a minimalistic theme that is clean and easy to navigate. All the same content from the previous theme is here but the main column is slightly wider allowing for larger photos and videos and the sidebar is cleaned up and organized a bit more. Additionally, a usable footer is in place, however it’s currently a mess, more on that in a minute. The top navigation features a drop-down menu on the About page to keep things clean, so all the content is there, but none is hidden by complex menu’s, the content is what is featured. You’ll also notice on the home page the moving images of the Featured category to showcase specific articles. Along the right sidebar are the 10 most popular articles and the five most recent tweets from me. Missing from the old site are the list of authors, something I can’t get to work but is high on my list to figure out fast and all the categories, which leads me to the cluster that is the current footer.

Having a usable footer for me has always been important and Sparta features a nice, clean one that displays all categories as Topics. Great, except for one major problem. When I launched Randomn3ss in 2007 there was no such thing as Tags, so I created Categories, a lot of them, more than 80! My goal is to go through and edit them down to five or so and utilize the tag feature in WordPress better, I just don’t know how realistic that is going to be with nearly 900 articles to hand-edit. By doing so though, I’d be able to incorporate a tag-cloud into the sidebar.

Other subtle changes include a new plug-in for social bookmarking, sharing, printing and emailing articles, one that looks a little nicer I think then the previous one. Also, on the home page you’ll notice that the articles are truncated, this is to keep the clean look and increase load times for everyone when image heavy posts happen.

The install of Sparta went really well and I got most of the work done in about two hours, however the documentation was lacking just a bit. Luckily, it’s not an overly complicated theme and most of it is just common sense. I haven’t had the need to modify too much of anything by hand which is always a plus and am happy with the cleaner, more grown-up feel of the site. For me, the $22 spent is well worth it. Like Sparta? Download it here.

Because I know things have changed and you might not be used to them yet, something might be missing or broken, please leave any comment (positive or negative), feedback or feature requests in the comments section.

Update: Marty suggested a plug-in and helped do a little customization so the footer is a little bit more manageable for now, until I have time to go in and clean out the categories and get them under control. Thanks Marty!

Update: Got the authors names linked back in the right sidebar to all the articles they have previously written!

Update: After a problem on the home page with the slider function working, I emailed the coder of the theme, Cristian. He promptly got back to me with an updated file but it still didn’t work. He didn’t give up and continued to help via email. While trying to troubleshoot this problem, Scott volunteered to give it a look. He helped me pinpoint one potential problem with a few erogenous erroneous characters in a PHP file and then through some other small issues. Needless to say, it works and I’m happy again!Similar articles that might also interest you:

A Croaking Good Time!

Tracy — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 02:35:17 +0000

I should start by noting that theater has never much been my thing. I’ve seen Phantom of the Opera, Wicked, Avenue Q etc. etc. and I enjoyed them to be sure, but not enough to pay the exorbitant price tag that inevitably goes with them. Here, in New York, I have discovered the masterpiece of theater for those of us whose goal is to drink and have a good time; Flanagan’s Wake.Flanagan has just died and the citizens of his hometown (and you, as a great deal of the play is improv and interactive) have come to speak of the man’s life and mourn his death. The set is simple and comfortable with a pea green paint job and grainy old pictures circling the casket which is conspicuously upside-down. The actors are never without a bottle of Guinness in hand and the bar boasts Guinness on tap. The Guinness is a little steep at $8 a pint, but is a great addition to the atmosphere; they keep the prices simple and no matter what you order it’ll be between $7 and $12.

The actors are required to take audience suggestions as to Flanagan’s favorite song, his life dream, his favorite story and how he died. They do so with excellent good humor and more than once I nearly laughed myself out of my chair. The participation aspect is incorporated well and does not encumber the play with embarrassment or discomfort on the part of the audience members. Suggestions and participations are quick and often simply shouted one word answers to actor’s questions.

If you happen to be in Times Square on a Friday or a Saturday between 5:45 and 6:30 the play is running a bagpiper followed by Flanagan’s casket through the neon madness. I managed to capture a video of it; the man dressed in the priest outfit in front of the casket is Father Murphy, by FAR my favorite character! The fellow at the front of the casket is the play’s producer.

Click here to view the embedded video.

They are currently running promotional tickets for $25, though I do not know how long this will last; regular priced tickets are $49.95. I would inquire through the website directly. http://www.flanaganswakenyc.com/

All in all, this is a brilliant beginning to a drinking night out on the NYC; the show ends around 9:15pm with a bellyful of beer and laughs and there are at least a dozen Irish bars within 2 blocks so if you want to continue with similar thematic elements you will not have any trouble.Similar articles that might also interest you:

Randomn3ss turns 2!

Mike Panic — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 04:58:34 +0000

Two years ago today Randomn3ss started. Thank you to everyone who has contributed, read, commented, suggested links, videos and articles, it’s all really appreciated!

Photo by: aprillynn77

Not my cats, not Randomn3ss’s cats, just plain random. Take a look at all that has been written in the Archives.

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New Archives page here at Randomn3ss

Mike Panic — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:22:45 +0000

Just a quick note that I will shortly be pulling the archives listed along the left sidebar of the site because they have been moved to a much cleaner, dynamic page all to themselves. Take a look a the top and check out the new Archives Page, showing you how many articles we’ve published, the current months posts per day and all previous months. Simply click on a previous month to expand it and see the titles, then click the title of the article you wish to read.

And because this was such a short post, enjoy this photo by: muha…

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Rate Randomn3ss articles

Mike Panic — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:25:23 +0000

This morning I found a pretty cool add-on to the site, a 5-star rating method. At the bottom of each article, above the share articles are 5 stars. One star, or the one on the left is the lowest, 5, or the one on the right is the highest. Click on the star you think fits the article you are currently reading and the value it has.

Why should you? This small amount of user feedback helps the staff here focus more on articles you want to read. It’s totally anonymous too, so you shouldn’t feel bad for giving something a two or three star rating. This rating method is not a replacement for comments, we still encourage you to leave comments whenever possible, the star rating is just another way of giving some feedback on what we’ve all written quickly and painlessly.Similar articles that might also interest you:

Share, Bookmark, Email & Print Randomn3ss articles

Mike Panic — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 18:17:20 +0000

In the ongoing tweaking of the new template here at Randomn3ss, I’ve upgraded the social bookmarking options to each article. At the bottom of all articles you will now see this graphic:

The icons listed left to right are,

Digg
Stumble Upon
del.icio.us
Google bookmarks
Facebook
Technorati
Email
Print

Without trying to booger up the site with a million social bookmarking and sharing sites, I’ve chosen those which are most popular. The email and print functions are new and will allow you to do, well, they allow you to email and print articles, something that wasn’t available before.

If there is a social bookmark or sharing site that you use on a regular basis and would like to see it added, please leave a comment below. I can add just about any of them that are available nowadays.Similar articles that might also interest you:

Randomn3ss gets a facelift!

Mike Panic — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 20:11:46 +0000

I’ve been putting off upgrading the WordPress software that powers Randomn3ss for a while, but finally did it because I fell in love with this new layout while searching for another client’s layout. This still needs a lot of tweaking and there are some things that are missing or in a different place, but I’ll be working on this for the next few days / weeks. Please take a minute to use the poll

View Poll |View Results

Polls PoweredBy MicroPoll

Your feedback is greatly appreciated, so please leave any and all comments and suggestions below and I’ll work towards getting them all taken care of!Similar articles that might also interest you:

Randomn3ss gets more social bookmarking options

Mike Panic — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 19:53:33 +0000

Just a quick update to let you all know that there has been a minor change / clean up to the right sidebar here at Randomn3ss. The RSS icon was made larger and changed to a shiny new version, below that is still the option to subscribe via email. Below those options are new links for Stumbleupon, Technorati and Del.icio.us. If you use any of those, please click them and fill out the information, it helps others know how rad Randomn3ss is. Please note, those three links for the entire site of Randomn3ss, if you want to submit individual articles, please click this link (located at the bottom of every article),

and choose which social bookmarking option you want to submit to.

Again, the more you tell others, the more it helps all of us who write articles, and write more often. If there is a particular social site you think we should add to the right sidebar, please contact me; your feedback is always appreciated.Similar articles that might also interest you:

Please welcome Elizabeth Grecco to Randomn3ss

Mike Panic — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 17:57:48 +0000

Last week the Randomn3ss family grew with the addition of Elizabeth Grecco, who has already cranked two great articles. Please welcome her with open arms and leave her lots of comments, she says she likes them, they make her feel warm and fuzzy inside.

The Staff page has also been updated to reflect her profile, so check it out and learn a bit more about her. See all of Elizabeth’s articles here.Similar articles that might also interest you:

Congratulations Scott! You won the $25 iTunes gift card

Mike Panic — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 15:07:47 +0000

On January 9th Randomn3ss celebrated one year of being online. To help celebrate, a contest was formed based on leaving a comment at your best guess when the 15,000 spam comment would be caught by the anti-spam police. At the time, there were just under 13,000 total spam comments. The prize was a $25 iTunes gift card, given to the person guessing the closest date and time without going over.

At 3:57pm EST, January 31st, the 15,000 spam comment was caught by the software. The closest was Scott, who guessed February 20th, 2:00am. Off by 20 days, he was the closest person, and while he did go over, no one else was anywhere near close nor made a guess in January. I don’t want to drag this contest out any longer so I hope no one is offended.

More contests will come in the future, if you have an idea of how you’d like the next one to be run or would like to sponsor a contest with a prize or service, please use the contact form to get in touch with me.Similar articles that might also interest you: