Drive-By

I was a victim of Drive-By-Shooting Sunday by the Men With Pens. It was all voluntary though. James and Harry are some sharp free lance writers who also happen to run a great play by post RPG I’m in, Escaping Reality.
They gave me some pointers on how to make this here blog mo’ betta. For the most part it strikes me as great advice. I shall no doubt be taking it, since I did ask. I don’t know how to feel about some of it, like trimming down my blogroll. I do need to do some maintenance, but I read all of these on a regulr basis. Maybe I’ll move them to a links page? Let me know what you think of any of their advice. You read this so your opinions count and if I can take their tough love I can take yours.
If you’d like to have someone really take a hard look at your site, sign up. If you need someone to write something for you, hire them. If you want good writing advice read their stuff.

  • http://rhodester.net RhodesTer

    I love their write-up on you, it was hilarious and poignant. A links page might be a good idea, and I’d agree with pretty much everything else they told you.

  • http://sidfaiwu.com/blog sidfaiwu

    Having absolutely no eye for design, I disagreed with almost everything that they suggest. They are under the mistaken impression that ‘spirituality’ must be calm and serious. I like the banner (it readability is just fine), the font looks black to me, and the blue-on-blue works just fine (I hate pure white on websites). Your RSS feed size is just fine and a hell of a lot better then their gargantuan monstrosity. I have no problem reading your font size. Perhaps a new prescription from their optometrist is in order? I use my search field quite regularly on my personal blog. Finally, your links are far enough down the sidebar that it doesn’t really matter how many you have.
    About the only thing I agreed with were the structural suggestions. You do have extra space on the right and some of your sidebar items are out of their frames.

  • http://pinakidion.org pinakidion

    Entertaining, but they were wrong on almost every account.
    The theme is one of the easiest on my eyes. I can read the fonts just fine. I’m sure all the 2.0 rage is to look as much like Google or mozilla.com, but not me. C’mon, a white background? At least Mozilla breaks up the whitewash with a very effective bar that gives you what you want up front.
    Are these guys monks? Their ideas of spirituality are odd, even to monks. New age spirituality, by comparison, at least TRIES to tie beliefs into something loosely based on reality. All of that stuff seemed to be a distraction from a real review of the site. Had they written a shorter piece, without that weirdness, I may be more symapthetic to them.
    Okay, they have a point that the links up top make little sense to a newbie. Most of us know you in person, so we understand the links. I personally do not like the Spring Widget menu thing, but that is because I generally do not like Flash. The sidebar is empty and the link talking about twitter is hard to find.
    Don’t lose all the links or all the categories. I cannot see the blog catalog at work, so I have no opinion about that. Don’t change the theme.
    Normally, I’d advertise Ctrl+Plus to increase the font size. However, it adds too much space between category items. Maybe that was their problem.
    Everyone, including me, should go here:
    http://www.webdesignfromscratch.com/current-style.cfm
    It offers good advice.

  • http://www.menwithpens.ca James Chartrand – Men with Pens

    Actually, our ideas of spirituality have very little to do with our professional analysis, because Harry and I each have different views and Tramp’s views are different than ours.
    *Everyone’s* version of spirituality is different from the next person, and respecting that is key.
    But that’s besides the point. The point is that as *professional designers*, we know what is easy to read, easy to visualize, grasps a wider audience and generally is more appealing to more readers.
    Do you want to limit your friend’s blogging experience by narrow views? I don’t think so. Trying new things and embracing change is a wonderful thing. Would you hold him back from that?
    CHANGE. And if you don’t like it, CHANGE BACK. Nothing is written in stone, and this is your site, Tramp, no one else’s.
    Don’t like white? No problem. Try a pale beige or a different shade of blue. Don’t want to cut down the links? Don’t. Put them on a nice page instead of cluttering the site. Love your header? Okay, great. make it less blurry or find a way to have it blend in more.
    Growth, trying new things, expanding horizons or making mistakes to learn… well, isn’t *that* part of spirituality and acceptance?

  • George

    Pardon the interruption, good sirs, but Scotty Boy, if your info over at TFL is accurate at all – Happy Birthday!

  • Scott

    It is indeed, thanks George!!
    Jimmy boy is right about change. Personally I like the banner. Pat put some good work into it and I think it’s clear enough.
    And James, no one is trying to limit me. They’re simply disagreeing with you. Disagreement with one another si not only allowed but encouraged here.
    If there’s one thing I embrace on this site and in life it’s change. I will take all opinions, throw it into my brain hopper and we’ll see what comes out.
    I do want to make it a little clearer as to what this site is all about. It’s a mishmash, a hodgepodge and it will be ever thus since I’m a little scatterbrained.
    I do want to make visiting this place and navigating it as painless as possible. Given that I’m reaching a wider audience via my podcast and other online activities that becomes more and more relevant. I don’t like all white. For a while this place was all beige and that was easy enough on the eyes. We’ll see how it goes.
    The right sidebar is cluttered, though I fail to see stuff coming out of the margins. I’d be interested in screencapped examples via email or what have you to see what that looks like to others.
    As far as “professional designers” go I’ve noticed that they’re a lot like any other media consultants in their tendency to disagree on what works and what doesn’t. Harry and James are pros though so I’m gonna trust that to a degree and we’ll see what happens.

  • http://lyndonology.com Lyndon

    I’ve just recently started to read Men with Pens and it was a very pleasant surprise to see your site getting reviewed.
    As far as their critics go, I like your banner; I think it’s original and authentic.
    I like having the blogroll and stuff like that on the sidebar. But as it grows, it can really bog down a site. That’s why I’ve gone with a links page on my own site.
    It’s really a personal call on your part.

  • Scott

    Hey Lyndon! It’s a small interwebz.
    Pretty sure I’m keeping the banner. A lot of the rest of their points are good and valid. The more I think about it the better a links page sounds. Though I’ll keep a few links on the main page, friends, really hot sites, things I’m involved in. We’ll see.