I’ve been seeing various posts around that WP 2.2 had been released, but I was under the impression it was going to be delayed longer than this. I guess they’ve put the push on to get it out, because I just downloaded it! Go get your WordPress 2.2 today! I have not installed it yet… I will install it on my development server here at eh house first, make sure everything works… then upload. I know not everyone has this flexibility–but, you could… I’m using a 10 year old box to test on! If not, be sure to carefully follow the upgrade procedure. The most important step being to backup your database.

I noticed this morning that Google had given my access to the new Beta Google Analytics interface that they are rolling out. First impressions are that it’s pretty and makes better use of space, but I haven’t evaluated it in detail for functionality yet. I ‘ll do that this weekend and give you a report!

Speaking of statistics… is anyone else wondering why different stats packages don’t give identical or at least reasonably close numbers when comparing well-defined categories of information? Either they all have different definitions of the terms, or none of them knows what they are doing! As you may have noticed with my end-of-month analysis for April Stats Update, there was quite a bit of variation. And it continues… while I spotted some configuration issues on my part in some places, many are just big questions. I’ll give you another wrap-up on my stats again the beginning of next month, adding my evaluation of HitLinks to the mix. I’m paying for that one, so it better come out good! Being logical minded as I am, I don’t understand the variation. I’ll probably have to pick a day and do a manual analysis of the logs with a spreadsheet to compare.

PS–The stats for the past couple days here have been weird! yesterday, the pageviews were triple the day before! And today… almost nothing! Very strange two days.

In checking out some of the ProBlogger Top 5 entries, I visited Susan Drigger’s Top 5 Sins post, and while there noticed a nice little icon, “No Nofollow, fight spam, not blogs” that reminded me to check the no follow status of my comments. Oops! WordPress strikes again… it was there! With the addition of the DoFollow plugin from Semiologic, comments and track backs are now nofollow-free.

Some of you are wondering, “What’s the big deal”? If it’s built-in to WordPress by default, it’s got to be right. That’s a matter of opinion. Google introduced the concept of using an attribute rel="nofollow" on links in 2005, to theoretically help reduce comment spam, and create more accurate Page Rank. However, many disagree that it has had much influence on comment spam, and we feel people should get link credit for posting comments. If you would like more information on the controversy, you can check Michael Hampton’s May 2005 post, Nofollow Revisited. It covers the story well, from the intent, how it is supposed to work, and why it doesn’t work.

If you would like to join the Do Follow crowd, as I have–note the new “U Comment, I follow” icon (courtesy Randa Clay Design) in the side bar–visit the No Nofollow | I Follow | DoFollow Community at BumpZee.

Yeah! It’s done! Well, is a web site ever done? Don’t answer that! 

It’s live, anyway. I’m pleased with the general look, though a few of my visitors may feel lost for a while! The design was focused on creating something new & unique that would be identifiable with this site, as well as functional. I dropped a few items on my earlier to-do lists after review, and have delayed others. In the coming weeks I will point out how certain things were accomplished, the plug-ins used, and all the details.  For now, I’m just going to sit back and relax a bit, and focus on why were all right blogs–the content!

I invite feedback on the new look & feel of the site. Please leave comments and share what you think. I know there are some little glitches that showed up in the launch, like that Technorati Rank graphic not wanting to center… it is on my server at home! That’s strange. But, now that I can sit back and take it all in, I can focus on fine-tuning as we go. Thanks for being patient while I got this completed. I look forward to hearing everyone’s comments.

I’ve made good progress on the latest to-do list:

• Review plugin use and confirm all are setup
• Make notes of configuration changes that need to be done inside WordPress admin tool after installation of the template
• Setup tabs with rounded borders using graphics
• Check pages for IE support code & GIF graphics for rounded corners
• Add Latest Posts to sidebar
• Widen sidebar
• Finalize color choice in post metadata
• Consider post date ‘calendar’ format graphic or color change
• Expand About page content
• Posts by Category page needs format still
• Posts by Date page needs format
• Custom Category Templates for each of standard categories (Tools & Techniques) with header lead-in to content
• Update blogroll and breakdown by category, perhaps using built-in link management system?
• Add RSS Feed icon & links near top & remove from footer
• Confirm RSS auto-discovery code is in header
• About section in sidebar, with photo?
• Ranking links (Alexa & Technorati)
• Blogflux links (uptime, directory, mapstats)
• Feedburner chiclet
• Stats link codes
• SEO code
• Review online version for customizations to back-port to new design
• Affiliate links (Sedo) others? HitsLink?
• Last 50 entries on Archive page
• Mullet Home page?
• Review for standards compliance

I’ve made good progress, so I should be able to launch the new design tomorrow night. Funny, we are also launching a new site at the university tomorrow night–luckily I’ve scripted that so it should only take a few seconds to cut-over to the new design. We are just planning on doing it Sunday night so it will be up Monday morning when people come in as was announced. I guess you can consider this blog the same way! Weekends are normally a slower time for views of the blog, especially on Saturday, though this weeks stats are looking pretty good! Hopefully my visitors on Monday will have time to leave comments on the new design. I’ll do a launch post when it goes live tomorrow to celebrate the launch, then Monday I’ll post a specific request for feedback. I’ll really be glad to be able to get back to thinking about content, than about the design and structure of  the blog, though that’s some of what I will be doing! Keep watching…

Here’s where we are so far in our progress on the earlier established to-do list:

• Install copy of WordPress on development box
• Import backup of live site content to provide some content for the development site
• Create a bare-bones set of template files
• Review the default CSS before beginning development of custom CSS for new template
• Setup CSS for basic layout
  • 2-Column wide left, narrow right, approximately 75% - 25% split
  • Site width: 1024px (current width ~800px)
  • This gives almost the same relative widths as the current template, but with an increased overall width, resulting in a wider left column (and right) to give more room for graphics & code as desired.
  • Header will be short, ~ 5% +/- of screen height
  • Footer will be one or two text lines
• Select color scheme
• Select photo / graphic / logo for header and develop site-wide navigation in header

I’ve accomplished all the items on the initial plan! Until I was writing this, I hadn’t realized that all the original goals had been accomplished. That’s nice to realize! Goes to show that putting your plans and goals in writing and monitoring them can sometimes lead you to see progress in areas you didn’t realize you were making. That’s a subject for a whole other post. Too much philosophy for this one!

While I have accomplished the original goals, it does not mean that I haven’t changed and/or expanded on them while in progress. Or there may be some minor implementation issues left to finalize.

Here’s what I see still needs to be complete before launch of this redesign:

• Review plugin use and confirm all are setup
• Make notes of configuration changes that need to be done inside WordPress admin tool after installation of the template
• Setup tabs with rounded borders using graphics
• Check pages for IE support code & GIF graphics for rounded corners
• Add Latest Posts to sidebar
• Widen sidebar
• Finalize color choice in post metadata
• Consider post date ‘calendar’ format graphic or color change
•  Expand About page content
• Posts by Category page needs format still
• Posts by Date page needs format
•  Custom Category Templates for each of standard categories (Tools & Techniques) with header lead-in to content
• Update blogroll and breakdown by category, perhaps using built-in link management system?
• Add RSS Feed icon & links near top & remove from footer
• Confirm RSS auto-discovery code is in header
• About section in sidebar, with photo?
• Ranking links (Alexa & Technorati)
• Blogflux links (uptime, directory, mapstats)
• Feedburner chiclet
• Stats link codes
• SEO code
• Review online version for customizations to back-port to new design
• Affiliate links (Sedo) others? HitsLink?
• Last 50 entries on Archive page
• Mullet Home page?
• Review for standards compliance

As you can see, even though I have accomplished a lot, there is still much to do. But, most of it is little stuff in general, the details you don’t see or think of, until you get farther along in any project. This is one of the reasons project planning is not an exact science. While an architect can design a house, the carpenter that builds it still have to make a lot of decisions on how to implement the design. Here, I’m the designer and the carpenter.