Yeah, the blog gods tell you not to do stuff like this while you write, but it’s my website (mostly) and so I’ll do what I like. There are also those who would insist that you, Gentle Reader, are more interested in my thoughts on music than my thoughts on the medium. But those people can enjoy a delicious cheeseburger and live happy and fulfilling lives for all I care. Let’s talk a little shop.
First, this site has become way, way bigger than I intended it to be. I don’t mean from a WORLD DOMINATION perspective, because I’ve always planned on getting that, but more from the perspective of the site layout. I made this a two column website because I’ve always wanted the content to be the star of the show. I don’t have the time or dedication to run one of those blogs that has breathy updates two or three times a day with whatever pithy info or music news is going on in the world, and that isn’t the role of the site. I’ve always, in my mind, modeled this site after a Maddox or a Demonbaby – maybe I can’t find the time to update everyday or every week, but what you do read on SZ should be unique and compelling and give you something interesting to think about next time you hear something familiar, or, in the case of features on people like En Pursuit or B.I.T.E., open your eyes up to something totally new.
Now, I haven’t been completely true to those principles – I have had a tendency to try and eke something out every few days because, as a casual browser, there’s nothing worse than reading a very interesting post online, going to the main page, and seeing it hasn’t been updated in months. Sometimes I put out a short post as a way of shouting “I’M ALIIIIVE” at the top of my lungs, which isn’t a huge deal to me, if the short post is entertaining.
But despite the DOMINANCE of content and intimidating walls of text and all that, I didn’t really think about all the design elements that needed to go on a blog like this (because I’d never run one before). The music player is important to me, because I want people to be able to hear Oh, Alexis or En Pursuit long after they’ve dropped off the front page. Blogroll? Turns out that’s important. Badges? Also a big deal. Forum feed? Obviously, the guys on our forum are the lifeblood that keeps us moving. That should be front and center. And if I could I’d add the chatroom widget and a featured posts widget for new users and a little box for people to send me music through. And see… all of this stuff is very hard to put into a 2 column layout, even if you’re economical as a webmaster, which I admittedly haven’t been.
And look, even this website’s layout wasn’t thought through fully. It’s based off the theme of our forum, which was designed by Fleshy (don’t bother googling, the artist has retired) – so while it looks pretty, it hasn’t really been designed to be economical with page space. I mean, there’s a lot of “unused” space on this website – spacing and background on both sides, a lot of blank space next to the logo, etc. A future redesign will have to address that.
Speaking of that, you will notice some new stuff taking up real estate on the site. First, there’s a block banner on the sidebar. We had a Google AdWords banner on the site for a little while, but AdWords was context-sensitive, which wasn’t the best solution for a site as um… esoteric as this one? I stumbled onto the MOG network through my travels through the internet a few months ago, looking for sites that were going in the direction I wanted SZ to be in a year from now (I didn’t find any, which is excellent). It stretches the sidebar just a bit, but like I said, there’s going to be a redesign in a few months. But I’m featuring the MOG content mainly because it’s good. Every single site I’ve seen on that network has been a good one, with interesting and engaging writing throughout. I’ve made some contacts and met some cool people, and I’m hoping that the awesome stuff I’m writing here will draw more eyeballs to our snug corner of the interwebs.
Second, the prospect of eventually getting a little cash doesn’t hurt things. It’s 1:30 PM as I write this, and I’ve been hacking away at website related stuff since 3PM. Not to mention the full-time student-ry. I know some of you know us as lovable screwups who seem to always crash the site right before a big moment, but we seriously brutalize ourselves for this site, and we’ve all put like, Real Life Money into this venture. Kat went out and bought a professional quality theme back when we were just a board, I play the hosting bill evey month, not to mention the Invision license and the site design and some fancy SEO stuff for the forum and on and on and on – as massively lame as it sounds, we’ve probably spend about 500 bucks on this tiny, tiny site since it started. If drawing some eyeballs to Death Cab interviews while we work will help cover that and buy a Saturday night pizza once every month or so: worth it.
Lots of major stuff to come in the days ahead, like, literally a few days (including the interview with you know who, seriously, almost done) so…stay tuned chicks and fellas. We love you.
Tags: meta