So working with Codegent we’ve made our move across to WordPress – and so far it seems that the transition was largely without incident. It will most certainly take time for us all to get used to this, and there are still all sorts of things we have to work out, but we hope that the new structure for the site will give us much greater flexibility. One of the actions I can do much more easily now is to post several times a day – so look out for the regular Something for the weekend post later today, with Sunday links to follow tomorrow. In the meantime, please tell us what’s not working – and what you think of the new look and feel.
Ian
8th October, 2011 12:43 pmDefinitely looks a lot better, and should be easier to navigate, particularly the archive. I hope the links system improves. Although I was baffled by where I could comment, and then it became apparent I was in the blog archive, even though only a post from yesterday. So the difference between the blog and the blog archive is not obvious to me, and confuses me why you can comment in one place and not the other
John Wyver
8th October, 2011 12:51 pmMany thanks – yes, the Blog and Blog Archive most definitely need to be distinguished more, and that will happen. Also, one or two of he links are wrongly directing at present. I feel there’s lots more to do yet, but it’s beginning to emerge. Also, the social media elements at the side of each post are – in some places – quite wrong; they need to look more elegant.
Helene
8th October, 2011 1:14 pmIn the Comments section, does WordPress allow for formatting — italics, boldface — as well as hyperlinking?
John Wyver
8th October, 2011 3:33 pmHelene – not, I think, at the moment, but I want it to – and I’m very keen that we try to encourage as many people as possible to be as creative as possible with the Comments.
Luke McKernan
9th October, 2011 9:35 amCongratulations on the new look John, and on coming across to WordPress. I hope it frees things up for you and brings the Illuminations blog to still greater attention. It’s certainly looking good already.
Luke
John Wyver
9th October, 2011 9:53 amThanks Luke – I still feel there’s SO much to do, and so many things to refine, but the move over was complex (and well-managed by Codegent) and we needed to do that before we develop further.
PS. The portrait is great (and very true to life, if I may say) – and I really want to encourage all those who comment to register with WordPress so they can include something similar. I have to sort out my own one too.
Luke McKernan
9th October, 2011 10:23 amThe portrait is left over from a now-closed blog of mine, Diving for Pearls, for which my avatar was the poet Christopher Smart (you’ll have to read the blog to learn why). For some reason he’s still there whenever I comment on other WordPress blogs, as opposed to my Urbanora identity.
http://divingforpearls.wordpress.com/
kevin
10th October, 2011 10:52 amFor anyone who regularly posts here on Illuminations and would like to make sure their avatar appears on the new WordPress site you can sign up to Gravatar and it will give you one centralised avatar for lots of things, including this site.
Also, if you’re a tweeter then entering your twitter name while posting will mean that avatar gets used. So you do have options to ensure you maintain your identity while interacting with the Illuminations community.
Maureen Ose
12th October, 2011 4:50 pmAre you still distributing Artland USA? Our collection was featured and we are still getting comments from people who see it occasionally, but I do not see it on your site.
We have a fabulous new museum, send your delightful team back!