{"id":6511,"date":"2010-01-19T07:01:41","date_gmt":"2010-01-19T07:01:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=6511"},"modified":"2010-01-18T22:57:51","modified_gmt":"2010-01-18T22:57:51","slug":"a-few-tweaks-and-new-things","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/?p=6511","title":{"rendered":"A few tweaks and new things"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s over two months since we moved to a completely new design here at BaseballGB. I’m very happy with both the look and functionality of the new site and judging by the comments and e-mails we’ve received, the changes seem to have gone down well with you readers too.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 As Hannibal from the A-Team said on so many occasions: “I love it when a plan comes together”!<\/p>\n

I mentioned in my ‘Introductory’ post<\/a> that I would be making a few tweaks here and there as the site ‘bedded in’.\u00c2\u00a0 Most of them have been minor changes that hopefully add up to useful little additions.\u00c2\u00a0 For example, and as suggested in that previous post, I have now added a Tags section at the bottom of each\u00c2\u00a0post so that there is another easy way to navigate to content on a similar theme.\u00c2\u00a0 I’ve also updated the look of the ‘caption’ area that\u00c2\u00a0will appear at the bottom\u00c2\u00a0of images.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s not very noticeable at the moment as, due to the inadequacy of the previous caption style, we very rarely (if ever) used it.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s another thing we can take advantage of from now on though.\u00c2\u00a0 <\/p>\n

Writing about images brings me to one of the other main additions to the site in recent weeks.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 I stumbled across an invaluable resource called PicApp<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0that allows blogs and websites to use quality photos without falling foul of copyright laws.\u00c2\u00a0 Too many images can do more harm than good in\u00c2\u00a0a post, but used sensibly they can work extremely well as a way to break up and complement the text, especially in the cases of longer articles such as my Rounding the Bases column. Again, it’s another feature we can use to improve the overall presentation and look of the website (although we will not be able to use the ‘image caption’ feature on those pics because PicApp doesn’t allow it).<\/p>\n

I also noted in my Introductory post on 25 October that I would update the ‘About’<\/a> page “over the coming week”.\u00c2\u00a0 The timetable on that task has slipped a little bit, but I\u00c2\u00a0promise to get to it soon.\u00c2\u00a0 I spent some time over the Christmas period undertaking my annual review of the website (what went well, what didn’t quite work or could have worked better, what we could\u00c2\u00a0improve, ideas for new features etc) and while the general ethos of the site as explained in the About page still very much holds true, the specifics on where we’ve been and where we are going does need to be updated.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

You’ll notice that one of the “New for 2009” features listed there is an MLB Wiki page.\u00c2\u00a0 This was an idea of mine that I really wanted to get right before launching it and other commitments meant that I never quite got to that position at any point last year.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s going to be my main side project over the next few months, expanded to cover British baseball as well,\u00c2\u00a0and I’m aiming to have it up and running by the start of the new season.<\/p>\n

One\u00c2\u00a0other new feature\u00c2\u00a0for the 2010 season that I\u00c2\u00a0can reveal\u00c2\u00a0is the move to a greater mix of longer articles and shorter blog posts.\u00c2\u00a0 Like most writers, I prefer putting together longer and more considered pieces of work and I think that’s the right approach for us\u00c2\u00a0to take.\u00c2\u00a0 Quality of posts rather than quantity has always been my preference as a reader, writer and editor.\u00c2\u00a0 However, there is also undoubtedly a place for shorter and more frequent posts as conversation starters or just a bit of fun.\u00c2\u00a0 The relative lack of shorter posts in the past has been due to a desire to keep the more substantial pieces in a prominent position on the website, rather than quickly knocking them down the main page with shorter items.\u00c2\u00a0 The functionality of the main page now (headline section, featured section, category spoilers on the right-hand side etc) means that this is no longer a problem, so I’m hoping to increase the number of shorter posts this year, while continuing with the longer articles and maintaining the overall quality of all the content.\u00c2\u00a0 It’s probably something that will work best once the season has started and there are lots of games, incidents and news stories to comment on.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

As always, please let us know what you think so that we can keep on improving BaseballGB.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Details of design tweaks and new features for 2010 here at BaseballGB<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[62],"class_list":["post-6511","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-site-info","tag-baseballgb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6511"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6519,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6511\/revisions\/6519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6511"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6511"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/baseballgb.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6511"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}