First, let me welcome you to the new site, and thank you for stopping by. The reason for the drastic change can be summed up in one word – friendly. While the old site was a great place for all the gadgets, bells, and whistles, it lacked the one simple thing that every blog should have – participation. I do appreciate everyone that posted or replied to comments on the old site, or at least attempted to. There were many times that someone sent me a message stating that they could either not login, or even leave a comment as a guest. This site solves that issue. It’s also more user friendly.
One of the greatest thrills of documenting my journey as a writer is the community aspect of this project. Writing is a lonely job, but having a group of people (like you) that are going through, or have gone through many of the same things, well, that’s priceless. I appreciate every tweet sent my way (okay, almost every tweet), all the Facebook interactions, and most especially the comments that you guys and gals leave on my blog posts. Those comments have often turned an otherwise dull or depressing day around for me.
The new site has a few features that I really like. There are multiple columns, depending upon the size of your screen. Stretching out the page will reveal a Twitter feed, Networked Blogs, and other social media sections. On most normal sized screens you probably will never see it, so I may change that around one day. There’s also the ability to subscribe to an RSS feed for specific categories of the blog, such as Reviews, Blog, etc. The menu for that is in the very top left, beside my Top 100 Songs playlist.
There’s also the new Blogroll of all my favorite sites. These are the places that I visit most frequently, and I think you will enjoy their content too.
While I was able to transfer the content of the original site, the one disappointment I have is that it would not let me bring all the old comments as well. I apologize for this, but there was little I could do about it. On the bright side, the new comments section is perhaps my favorite addition of all. Hopefully it will encourage more participation. If nothing else, it will at least let those folks that try to leave a comment actually post one.
Click on The Rush Room title logo and it will open the main site.
So again, welcome to the new site. Leave me a note that you stopped by.
–Rush
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Yay! I wondered what you'd been up to, young man! I thought you were off in that lovely Viper with Mrs. KD having the time of your lives.
Very good to see back around, buddy. Of course, now I'll have to steal this idea of yours and get myself a new site. Tsk…
Oh, I wish! The Viper has to wait until I can build a bigger garage (new house). I just have no room to put it at the moment with all the motorcycles taking up space. Besides, our bank wouldn't finance a car that was ten years old. And while there were half a dozen other places that would, my wife thought it would be a better idea to save our money, but a new house with a larger garage, and then get the dream car. All good things as they say.
Setting up the new site took the better part of a week. I worked on it in my spare time, and there are still a few things that I need to add, but for the most part it's up and running. I had to rewrite a couple of scripts (widgets) to get it to work the way I wanted, so hopefully that doesn't break anything.
If you need some advice on a new site design then hit me up…while all of this is still fresh in my mind.
New site looks great and is much more "KD" in it's appearance and friendliness! Now I understand what you've been spending your free time on, besides writing. I think this new site will be better in visually highlighting your writing too. Just all around great!
Thanks Jo! It's been a long time coming. I just had to wait for the free time to implement it. I thought it would take some time to get used to, but the more I see it the better I like it. Oh, and thank you for testing you did.
This is a site to behold! At some point – you know, before your retirement, you must tell us a bit about the technology, a video?
Thanks my friend. The overall site is pretty much out of the box, with a few tweaks. The major components are WordPress with a template that I paid for, Intense Debate as the comment manager, and WPtouch Pro to display the site on mobile phones with an app like quality. Everything else is just your standard plug-n-play widgets.
I just setup the mobile templates last night, and I have to admit, it turned out even better than I hoped it would. The site looks great on the iPhone and iPad.
Thanks again for stopping by Honoré!
Hi Rush! Nice to meet you and thanks for inviting me to comment. Elaine Ash
Elaine, thanks for stopping by the new site! Comments are always nice. Some days it feels like I'm talking to myself. Okay, I do talk to myself, but you get the point. ^_^
Yes, I do get the point, Rush. Now write something new and get it up. Keep the momentum going!