Elbows Music Blog Community

Looks the goods mate, works fine on my end, just took a while to loads for some reason

i like the design.

it's probably just my browser, but the feature content slider is not working properly.

I agree with making the sidebar having black headers, they do get lost.

Looks great overall. :)

It looks like your image source in single posts shows up as:



http://www.sfcritic.com/2010/07/28/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Ferocious-few.jpg



The image on the front page refrences:



http://www.sfcritic.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Ferocious-few.jpg



Seems like the "/2010/07/28" is showing up extra... see if you can set the default image directory to not include it?

Interesting. It was suggested that I have my page width at about 900 pixels since the average users sets their screen between 800 pixels and 1180 pixels, or whatever.

What do other people think of Slowcoustic's point?

I'm getting the scrollbar as well.

So... in your css try changing your #wrapper and #wrapperTable to:

#wrapper {
background:none repeat scroll 0 0 #FFFFFF;
font-size:0.75em;
padding:0 0 60px;
width:100%;
}

#wrapperTable {
margin: 0 0 0 25px;
width:950px;
}

What do you guys think now? I made the changes...

It's really good, but I think I'll raise an issue that I struggle a bit with myself.



You clearly have a lot of quite varied content, which can make things difficult when it comes to building a clean, clear site.  I ended up keeping a fairly standard blog layout, but inevitably sacrificed the chance to showcase some of the more in-depth content I generate, such as the sessions and the label stuff and so on and so forth.



You seem to have gone with a magazine layout, which is something I toyed with for a long while, but eventually decided against because it made the site look like just that: a magazine. I suppose it depends a great deal on what you're trying to achieve with the site, but personally I decided that I wanted a blog more than I wanted a magazine.



That's just me though, but I wondered what people thought about the magazine format for blogs in general.

I like the magazine simply because of what Mr. Toad said - not all posts are equal. Regardless of what people might think of the quality, it's nice to not bury stuff you put more time into and let it ride for a while.

yeah, (this is in no way a judgement call, clearly i like the theme) i feel like cb suffered from the visual overload that can come from that when it was on the theme that http://www.thebluewalrus.com/ is using. at the time it was on the upgraded version which also had a carousel, but it just became too much. maybe that had something to do with the neon pink/green color scheme though.

kinda feel like it's a little more simplified right now... about as minimal as it might get while still including some features that i need on there.

I totally hear what you guys are saying about magazine layout. Ultimately, I have been posting an interview (for almost a year now) every week. It's great because in keywords, interview is central to my website, however--it's crazy to think that having interviewed the likes of Incubus, Kings of Leon, Tegan & Sara, Pavement, Cake, B.o.B., Sonic Youth etc.. that I would let that content just disappear behind short three line posts about "download this..."

In that case it was a no brainer. Also, and this is true with a lot of you old timers, after two years of posts (over 500 articles) I was tired of the archives by dates..I wanted to create something where people could discover based on style of articles or genres.

Regarding the wheel, I totally here what you're saying Tim. In some cases, I will have original galleries. I work with two fantastic photographers, and hope to upload some of the back loaded content galleries into my photo section. I will likely incorporate those posts with the wheel as well.

Matthew, I think (or at least I'm trying) it's possible to balance the magazine with a blog. I still have a blog below the different columns, which is updated regularly and more often (now) since I can keep my longer articles separate. I can assure you though, getting a magazine layout the way YOU want it--ain't easy unless you have CSS/HTML skills. Which is why I'm totally indebted to some blogger friends.

@toad: that last line.... a-men.

Hey,
Looks nice - the only thing that pops out as something potentially improvable are the Twitter, Facebook, and RSS buttons - while they fit nicely with the hand-drawn theme of the blog, I'm wondering if (depending on the demographic of who reads your blog) some not-so-internet-savvy people wouldn't be able to associate the 't' with twitter, the 'f' with facebook, and (most likely) the RSS logo with a subscribable RSS feed - in which case, you might be missing out on returning readers.
Just my thoughts.

Just wanted to revisit this now that you've done the re-re-(rere?)design.

I guess it is hard to tell with all your trendy 2011 in blogging posts, but have you noticed that the more detailed buttons have gotten you more return readers? I'm wondering if it is worth putting the work in to do so. I might anyway as they don't really fit my new theme...

If someone doesn't get that the stylized T is associated with Twitter, F with Facebook, etc., I'm not sure it really matters. What's the likelihood the uninitiated in question use those services if they don't recognize their universal icons?