The Bad. The Good. And a Request.
Definitely been quiet around here recently; didn’t even get one post in this week. Long story, complicated by my sweet kitten going missing Tuesday night:
I wound up spending every spare moment this week roaming the neighborhood around the house, covering a dozen blocks with posters, meeting a bunch of neighbors (“Hi, I’m Giles, relatively new to town — uh, have you seen my kitten?”) who, to a person, were fantastic, and calling for Belina. The posters brought two leads, but nothing concrete. Come Friday morning, I was really pretty worried. Thankfully, to my relief — and I think to hers, judging by how she’s been acting — she was waiting outside. Just a kitten adventure, with major “parental” stress in a starring role.
Aside from some truly interesting book design projects going right now, poised at the top of the “to do” list, waiting for a resolution to the kitten drama, has been an upgrade for all of ospreydesign.com to Movable Type’s latest, MT 3.2. That, and a couple of tweaks to the blog’s CSS (including an increase in width to 700 pixels), are finally done.
That means a few things.
Most important is spam management. The earlier MT 3.x installations all had a major problem as far as our installation was concerned: notification. Every time a spam comment was posted to the system, MT generated an email to the entry’s author “requiring” action. Alas, no matter how many times it was turned off, it still sent the emails. So, during a typical spam attack over a weekend, say, six or seven hundred emails were generated and sent.
It certainly caused problems. (Including corrupting my email database on more than one occasion, usually when I would receive more than a thousand emails some typically busy Monday morning.) As a result, most editors’ accounts were closed so they weren’t flooded with these junk notifications, and posts dwindled to Amanda and me. That was in May. But it got shoved aside.
I officially moved the office to Macon in June, said “yes” to several new clients and projects over the summer, took on a big house (ironically, taken the night the kitten left, before it was a certainty and I was out calling, just in case) in need of some work, and the result is what we have today — more than a week without a post.
With MT 3.2 installed here at Foreword, we can finally reopen the doors to guest editors. I’m hoping you’ll forgive my taking so long. And I’m sure you’ll agree that it’s time.
Someone recently emailed:
Foreword seems rather dead lately! I know you’re busy and probably can’t post every day, but what happened to everyone else? […]
It would be great to see some new posts on a daily basis, and the only way I think you can achieve this is to get some of the other editors posting[.]
I couldn’t agree more. Let’s face it; between Amanda and me, she’s the far better blogger. Not only because I’m up to my eyeballs in work and lack the time to wander the ’net, but because she has a knack for finding things that are not only interesting but things that others haven’t seen yet. As has been posted, though, Amanda’s gone back to her first love of philanthropy — and now it’s just me 90% of the time.
As the last few weeks — and especially this past one — have proved, I’m not up to the task alone. Gotta ask for help.
I’ve posted a couple of emails to former editors, asking them to return. I’ve also asked a couple of new folks to either edit or supply some content in both book design and photography (the basis of so many successful book designs). But we need more.
On the horizon is a site redesign. The 700 pixel width will stay or (probably) even grow; I’ve been itching to streamline and totally revamp the design on both Foreword and the parent site for some time. Tentatively, it’s on the plate for after Thanksgiving. Included with that will be mini-posts — a la Kottke — that allow editors to quickly point to something interesting. I’d also like to spend more time exploring the intersection of photography and book design, something I’m often thinking of when taking my own photos.
However, you ideas and feedback are absolutely welcome. Please, let me know what works for you. Leave a comment, idea, or request.
And, today and always, thanks for visiting.
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Posted by Giles, Saturday, November 5, 2005, at 8:02 PM.
Posted to Book cats | Book design | Books | Personal | Photography | Site news | Whatever
Comments:
I’d say with the redesign, the content should be at least 760px width. Most browsers accomodate that size without horizontal scrolling at 800×600 resolution. Otherwise, CSS tableless layout should be on the horizon for foreword.