This weekend, we made some changes here at The Casual Perfectionist.
Just what did we do?
I totally dig lists, so here’s a little list:
- We upgraded some of the backend editor stuff.
- We added a different anti-spam feature to the comment section.
- We changed the header.
- We moved around the layout.
- We implemented a new searching feature.
Why did we do this?
It’s always good to upgrade the backend stuff, but we just hadn’t had the time to do it. Things are a little more complicated when you have your own domain name, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. Luckily, my hubby is really good at understanding all of this technical mumbo-jumbo. The downside to all that is that I need his help and can’t do the trickier things myself whenever it strikes my fancy. The upside to that is I don’t have to deal with change. 
And, since he was going to be tinkering around in the code, I told him that I was being eaten alive by spambots. Their weapon of choice appears to include h0tmail email addresses. I’d had to put a ban on comments from h0tmail email addresses, which would dump all of those into a moderation queue. At times, I would be bombarded with 1,500+ comments an hour. AN HOUR. I don’t have the time to sift through all of that, and I hated the fact that real people with legitimate h0tmail addresses were getting lost in the shuffle.
So, we found a really cool anti-spam program to add to the comments section of the blog. It requires the commenter to type in a word that appears in the comment field. This proves that the commenter is indeed human and not a spambot.
Yes, it’s one extra hoop my readers need to jump through to comment, and I apologize for that. But, the alternative just wasn’t an option anymore. And, I tested it out, and the word seems to be pretty easy to see. I comment on some blogs that use a different version of this, and I feel like I’m in the middle of a vision test. Some of the lines are so squiggly or the characters so distorted that I feel like I’m squinting and then that makes me feel old.
So, hopefully the version I chose will be pretty easy to use.
Note: If you have tried to comment on this blog in the past, and you have a h0tmail address, and your comment never showed up, please try it again! I think it will work this time!
Why did I change the header, and why isn’t it a shadow portrait?
I love shadow portraits, and odds are I’ll be doing more of them. I also wanted a header that would represent the three of us: Momma, Daddy and Claire. But, when Claire and I were messing around one day taking pictures of ourselves, two pictures jumped out at me. They totally capture who we are, and I love them. I asked Daddy if it was okay if he wasn’t truly represented in the header this time, and he said he was fine with that.
When we decided to make the changes to the blog, I wanted to use one of these two pictures:
This is one of the pictures.
This is another picture.
It was hard to decide between the two, but we ultimately chose the one where you can see me smiling and Claire saying “Cheese!” Claire is using a random piece off of a spinning-top as her camera. (It’s one of those toys where you wind up the spinning-top and then release it with the handle to send it shooting across the room. She uses the handle portion as her camera. Go figure.) She’s taking our picture as I’m taking our picture. I love it. It keeps the veil of anonymity on, yet it shows who we are.
One of these days, I’ll take some pictures of the three of us playing so that Daddy can be included. (He got her the little green toy, so he is with us in spirit in the picture.)
Why did I switch back to two columns?
In the grand scheme of things, layout is just a preference. I’d had the three column site for over a year, and I loved it. But, every once in a while, I’d look at it and pretend to be an observer and I realized that so many words in such a small real-estate could be overwhelming. So, when we made these changes, I went back to the two column version. If you can’t find something you want, just keep scrolling, or look in the tabs at the top. (And, yes, Dory from Finding Nemo just popped into my head, only now she’s singing, “Just keep scrolling! Just keep scrolling! Just keep scrolling!”)
I do have it set so that if your monitor or browser window is small, it shifts the columns around to find the best fit. And, the geeky part of my brain thinks that’s pretty cool.
What other features have changed?
I just discovered that the way you can search through older things on the site is really cool now. At the top of the blog, on the main page, under the header and tabs and right above the top post, you’ll see a link that says, “Older: Page 1 of 64.”
Click on “Older.”
Isn’t that the coolest thing? It brings up a sliding tool that allows you to search back through the dates. And, this option stays at the top of your browser window as you scroll down, so you’ll always have easy access to it. You can also click on “trim” and it will shorten all the entries to just show the titles and dates of publication. (Untrim puts it back the way it was.)
I’m such a sucker for flair. I totally love flair. Ooooh. Pretty.
So, feel free to poke around. If you find something that appears to be goofy, shoot me an email or leave a comment. So far, everything seems to be working pretty well. As always, the site looks better in FireFox (as opposed to Internet Explorer)…and I haven’t used IE for so long…but I tested some of it and things appear to be working over there as well. (And, if you haven’t upgraded to FireFox, I highly suggest it. I balked at making the change and then couldn’t believe I waited so long.) 
If you read my blog in a FeedReader you shouldn’t notice any difference at all. But, you won’t be able to see the new header or features, so pop on over to check it out!
And, feel free to check out the new comment feature! Leave a comment! I’d love to hear what you think!
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