Hi folks,
A couple of housekeeping issues:
- ScienceBlogs have developed a set of funky widgets that allow you to share the headlines from your favourite blogs on other websites. You can find the one for Not Exactly Rocket Science here - just click Share, and then Install outside Netvibes.
- The deadline is looming for this year's Open Laboratory compilation of the science blogosphere's best offerings. If any posts in this blog have tickled your fancy, stretched your brain or stoked your loins (heaven forbid, but there are some strange people on the internet), submit them for consideration here. For full disclosure purposes, I am helping to judge this year's competition, but I will obviously not be judging my own work except in a non-competition, self-critical, tortured-soul, writery sort of way.
- Recently, due to overwhelming demand (n=2), I've changed the way that posts appear so that the full shebang appears above the fold rather than teasing readers and making you click for the payoff. It makes the front page a bit messier, but I'm told this is easier for people reading on phones. There hasn't been a noticeable drop in traffic. Is everyone happy with this change, are you for some reason against it, or have you actually failed to notice any difference whatsoever?
E
Comments
Hey Ed,
I did notice that your posts now appear in full and I think it's great as I read your posts using my RSS reader, and now on my phone too, so having the whole article makes life easier!!!! (and it means I read the whole thing rather than click only when i'm interested)
Thanks! and keep up the good work (I will nominate an article when I figure out which one I like best)
Chia
Posted by: chia | November 15, 2009 7:31 PM
I read the posts on the RSS reader (Google Reader) and I like the change too.
Posted by: Fa | November 15, 2009 8:47 PM
Works for me. I think I'll like it even better yet on my office machine, which is cranky and slow.
Posted by: cicely | November 15, 2009 9:41 PM
Yeah the whole showing the entire post is awesome. I had always wished you would do that.
BTW, "stoked your loins (heaven forbid, but there are some strange people on the internet)" LOL
Posted by: Matt | November 15, 2009 11:37 PM
I read your posts through an RSS aggregator, so having the whole thing in the feed saves me a click (and the time to load the page). So yes, I like it.
Posted by: arensb | November 16, 2009 1:12 AM
The full article method is much easier for me when I read on my iPhone. The articles remain well-written and interesting.
Posted by: OftenWrongTed | November 16, 2009 10:22 AM
I use google reader, too, and find the changed format easier.
Posted by: Lilian Nattel | November 16, 2009 10:30 AM
I'm on high-speed, use Firefox, and it doesn't take long to load the new page. But I still prefer this format where I don't have to click to a new page. Thanks.
Posted by: Daniel J. Andrews | November 16, 2009 7:01 PM
What Daniel J. Andrews said. Wish other bloggers would do the same (*cough*gregladen*cough*).
Posted by: Diane G. | November 18, 2009 9:49 PM
For what it's worth, I prefer the teaser + click type layout. I visit the site ("manually" ...), and only every few days, so scrolling through the new posts and opening the interesting ones in separate tabs is more natural to me. Plus it feels like it loads faster that way, although that could just be my imagination.
I can live with the additional scrolling though.
Posted by: magetoo | November 20, 2009 11:50 AM
If you aren't noticing a drop in traffic, it may be because people that read your articles via RSS are more likely to forward it to friends if they can read the whole thing. Or, like me, they may open the article page in a new tab to remember to do something with it. ...and many other possibilities.
Posted by: Ted | November 22, 2009 10:37 PM