The White Oaks Blog Reloaded…

January 1, 2010

First of all, Happy New Year…  Welcome to the double-play of a brand new year and decade!

And what better way to mark this momentous occasion here at the White Oaks Blog than with (another) redesign of the site.  Yes, I did it again!  Based on feedback I received over the past six months,   readers seem to prefer the “traditional” website layout with the blog posts on one side and the sidebar content on the other.   This is understandable, but the reason I originally switched away from this traditional blog layout was that I had little control over where certain blog posts were placed.

A flaw of typical blogs is their chronological nature —  articles get pushed down the “stack” as new content is written, soon to be lost forever as they're pushed off the first page.   But there are certain posts that should be kept at the top because they're relevant and deserve focus and exposure for an extended period of time.   The recent discussion on Measure U is a prime example of this.  Some of the poll topics fit this bill too.

Well, this new layout accomplishes both — and does it really well.  Here are some of the key features:

  1. Navigation:  It's based on a “traditional” layout, with posts on the left and two columns of news and info on the right.
  2. Featured Content:  The site showcases four “featured posts” at the top, which allows me complete control over what the focus is on the site for that particular period.  It's a perfect place to showcase your home when you list it with me (hint, hint..)
  3. Ease of use.   Along with the traditional layout, it's a “fluid-width” site.  This means that it adapts itself to whatever screen size you happen to be using — it fills out the screen of the newer wide-screen monitors, but also looks adapts to the older style square ones.   The font and color scheme are easy on the eyes too.

There are lots of other cool features this site offers, so bear with the changes over the next week or so as I get things dialed in.

So, what do you think?

If you follow this site through a feed reader or on your Yahoo home page, you won't notice a difference — it will be business as usual.  But if you do visit the site on a regular basis, let me know what you think of the new layout by leaving a comment and/or voting on the poll below:

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

I'd like to wish all of you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.  Thanks for being loyal readers of the site, and I look forward to more fun and adventure in 2010!

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2 Comments

  1. Fred on January 1, 2010 at 4:03 pm

    Currently a lot of white space on the right side when you scroll down. I like the overall look but two columns would seem to be better use of space.

    Keep up the great work in ’10.

    Fred



  2. Chuck on January 1, 2010 at 5:52 pm

    Hi Fred,

    Happy New Year! Thanks for the feedback – I’m glad you like the new look. I’m currently adding content to the sidebar, so the white space will eventually be filled in — running into some technical difficulties in the process, but it’s coming along!

    Thanks again,

    Chuck



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