A Site Map In Brief

Beginning with a very basic structure.

One home page: Field of Science. This page will aggregate content from the subblogs, forum, etc. Also useful links, etc. Everything you need to navigate and check for new content. Design #1.

Multiple subblogs: Labs. The developers blog and an example of a subblog. Design #2.

One forum: Forum. What's a website without a forum? It is what it is. The forum is expandable (or scalable) with the addition of sub-forums, etc. Sending comments to a blog owners own forum as opposed to regular blog comments will be an option. Design #3.

So there are the three basic designs I need to develop. I need to incorporate consistent elements across all three, while leaving room for each to be individualized (specifically the subblogs) per the blog owner's preferences. Think mannequins. They need to be both plan and attractive for bloggers to want to hang their ideas on.

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A New Wave of Science Blogging?

One can imagine science bloggers would be a (the) primary beneficiary in a landscape where Google ranks sites based on the correctness of factual information provided by the [blog] . What's more, it is not a stretch to conclude that science bloggers could very well be in the vanguard of a new wave of bloggers who earn Google’s trust by blogging within the confines of what is known. The news that Google is working on a system of ranking sites based on the quality of their facts should be greeted by science bloggers everywhere as a game-changer.

The Science Habit

3+ years ago I left FieldofScience to fend while I (read: my wife) had babies. To my relief, FieldofScience managed just fine without me. There was some attrition, and a scatting of broken links, but otherwise I was not really needed. When I started FieldofScience back in 2008, I gave myself the title of Founding Editor . But looking at it now, that was mistaken. Turns out there is nothing here to edit ( duh! ). The better title for what I do is Founding guy who pays the annual domain registration . Of course I do tweak the templates, tidy up, and when I have time, make an effort to grow FieldofScience's ranks. But all of those things are second to what is my most important job--doing nothing. I have been slowly reengaging with FieldofScience over the last few months. Doing little things here and there, and letting plans for redesigns simmer in the back of my mind while I reacquaint myself with my tools and with the state of science blogging. One of the things I am st...

640 Style Guide: Wider Videos and Images

YouTube video and Blogger image uploading and formatting specifications. [Note: These instructions are written for the classic Blogger post editor, composing in the Edit Html tab.] Instructions for posting wide screen YouTube videos. To embed wide screen videos, go to the video's url on YouTube . To the right of the Embed code, click on the Customize button. In the menu that expands below the Embed code, select 640x385 . Copy the Embed code and paste it into your post. Instructions for uploading images to be 640 pixels wide. [Note: These instructions work for images that are wider than they are tall.] In the image uploader, Choose a layout: "None", Image size: "Medium" To upsize images, double the width and height specifications of the image (width: 640px; height: XXXpx;) and change s320 to s640 in the image url. Advanced Image Editing: To place two "Medium" images side-by-side, delete the return break between them. Blogger's picture uploader d...

Labs

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