Fall cleanup

Just think, three weeks from today (October 12), this very blog you're reading now will turn five years old. Yep, believe it. And with that, I'm slowly streamlining this thing in order to make it easier to read, and perhaps more interactive.

1. Many readers here have been checking us out on various social networking sites, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter. If not, by all means do. I don't really deal with MySpace too much anymore, since it's not very interactive, aside from being a spam repository. I still check in from time-to-time, so if you want to send a friend request, by all means do. As for the others, Facebook does have more interactive features, and I plan on doing a bit more with it. It is a nice place for readers to congregate and whatnot. As for Twitter, I plan on posting news tidbits, links, announcements of new blog entries and whatever it is most people do with Twitter. Frequent updates that may not make the blog can be found there.

2. As for this blog, I am slowly going through and doing some cleanup. The column situation (which seems to be a problem every few months or so when web browser creators update their software) is now straightened out, and should render well in virtually all browsers. Dead links will either be updated or go bye-bye. And some of the advertising will go as well, likely replaced with more effective stuff (I really don't think anyone has ever clicked on that Zlio banner). As for the other stuff, such as Amazon and Google AdSense, that will stay. And I do encourage you to shop through these links as well, since every click-through and purchase do help to keep me motivated enough to provide you all with blogging goodness. Hey, at least I'm not outright begging for money, right?

3. In regard to the Wiki, I've been neglecting it for some time, but plan on straightening it out. It is a bit overwhelming to keep up with, but I'll try my best. And I encourage anyone who wants to contribute to it as well.

4. The Blogger software has improved considerably over recent months, and I plan on incorporating some of their new gimmicks here. One idea I have is to implement 'page breaks', which will show the first few paragraphs of a given entry on the main page, with a link to continue reading on another. This should minimize load times and the general appearance of the blog. In addition, it will allow me to post even more content, without it all getting lost.

If any of you have further suggestions, please leave them in the comments below. Thanks for reading.