technology industry

The neat thing about blogging design…

Comments

…is that if you don’t like the theme you picked yesterday you can change it with a click of the mouse today. This is NOT my new design. It’s yet another way I can mess with the “brand” I’ve built. I want to destroy it, to allow me to play around and find something fresh. How’s this one? Anyway, today I’m on a plane to Phoenix to hang out with some cool geeks. More later as we continue building this out.

This theme is one of the pre-built ones in WordPress.com. If you don’t like it, we can pick another and keep trying them as Rackspace’s designers work on my new design, which will come up as part of the launch of Building43, the community for people fanatical about the Internet comes alive.

Comments

  1. Hey Scobez. I didn’t know you were coming to Phoenix. You should let me and Lindsay buy you a beer!

  3. Hey Scobez. I didn’t know you were coming to Phoenix. You should let me and Lindsay buy you a beer!

  5. Sometimes I visit blogs and wish there was an option to view as plain text or at least switch to a very simple design. Some blogs are so over designed with wierd colours they’re a pain to read.

  6. Sometimes I visit blogs and wish there was an option to view as plain text or at least switch to a very simple design. Some blogs are so over designed with wierd colours they’re a pain to read.

  7. Anything is better than the temporoary raw format thas was in place before this. The green text in the submit comments box is a bit tough on the eyes, and the checkmark icon for each link in the sidebar only adds cluter and no value, but I suspect most readers can deal with this until the penultimate design is ready.

  8. Anything is better than the temporoary raw format thas was in place before this. The green text in the submit comments box is a bit tough on the eyes, and the checkmark icon for each link in the sidebar only adds cluter and no value, but I suspect most readers can deal with this until the penultimate design is ready.

  9. Maybe you should just leave your “brand” completely out of your blog. Keep Building43 to Building43, or you may just run into this problem again a few years down the line.

  10. Maybe you should just leave your “brand” completely out of your blog. Keep Building43 to Building43, or you may just run into this problem again a few years down the line.

  14. I think almost any design you pick is fine. The last one was only a problem because, to me, it looked like something was broken in the template (that was my first assumption when I saw it). This one doesn’t. I’m usually reading everything in RSS anyway, so your blog design isn’t something I need to have much of an opinion about!

    Hope family stuff is all going well, and I hope to see you at Gnomedex in the summer as usual.

  15. I think almost any design you pick is fine. The last one was only a problem because, to me, it looked like something was broken in the template (that was my first assumption when I saw it). This one doesn’t. I’m usually reading everything in RSS anyway, so your blog design isn’t something I need to have much of an opinion about!

    Hope family stuff is all going well, and I hope to see you at Gnomedex in the summer as usual.

  18. Scoble, I can’t imagine that you’re failing to realize that it’s likely that more people read your stuff syndicated than on site. Therefore, your theme is mostly irrelevant and there is no “brand” tied to your look and feel. Your name is your brand. If you were serious about messing with your brand, you should start a new blog under a pseudonym and see if it takes off. Otherwise, it’s just posturing.

  19. Scoble, I can’t imagine that you’re failing to realize that it’s likely that more people read your stuff syndicated than on site. Therefore, your theme is mostly irrelevant and there is no “brand” tied to your look and feel. Your name is your brand. If you were serious about messing with your brand, you should start a new blog under a pseudonym and see if it takes off. Otherwise, it’s just posturing.

  22. I haven’t looked into the plugins available on wordpress.com, but is there a theme-switcher plugin. It’d be fun to see what your readers would choose as a theme.

  23. I haven’t looked into the plugins available on wordpress.com, but is there a theme-switcher plugin. It’d be fun to see what your readers would choose as a theme.

  24. is a theme really needed? how many people read this site first in google reader or elsewhere vs. visitng the site directly. i think it may have been a month since I’ve last visted, yet i’ve followed your blog throuhg google reader and haven’t missed much.

    you pimp friendfeed a ton and talk about the discussion that occurs there, why even have comments on your blog then?

  25. is a theme really needed? how many people read this site first in google reader or elsewhere vs. visitng the site directly. i think it may have been a month since I’ve last visted, yet i’ve followed your blog throuhg google reader and haven’t missed much.

    you pimp friendfeed a ton and talk about the discussion that occurs there, why even have comments on your blog then?

  26. I personally find it hard to find a theme I like, whether its mine or a friend’s. Ultimately there will be elements that can’t be included cause they don’t work or things you omit cause they just look wrong. I liked your “branding image” with the video camera best of all. It was easily identifiable as you and created a sense of place on the site. Bring that back. The green text is a bit hard to view for me. I would keep it all simple and clean and let your content shine through (I can dispense this advice only because I don’t heed it myself!). I come for your content. Good design is a nice bonus (like dessert) but not a show-stopper.

  27. I personally find it hard to find a theme I like, whether its mine or a friend’s. Ultimately there will be elements that can’t be included cause they don’t work or things you omit cause they just look wrong. I liked your “branding image” with the video camera best of all. It was easily identifiable as you and created a sense of place on the site. Bring that back. The green text is a bit hard to view for me. I would keep it all simple and clean and let your content shine through (I can dispense this advice only because I don’t heed it myself!). I come for your content. Good design is a nice bonus (like dessert) but not a show-stopper.

  28. This is the first time I’ve been to the actual site in a long time - I read you via RSS. And if you think the Scobleizer “brand” has to do with blog theming… well, that’s now how I see your brand. You’ve always been more about the content and the tech as opposed to the design or only endorsing that with a polished look.

  29. This is the first time I’ve been to the actual site in a long time - I read you via RSS. And if you think the Scobleizer “brand” has to do with blog theming… well, that’s now how I see your brand. You’ve always been more about the content and the tech as opposed to the design or only endorsing that with a polished look.

  31. I always thought you’d do well with a design similar to http://www.yoast.com, you’ve got the personality to carry it….let’s face it though, a vast majority of us come here for the content so the design is of little consequence, as long as it’s not too distracting or that it makes the content hard to read.

    Cheers
    Mat

  32. I always thought you’d do well with a design similar to http://www.yoast.com, you’ve got the personality to carry it….let’s face it though, a vast majority of us come here for the content so the design is of little consequence, as long as it’s not too distracting or that it makes the content hard to read.

    Cheers
    Mat

  37. Theres a lot of categories on the right sidebar. Which are perhaps tags (which brings up the whole category vs tags issue). I would prefer to see a shorter list of categories (maybe broader concepts) and a link to a tags page if I want some more detail. I read this site through Google Reader mainly but sometimes do visit the website directly.

  38. Theres a lot of categories on the right sidebar. Which are perhaps tags (which brings up the whole category vs tags issue). I would prefer to see a shorter list of categories (maybe broader concepts) and a link to a tags page if I want some more detail. I read this site through Google Reader mainly but sometimes do visit the website directly.

  45. I like the scaled back white to focus on the content — you can really see it come through with embedded photos and video. However, the legibility with long lengths of text is difficult when you use this shade of green. It’s so light that it instead of being bold on white, it is subdued.

    Closer, but I’d keep trying, you can do better :)

  46. I like the scaled back white to focus on the content — you can really see it come through with embedded photos and video. However, the legibility with long lengths of text is difficult when you use this shade of green. It’s so light that it instead of being bold on white, it is subdued.

    Closer, but I’d keep trying, you can do better :)

  47. Ok Scoble, I’ve had a couple of glasses of wine so I’m gonna be honest. At least the other design held the promise of something to come, like the fail whale, it looked broken, but we could understand. This, this is horrid, black over urine green. Your challenge is to find something worse. Like bacon and chocolate, even your delicious content can taste funny dipped in this.

  48. Ok Scoble, I’ve had a couple of glasses of wine so I’m gonna be honest. At least the other design held the promise of something to come, like the fail whale, it looked broken, but we could understand. This, this is horrid, black over urine green. Your challenge is to find something worse. Like bacon and chocolate, even your delicious content can taste funny dipped in this.

  49. There are many latest web designing trends in today’s world. Amateur and professional Web designers a like are getting a new tool to help them easily create sites that are fully interactive. Recently, I had get many interesting web tools for my site from Website Design Company. This company can provide you with a stunning website for only $29.99 a month.

  51. I think the strategy is brilliant, Robert! Keep destroying your old brand by changing the WordPress theme every once in a while. Once Building43 is ready, rebuild from there. Love it.

  52. I think the strategy is brilliant, Robert! Keep destroying your old brand by changing the WordPress theme every once in a while. Once Building43 is ready, rebuild from there. Love it.

  53. Well aside from the fact that the theme doesn’t truncate your tags, making your page _really_ long, changing themes too often will hurt your SEO too. When you change your theme, you’re changing the entire HTML structure of your site. Sometimes for the worse. Then search engines have to re-index your site and that could cause your pagerank to take a hit.

    Also, this theme is just terrible, IMHO. I look forward to seeing what you’ve come up with, though. And finally, as mentioned above, I read you via RSS but had to click through to see if you’d launched your new design :)

  54. Well aside from the fact that the theme doesn’t truncate your tags, making your page _really_ long, changing themes too often will hurt your SEO too. When you change your theme, you’re changing the entire HTML structure of your site. Sometimes for the worse. Then search engines have to re-index your site and that could cause your pagerank to take a hit.

    Also, this theme is just terrible, IMHO. I look forward to seeing what you’ve come up with, though. And finally, as mentioned above, I read you via RSS but had to click through to see if you’d launched your new design :)

  55. It’s actually not that bad :-)
    Have you tried Thesis? It’s the best pro theme out there and you have impressive options and you can basically create whatever you want starting from that theme. It’s rather a “framework” than a theme. Check it out if you haven’t yet: http://tr.im/jC21

  56. It’s actually not that bad :-)
    Have you tried Thesis? It’s the best pro theme out there and you have impressive options and you can basically create whatever you want starting from that theme. It’s rather a “framework” than a theme. Check it out if you haven’t yet: http://tr.im/jC21

  68. Hi Scob
    A friendly suggestion:
    you should increase the number of viewable posts, so the white space on the left is covered, as low as the categories go.
    I understand that it might affect the site’s speed loading time.

  69. Hi Scob
    A friendly suggestion:
    you should increase the number of viewable posts, so the white space on the left is covered, as low as the categories go.
    I understand that it might affect the site’s speed loading time.

  72. too bad things couldn’t be set up where the User picks the style template and sees the blog in their own browser just the way they want. :) I don’t think WordPress does that though…

  73. too bad things couldn’t be set up where the User picks the style template and sees the blog in their own browser just the way they want. :) I don’t think WordPress does that though…

  74. The left hand column on the index page is too narrow. It has some horizontal scrolling going on which isn’t good. I haven’t looked at why this is - something like a div being larger than the width of the column or if you posted a large image or something.

  75. The left hand column on the index page is too narrow. It has some horizontal scrolling going on which isn’t good. I haven’t looked at why this is - something like a div being larger than the width of the column or if you posted a large image or something.

  78. You know, I hadn’t ever really given suicide a thought, but now that I’ve seen your new theme… lol

  79. You know, I hadn’t ever really given suicide a thought, but now that I’ve seen your new theme… lol

  80. Hi Robert

    Since I’m regular reader of your blog, I have to say that I’m not really a fan of crazy-green. I’d suggest you Thesis theme for WordPress (I guess you’ll need WP.Org and not .COM), it’s the best wp framework out there.
    http://diythemes.com/thesis/

    And yes, there are a lot of categories, now about Drop-down menu?

  81. Hi Robert

    Since I’m regular reader of your blog, I have to say that I’m not really a fan of crazy-green. I’d suggest you Thesis theme for WordPress (I guess you’ll need WP.Org and not .COM), it’s the best wp framework out there.
    http://diythemes.com/thesis/

    And yes, there are a lot of categories, now about Drop-down menu?

  86. I like it very much.The color of this is very nice and cool. There are many sidebars in ride hand side. These are really cool and very attractive.

  87. I like it very much.The color of this is very nice and cool. There are many sidebars in ride hand side. These are really cool and very attractive.

  88. Many years ago, I took a course on designing newsletters. Our instructor told us about a company that decided to get its customers involved in the design of the company’s newsletter. So, every month for several months, the company tried a different design, then asked customers what they thought. Their response: We don’t really care; just settle on one design and stick with it! :-)

    All of which to say, the design is important, but your content is why we keep coming back…

    - Paul

  89. Many years ago, I took a course on designing newsletters. Our instructor told us about a company that decided to get its customers involved in the design of the company’s newsletter. So, every month for several months, the company tried a different design, then asked customers what they thought. Their response: We don’t really care; just settle on one design and stick with it! :-)

    All of which to say, the design is important, but your content is why we keep coming back…

    - Paul

  90. I’ve found a great theme called Arthemia (free basic version) and is a hybrid magazine / blog style which I think appears to be the way many new publications are going, especially sites like globeandmail.com and others…. If you click on my name you’ll see how it looks populated with photos. It’s clean, with few colours and focuses readers on the content but grabs the eye with a graphic here and there. Content maybe king, but pictures are worth a thousand words afterall… :)

  97. Robert,

    In-case you didn’t already know, your blog has not had any decent content on it for quite a while, FIX IT or I’ll fix you good.

    I can almost guarantee that your new design is going to have fail written all over it because you decided to be a cheap ass and not pay a decent agency to make you a new blog theme, for shame on you.

    That is all.

  101. if you would like my opinion then without any hesitation i can say that simple design is best for the crawling purpose as far as search engine concern.

  109. Somehow this look and feel (ie brand) is taking a while getting used to..if this is what you meant by brand destruction, then you are on target…
    Hopefully your content will remain the same - else off you go from my feedburner..so much for loyalty in today’s world :)

  110. Somehow this look and feel (ie brand) is taking a while getting used to..if this is what you meant by brand destruction, then you are on target…
    Hopefully your content will remain the same - else off you go from my feedburner..so much for loyalty in today’s world :)

  111. I do think everything has to start from somewhere, and it’s convenient to have blogging themes that can be changed with a few simple clicks. Probably start off with a theme like this (a pre-built one), then based on feedback, change the design again.

    I do think that the design has something to do with branding. Every little thing counts. But, of course, no great theme can ever replace killer content, which I’m looking forward to reading on this site.

    There’s so much accumulated over the years. Bookmarked. Definitely revisit.

    Darren Chow

  115. I agree about the tags / categories thing - it’s more like an index than, say, chapter headings or topic areas. Otherwise, very clean.

    P.s. I always read from your site (rather than feeds) because I like all the incidental information websites offer.

  116. I agree about the tags / categories thing - it’s more like an index than, say, chapter headings or topic areas. Otherwise, very clean.

    P.s. I always read from your site (rather than feeds) because I like all the incidental information websites offer.

  117. Well do you have any specific reason to select this theme. One thing which I like about this theme is green colour and except that I did not find any attractive thing.

    We are waiting to get your answer.

  118. Well do you have any specific reason to select this theme. One thing which I like about this theme is green colour and except that I did not find any attractive thing.

    We are waiting to get your answer.

  119. Scoble,
    It,s not the image but the message that is needed. I have followed for several years now and seen alot of changes, when you started with politics, I left for a while then came back.
    Latly I find that what I enjoyed about your message was the discovery not the method of prsentation.
    With your re-branding and moving away from the old Scoble info, I find that you do not hold my attention any more.

    I appreciated the journey, now I am looking on my own.

    Guy

  120. Scoble,
    It,s not the image but the message that is needed. I have followed for several years now and seen alot of changes, when you started with politics, I left for a while then came back.
    Latly I find that what I enjoyed about your message was the discovery not the method of prsentation.
    With your re-branding and moving away from the old Scoble info, I find that you do not hold my attention any more.

    I appreciated the journey, now I am looking on my own.

    Guy

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