I had been wanting to refresh the look of this site for a while, but couldn’t find the time. The last time I did any work on this site was last November. I guess it’s good to change the site’s look and feel once a year.

I wanted to go away from the 2-3 columns templates and to streamline the site a little. I searched for Wordpress photoblog templates, but did not like what I found. Some of the photoblog templates I found just don’t work with my current WordPress install, and some are just too boring. I don’t like the plain minimal look, but I also don’t like blog that has too much “stuff” taking all the screen real estate. So I did the following:

• Installed and modified HemingwayEx theme
• Added Flickr to the navigation bar (Flickr badge & slide show)
• Removed the bottom “side” panel
• Made comment section collapsible/extendable
• Added dark/light theme chooser (same template, just different CSS)
• Made a bunch of smaller tweaks (icons, colors, prev/next, etc…)

I also removed the Math comment plugin. Spam bots figured out how to get pass that little challenge, and my Akismet spam count doubled in the last few weeks. I installed a word verification plugin, but decided not to use it. To combat comment spams, Bad Behavior now is my first line of defense, anything gets pass that, Akismet should take care off. Last, all comments are held for moderation. It’s highly unlikely that any spam comment will show up on my posts.

There are still many items left to be done. Here are a few that I’d like to get done sometimes next week:

1. Add next/prev post to the main page. WP template tag “previous_posts_link/next_posts_link” don’t work on the main page.
2. Archives/Categories page: not very user friendly. I’d like to have hierarchical listings.
3. Archive listing: only one entry per page? Quite useless.
4. Put back the Google AJAX search that I had on the old templates.

I thought about upgrading my WP install, but decided not too. The site is still not 100% functional, but I like what I have now to make the switch. When I get some more time, I’ll continue to update the site. For now, I’ll leave it the way it is. I’d appreciate any feedback on the new changes. Thanks!

[Update Nov 19, 2007]
Worked on the site for a few more hours. Got the following done:

• Organized monthly archive and categories listing in tree structure.
• Added Google AJAX search as a collapsible/extendable panel
• Removed the default WP’s search.
• Archive listing now shows 15 posts per page.

I’m still not able to get prev/next post to work correctly on the main page – this is quite lame of WP, but I’ll leave it alone for
now.

[Update Nov 28, 2007]
Decided to disable the tree view for the monthly archive and categories listings. The WP-dTree plugin that I’m using has performance problem – the site is noticeably slower with the plugin activated. Will have to upgrade my WP install and use the newer version of the plugin.

[Update Dec 3, 2008]
Migrated my Wordpress install from version 2.0.5 to 2.3.1. HemingwayEx theme broke. Google XML Sitemaps plugin broke – newer version works. Replaced the old WP-dTree 2.0 plugin with version 3.3.2. Page load time is still a little slower with the WP-dTree plugin activated. Upgraded Akismet plugin to 2.02. Replaced Google AJAX search with a simpler search. Don’t think I’ll change the site much in the near future except for minor CSS tweaks. Hope nothing else breaks.

For comparison, here are the two onblack versions.

bighugelabs | photofool

For now, the script only works on my own photos. I might remove that check in the future.

Although I like the new Blogspot.com, Blogger FTP does not support the newer Blogger templates.  Instead of using the old Blogger FTP,  I decided to run my own Wordpress installation.  After spending two weekends getting to know WP, I was able to take an existing template, darkpad, and modified it to my liking.  I made a few PHP and CSS changes.  I also migrated most of my Blogger beta posts over using WP's RSS import feature.

I'm still working on this site, but at this point, the site is functional and presentable.  The only issue I know is my Flickr horizontal badge: Firefox's adblock plus extension thinks its a banner ad :(  I also don't have all of my interesting Blogger mods (switchable layout choices, labels as tabs, ajax search) implemented yet, but hopefully will have some done in the future. 

I could write another post about Blogger FTP vs running my own Wordpress install, but the fact that I'm using Wordpress for this site is enough.  It takes longer to customize a WP blog than a B blog, but having direct access to the WP codes is a real advantage for those who can make a few minor code changes.  There are a few things Blogger v3 does better than Wordpress v2, but at this point, WP is good enough. 

So, welcome to my new domain.  Hope you like the new look.