I went back to Singapore to collect my Cambridge A Level results :) I can only say that I’ve done better than I’ve expected, my results came as a big surprise to me. Thank you everyone for being so concerned and your best wishes! Now back to the main post.
teddY-risatioNâ„¢ Gamma is now V1.1
After spending a few weeks ironing out some wrinkles and optimising on some CSS styling, I guess it’s time to announce that this theme is ready to move on to version 1.1 :razz: here is a list of changes (some of which are not very obvious):
1. Author Highlight and Threaded Comments
This will be the biggest (and most obvious) improvement so far. Now you can respond to other people’s comments personally, by just clicking the “Respond to this comment” link directly below a comment. And now comments left by me will be highlighted with a special CSS class, so as for the responses to specific comments made by others. You can see how it works by clicking me (screenshots opens up in lightbox). The stripes are made by the very convenient, idiot-proof and AJAX-powered Stripe Generator. Author highlighting is possible without the plugin – you can actually tweak the php code in the theme’s file, comments.php, but I guess having a plugin is way easier! Plugins used are Author Highlight and WP Threaded Comments respectively. Special thanks to Ivy for recommending these two plugins!
2. Embed images in your comments!
You can now embed images in your comments! It’s actually pretty easy, made possible by a simple plugin called Comment Image Embedder. It comes with a tiny script that offers your readers a chance to embed an image in your comment :razz: anyway, I’ve slightly tweaked the plugin so that it displays a link to your embeded image in a lightbox instead of directly in your comment to prevent taking up too much space… if you prefer to have your image directly displayed in your comment, feel free to tell me! But remember – you’ll need to host the image elsewhere, like on Flickr, Imageshack (it’s highly recommended that you register for a free account so your uploaded images will not get deleted), Photobucket and etc.
3. Removal of Live Comment Preview
I’m not sure whether is this a good thing or not, but as far as I know, not a lot of people actually look at their comment preview before posting :) it’just help you to confirm that you’ve done your HTML coding correctly – because if you fail to close a HTML element, the errors will show up in the live comment. But I’m always open to suggestion, tell me if you want it back.
4. Spreading the love of linking
Although people say that this plugin will encourage your readers to comment more, I prefer to say that CommentLuv will thank your commentators on your behalf by graciously adding a link to their latest blog posts (if they entered a blog URL, that is) at the end of their comments. I guess nothing beats having you linked in your own comment!
5. Showing top commentators
The WordPress plugin, Show Top Commentators, allows me to keep track of the top 10 commentators of my blog, plus links back to their blogs to spread the love of linking as well :) hehe!
6. Cleaner, more organised blog archive
I’m always bothered by how ugly, untidy and disorganised my blog archive looks like – it was a total disaster before I installed SRG Clean Archives, which cleaned everything up :D one of the best WordPress blog archive plugin ever published, I must say!
7. Display of codes
Made possible by Veerle‘s styling method, so the credits go to her :) I admire her simple and sophisicated CSS styling (you can see it for yourself on her blog!)… here’s a screenshot of how it looks like:
8. New navigation bar
I guess this feature is sorely needed after I’ve decided to remove a row of essential links in the footer section (because the footer is way too huge!), and when I was worried where should I place them, a blank space on the top-right-hand corner of my header caught my eye – so I’ve decided to place them there, redesigned the links of course!
And before I end, here are the tag replies!
Tag replies
lix: Oh haha sorry! The reflection in the water looks way better than the actual view itself… that must be really something!
LogicYuan: Same here – high five!
smashp0p: Hello! :)
Tungz: Thanks for your really sweet compliments, heheh!
lix: That’s what I’m thinking too! KT Tunstall is a really good song-writier and singer, I love her songs to bits! Maybe you would want to try her Blackhorse and the Cherry Tree.
bobby: Thank you!!!
smashp0p: Haha yea! I was fretting over what to do with a plain photo when I saw this National Geographic magazine laying on my study table and the frame-in-frame idea just came around the corner!
LogicYuan: Yea, have fun watching them!
Congratulations on the results of your A-levels. You were just mentioning that you did badly in a certain school subject back in secondary school but here you are! It shows that hard work and good studying pays off. =) Congratulations again!
I have been noticing the subtle but very good changes being made in your blog. =) I especially like the tag cloud idea. I remember considering it once for a design and have a gradient of colours to represent the tag that is frequently used. But maybe I’ll save it for another design. It reminds me that I have to do a little work on my photo blog. I kinda put it off due to school work! But might as well use this weekend.
Check out Id’s last blog post: And I’m Feeling Good.
Lovely new additions! I especially love the Top Ten Commenters. I think it’s very encouraging for people to comment. I might just steal it from you. :P Adding an image to a comment is especially functional for a pseudo photolog like yours. So that’s another great addition.
I’m glad you did well for your A levels! So what are your plans for university? :)
Check out Ivy’s last blog post: Positive Love #2
Cool! really nice, i shall try the plugins when i’m free.
And congrats on your A’level results.
Wow. Your blog is really very well organised! I’ve been wanting to get my own self-hosted domain since long ago but the thought of not knowing about all these plugins and the lack of budget just pulled me off. Hehe.
Anywayz, congratz on your CAL results! =D
Check out SilverIsle’s last blog post: Kings of Hamburger?
Id: Thank you! Yea I was really bad at history back in secondary school, so much so that I didn’t even dare to take history electives, and dropped the entire entirely after secondary 2. I’m glad I did that, since I wouldn’t enjoy history lessons at all after so many rounds of failures (and my teachers are so frustrated with my results, I was being scolded all the time even when I’ve told them that it’s not what I wanted). I wasn’t aware of the tagcloud feature until I was searching about the wp_tags function in the WordPress codex and realised that WP2.3 onwards actually do support tagclouds – I was so elated :) and since I’ve decided to have lots of tags, I gave up placing it at the sidebar (because it will look very cluttered) and it finds itself in the footer section, teehee!
Ivy: I wanted to add a list of the top ten commentators but was too lazy to do it. Finally I’ve decided to make drastic changes to my blog after reading your post about WP Plugins (thank you!), so I googled every single plugin I think of and it just came along. The image embedded actually embeds the image directly in a comment, but I was afraid that this will make the comments section look very cluttered… so I’ve decided to link it with a lightbox. Is that fine with you? Anyway, I’m planning to do Biomed or something related to biology in university.
Yappy: Thank you!!! Hope you’ll find the plugins useful! If you need any help on plugin customisation, feel free to ask :) I’ll be more than happy to help.
SilverIsle: Thanks for the compliments :mrgreen: I guess that having a self-hosted blog is the best thing ever, and if you’re looking for cheap webhosting, why not try Top Hosting Center’s Rudolph plan? It sounds too good to be true, but well, it’s TRUE!
Actually, they just closed the Rudolph plan. :oops: They replaced it with this Speedy plan, which is pricier but very dedicated to sites with huge traffic. If you ever plan to be a Dooce.com or host a forum, this would be the best choice. :)
Wow~ Biology eh? Are you thinking of going into research or medical science? (We can continue this convo via email if you want)
Check out Ivy’s last blog post: Positive Love #2
Wow, Biology and Biomed sounds amazing! (Sorry, I couldn’t help “overhearing/reading” your comments with Ivy. =D) I have a younger brother about your age (not a blogger type, unfortunately) that is going to do Pre-Med Psychology so it’s really cool to see someone going through a similar (is it similar?) path as he is.
Where are you planning to go to university, btw?
Check out Id’s last blog post: Silver Linings of the Coloured Kind.
Teddy! I’d like to know too!! Where will you be going to college?
And Id, where will M be going to college, since UNSW closed? NUS?
Check out Ivy’s last blog post: Checking Website Statistics
Ivy: I’m sorry to hear that, but hey, that was definitely good advertising :cool: I’m not sure which field I’m venturing into, maybe pathology and microbiology, or if possible, food sciencne and nutrition. Very weird choice eh? I’m most probably going to NUS.
Id: LOL it’s okay, comments are meant to be read :) premed psychology sounds real fun! I think it does share some similarities with the courses I’m planning to take, but for the psychology part, I’m afraid not… I’ll most probably be going tp NUS.
Hi teddY …*-)
Michael from Germany here.
Your theme rocks.
I didn’T know of the Comment Image Embedder until now.
Thanks for the info.
Will check it out now.
Keep the good work up …*-)
Michael
Check out Michael’s last blog post: How a Famous Affiliate Marketing Superguru Started From Scratch. And How You Can Do The Same
so it was a quick trip down to singapore???….
congratulations!!!…
by the way, hows the traffic jam???…
was it bad?… :???:
Check out eddy’s last blog post: mornings
wow~~~ so much changes… they are great!!! so where are you (when not in singapore)…
yeah, i’m always scared of getting a book from a bookstore and finding extremely boring or a bad read…
it happens to me a lot … i always like to dash to the bookstores in airports just before flights …
Check out momo’s last blog post: Wake up!
Michael: Hey Michael welcome :) thanks for your compliments, I hope you find the plugins listed useful!
eddy: Technically it was a one way trip, but since there was a big jam at the Tuas checkpoint (the police checked every single vehicle of the escaped JI leader Mas Selamat), it ended up to be two days, haha :razz:
momo: Thank you! If I’m not in Singapore, I’m most probably rotting at home staring blankly at the ceiling or the monitor :D I was afraid of buying books that ended up to be very boring, so I usually have friends to recommend me worhty reads and check their reviews online before buying them. If I’m catching a flight, I’ll most probably get an Archie’s comic :cool: or some celebrity magazine that will definitely keep me interested.
Hey dude, congrats! =D A level is stressful, it’s over for you, but another year to go for me, sigh. :roll:
Nice changes to your theme, hehe, I think I’ll install the threaded-comment plugin too, looks real neat. =p (but I hate it when plugins crash.. grrr..)
Check out ingSiang’s last blog post: Bye Bye Harsh, Ugly flash! Bye Bye washed out photo! Bye Bye Red-eye! Bye bye oily face!
Hey, teddY!! The lack of visiting your blogsite early these days made me feel like leaving your site alone without visiting in a century! hehehe :mrgreen: Congratulations on your results! I wonder :?: how many photos are there in your computer or maybe laptop.. maybe there are thousands of them :shock: ! Hey, do you mind telling me which one is your longest post in your blogsite? I wanna have a look at the LONGEST post.. hahaha :grin: please.. :cry:
IngSiang: Thanks! It’s stressful, I can’t deny that, but if you have supportive friends, the whole process is actually quite enjoyable (I kind of miss it now!)… all the best! Oh and regarding plugins, usually you’ll just need to unzip them and dorp them in the plugins folder. If they do screw up, just remove the plugins and everything will be fine :) plugins do not hardcode anything into your wordpress, so after removing them wordpress will be still working just fine!
Adam: Thanks for the compliments heheh. According to my computer information, I have 5963 photos in 82 folders, and a total size on 7.77gb. But almost half of the photos are there for nothing before they’re too ugly to be shared, haha! The longest post is tricky. Instead of trying to find the longest one, why not try to find the most discussed ones? You can find that at the statistics page. Just head over to Resources > Statistics.
wow! :shock: 5963 photos?!! It is even shocking :shock: that it takes 7.77 GB! :!: Hey, thanks for these smileys! :mrgreen: I really appreciate it! :wink: Yes, I’m quite sure that the statistics page have the most words, but it says there only ’1 word’ and that’s quite funny.. :grin: How’s your cat doing? I miss her/him. :sad: Hey, do you have a Yahoo Messenger?? :?: let’s have a talk there.. it is easier than you think it is! :mrgreen: you can have a chat with your friends LIVE !! Again, I would like to congratulate you on your success!! :!: Your blog’s birthday is on the 1st April?? :?: I can’t wait to celebrate it with the other blog members! :grin: Bye and see you at the Yahoo Messenger and hey, here’s my Yahoo Messenger email, adamdanialofficial@yahoo.com. don’t laugh when you see the ‘official’ thing, it really makes me feel sad :cry: and i’m not the one who choose that name okay? :grin: see you on the next update and happy go lucky! :mrgreen:
Woah that’s definitely a whole load of smilies you’re using! Heh. Urm I mean you can check out the statistics page for the post which has the most comments, not the statistics page itself :) lol! It’s technically not MY cat, it’s actually someone else’s, we just feed it when we happen to drop by! She’s doing fine, thanks for your concern.
I don’t use Yahoo! Messenger, and I’m sorry but I only chat online with people who I personally know.
P.S. My blog’s birthday is on the first of June. I wouldn’t want my blog’s birthday to fall on April’s Fool :lol:
hmmm… can’t u check the number of words in each post? Is there stats for that?
and the more your blog evolves, the more organised it gets. envious.
Check out jason’s last blog post: BGIC, Part 1
There isn’t a comprehensive check for the wordcount of each single post, because so far I have not found a plugin that does that. The statistics plugin I’m currently using doesn’t cover wordcount anyway. Maybe it isn’t very important – it’s the quality of the post that really matters afterall.
It gets more organised? Really? I thought it’s getting increasingly cluttered – look at the categories and you’ll understand. I can’t believe I’ve single-handedly created a big mess just over a few years :razz:
Congratulations, teddy! What are you doing here blogging- go out and celebrate. You sure as hell deserve it :D
Check out thecoffeesnob’s last blog post: Melbourne Food & Wine Festival ‘08: Celebrate the Bean.
Haha yea I’m celebrating it this Thursday with my family and grandma (she was just dropping by) :cool: heh! Thanks!!