Boring site update: I attempted to make a move to install the Disqus comment system on our site yesterday and it timed out while I was trying to export comments into the new system. I might try again sometimes within the next week. I will have to talk to some people first and figure out why it may have timed out. We do have something like 40,000 comments on the blog so moving them may not be easy. I used Disqus once before but it was too much for our servers at the time (its a memory hog) and I had to disable it after a couple of days. Speed is very important on the internet and it slowed the site down too much. If I can I want to move us to this system because it has a few bells and whistles that the plain Jane wordpress default system does not. The problem might be in the large number of comments I am attempting to move. Im not sure. I am updating you because I told some people that I was upgrading yesterday and it hasnt worked out. With the new server I do have some room to make improvements. I just need to figure out what areas need to be addressed the most. If anyone has any ideas please drop me a line at dean.garrison.99@gmail Here are some things I am considering if you want to provide feedback: *I am considering going to a simpler theme without any logo up top but I am not sure how this would be received. It would look less professional to some eyes but it would load faster. Most of the lagging you see on DC Clothesline is caused by large graphic files. Moving to a simpler theme would allow me to do some things with the front page that would make it easier to navigate. *I am considering investing in a paid mailing list system. The one I use is the FREE wordpress system. Here is the problem with the current system. Some people do not understand that they can choose to get 1 email a day or 1 a week. A lot of people drop off of our list because they start getting 12 emails a day and dont understand that they can change that. I dont have control over that. The user has to do it. *Down the road I would like to set up an automatic feed from some of the conservative sites so that you will get updates (on our site) from some of the better news sites. I can hook it up through RSS feeds and it would be pretty automatic. The hang up is simply in acquiring all of the permissions, etc. I did this on Facebook at one point with a page I had called Conservative News Source. I ended up shutting it down because the application I was using RSS Graffiti went to a paid model. I didnt really feel like paying to provide a service that was bringing me no income. *Id like to eventually set up a way to pay authors based on performance, similar to Examiner and FreePatriot.org. The problem I have here is that I am not a software designer and havent found good tracking software yet. This move alone would be huge for our growth. Why? Because as of now I bear a huge load of promoting articles and its hard to promote 12 articles a day. Some of them never get the push they deserve. If individual authors have incentive to promote their own work then that would boost the site. I can teach people what to do much easier than I can do it for them. It would also allow us to attract some new authors. Most of our current writers are people like me who simply allow multiple sites to syndicate their work for free. *My biggest priority is to start writing more. Its going to be several more months before that can happen. The twins are 6 months old and its just not in the cards now. But I miss it. I have gone from writing 2-3 articles a day that I felt were my best, to writing 2-3 articles a week sometimes and I never feel they are my best. I like to develop stories and so many times lately I have only had time to slap a couple of quotes together and give some brief commentary. There is always a story behind the story and I am pretty good at finding it, when I have the time. Thats just a few things I would like to address this year. If you have any ideas, please email me at dean.garrison.99@gmail -Dean
Posted on: Wed, 22 Jan 2014 19:42:41 +0000
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