Monday, July 18, 2011

Introducing: MBS Blogroll 3.0

For years, readers have asked me to make the blogroll more usable. I fiddled with various widgets and such before deciding last year that no single blogroll could meet every reader's needs. At that time, I created separate chronological and alphabetic blogrolls. The former shows the latest updates while the latter displays all links.

Both blogrolls have been popular, but with over 400 links, it became impractical to explore blogs of a particular genre. Some blogs have names that describe their content, but many do not.

Today, it is my pleasure to unveil the MBS blogroll 3.0. The links in the alphabetic blogroll are now color-coded to indicate the types of content behind each link. This is a work in progress and I expect to tweak it considerably before declaring it finished.

The toughest part of this upgrade, and the reason I hadn't attempted it before now, is classifying blogs. Many blogs fall into multiple categories and some simply defy classification. MBS, for example, doesn't fit comfortably into any of the new categories. These links remain the same color they've always been.

Despite the slightly untidy classification process, I think the result is a blogroll that will help visitors to select links that will be of interest to them.

What do you think? Does this new approach add value to the blogroll? How might we make it better/easier/clearer?

If I mislabeled your blog or a blog you like, please send me an e-mail and I will fix it.

Thank you in advance for your feedback!

21 comments :

findingsara said...

WOW! What a lot of work and how awesome! Thank you for all your effort Bonnie, You're the best!

Indy said...

I like it! And I can't imagine how much work it must have taken to sort through all those blogs. Are you a hero, a glutton for punishment or both?

I guess the answer to that question is fairly obvious!

Thanks, Bonnie, this does help. It will be very useful in your In With the New posts, too.

Brittany Lynn said...

Oh gosh that is a LOT of work you did. I think it's a fantastic idea though, thank you!

Serenity said...

Thank you Bonnie! That will be a very helpful reference.

Meow said...

Super! What a job! Thanks so much!

Anonymous said...

Hey Bonnie, I did think of suggesting you do something like this, but held off thinking of the huge work involved! Fantastic, BUT... I want my own colour :P

baby girl said...

I like this a lot. Very clean and organized! Now would you mind stopping buy to organize my bedroom?

;-)

Erica said...

That was quite an undertaking, but the results are great! Colorful AND informative. WIN!

Bonnie said...

Sara - You're very welcome.

Indy - I am very determined and getting better with CSS coding each day. I hadn't considered using this color scheme for IwtN, but that's a good idea!

MB - Thank YOU.

Serenity - I aim to please.

Meow - Thanks.

WS - I had red picked out for you, but for some reason, it wasn't visible. :)

BG - Thanks. I'd better start on our house first. Blogging gets in the way of my chores sometimes.

Erica - Thanks! Your blog was one that was difficult to classify (not unlike its publisher!). You're a blogger, a model, and an author. I chose blue because (a) many people know you through your video work, and (b) it's a great color for you. :D

Mistress160 and solipsist said...

Well done! That must have been really tricky!

abby said...

WOW...while I was away you were busy, I am still trying to figure out how to get a blog roll on my site. Thanks for this! abby

ronnie said...

You've put in a lot of work for us Bonnie, thank you.

Love,
Ronnie
xx

Hermione said...

Hi Bonnie,

I commented yesterday but it looks like it went astray, although I am subscribed to comments. So I'll repeat myself: The blogroll looks wonderful; so exciting to scroll through.

I wonder if, for the benefit of those of us who have extremely short memories, you might consider replacing the symbols * # with F/F, F/M etc. in superscript or italics? I keep forgetting what the symbols stand for:)

Since my blog's name is in the default colour, I guess that makes it vanilla;D

Hugs,
Hermione

Anonymous said...

How about flashing? No, the blog!!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Bonnie for all the good things you do the spanking community

Bonnie said...

M160 - I'm pleased that I was able to figure it out all by myself (mostly through trial and error). I know just enough CSS to be dangerous!

Abby - Welcome back! I'm glad you like it. Write me if you'd like some help with your blogroll.

Hermione - You did comment on the brunch summary post before I posted this one.

OK, I tried your suggestion. Please take a look and let me know what you think.

The default color is now designated as "general spanking." That fits your blog (and mine) better than any of the other labels.

WS - OK

Bonnie said...

Anon - It's a pleasure to serve a community filled with so many wonderful people.

Anonymous said...

I really love the new system! Great job and thank you so much for including our humble little blog on your list. :)

-T

Hermione said...

Magnifico!

Olivia said...

Bonnie,

The new blogroll looks *amazing* :D You must have put so much work into this! I think we all very much appreciate it. I was, however, surprised to see my blog labeled as Ds/BDSM blog...that's not something I would say myself, because I think if a "master" or a "slave" would come on my blog, they would be highly disappointed. I do understand why you didn't label it a general spanking blog, because I don't just write about spanking, but yeah...I was surprised :P I guess you're right that some blogs don't really fit in any of the categories...I don't really know how I would label my blog. I think "general spanking" is maybe more correct than "Ds/BDSM"...

Anyway, thank you so much for doing this. It looks great, and I think it's so much easier to work with now :-)

Olivia

Bonnie said...

Olivia - Thank you for the feedback. I changed your link color to indicate General Spanking as you suggest. I did have trouble accurately categorizing your blog (among quite a few others). My logic, for what it's worth, was that your relationship seems to have a pronounced D/s element.

Labels aside, you author a wonderful blog by any name. Thanks for all you do!

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