Dinosaur Toy Blog changes

[DinoToyForum]

I just changed the dinos in the DTB header for the hell of it.

[Sim]

I like the new header more than the previous one!

[Gwangi]

I just changed the dinos in the DTB header for the hell of it.

Good choices!

[DinoToyForum]

Thanks, glad you both like it! I did it quickly on a whim, sometimes one can overthink these sort of things.

[Fembrogon]

Not bad, although I'm still partial to the "old & new" concept of the last one (and the saurischian/ornithischian balance). I don't mind the idea of switching around the banner from time to time, though.

[Faelrin]

It looks the same to me? I cleared my cookies too. What are the new additions?

Edit: Oh I had a dumb brain moment. This is for the blog, not the forum, lol.

[DinoToyForum]

It looks the same to me? I cleared my cookies too. What are the new additions?

Edit: Oh I had a dumb brain moment. This is for the blog, not the forum, lol.

Hehe.

[Faelrin]

That said I did see the new forum header this morning as I got up. Nice work on it. One tiny suggestion (if it is at all possible), but should the PNSO Saurophaganax be included? I think it is pretty clear it is the 2023 1st place poll winner, and I wonder if it should have some representation on the header (although the Haolonggood Apatosaurus is the second place winner which does have representation for what it is worth).

Edit: I do like the inclusion of the 2017 Colorata Cameroceras, and the 2016 Favorite Canadaspis. It's nice to have some Paleozoic invertebrate inclusion, even if these are older figures by now.

[Gwangi]

I like it too. And it makes sense. Now users won't have to scroll through pages of reviews to see everything that's there. Speaking of which, what I don't like are the new ads spaced out between reviews. When scrolling through a list of reviews there's an ad after every 2-4 reviews. It's obnoxious!

Thanks, and I'll go about removing those ads between reviews.

The ads are still there but what's worse is that there are now ads IN the reviews. Never seen that before, definitely don't like it!

[DinoToyForum]

I like it too. And it makes sense. Now users won't have to scroll through pages of reviews to see everything that's there. Speaking of which, what I don't like are the new ads spaced out between reviews. When scrolling through a list of reviews there's an ad after every 2-4 reviews. It's obnoxious!

Thanks, and I'll go about removing those ads between reviews.

The ads are still there but what's worse is that there are now ads IN the reviews. Never seen that before, definitely don't like it!

Oh. let me see...

Edit. OK, so the reviews themselves should now contain no any ads at all, and there should be only a single ad between posts 7 and 8 in the category archives. I think having a single ad there (one for every page of 15 reviews) is reasonable.

Edit 2. I've also changed the settings so that ads no longer appear at all for logged in reviewers. So, as long as you're logged in, you shouldn't see any ads.

[DinoToyForum]

I'm thinking of completely removing the sidebar from the blog on mobile devices. It gets pushed to the bottom of the mobile screen anyway so most mobile visitors probably don't see it or use it.

So, if you mostly view the blog on mobile, do you use any of the side bar functions or links? If so, would you miss them? I'm thinking I could add a new page to duplicate the drop-down filters and search bar for mobile users, that's the only part of the sidebar that is kind of crucial for navigating.

[Gwangi]

I like it too. And it makes sense. Now users won't have to scroll through pages of reviews to see everything that's there. Speaking of which, what I don't like are the new ads spaced out between reviews. When scrolling through a list of reviews there's an ad after every 2-4 reviews. It's obnoxious!

Thanks, and I'll go about removing those ads between reviews.

The ads are still there but what's worse is that there are now ads IN the reviews. Never seen that before, definitely don't like it!

Oh. let me see...

Edit. OK, so the reviews themselves should now contain no any ads at all, and there should be only a single ad between posts 7 and 8 in the category archives. I think having a single ad there (one for every page of 15 reviews) is reasonable.

Edit 2. I've also changed the settings so that ads no longer appear at all for logged in reviewers. So, as long as you're logged in, you shouldn't see any ads.

Thanks! I can live with one add per category page but ads inside the review are hard to tolerate. As for the sidebar, I wouldn't miss it but I seldom use the blog on my mobile device.

[Fembrogon]

I seldom access on mobile either (though I am right now), mostly just to visit the forum quickly. If I want to seriously browse the Blog I go through a PC.

[DinoToyForum]

I like it too. And it makes sense. Now users won't have to scroll through pages of reviews to see everything that's there. Speaking of which, what I don't like are the new ads spaced out between reviews. When scrolling through a list of reviews there's an ad after every 2-4 reviews. It's obnoxious!

Thanks, and I'll go about removing those ads between reviews.

The ads are still there but what's worse is that there are now ads IN the reviews. Never seen that before, definitely don't like it!

Oh. let me see...

Edit. OK, so the reviews themselves should now contain no any ads at all, and there should be only a single ad between posts 7 and 8 in the category archives. I think having a single ad there (one for every page of 15 reviews) is reasonable.

Edit 2. I've also changed the settings so that ads no longer appear at all for logged in reviewers. So, as long as you're logged in, you shouldn't see any ads.

Thanks! I can live with one add per category page but ads inside the review are hard to tolerate. As for the sidebar, I wouldn't miss it but I seldom use the blog on my mobile device.

Well, you personally shouldn't see any ads going forward, consider it a perk of being a reviewer!

I also rarely use the blog on mobile. I can't bear using my phone for the web in general, it's always a chore – give me a large screen and a keyboard I can type with two hands any day!| Which is why I need feedback from someone who does!

[Gwangi]

I like it too. And it makes sense. Now users won't have to scroll through pages of reviews to see everything that's there. Speaking of which, what I don't like are the new ads spaced out between reviews. When scrolling through a list of reviews there's an ad after every 2-4 reviews. It's obnoxious!

Thanks, and I'll go about removing those ads between reviews.

The ads are still there but what's worse is that there are now ads IN the reviews. Never seen that before, definitely don't like it!

Oh. let me see...

Edit. OK, so the reviews themselves should now contain no any ads at all, and there should be only a single ad between posts 7 and 8 in the category archives. I think having a single ad there (one for every page of 15 reviews) is reasonable.

Edit 2. I've also changed the settings so that ads no longer appear at all for logged in reviewers. So, as long as you're logged in, you shouldn't see any ads.

Thanks! I can live with one add per category page but ads inside the review are hard to tolerate. As for the sidebar, I wouldn't miss it but I seldom use the blog on my mobile device.

Well, you personally shouldn't see any ads going forward, consider it a perk of being a reviewer!

I also rarely use the blog on mobile. I can't bear using my phone for the web in general, it's always a chore – give me a large screen and a keyboard I can type with two hands any day!| Which is why I need feedback from someone who does!

Same. I might pop into the forum on my phone just to see what's up but if I want to respond to anything with more than a few words then I wait until I'm at my computer. I hate texting, I find it frustrating.

[DinoToyForum]

OK. I'm going to remove the sidebar from the blog on mobile devices. If anyone misses it, or part of it, let me know!

[DinoToyForum]

The following is a very minor tweak but a satisfying one. Wordpress automatically strips html code and formatting from the post excerpts, but I've managed to change this so now italics appear in excerpts where they should!

[DinoToyForum]

OK. I'm going to remove the sidebar from the blog on mobile devices. If anyone misses it, or part of it, let me know!

No complaints so far, so I guess nobody on mobile is missing the sidebar. To make up for it I added a search/filter section at the bottom of every page of the blog, for mobile and desktop, so mobile visitors will retain that functionality. I was tempted to put this search/filter section at the top instead, but that's not the first thing we want to see every time we visit the blog is it?

[suspsy]

I like it this way.

[DinoToyForum]

I've had an idea for an addition to the blog - spotlight articles on particular toy companies/lines. These could be in the format of an article, similar to the regular blog posts, or separate pages that don't appear in the blog feed. They could be stand alone pages, and/or I could probably work out a way to mirror the content at the top of the existing Brand archives section. Or, at least link to the content from the Brand archives.

I imagine these articles would focus on the history and information about certain brands as a whole, inspired by the company pages on Randy Knoll's http://www.dinosaurcollectorsitea.com. I imagine such articles would be more factual with fewer subjective opinions as expressed in the toy reviews. But they could focus on other miscellaneous things that don't get covered in usual reviews, like the display mountains in the case of Invicta and Safari Ltd, the little human characters in the case of CollectA and Schleich, catalogues, and dates of releases of figures by year - things like that. As such, each article would probably involve a little research, digging through articles in Prehistoric Times and online sources. Maybe sourcing photographs of entire collections or rarities (like the display mountains) from forum members. Possibly even contacting the companies themselves for interviews or insights.

I suspect a lot of us would be interested in a resource like this, but I'd be interested in your thoughts. Does this sound like too much of a stretch for the blog? What would be the best way to incorporate the articles?

And if there is a lot of interest in this idea, would anybody be interested in contributing?