Dinosaur Toy Blog changes

[Gwangi]

Not sure how I feel about video reviews myself, just seems like a higher possibility now. I wouldn't want written reviews replaced either but I can see where videos might be useful, like with construction models or whatever. Would be useful for showing off action features, articulation, and sounds on action figures.

[DinoToyForum]

Not sure how I feel about video reviews myself, just seems like a higher possibility now. I wouldn't want written reviews replaced either but I can see where videos might be useful, like with construction models or whatever. Would be useful for showing off action features, articulation, and sounds on action figures.

Things like this quality product (video should start at correct timestamp):
https://youtu.be/ptgwAvheyHw?si=GkJDsGoR2ST_2VIl&t=460

[Fembrogon]

Given there are multiple prominent YouTubers covering toy dinos already, I think moving to video reviews on the DTB would be redundant. I specifically prefer being able to read reviews here, rather than watch a video.

I could see more specific types of video features being beneficial, though - less of full reviews and more of adjacent feature presentations, as mentioned above. Some traits and comparisons on figures might indeed benefit from being seen in motion.

[Gwangi]

Still large for me, maybe marginally smaller but that could just be the ad itself. Don't worry too much about it, I'll never like ads of any size in that spot but I can learn to live with it. No one else seems to have an issue with them.

[DinoToyForum]

I've added yet another taxonomy for the reviews: Scale. So, we can add this key info to new reviews and I'll work through the old reviews, which I can do in bulk, but it will still take a little while. Once the reviews are all populated with scale data I will add a Scale dropdown filter as well.

[DinoToyForum]

To date the blog has only ever made use of two default post types: 'posts' (for reviews etc.), and 'pages' for the pages linked to in the top menu. Every 'post' has the same format. But as the blog has evolved, the diversify of content has changed, and so the default 'post' format isn't always the best fit.

For example, now that I've started to add videos to the blog, the standard 'post' type (with a thumbnail and "read more" button in the index/archive pages) doesn't work for those 'posts'. So, I've created a new post type called 'Videos'. These are organised separately to the posts on the back end, and I can change how they look on the front end. Instead of text and an image 'Videos' appear as full videos, even on the index/archive pages, so you don't have to visit the post to view the video. I've also removed all of the categories from Video posts except for the 'Type' category, so I can categorise them all as videos, diorama contests, and in the future 'top 10's' and the like.

'Announcements' posts are also slightly problematic. They use the standard 'post' type and this isn't too bad, but the way we categorise posts doesn't really work for announcements, so it does gets a bit awkward. Plus, the inclusion of announcements as 'posts' makes it difficult to tally reviews proper. I can live with that, but I am minded to create a new post type for announcements as well, to separate these out from the reviews (on the front end and back end). If I do that there would be Pages, Posts (=Reviews), Videos, and Announcements.

I've made some progress on this and now set up a third post type called News. I decided "News" was more succinct and broader that "Announcements". Soon I will convert all posts categorised as 'Announcements', 'Diorama Contest' and 'Upcoming Releases' to News posts.

So, the blog will now contain three post types:

Posts (=Reviews)
News
Videos

As a consequence, I will remove 'Announcements', 'Diorama Contest', 'Upcoming Releases', and 'Video' from the 'Type' taxonomy, and change the name of the 'Type' taxonomy to 'Product Type'. I think that will work.

The three post types all have essentially the same style, and Reviews and News are currently identical. But I can control them separately, so I can make them look different if we prefer. This could be as simple as having a different shade background for each type, but the possibilities are endless. So, any suggestions? I'd welcome a discussion on how the new post types could differ from the Reviews. Some differences will be obvious, for example, News posts will not include (unless we want them to) the taxonomies 'Genus', 'Classification', 'Scale', or 'Age'.

We could also make a case now for removing the announcements account https://dinotoyblog.com/author/announcements/ as @suspy (as himself or as the 'guest' account) should be able to post News posts, just as I can with the DinoToyBlog account, and I think we can decide to exclude the author name from news posts, and stop them from being tallied under our author accounts. What do you think @suspsy?

I'm also planning to add an automatic title prefix to the post types, as follows:

Review:
News:
Video:

I've already done this for Video posts. This might not be necessary but I think it could be helpful, what do you think?

At the moment all three post types appear on the front page, but they don't have to. The front page could be just the Reviews, with the other posts on separate tabs or sections of the blog. It is best to keep all post types on the front page, right?

If you've happened to notice the blog looking funny or broken in the past day or so, don't worry, it was just me making mistakes!

Edit: One other questions, should all post types have star ratings? Or just Reviews?

[suspsy]

I would keep all three types on the front page. There's no point in posting news if it doesn't appear front and centre for visitors to see right away. I'll continue to post upcoming releases under the guest account. This will take some getting used to, but it seems fine.

[DinoToyForum]

I would keep all three types on the front page. There's no point in posting news if it doesn't appear front and centre for visitors to see right away. I'll continue to post upcoming releases under the guest account. This will take some getting used to, but it seems fine.

Agreed, let's keep all post types on the front page.

I've now converted all announcement posts to News posts and set the title prefixes (on the front page and archives only, I figured there's no need to prefix the titles on the posts themselves).

@suspsy The process should be identical except now instead of clicking "Add New Post" you'll click "Add New News Post". Let me know in the reviewers board if you experience any difficulties.

[DinoToyForum]

From "Explore" in the main menu visitors can now click to filter just "Reviews", "News", or "Videos".

[DinoToyForum]

As a test I've temporarily customised the background colour for Video and News posts. What do people think of me implementing something like this?

[Gwangi]

As a test I've temporarily customised the background colour for Video and News posts. What do people think of me implementing something like this?

Looks good!

[DinoToyForum]

As a test I've temporarily customised the background colour for Video and News posts. What do people think of me implementing something like this?

Looks good!

There's a lot of potential, but I think I'll just keep it simple.

I have now moved the 'Announcements', 'Upcoming Releases', and 'Diorama Contest' categories to a new News Category taxonomy, and renamed the 'Type' taxonomy 'Product Type'.

[DinoToyForum]

I shared in another thread the new Dinosaur Toy Scale Calculator page of the blog (https://dinotoyblog.com/dinosaur-toy-scale-calculator/) but I'm not sure where to place it in the top menu. It doesn't fit very well under any of the existing headers, but I don't think it's important enough to warrant a menu heading of its own. Maybe I'll put it under Links and change the menu heading to Links & Tools, unless anyone has a better suggestion?

[DinoToyForum]

I shared in another thread the new Dinosaur Toy Scale Calculator page of the blog (https://dinotoyblog.com/dinosaur-toy-scale-calculator/) but I'm not sure where to place it in the top menu. It doesn't fit very well under any of the existing headers, but I don't think it's important enough to warrant a menu heading of its own. Maybe I'll put it under Links and change the menu heading to Links & Tools, unless anyone has a better suggestion?

I filed it under Explore for lack of a better place.

[Sim]

I tried using the blog's scale calculator today and I couldn't find a way to put 6.5m, the only options were 6m or 7m.  Is there a way to put more precise measurements in?

[DinoToyForum]

I tried using the blog's scale calculator today and I couldn't find a way to put 6.5m, the only options were 6m or 7m.  Is there a way to put more precise measurements in?

Sorry @Sim, I missed this when you posted it. I'll investigate.

[Gwangi]

I was browsing the DTB just now and couldn't help but notice that there's a number of recently extinct animal figures still there. I thought these were migrated over to the ATB a couple years ago?

[bmathison1972]

I was browsing the DTB just now and couldn't help but notice that there's a number of recently extinct animal figures still there. I thought these were migrated over to the ATB a couple years ago?

Are those by Indohyus (AKA Sirenia on ATB)? I think he requested his remain on both sites. Or are these things that never migrated over?

[DinoToyForum]

I was browsing the DTB just now and couldn't help but notice that there's a number of recently extinct animal figures still there. I thought these were migrated over to the ATB a couple years ago?

Yeah, @indohyus objected to me deleting them from the DinoToyBlog, even though they've been migrated to the AnimalToyBlog. So, out of respect I've let them remain as duplicates on the DTB. But it makes no sense for them to be there, and they do feel out of place. Maybe indohyus will reconsider when he looks at this again with with fresh eyes. I mean, I could just delete them but I don't have the heart to upset him. Then again, he doesn't seem to be around anymore and hasn't posted a review in a couple of years, so maybe I already upset him with my request.

[Gwangi]

I was browsing the DTB just now and couldn't help but notice that there's a number of recently extinct animal figures still there. I thought these were migrated over to the ATB a couple years ago?

Yeah, @indohyus objected to me deleting them from the DinoToyBlog, even though they've been migrated to the AnimalToyBlog. So, out of respect I've let them remain as duplicates on the DTB. But it makes no sense for them to be there, and they do feel out of place. Maybe indohyus will reconsider when he looks at this again with with fresh eyes. I mean, I could just delete them but I don't have the heart to upset him. Then again, he doesn't seem to be around anymore and hasn't posted a review in a couple of years, so maybe I already upset him with my request.

Ok, I remember that now. Since it has been a couple years since we've heard from him I think it's probably safe to delete them, but that's not my call to make.