Dinosaur Toy Blog changes

[DinoToyForum]

A thread to list changes to The Dinosaur Toy Blog. And to seek feedback regarding said changes.

Nothing major to report right now, I just tweaked a few things and changed some of the text and top menu tab colours - I've decided to give the blog a deep red theme, to contrast with the light blue forum.

Also, the forum tab at the top of the blog now links directly to the forum, instead of linking to an 'about the forum' page.

[Gwangi]

I cannot remember. Did I send you a bio for the contributors page?

[DinoToyForum]

I cannot remember. Did I send you a bio for the contributors page?

I cant remember either! Do send, or resend, if you are able

[DinoToyForum]

Thanks to Gwangi for providing a bio and a photo: http://www.dinotoyblog.com/about-the-authors/gwangi/

Dan, would you be willing to provide a little bio for the blog? You're currently the odd one out No obligation, of course.

[DinoToyForum]

There are now so many reviews that the contents page broke - we exceeded the limits for the contents plugin. However, I removed the post summaries and it seems to be working again now. But that's a looooong list!

http://www.dinotoyblog.com/contents/

The Collectors' Guide section presents a daunting task!

[DinoFan45]

Well, it'll be extremely helpful finding older articles. Thanks Dinotoyforum.

[Takama]

There are now so many reviews that the contents page broke - we exceeded the limits for the contents plugin. However, I removed the post summaries and it seems to be working again now. But that's a looooong list!

http://www.dinotoyblog.com/contents/

The Collectors' Guide section presents a daunting task!

I could probably help with CollectAs Massive collection for the guide, by giving a up to date list of all the figures.

[DinoToyForum]

Takama, I'd really appreciate that. Do you think you might also be able to rummage through the blog for CollectA reviews, and include the URLs in the list as well?  Don't worry if not though, the list alone would be a wonderful help. 

[DinoToyForum]

I've upgraded the search feature on the Dinosaur Toy Blog, which was absolutely useless. It should be better at returning relevant results now - try it out. (Although it is still limited to two results per page, and it still says 'older results' at the bottom, when it should say 'more results').

[DinoToyForum]

It's been a while since I updated the blog in any way. Now, if you are lucky, you may be presented with a new character in the header banner. There are now three header images in total, selected randomly upon each page load. I'll add more soon enough

[Libraraptor]

Nice idea, Adam! It brings more variety to the look of the homepage. Unfortunately, I can´t do many reviews at the moment due to a lack of time. But I keep looking at the dinotoyblog at least every third day.

[DinoToyForum]

Not a big change, but I recently added a deep red background to the blog, so the pages are now more contained on the sides.

[alexeratops]

Neat.

[DinoToyForum]

Now, if you are lucky, you may be presented with a new character in the header banner. There are now three header images in total, selected randomly upon each page load. I'll add more soon enough

I've added a new header image featuring the new Bullyland Lambeosaurus, which you may encounter while browsing. I love it because its crest looks as though it is giving the thumbs up and the red colour matches the blog theme

[Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus]

Now, if you are lucky, you may be presented with a new character in the header banner. There are now three header images in total, selected randomly upon each page load. I'll add more soon enough

I've added a new header image featuring the new Bullyland Lambeosaurus, which you may encounter while browsing. I love it because its crest looks as though it is giving the thumbs up and the red colour matches the blog theme

Found it! The site is looking good, Dr. Admin. 

[DinoToyForum]

I turned my attention to the blog this weekend, in particular, the more-or-less defunct 'Collectors' Guide' section. It was such a large and time-consuming task to build those pages manually, which is why they never really took off, but now I've found a way to automate the process so that the pages automatically pull in linked thumbnails of reviews basis on their category. This means the lists do not show an exhaustive list of figures, only the ones reviewed on the blog, but I concluded that was better than nothing! For this reason, I renamed the section simply "companies", as an incomplete list isn't much of a collectors' guide, but this is, at least, a handy way to browse the reviews of figures by company/line. The pages are accessible from the top menu on every page, or from the main companies page: http://dinotoyblog.com/companies/. I have only included the larger companies for now, but I can add more as required. The company pages are dependant on authors correctly allocating their reviews to a particular category when they publish, so authors, please be vigilant when posting 

If anyone notices any reviews missing from the pages, please let me know, and if anyone has any other suggestions for this section, please let me know. Here's the place to do so: http://dinotoyblog.com/forum/index.php?topic=210.20

Edit - Also, I have added thumbnail links on the author pages to allow visitors to browse through all the reviews published by that author. For example, here is Horridus' page: http://dinotoyblog.com/about-the-authors/horridus/ There is a similar page for each author with a dinotoyblog account.

[Libraraptor]

This is definitely good work, Adam! It makes the blog  more handy and user-friendly. And you were absolutely right in asking for the additional benefit of complete companies´lists.
I became a little nostalgic thanks to the new "all the author´s reviews" feature... Wow - so many reviews I wrote! I´m posting there for five years now, not that regularly, but still unbelievable! 47 entries, wow! I´ll definitely goon posting there and crawl into the deepest depths of my cabinets (or keep my eyes open in even the smallest museums  ) to present more little dinosaurs!

[Spinosaurus Aegyptiacus]

I second Libraraptor-great work, Dr. Admin!
The blog and forum are both looking superb thanks to your edits, revisions, and general tweaking! I enjoy visiting both sites. Keep it up! 

[DinoToyForum]

This is definitely good work, Adam! It makes the blog  more handy and user-friendly. And you were absolutely right in asking for the additional benefit of complete companies´lists.
I became a little nostalgic thanks to the new "all the author´s reviews" feature... Wow - so many reviews I wrote! I´m posting there for five years now, not that regularly, but still unbelievable! 47 entries, wow! I´ll definitely goon posting there and crawl into the deepest depths of my cabinets (or keep my eyes open in even the smallest museums  ) to present more little dinosaurs!

I'm glad you approve Stefan! I agree with you. Sometimes the blog format meant old reviews got buried and difficult to find (or even remember!). Having the new company and authors pages means all the reviews are just one click away and easy to see at a glance. I've also added links to those pages in the right hand side bar so they don't get overlooked in the main menu

Yes, you have written so many reviews http://dinotoyblog.com/about-the-authors/libraraptor/ ! All the authors have written far more than I would have guessed so it's nice to see them all listed like this!

[DinoToyForum]

I second Libraraptor-great work, Dr. Admin!
The blog and forum are both looking superb thanks to your edits, revisions, and general tweaking! I enjoy visiting both sites. Keep it up! 

Thanks! Sometimes I spend too much time on these sites at the expense of other, more "important" work, so I'm glad it is appreciated!