Dear friends,
New blog presentation format:
A lot of you have emailed me to tell me that they don’t like the “thematic” presentation used for the new blog and that you prefer a regular “chronological” one. That is very simple to address:
If you prefer the “thematic” one use this link: thesaker.is
If you prefer the “chronological” one use this link: thesaker.is/blog
I think that with time you will see that having a choice of both is actually very helpful. The thematic mode makes it far easier to research a topic while the second one makes it far easier to get the latest news. I think that this flexibility is a huge improvement over the rigid “chronological only” format.
Delay between posts on the old and new blog:
Some have noticed that post appear on vineyardsaker.blogspot.com before they appear on the new blog here. Correct. I am learning the various options offered by WordPress and my webmaster helps me in the process. So especially in the beginning, there will be a time lag between vineyardsaker.blogspot.com (blogger is very simple to use, but also have very little functionality) and thesaker.is/blog (WordPress is extremely powerful but take a little bit of time to learn).
Moderation on the new blog:
Finally, moderation should improve massively. I remind you that my moderation policy is spelled out here: thesaker.is/moderation-policy
And just to clarify – my moderators (there are 10 of them) have a sole function to allow comments which are clearly in compliance with that policy. However, they do not delete the others, but leave them to me to make the final decision. In other words, don’t blame them from not allowing a comment, if that happens – blame me.
The good news is that your comments should get posted much faster. Also, there will be no software-controlled moderation and no obligation to sign up.
Comments:
Please do not post comments on this blog but only on the new one. And please DO let us know what you like and dislike about the new blog by posting our opinions under this article’s comments section:
The new Saker blog (v3) is now ready
That’s it for now.
I hope to have a Ukraine SITREP ready in a few hours.
Cheers and hugs,
The Saker
Saker, please return “preview” button for comments! And to improve comments also add option to insert videos and pics in comments.
These functions are not available on this blog. They are deactivated automatically by WordPress to avoid spam and increase security of the website.
i understand that blocking pics and videos blocks spam. Please do allow preview; that is completely orthogonal to spam.
Marco
Well, “Preview” is currently not installed for commenting. Maybe we’ll add it at a later time. For now just try using the listed and available HTML tags. After a few attempts you’ll have your replies as good as it can get.
Hi saker, the new blog looks actually much better than all the older ones. Even on my smartphone the layout looks great. Your webmaster did a good job here. I also failed to find the chronological ordered list of articles, clicking “blog” in the menue seems not to be that obvious. But I am happy that this feature still exists because this is the way i would prefer to read your posts. Thank you and your team for all the effort …
If you prefer the “thematic” one use this link: /
If you prefer the “chronological” one use this link: /blog/
The link didn’t work for me either.
They never worked on the last site either in the comments section – possibly because the web knows I am a total technophobe who regards even microwave ovens as the devil’s work: maybe IT likes to toy a little its victims.
If you want to see the blog view, don’t try for it with the menu. Just bookmark this link
/blog/
This gets you the chronological view. For the main site view, just backspace out the /blog/ part and hit Enter. That section is organised by themes, in case you want to browse for older threads.
Don’t be afraid of technology, it doesn’t bite.
Thanks for everything. The choice to go directly to chronological articles by adding /blog to thesaker.is works great, which I just did to get here. However, the last sentence is left hanging; seems there was more pending and just got cut off at “…you will” I think; don’t want to leave this page for fear I won’t be able to get back to it.
Also, in the comment section of a related thread, it said to click on the orange button (actually an orange line?) named “blog”. I tried it but it did not bring me here to the “latest” article as did the action of the first paragraph described above. BTW, I’m not computer savvy, but just enough self-educated to get by–by blogging which I do like to do; so sorry, if I’m not clear.
At the very top there is a menu. The first item reads “Homepage”. That will always bring you to the frontpage where the articles are sorted in different thematic topics. Right next to it is the item “Blog”. That brings you always to the blog section of this website where all the articles are listed in chronological order.
OK, bear with me. If I search thesaker.is, I get, not the homepage on the very top with a black background, but blog in orange. If I click on it, everything stays the same, with the lead “analysis” from yesterday, with the 90+ comments.
On the other hand, if I search thesaker.is/blog, I go to a page that is current as today but with the truncated saker messsage “…in time you will”, but lacking the long post of today as the saker message. However, I can get to the comment section, as I am doing now.
What is confusing me now, is the long message from Saker that distinguishes between the saker.is and thesaker.is/blog, among other things, on moderation, etc., which I think is the most recent article today. How do I get to that? That’s where I want to be; at the most recent post, and the full one, not the truncated one.
OK, here are a few clarifications…
1) When you use the search on this website then you will get a list of results. These results will be from different categories and different dates. These results will be in descending chronological order but they are not the list of articles which you will get in the “Blog” section. Now it may be that the first result in that list is also the first article in the “Blog” section, but that list is not the “Blog” section. It is just a search result list. The next search will produce a different result list.
2) When you search for the term “thesaker.is/blog” then you get a new search result list. But this time the search result list contains only one result and that is the article where the Saker mentioned the “Blog” section by referring to it with the link “thesaker.is/blog”. Because you used the link as your search term you found the article in which that link was mentioned. When you click the title of that article which was found after your search, then you go to that article itself.
3) This website starts at thesaker.is which is it’s frontpage, also called “Homepage”. The “Homepage” has different thematic categories which “filter” the continuous stream of new articles. More important articles remain longer visible on the “Homepage”.
Besides the “Homepage” there is also the “Blog” section. This section has all articles listed in descending chronological order with the latest article being at the top. All 4.129 articles (at the time of this writing) are listed in the “Blog” section in descending chronological order. That’s why you have currently 207 pages in the “Blog” section which you can access by using the “Next” and “Previous” buttons at the bottom.
Unlike on the old blog, this blog section only displays the title of that article, a short excerpt of it and a featured image, if one is attached to it. This helps to keep the list short and make the website load much faster. If you want to read a certain article listed in the “Blog” section then simply click on it’s title and you’ll get to it. After that you can pick the next one from the “Blog” section”.
I will put up new links to clarify this. They will probably be in the right sidebar in the coming days.
But for now use these:
The “Homepage”: Homepage
The “Blog”: Blog
Dennis again. I figured out how to get here, by clicking on the Title: “Important clarification…” 2/24. Also, I remember now how Saker distinguished between thesaker.is and thesaker.is/blog. The former takes me to the homepage; however, the black strip at the very top says blog. If I click on homepage, it does not change to the homepage in orange; everything stays as before, with blog highlighted in orange. I think that’s what threw me, although I can’t be sure. Gradually figuring this out, I guess.
Actually none of the items in the menu at the very top are meant to indicate your current location by changing their color. However, the color of the second item was changed to highlight the link to the “Blog” section. It is not an indication for being in the “Blog” section. It just tells you that if you click on it you will go to the “Blog” section. Because so many people seek it, it keeps it’s orange highlight color in all sections.
But there is an indicator that shows you in which section you currently are. It is the title bar displayed right below the “SAKER MESSAGE” field. Each section has it’s own title bar like “Blog”, “Analyses”, “SITREPs” and so on. Only the “Homepage” does not have one. Instead, the “Homepage” has a slideshow which keeps a list of selected articles from the archives.
I like this very much, nice style, nice choice of layout, everything’s good.
I fly from Jeddah to Istanbul tomorrow, then a little shopping and I make my way to Donbass. I’ve been in touch with the local authorities and got a green light to come help. I feel like an idiot arriving only now, but I over a year in Saudi hell I almost paid off my student loans, giving me much more flexibility in life. Well, wish me luck.
That’s great.I wish you the best of luck.Please keep us informed on how things are from your personal view.
God Ingrian, I wish I could be so cosmipolitan as you….Saudi and now Donbass. Good for you !!!
I wish I could go to Donbass too.
Good luck, health and strenght, Ingrian. You are very brave.
I would like to go with you…
A big hug for you and for all the Novorossiyan brothers and sisters!
It’s a very good idea to have kept the chronological presentation.
I’ve noticed a bug (or is it one?), when using the [blockquote] formating. The quote is in bold instead of ‘normal’. Example :
It’s actually the default setting of the theme in use, but I do agree that it tends to be annoying when it is used for very long passages.
Try using
<cite> A Quote that should go in there </cite>
instead of
<blockquote> A Quote that should go in there </blockquote>
and see the difference.
Your test will look like:
This is a test !
Well done!
Way much better than v 2.0!
Best wishes!
I’ll repeat my suggestion to have a chronlogical article icon of some kind. Perhaps a ‘recent/latest articles’ icon or better yet a list with the recent titles actually showing and a ‘more’ button if the count exceeds the space allocated on the home page. That is if the intention is to reach the widest audience with the least clicks.
If ithe site is mainly for regulars who can just bookmark the chronological blog then that is not necessary but expect a lot of inefficent page hits chewing up resources from those not familiar with the site. They will also be annoyed at wasting their valuable time hunting around and less likely to return.
Otherwise the site is much improved and very professional looking. Congratulations to all involved.
There is a section in the sidebar called “Popular Posts” which always lists the top 5 posts in terms of page views. I am considering to add another section in the sidebar which would list the latest 5 to 10 articles and also link to the “Blog” section.
Maybe that would help.
question, is there an easy way to post a comment and then go to the comment that you were reading just before you posted yours ?
Also, is there a way to not have to put my name in the name box, is there a way to have it permanently recognize me ?
Actually it is technically possible but currently it is not part of this WordPress theme which is in use. Others have also mentioned this point and I have noted it down. Maybe will have it in the future.
When it comes to your name then it would be necessary for you to register and login to this WordPress site in order for WordPress to remember your name. But this is deactivated because we do not use user registration on this website.
But your browser usually does remember you. Usually the browsers keep a list of the text that was typed into input fields so it can be re-used.
However, given that “Ann” is such a short name you probably have typed it more quickly than grab it from your browser’s input field suggestions.
This new blog looks great, superb, and the ability to switch back and forth between blog vew and thematic view is definitely an improvement.
There is just one important detail missing with respect to the old blog: At the end of each comment, the time of posting was indicated (in Universal Standard Time) and the timestamp contained a link leading straight to that comment.
These are important features. The time stamp allows for easy identification of specific comments when referring to them in other comments. And the link allows saving and referencing that comment on other media.
Those features are particularly important in the Saker’s blog, given the wealth of excellent and informative comments that are posted here every day.
Thanks again for all the great work.
Many people are asking for this. Actually there is a direct link to each comment which could be used, but it’s a little bit technical to explain.
It will be best to modify the current WordPress theme and add this feature to it. Give us a couple of days to coordinate this with the other tasks.
Thank you very much for attending to this. I understand you are probably very busy, and I know you already have done a lot of work, so I appreciate this all the more. The timestamps & links will be an excellent feature to have.
It sounds as if this feature is being added soon — thank you! — but I just wanted to voice my interest in the time stamping of posts, as well. It’s tricky to keep track of new posts when only the date is showing. Thanks to “Anonymous” for making the suggestion.
In the old blog I could link the commets, like this: http://vineyardsaker.blogspot.com/2015/02/important-clarifications-about-new-blog.html?showComment=1424826849864#c3215008379572112248
There is no possibility to link comments in the new blog. :( This is why I consider the blogspot to be better one.
As mentioned above, a direct link to comments does exist. But currently this WordPress theme does not use it automatically.
It can be modified and then this feature should be available.
Read there post here. Less is more.
Good bye,
s’ Bogom. ted
This is a test.
I want to see whether a post in this box comes out as a new comment or as a reply.
Katherine
Yeah. Me too. :)
it’s all brilliant
especially does the www links automatically
Mr. Saker,
Nice shiny new blog. Hope it lasts.
It takes a bit getting used to.
Talked to a student today. He asked how I know if the Russian media are any better (more accurate/honest) than the American media?
I replied that they (the Russian media), and this blog, should be understood as being – “the other side of the story.”
Read both, and then make up your own mind.
Those Novorossiyan Partisan Militia are putting up one hell of a fight.
Best wishes to all.
Congrats on the new blog…webmaster et al did a great job… kudos to all moderators for your patience in answering questions and alerting us to more techie things to come!
Looking forward to reading and commenting.
Dear Saker, if it were true, as I believe, that 80% of visitors normaly prefer the chronological (ask confirmation), why not put your menu links France, Italy, etc. directly to the blog?
Now is ~16:15 UTC on 28 February, and your chronological blog /blog/ does not work – except for the headers everything is empty. In addition, on your page, the top header does *not* contain the option button “blog” any longer. I do not like the outlay / , I prefer the chronological one hands down, as a great majority of other readers do. What is going on, some temporary glitch I hope?
Yes.. Your correct. I just tested it myself. If you are using firefox or Chrome/Chromium you can go to the RSS tab and get chronlogical order. I’ll continue to look into and report problem to webmaster.
H.S.
Many comments from article ‘Saker’s “man of the year 2013″: the Syrian soldier’ have disappeared…