Feedback on my blog

[Slothie]

http://blog.bluefrogx.com/

What do you think? Honest opinions please, I can take criticism

For those wordpress junkies out there, what good plugins are there to install, its been awhile since I last used wordpress and it seems like I'm rather outdated

[tam-iam]

I really like it. It has a very professonal look to it. You could maybe add a custom header banner or logo.

[Slothie]

I'm currently looking for someone who can create some :P Somehow I just can't create one that fits in with the theme of the site (I'm bluefrog btw )

[satbir]

Here are my two cents:
+ Simple
+ Sober design
+ Good colour pattern
+ Really nice icon pattern in footer - Home/RSS > Getting bigger on hovering

- Lot of space is wasted (Space is real estate, very scarce and should be utlized very optimally)
- Unsymmetrical columns > Blog column is too long and right side bar looks very odd in its compare. Because of design, it glaring stang out.
- Too many icons, nearly clutterd in bottom of each item.
- Search bar is too up, can be nearer to right side bar.
- Slogan - black on blue is not coming out as required.
Hope this helps.

[Slothie]

Thanks for the comments

- Lot of space is wasted (Space is real estate, very scarce and should be utlized very optimally)

Its actually optimized for lower resolutions, I have yet to figure out a way for CSS to play nice with percentages.

- Unsymmetrical columns > Blog column is too long and right side bar looks very odd in its compare. Because of design, it glaring stang out.

Its because of one long article I didn't want to use the more tag too soon on it cause I wanted people to be able to get the front page text in RSS

- Too many icons, nearly clutterd in bottom of each item.

Those are social networking bookmarks, like digg and technocrati

- Search bar is too up, can be nearer to right side bar.

Perhaps I'll add on in the sidebar as well.

- Slogan - black on blue is not coming out as required.

I'm aware of this, its a placeholder for when I actually design my header.

Hope this helps.

Yeah it did, first constructive post

[dyfuse]

I think the theme has a very clean, and relatively bright layout... exceptionally easy on the eyes. And I love the little hover icons at the foot of the page

No major criticisms come to mind at this point of time, but I can suggest to you some plugins that may be of help (both admin and viewer-related):
- Advanced Admin Drop Menus (http://www.stuff.yellowswordfish.com...op-down-menus/)
- Exec-PHP: Executes PHP code in posts, pages and text widgets (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/exec-php/)
- Guestbook Generator: Instantly generates a guestbook for Wordpress blogs based on the active theme. (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...ook-generator/)
- Maintenance Mode: Adds a splash page to your blog that lets visitors know your blog is down for maintenance. (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/maintenance-mode/)
- Peter's Custom Anti-Spam: Stop a lot of spambots from polluting your site by making visitors identify a custom word displayed as an image before commenting. (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/...ti-spam-image/)
- Smarter Archives: Presents archive navigation in a unique way. (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/smarter-archives/)


I'm sure there's plenty more excellent plugins out there, but these are some that I've used before!

All-bar-one of these were pulled of the WordPress Plugins site: http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/

[Slothie]

Thanks, I think I'll take the guestbook

I'm already using akismet for the antispam and I've got a different plugin for using PHP

I'm talking a look at the Admin drop menus now

Wow, really love the admin drop menus... +1 Rep to ya XD

[munim]

the content is good.. and from the dates I can make out that you update it frequently.. good. keep updating your blog with the same frequency!
i don't mind the design.. looks okay... but in the tag cloud, Symbian is really huge whereas everything else is the same small size.. that doesn't look good.
why do you have testimonials in your blog? usually comments are enough.
and don't use small and big alternating caps in your blog title... its looks a bit immature and silly..
overall.. pretty good.. wouldn't mind a link exchange with my blog!

[Slothie]

I've got testimonials cause I'm a fulltime freelancer as well (I like clients to leave comments as references). the tags are bit screwed up now cause so far I've been blogging bout multiple topics, so the tags aren't quite sorted out yet.

@munim: What's your blog about?

[alfren]

wow nice layout!