Blog Updates & A Googly-Eyed Crush

Yes, I have a new blog-crush. It seems I’ve gone and gotten twitter-patted over The Reader Appreciation Project, a blog that focuses on the importance of blog readers and ways to better appreciate and improve their experience.

The blogosphere seems increasingly fixated on metrics and monetization and ego. On many blogs, content, quality, and credibility are out the window; chasing numbers is the new name of the game. .

Being exposed to this trend was starting to affect my own attitude (what can I say, I’m easily influenced!) and I didn’t like it.

That’s when RAP sauntered in with a breath of fresh air, recentering me on what matters and stealing my heart. Is it any wonder I’m all swoony?

I do appreciate my readers, all of you. Whether you come for a day, or a week, or you hang out for the long haul. Whether you leave me comments or lurk silently. You matter to me. In fact, my new crush on The Reader Appreciation Project is second only to my crush on my actual readers.

Ok, yes, I know, enough with the mush. You get the point.

With all of this new found reader-centric enthusiasm in mind, I’ve made some changes that will make things a bit easier for you ’round here.

1. You can now edit the typos from your own comments. Yay!(Thanks to RAP’s WP Ajax Edit Comments plugin for WordPress)
2. You now have the option of subscribing to comments on a single article - you’ll know if there are follow ups to your comment without digging through the site. (kudos for the Subscribe To Comments plugin from Mark Jaquith. )
3. The blogroll has been updated and restyled in the sidebar. I thought your links deserved a makeover. (Eventually they’ll be on a separate page, too.. with full descriptions.)
4. I’ve set up a feature to make series articles a bit easier to follow. I haven’t gotten it in place on every existing series, yet, but you can see a preview of it on the Plate-Spinning Productivity articles. (This one is courtesy of the In Series plugin at RemState
5. I restyled the blockquotes — they were set to an annoyingly small font. Now you can actually READ the indented paragraphs without a magnifying glass!

Next on the agenda? Some feed-flare for so subscribers aren’t left out on the comment front… and a couple of other top secret projects floating around in my brain.

MindTWEAK: You… Yes, You. The one looking annoyed at the mushy stuff, the one pretending you don’t notice me talking to you. You Are Appreciated. Thank you for reading.