Comicology v2.0

I am proud to present you the next version of Comicology.  You would have noticed few changes to the blog layout and content over the last few weeks.  It's part of my continuous commitment to make the blog look more good and user friendly, and something I feel has added a great deal of professionalism to our blog.

This post will serve as the Help Page for Comicology 

Here, I have detailed some the new additions and changes to Comicology, broadly classified into 4 Sections: Main, Posts Body, Sidebar, and Tail-End describing each section which finds their presence in them.

SECTION 1: Main

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1.1 Standard Resolution: Our earlier blog design, fit itself to the majority of the screen resolutions, by expanding or shrinking its size.  Obviously, though it benefited a few, we had to sacrifice on the layout and content position. 

As I could see from the Site Trackers, there are only 3% of people who still use a screen resolution lesser than 1024x768.  So, I decided to fix our blog layout to support 1024x768 and higher, which gives us a good control over the content display.

1.2  Background-Image: As a result of the Resolution change, we will now have few areas left untouched on the screen.  I decided to replace the blank page in there, with some good comics related graphics, which will keep changing periodically. 

To avoid auto-image tile, this has been fixed to remain static when you scroll around the blog. Don’t be surprised, when a blank image will replace any picture, from time to time. After all, whatever fits the blog content, would be used :).

1.3 Banner Flash: The Banner Flash Image below the Comicology Header, will list the most recent 5 comic posts on the blog.  It also serves as an teaser for those who want to subscribe for future posts, by providing a Feed Link.  You could use a wide variety of RSS readers to keep up-to date with Comicology.  Or you could still prefer the traditional way of Email Alert, by subscribing with your email-address.

1.4 Search Bar: To quickly locate your desired content a Search Bar is placed exclusively right below the header. Search your desired text throughout Comicology, and reach the desired.

Also, just below the Search Bar, you will find the permanent Links to reach the Home Page, Help Page and Posts Bar, anywhere from the website.

SECTION 2: Post Body

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2.1 Continue Reading: To reduce load time, the home page, and all index pages will carry only a summary post, and link to read the complete post. This also helps in serving only the content which the reader wants to read, and also track user activity.

2.2 Share/Add This Widget: Using this widget which is found just below the post, along with Labels section, you would be able to share your favorite post at Comicology, in many different ways.

Email, Digg, Twitter it, or do More by clicking the respective links found on this widget. Play around as you wish.

2.3 Posts Navigation Bar: This gives you a freedom to navigate to the Previous, Next Post pages from the current one. If it is an index page, then the navigation would give you the next or previous set of summary posts.

The Middle Home Icon, will always lead you to the Homepage, for quicker return.

SECTION 3: Sidebar

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3.1 Recent Comic-Posts: This section will list 5 recent posts, and can serve for a quick reference and pick.  There is a link to the Site Map at the end of the section, which will provide you a low down bibliography of all posts ever featured at Comicology, in a grouped fashion under various heads and categories.

Apart from the Posts, the Site Map also contains a Creators Section, and Character Profile links, with a link to the current comic publishers website and fellow comikers websites, listed to wrap up the page content.

3.2 Featured Comic-Post: This section will frequently have the most popular post at Comicology for a given time period.

It will mostly carry the recent post which has received much hits or responses. Don’t forget to check on it, when you get a chance.

3.3 Comic Quotes: This section will randomly showcase a comic quote I have picked from the comic based movies, or graphic novels. There is an idea to group them in a separate archive page in the future, with a link to them available readily over here.

3.4 Twitter Updates: This section will help us a flash news reader, where I could update the latest happenings around in comics, like new newsstand notables, or newspaper articles, in an instant, and without a need to blog about in detail.

3.5 Top Comic-Commenters: This widget will showcase the top list of 10 comikers, who have been more active recently by recording their valuable comments at Comicology. Due to blogger’s restriction only the recent 500 comments could be used to ascertain the leader-stats for this purpose. So, the race is on, for the top 2 or 10.

3.6 Email Subscriber: This widget provides an option for the comikers, to subscribe for news updates using their email. The same is available through the Posts Banner under the Header, but this gives you a shortcut to opt for email alerts alone.

Apart from that it also provides a link to Comicology’s Comics Blogroll, The Comix Planet.

SECTION 4: Tail-End

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4.1 Posts Bar: Last but not least, the Posts Bar, which is an innovative idea to serve as a Dashboard for all Comic Posts at Comicology.

First Up, Coming Soon section, which gives you a preview on the next possible posts to be featured at Comicology, one each for English and Tamil Comics.

The Recent Comic Post Updates, will list those posts from the past, which has recently updated with latest info and news.  Updation of older posts is a practice I have been following ever since I started the blog, so this section will give a highlight of recent 3 posts which have been modified to grab the comikers attention.

The Top Posts section will highlight the top 5 posts ever posted in Comicology, and a link to their individual blog post pages.  These are rated by an unique rating scale adopted by PostRank.  This will be useful to see what topics are of interest to the majority of the visitors, and lead new users to straight to those popular posts at Comicology.

4.2 Labels Cloud:  It's a new form of Label tags display, which will use colors and sizes to determine the most prominent labeled posts from the least ones.  I have added the Number of Posts also to the respective tags, so you could get a hands-on info without hovering onto it.  Click on these respective labels, and you will see all the posts tagged with the same at one shot.

 

I am hopeful, that you will find these changes to be pretty helpful.

I will continuously update this page, with all the new changes made to Comicology Blog.  Once again, welcome to the Version 2 of Comicology.

Please do leave your thoughts and comments about these Blog Layout and Content Updates, in the section below.  Also do let me know if you find any JavaScript issues or broken links anywhere on the blog.  As of this blog-post, it is 100% Error-Free.

And for those who want to post queries regarding subscription details and the availability of the books reviewed at Comicology, I suggest them to read the respective post fully, before posting any queries.  As most of the times the post is self-explanatory with the books availability and the necessary contact details.  This will also save me from responding to multiple redundant queries.

Let’s make Comicology, a better place to be for all Comikers. Together We Can.

Last Updated: 18 June 2009