Attempts at Honesty

Reflections on the interplay of the Bible and Culture

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Under Construction: New Blog Theme for Attempts at Honesty

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Under ConstructionPlease be patient over the next few days/weeks as Attempts at Honesty is under construction. We have installed the Pagelines Theme which needs to be customized. If you see features that you like or don’t like, please comment and we’ll take your input into consideration.

The good news is that this theme is very customizable and has a lot of features. The bad news is that customization takes time and I’m learning what the features are and how they might enhance the reading experience of the blog. So, it will be trial and error, tweaking a little here, a little there.

Thanks for your understanding and patience.

-Mark

Disqus Update – Why I’m Back

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June 2017 Update: Anyone who had followed this blog for a while and pays attention to the comment system will see that I have been rather indecisive with regard to which system to use. I have tried nearly all of them. When I was focused on page load speed, I went with the native WordPress comment system. When I was focused on improving interaction, I gravitated back to Disqus. For the time being I’m back with Disqus.
Disqus

You may notice that the Disqus comment system is back on this blog. The bottom line is that Disqus just works and I will spend less effort around moderating spam comments. If there is a slight penalty in page load speed, then I will live with it. I tried the native WordPress comment system and was flooded with spam. I added Spam Free WordPress and got no spam but then it was more difficult for humans to comment. I tried IntenseDebate and it seemed to struggle to integrate with other WordPress tools and I would be notified of comments that I could not find within IntenseDebate. So after wandering around in the comment system wilderness, I’m back with Disqus. Any Comments?

4 Reasons Why I Dropped Disqus Comment System From My Blog

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DisqusAfter about 3 minutes of internet research on the subject, I decided to no longer use the Disqus comment system on this blog. I had no serious problems with Disqus. The service was free and it worked well. Yet, I found some reasons to turn off Disqus and I think they are strong enough to warrant keeping it turned off. In fact, I have deleted the plugin and do not plan on re-installing it.

Here are the reasons why I think uninstalling Disqus was a good move:

  1. It drastically improved my page load speed. I’m not a technical wizard, but I guess it is because using the comments system inside WordPress allows the comment system to be cached along with the post. (Any tech guru’s who have a better explanation can chime in with a comment as to why it got faster)
  2. The native Worpress comment system works better with the the WPTouch plugin. When using a touch screen device, the count is superimposed on the little calendar page icon within the WPTouch theme. This helps me keep track of comments and respond or spam them accordingly. Disqus would email me, but the functionality built into WPTouch makes it much easier to track on my mobile device using the native WordPress comment system.
  3. The WordPress Checker Extension in Chrome works better with WordPress than with Disqus. Since Chrome is my primary browser, this helps me keep better track of comments.
  4. The WordPress comment functionality seems to work adequately and I don’t think I’m missing any benefits.

Feel free to comment about how to make the comment experience better for readers. I’d love to hear any ideas.

5 Reasons why I moved to self-hosted WordPress Blog

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FiveIf you are reading this you found my new blog home. I’ve moved from WordPress.com to an external hosting service and thought I’d share the reasons why.

  1. Javascript – There are widgets that I’d like to add to my blog that contain Javascript that WordPress.com does not allow. This reduces the capabilities of my blog to interface with other sites.
  2. Search Engine Optimization – None of the SEO plugins for WordPress work with the WordPress.com web site. I’d like to optimize my blog for search engines to drive more traffic.
  3. Domain name control – I can control the domain name and can move to another hosting service if that becomes necessary.
  4. I get to work with the fantastic people at Davis Services Group who are now hosting my blog. I highly recommend using them if you are considering moving to a self-hosted blog.
  5. Overall control – WordPress.com or blogger.com are great ways to start blogging, but with a self-hosted blog, you are only limited by technical feasibility and not by policy decisions.

Feel free to comment about other advantages that I’ve not thought of. I’d also appreciate feedback on the usability of this blog and any suggestions for improvement.

-Mark

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