In our continuing work to make your time here at Chez Flashlight more informative and enjoyable, we’ve implemented a few new features to help our growing (!!) readership.
Today we added the following new stuff for y’all to play with. We’d love to hear whether it works or doesn’t for you. As always, please share your feedback with us on this or anything else.
- “Some similar posts” – If you open an individual post or just happen to arrive here that way, at the end of the post you’ll see a “Some similar posts” list that shows five topics the blog software thinks are most related to the topic you’re reading. I haven’t played around with this enough to see whether I agree with it, but so far it looks pretty good. I realize navigating a blog can get annoying fast, so I hope this helps some.
If you’re reading along on the main page and want to open an individual topic’s page, click a post’s title or click the link at the bottom of the post that says how many comments that post has (e.g., “2 Comments”).
- Most Popular Posts – On the left side of the page below the Recent Posts is the “Most Popular Posts” (of all-time!!) list. When you read an individual topic, you’re giving it a vote (more or less). This doesn’t require any action on your part beyond that. This will keep posts people like from falling off the front page.
- Sign up to receive notice of new comments – When you leave a comment, you should see a little check box below the comment box. If you check it, it will notify you by e-mail when follow-up comments are made to that post.
- ShareThis – The ShareThis button will allow you to bookmark the topic in every conceivable social bookmarking system you can think of. You can also use it to e-mail a post to someone you know or love (or both).
If you’re new here, don’t forget the keyword Tag Cloud near the top-right if you’re looking for something in particular. You can, of course, always use the Search box for that, too.
There’s also the Categories list, but I’m pondering removing it as the Tag Cloud covers things in greater depth. The Cloud is uglier than Barney’s incarcerated second cousin, but I’ll work on it.
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Future improvements in the works include a much more comprehensive set of links to sites that have helped us with researching and better understanding autism, speech delays and speech therapy, occupational therapy, educational/behavioral therapies, etc. We’re also working on a reading list of books we’ve discovered that have really helped us out and a glossary page because some stuff we post here I know goes over the heads of some readers new to the jargony world of autism.
We also have oddles of exciting posts planned for the next few weeks. We’re plunging headlong into IEP Days, so you get to walk through it with us. Plus, I’m about done with the home schoolroom to complement J-Man’s therapy work when he’s not at school or with a therapist. Lots of news on that front.
All this and more, coming soon to Both Hands and a Flashlight! Huzzah!
Posts that hopefully are similar:
- Help Make Both Hands and a Flashlight Better!
- Get Both Hands and a Flashlight Delivered to Your Door! (sort of)
- Subscribing via FeedBurner and Other Meta Goodness
- Happy Blogoversary to Us!
- New Facebook Page!
- Apologies and Thanks
- We Get All a-Twitter
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
Golly! I wish I had just a fraction of those bloggy skils.
Cheers
I’d trade a fraction of my skills for part of your boatload of site traffic.
I do web design as part of my work-at-home dad-ness. Nerdiness is a way of life around here. Someday I may redesign this whole thing the way I want it. I have work backed up to the moon so that comes before major bloggery. Gotta pay all the therapy bills! (which is pretty much what my part of the income pays for) For now, I’ve just self-taught/crash-coursed myself in customizing Wordpress. (It’s a bit less taxing than trying to teach myself Ajax – my other current techie learning project.) It’s fun to tinker!
Of course, I’m also trying to learn TEACCH, ABA, and Floortime at the same time. No wonder my brain hurts!