If you are a regular Pittsburgh Lumber Co. reader, you may have noticed two things over the past couple weeks. 1.) I haven’t been writing much, and 2.) The site layout has changed dramatically. Well, those two things are connected. I have spent much of my free time tweaking colors and adding new features. There is still work to be done, but I thought I should update everyone on some of the changes here at PLC.
Post Categories
All posts will now be assigned to one of four categories. They are:
Articles – These are in-depth posts that will generally take some time and research to produce. (Example)
Game Recaps – These are nothing new to the site. Randy Linville does an excellent job of recapping every Pirates game, so you never miss a moment of the season. (Example)
Blog – Blog entries are shorter posts that rarely require much in-depth research or analysis. (Example)
Links – Occasionally, I will post links and excerpts of various articles that I find interesting enough to share. These links will generally cover general baseball topics, with a Pirates focus. (Example)
The most recent entries in each of these categories can be found in the main content section of the site’s homepage. There is also a news section on the sidebar, with links to the original source of information. For convenience, you can access any of these sections by using the menu at the top of the page. There is also an “RSS” link in that menu. Clicking it will give you access to a full site feed, as well as separate feeds for each of the different post categories. This allows you to customize which posts are delivered directly to your preferred reader.
Archives
Also, the archives tool near the top of the sidebar has been revamped. Previously, browsing the site’s archived posts was a tedious task, with only a small number of entries listed on each page. Now, you can scan the drop-down menu to find whatever you are looking for without ever leaving your current page.
(EDIT: I removed this feature, as it was causing issues with the site.)
Comments
The comments section of individual posts has been cleaned up a bit. I was not a big fan of the prior format, as nested replies did not visually stand out very well. Also, new comments should automatically appear every ten seconds, so you should not have to refresh the page to see them.
Postseason Schedule
At the top of the sidebar, you can find a link to MLB’s 2010 postseason schedule. This schedule is courtesy of Evan Brunell, who writes for CBS Sports.
Twitter Feed
The Pittsburgh Lumber Co. auto-Twitter feed, which had been down for some time, should be working again. Follow @PGHLumberCo for a link to every entry posted to the site.
Toolbar
Finally, there is now a toolbar located at the bottom of the page. This allows you to quickly translate the site into various non-English languages, pull up all recent PLC entries, access any Pirates photos I have taken, share posts you find interesting, and much more.
If you come across anything that looks goofy or buggy, please let me know in the comments section of this post. Thanks.
