It's been nearly 4 years since I started this blog, and for a while I've felt it needed a change to its rather generic, stale look. To that end, I've started using a template normally used for WordPress but adapted for Blogger. The only major change is that it's a wider template, better for use with high resolution, widescreen monitors. I'll be able to incorporate larger pictures and additional page elements in the process.
Comments and/or suggestions about the new look? You know what to do.
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Keeping track of all news and events revolving around the pursuit of a new ballpark for the Oakland Athletics.
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Update 12/22 09:00 - David Pollak has a wrtiten an article on the complexity of the soccer-baseball relationship. Ever the ballpark advocat...
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When certain San Jose supporters privately told me several months ago about a possible November ballot measure for an A's ballpark, I wa...
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In the last few weeks, I've gotten several requests to add a particular Oakland site for review on the blog. The site in question is a v...
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Tonight was the first Opening Night I've missed since college, going back 15 years. Instead, I was with family and friends across the pl...
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Merc sports columnist Mark Purdy has always been an unabashed San Jose partisan, and his column in Sunday's edition will start many mor...
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UPDATE: Trib columnist Art Spander fired off an angry column this morning in response to the news. Out of today's Tribune comes the fol...
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Two Oakland-related items for this afternoon. The Trib thinks someone needs to pinch hit for Mayor Dellums if the A's are to stay in to...
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Fremont Councilman Steve Cho is keeping up his call for a ballot measure to decide the ballpark village. The other council members and the ...
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Over the weekend, DC area architect Roger K. Lewis wrote a column for the Washington Post that serves as a primer for the ballpark construc...
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Some of you had been asking what happened to transit comparison table I put together a year ago. Well, I inadvertantly deleted it during th...
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Which team is LA-bound?
Previous Polls
5/25 - The SJ Giants should...
Stay in SJ - 16 (17%)
Be reborn as the SJ A's - 7 (7%)
Move to North/East Bay - 27 (29%)
Move to Salinas/South Co. - 25 (27%)
Move elsewhere in CA - 16 (17%)
4/5 - At a game I usually eat...
Stadium fare - 81 (64%)
Food I got from another establishment - 11 (8%)
Tailgate grub - 8 (6%)
Something I brought from home - 19 (15%)
Nothing - 6 (4%)
3/15 - Projected '09 Attendance
17,500 per game - 37 (31%)
20,000 - 33 (28%)
22,500 - 25 (21%)
25,000 - 10 (8%)
27,500 - 3 (2%)
30,000 - 9 (7%)
3/8 - Ideal Ballpark Capacity?
30,000 - 13 (5%)
35,000 - 83 (33%)
40,000 - 114 (46%)
45,000 - 28 (11%)
50,000 - 8 (3%)
3/1 - The A's will end up in:
Oakland - 90 (32%)
San Jose - 153 (55%)
Sacramento - 17 (6%)
Elsewhere - 15 (5%)
Stay in SJ - 16 (17%)
Be reborn as the SJ A's - 7 (7%)
Move to North/East Bay - 27 (29%)
Move to Salinas/South Co. - 25 (27%)
Move elsewhere in CA - 16 (17%)
4/5 - At a game I usually eat...
Stadium fare - 81 (64%)
Food I got from another establishment - 11 (8%)
Tailgate grub - 8 (6%)
Something I brought from home - 19 (15%)
Nothing - 6 (4%)
3/15 - Projected '09 Attendance
17,500 per game - 37 (31%)
20,000 - 33 (28%)
22,500 - 25 (21%)
25,000 - 10 (8%)
27,500 - 3 (2%)
30,000 - 9 (7%)
3/8 - Ideal Ballpark Capacity?
30,000 - 13 (5%)
35,000 - 83 (33%)
40,000 - 114 (46%)
45,000 - 28 (11%)
50,000 - 8 (3%)
3/1 - The A's will end up in:
Oakland - 90 (32%)
San Jose - 153 (55%)
Sacramento - 17 (6%)
Elsewhere - 15 (5%)
Selected posts
- Tuesday with Lew
- The post-Fremont strategy
- A's move to KTRB
- CSN California it is!
- Updated Ballpark Transit Comparison
- Lucky? San Jose
- Don't want San Jose info? ...
- KTVU: Selig letter surfaces
- A Territorial Rights Primer
- Finally, Oakland responds
- Fall 2008 Progress Report
- Reconstructing the Coliseum
- Oakland: Let's try Plan B
- Deconstruction the Coliseum Part I
- Deconstructing the Coliseum Part II
- Hope for Sacramento?
- What about Sacramento?
- More Market-Related Food for Thought
- Expect to go over budget
Site Overviews
Links
- FAQ (2/28/09)
- Fremont FAQ (old)
- SJ Redevelopment Ballpark Page
- Athletics Nation
- in Oakland blog (SFGate)
- Oakland A's Fan Coalition
- Let's Go Oakland
- Baseball San Jose blog
- Free Kraut!
- scout.com A's Msg Board
- Oakball message boards
- Ballpark Digest
- Ballparks.com
- CapeFish's Marlins Ballpark Newspage
- 511 - Bay Area Transit links
- Field of Schemes
- The Biz of Baseball
- The late Doug Pappas's BoB site
- Team Marketing Report
Attendance Watch '09
- Last game: 16,591
- 2009 avg. (81 gms): 17,392
- 2008 avg. (78 gms): 19,938
- Difference: -2,530 per game
- Median (2008): 19,287
- 2009 total (81 gms): 1,408,783
- 2008 total (78 gms): 1,555,192
- 2008 total (w. Japan): 1,663,262
- 2009 Std Dev: 6,718
- 2008 Std Dev: 7,094
Recent comments
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- ► 2008 (111)
- ► 2007 (123)
- ► 2006 (175)
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12 comments:
I have a few comments right off the top of my head. For one, there's no link back to the index.html -- the graphic up top that you would think would take you there, doesn't. And, except for the two most recent posts, the dates on the blog posts seem to be missing (though the graphic where the date is supposed to go is still there, sitting empty.) I'm also not sure if those icons below the title (the folder and the speech bubble) are supposed to do or link anything, but right now they're just inert. Also, speaking of inert icons, the RSS icons next to the links to the RSS feeds don't link; they should link to their respective feed, so a user can click on the icon or the text to get to the feed. And the poll box on the right hand side seems to be weird with regards to sometimes having scroll bars: in Firefox the scroll bars flash as its loading, then disappear, but in Opera the bars will sometimes hang around for a bit (especially inside a single-post view, rather than the index view.)
On less objective notes, I think your "about the author" blurb should say more about you. Maybe not necessarily your whole resumé or whatever, but just something like "Marine Layer is a blogger and Oakland A's fan who has been covering the search for a new stadium for the Oakland Athletics exclusively and in-depth since March 2003." Right now your username and blog inception date don't tell us much. Also, I personally feel the theme is a bit too cartoony, 'fun' and Web 2.0-ish for such a relatively serious site, but that's only personal opinion. Perhaps changing the color scheme to green and gold, instead of white and powder blue, would make things look better? And maybe a different font for the title (though keep the same outline/bevel/gradient effect) -- something with a slight serif, and maybe use capitol letters?
Thanks for the comments, Matt. I've created a new "Home" link in the menubar. The empty dates problem is an artifact of how Blogger treats multiple posts on a single date - only the newest post has the date attached. The RSS icons appear to be "bullets" associated with the div class tag. Can't seem to find a way around it so they'll stay put for now.
Haven't seen the scrolling problem you described. I've tested in IE 6-8, Firefox 2/3 for both Mac/Win, Safari 3, Opera 9 for both Mac/Win. I'll be on the lookout for it.
The sparse description is by design. I've done fine so far without divulging much info. As for the cartoonish look - well these days I'm trying not to take myself quite so seriously. I may change to A's colors once I get it right.
Not a big fan of serif fonts. That's why the previous version was almost entirely in rather casual looking Trebuchet MS.
I definitely see the need to keep your privacy, but I still think that your "About the author" section needs to give new readers a reason to trust and read you. There are a million and one blogs out there today, especially on the subject of baseball, so it helps to differentiate yourself -- a well-trusted expert on the subject -- from Joe Schmoe blogger. You're not some bleacher creature who's just throwing around the party line and spouting clichés, you're doing what amount to investigative journalism and in-depth, objective reporting.
It especially would help given your particular subject matter, where the blog space seems polluted with partisan blogs like Baseball San Jose, which nobody wanting an unbiased news source should read.
I think a little blurb explaining your credentials (without necessarily revealing personal information) would go a long ways toward getting new readers to trust you and, therefore, become regular readers.
I respect your opinion Matt, but I'll let the content speak for itself and readers can decide on their own.
Can you turn off full text justification? That's hard to read on a computer screen.
Done.
ML---change is always tough but like the new layout---I also like the idea of including the polling---hopefully it is able to restrict 1 vote to each blogger rather than allow multiple votes from the same individual--
I like it R.M.. 4 years!? Time sure does fly when your having fun. Hope and optimism alive and well. (Georob would be proud)
ML,
Is there some way of indicating the date and time of the last post to a thread, maybe next to the comment count. A lot of times there are comments being posted to 2 or even 3 threads at a time. A date and time indicator would help in no having to remember how many comments were posted the last time I checked for a new post. Hope this makes sense.
That kind of date display could be a little confusing, FC. In lieu of that I've added a Recent Comments widget on the right side. Does that help?
The design is fine by me. I really don't care what it looks like as long as the content continues to be of such high quality. I remember the day you posted on AN saying you should start a blog about the stadium search. And now four years have gone by. Amazing.
That works ML. Many thanks.
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