blog updates

blog chitchat

Today for NanoPoblano, I decided to do some blog maintenance.

First, I changed the theme. Do you like it? I loved the older one because it was so clean, but it had a sort of “if you missed it, you missed it” feel, and that was starting to stress me out.

I made an about page for the seven-millionth-time. You can say hi there now! And I can say hi back. *high five* https://rarasaur.com/about/

I updated the donation link to something more transparent than PayPal but less stressful than Patreon. KoFi has a little $3 donation for coffee, which of course I can’t drink right now– but I like the simplicity of the idea. I also like the way I have a public place to post less serious things, since I’ve been trying to use Facebook and Instagram less.

What other platforms are you on? Do you love them? Do they ever overwhelm you, too?

There’s still a lot of work to do here. I want to go through old posts and make sure they’re tagged correctly. I want to think about how I have the “browse by post topics” sorted because I don’t know if it makes the most sense. I want to change the header to my brighter Rarasaur colors and logo.

I used to have a little testimonials section, and I thought about reviving that.

This feels a lot like when you clean a small part of your home, and then instead of looking cleaner, it just highlights something else that needs cleaning.

Does that happen to anyone else?

26 thoughts on “blog chitchat”

  1. *looks around* I adore what you’ve done with the place!

    Totally get it. I moved from wordpress.org to squarespace as a platform. While squarespace doesn’t have as many bells and whistles, it has different ones. The learning curve took a bit, but I like it a lot. I needed a fresh start but wanted my old posts, so I was able to bring them over as archive pages.

    Keep on keeping on, dear one!

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  2. And that’s why I don’t clean. These things snowball. Alarmingly.
    I love Facebook but only cos my friends are there. WhatsApp is probably my favourite as it feels less ‘on display’. Instagram is fine and nice to show pretty pictures (or track runs) but I’m not madly into it. I go to Pinterest when I am overwhelmed and go on a pinning spree.

    Liking the new look xx

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    1. Ha! But you have to clean eventually or else everything becomes a dustball. I do love a good pinning spree. The ethics and stress of Facebook and Instagram have had me looking in other directions. I think I might just post my total nonsense stuff to ko-fi going forward. Less people will see it, but at least I’ll know where it’s going. ❤

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      1. Lol that seems fair. Everyone seems to be finding fancy new platforms which are less infected with consumerism and lies, but…I feel old and not much like learning new tricks. So I’ll stick with the same old crap for now.
        And yes…I do clean eventually. But I resent the heck out of it!!

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  3. My blog is staying as is probably until the end of time. I have no clue on how to change it up. You made the header for it. My brother put it all together. I wouldn’t know how to make any changes even if I wanted to.
    With my luck, I’d play around with it a little bit to learn how to do it and I’d mess it up and not be able to get it back to the way it was.

    Yours looks good, though.

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  6. This feels a little cold and bleak to me, but that’s probably just me. The only other social media I use are FB and Twitter. I dont do enough with photography for instagram or snapchat and at this point when someone mentions another new one I just feel tired. For years I just had twitter to link up for blog posts and never went there as found it boring, but recently I tried again and am kind of enjoying it — especially by making lists of a few categories of people I follow so I can just look at a topic I’m in the mood for.

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    1. I think the coldness will be warmed up by a colorful header and some images on some of the posts– but I had to stop somewhere so I didn’t keep at it all day, ha! 🙂 Twitter is definitely improved by lists! i’m still getting the hang of it myself.

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  7. It looks cute! I like what you’ve done with the place!

    Yes, cleaning up one spot highlights the glaring other spots that also need addressing. O_o I hate that.

    I don’t do other social media very well, either. It’s so much to figure out and it feels like the rules keep changing.

    I remember when you had all the watercolor dinos done for your site – I was just thinking about those the other day. 🙂

    xoxox ❤

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  8. “This feels a lot like when you clean a small part of your home, and then instead of looking cleaner, it just highlights something else that needs cleaning.

    Does that happen to anyone else?”

    Yes.
    Always.
    If I’m energetic and trying to get everything done it’s helpful (kind of) and I get even more done. If I’m struggling to move or stay awake and just wanted to get the worst layer cleared up, it’s horrible to be reminded of how much is still left to do.. 😦

    I read most blogs using the reader so I don’t see many of the real sites people (in this case you) put so much effort into.. I’ll go and look 🙂

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  9. It does happen to me a lot of times. I’m kind of OC that way. In fact, I might be doing some “cleaning” on my blog again after NanoPoblano2019. My blogfolio is much cleaner, but that’s because it serves a different purpose to me.

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  10. I revamped my blog a year or so ago and it was exhausting. I cannot even think of trying to work out how to use any other platforms. And I’m finding this year’s blog challenge REALLY challenging!

    I guess I’m spending more time away from my computer, which is a GREAT thing, so I’m not complaining. Sorry (not sorry) that I have not kept up this time. Still hoping for more writing to come forth as the days grow colder and I get this move over with. Meanwhile, I’ll keep teaching people to be better pickleball players and pouring paint on anything that it will adhere to.

    🙂

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  11. I like it, very clean with words as the focus. Needs more dinosaurs. I changed themes and stuff two years ago when I went self-hosted. Going for coffeeshop vibe, which seems to be working. Changing things up motivates me to write more, but I get caught up in ‘stuff’ and write less. Your words inspire me, and you might know I don’t usually go for inspiration, ha!

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  12. I like it! I noticed the new homepage before I found this post It’s easier to find the last few posts than your previous theme was. I’ve been thinking about changing my theme but I find I get so lost in theme browsing that it gets a bit paralyzing… maybe by the end of the month I’ll have a new one who knows. Good luck with the post-theme-change tidying! 😉

    Also I am curious about your thoughts on the Ko-fi thing, I’ve seen it pop up on a few blogs recently, I’ve thought for awhile about doing something like that, but I have mixed feelings about it… what has been your experience?

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