[SL Blogger Network: This post is not for consideration. Thank you!]
Well.
This is a bit different, isn’t it?
As promised in this post last week, Virtual Bloke has had a bit of a visual overhaul. And yes, my sartorial darlings, it looks really really fucking BRIGHT. I know, I know. But it also looks clean and crisp, the images stand out more (and can now be much bigger and easier to see, which is rather crucial when I’m creating tutorials!), the text is easier to read, and a change really was needed not only for the fact that the theme I was using is now really bloody old, but also for the fact that I needed some change. And, y’know, this is my blog, so… ;-)
I know that change isn’t always easy to accept—especially if you’ve been reading this blog for the entirety of the last seven years, where the only visual change has been just a single new background image—and this is a pretty big change, so I want to address a few questions (and yes, expected complaints) that you might have.
The new site theme is too white, Skell! It hurts my eyes!
I do understand this, and I’m sorry that the theme may cause difficulties for some of you. Believe me, I’m usually that person who looks for the ‘dark theme’ option on every website that I visit. This particular theme that I’ve selected has two options, one of which was a dark version. And—while that dark version was easier on the eyes initially with its white text on a pure black background—I found that when I looked away from my screen after more than five minutes of reading… I was seeing a halo of the text in my vision. And that’s not a good thing.
The theme does allow for small bands of colour either side of each post, which mitigates the all-whiteness just a teeny bit (seriously, it’s literally just those two vertical bars on either side of the main post area either side of the main area, so it’s not that much of a difference) but during my experiments with the overall aesthetic of the blog that option didn’t sit well with me. Those coloured side bars detracted from the overall clean look that I was going for.
For those of you who do have visual difficulties with all-white websites, I recommend checking out this excellent article on changing websites’ colour themes using Firefox, or trying some of the many add-ons such as Dark Reader or Night Eye Lite that are available for all major browsers, or Dark Night Mode (Chrome only).
Where the hell did your blogroll go?!
Oh dear god, you know what? I hadn’t looked at that thing for about six years! At a rough estimate I would guess that 90% of the blogs featured there are no longer active, so I need to go through it and check them all manually, remove the ones that haven’t posted in the last year or so, and add some new ones. That’s going to be one hell of a task, so I’ve made that page temporarily private to give me some time to do that. It’ll come back eventually.
You might note, though, that there’s a new page in the top navigation bar. The Shopping Guide is brand new to Virtual Bloke, and it’s intended to be a place to find Flickr and Marketplace links (no inworld SLurls, I’m afraid; those move around and change too often, and I’m not checking them manually every few months) to a few great stores for clothing and hair, as well as info on menswear events in SL. It’s still in its infancy at the moment, so expect it to grow in the future. For now it contains a decent starter list of stores: enough to help you build up a great wardrobe.
I miss that background image of you in that stylish suit :(
I know that some people will miss that be-suited background image, but it hasn’t completely gone! You’ll find it as a header on some of the pages that are listed in the top navigation bar ;-)
I know some of you probably have questions (and yeah, complaints – lol!) so—as always—comments will be open for 30 days after the date of posting, after which the blog will automatically close them, to deter spammers who like to hit ‘older’ posts.
I doubt very much that I’ll revert back to the old theme, as it was very old and not mobile-friendly, but I’m open to constructive feedback, questions, and suggestions.