Opinions on Our New Thumbnail Post Summaries

[Al]

I've fancied doing this for a while and today decided to roll my sleeves up and wear my PHP head for a bit. I'm creating a plugin for the main site that will automatically create a gallery like summary posts every so often. You can see what I mean at http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20060912/gadget-gallery-up-to-09-12-2006/

Opinions please.

[kadhal]

I think its a cool idea but I guess this will make the previous entries button kind of redundant.

[Al]

The thumbnails will be done every 20 posts or something like that, maybe less as 20 seemed a bit too many IMO. The previous entries goes back over a 1000 posts so that won't be going away.

[keith]

Oh, now I see how your plug-in works.....

well, so it's more or less quite static.
let's say if the update were more dynamics, i.e. something like any latest post will be updated on the thumbnail, that'll certainly be more attractive.

One of the way, is of course, by means of AJAX.
Another quick, yet dirty fix, is by use of javascript, not so much of AJAX, but with a fixed 20 assigned thumbnails and text fields, which you'll update and shift them down the order once a new post is made.

[Al]

The idea is for it to generate a static posts with thumbnails and links dynamicly.

I could creat a dynamic sort of post (or sidebar) thing that displayed the last x posts with thumbnails but that wasn't what I was after with this (but I will think on that).

[Mike]

I like it, it's a nice way to visualize all the gadgets and see if there's any I'd like to read further on without actually going to the post.

The picture all look pretty decent, too. Nice job on that thumbnail generator. :)

[Al]

The new version is now complete, demo post over at
http://www.coolest-gadgets.com/20060927/gadget-gallery-up-to-09-27-2006/
If anybody else using WordPress and you want to generate thumbnail posts on your blog can download the plug-in here (http://www.softsift.com/200609/wordpress-gallery-plugin.html).

[clvezlys]

I personaly find it quite irritating when i get the same stuff that i already saw, but also, it's a great way to find stuff i overlooked. Comes in handy.

And i really like Keith's idea. I imagine it as CG version of Spy (a plugin on DP forums)

[palefrost]

I like it! I check out the front page often and i like the thumbnail pictures. I have to say my eye was drawn to the boxes though on your second one and not the item or article lol. So i like the one that is up and not the one you are working on.

[Mike]

I like the new version a lot better, mainly becuase of the style changes, it's a lot easier to read the titles and just looks all-around better. :)

[keith]

I agree. The new style of the plugin definintely looks better.

[Mike]

Maybe you could make a static page, sort of like the contact-us pages, that always has the last 20 post thumbnails.

[keith]

Yes, I have been suggesting to Al about this. I am also thinking a static page would be great, otherwise the page would just be fallen back and hidden by the rest of the recent posts.

Take some time, while I let Al sort out his busy stuffs :)
If he agrees, I could always create a static page, but i have to say that Al has done a great job in developing this plugin.

[Al]

I'm not keen on the static page approach for a couple of reasons:

It would mean links are only temporary (i.e. when new products came along old ones would fall off
The post summary would not appear in the RSS feed, which is one of the primary reasons I did it (I thought it would look cool is the real reason).

As an alternative what I could do is add a category purely for gallery posts, the URL of which would be static like a normal page. The only thing this wouldn't do is show the very latest gadget posts, so I'll have a think on how to do that.

[keith]

Al, I think you misunderstood my idea.

What I mean by creating a static page is only meant for the plugin home page, where the version history, plugin download link, and plugin instruction are written.

p/s: Please don't change the current setup, because the plugin functionality looks great and excellent!! What I am saying is, by having a static "homepage" for the plugin, does not mean changing the functionality of the plugin.

[Al]

I think I was answering Mike's idea :), having a separate category for all gallery posts works better I think, they'll still appear on the main site but you'll also be able to just view thumbnail posts easily.

With regards to the plugin home page I don't really mind, you can edit a post as easily as you do a page. With later versions I was just going to edit the original post rather than making a new one, so it will still be static.

[keith]

Oh, I see... apologies for hijacking :)
Now, that makes sense.

don't quite understand about the separate category thing you just mentioned, but i believe you have always have something good out from there. Action Supported!!! :)