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Tweaking
The site has a lot of posts!
I’ve spent some time tweaking and organizing the site recently; sharp-eyed visitors probably noticed a few changes to the menu. Followers on Twitter have seen the “flashback” tweets popping up over the last couple of weeks as well. I found a handy plugin that automatically revives existing posts on a set schedule—a great way to get that older content seen and hopefully enjoyed by newer eyes.
Getting the reviver plugin going made me wonder just how often certain categories of posts would be seen, which led me to make the pie chart above. Turns out, almost 70% of all posts on akaIronDragon.ca fall under Solitary Pilot, which is content related to my time playing EVE Online. There are just under 200 posts in that category. Wow! This means all the other posts have less than a one in three chance of being pulled up (and most of the HOTE category is protected so won’t be revived at all). Hmm! Guess I better get cracking on putting up more stuff!
Speaking of Heart of the Empire, some more tweaks have been made there too!
Evolving an Idea
The other day my muse woke up a little and hit me with a strong desire to update the Heart of the Empire Music article, so I did. The list has gone from twenty to thirty songs and I created a proper playlist on YouTube too! The ten new additions had been rattling around in my head for a while and it was high time I got them added to my personal playlist as well as here on the website. The choice of these new songs was inspired by (or because they inspired) changes to the story that I’ve been contemplating in the last year. Enjoy!
The plot changes are in-progress (still working on not being a slow writer)…but updating the soundtrack wasn’t all my muse had in store for me!
Quality of Life Improvements
One of the things I love about WordPress is its flexibility. Since moving akaIronDragon.ca off Joomla in October of 2015 I’ve continued to tweak the site here and there as the need arose, and in the meantime have been able to add new content on a fairly regular (for me) basis. The other thing I really love about WordPress over Joomla is its built-in RSS functionality: whereas Joomla very annoyingly did not have a combined RSS feed for all content regardless of its category, WordPress provides that by default (along with the ability to follow only specific categories or tags if a person so desires), making it very easy for readers to subscribe to the site. WordPress also makes it easy to update existing content and “republish” it simply by updating the published date of the article. I’ve done this a few times since posting the various Heart of the Empire compendium articles, as the creative process is ongoing and several updates have been made to them—and what better way to let readers know there is new content than to simply republish it?
One of the things I hate about RSS reader apps is, depending on the app in question, the updated article isn’t always fetched. Said article appears at the top of the RSS feed on the site based on its updated publish date, but some reader apps remain blind to that change…meaning certain people who follow my content will never know it’s been changed no matter how many times they check their app, unless they come to the site itself and see those updated articles on the landing page. This was aggravating to discover: I tried a few so-called “popular” RSS apps and a few of the highest-recommended ones didn’t show my republished content even after clearing the app cache or deleting and re-adding the feed. Other apps had no issues but weren’t as widely used, probably because they are poorly designed or don’t have as many features. Rawr.
One of the few things I miss about Joomla is its built-in ability to display the date an article was last modified. WordPress has the function but doesn’t seem to integrate it by default and none of the WordPress themes I’ve ever considered bothered to use it either. Bummer. Originally I didn’t care so much because I could just republish…until I discovered that some RSS apps are stupid about that. Full circle arg. What to do?
On the Go
As I start writing this entry I’m sitting on my balcony, rocking gently on my deck swing. It’s mid-morning on a Sunday and it will be a beautiful spring day, even though for the moment I have a blanket wrapped around me because the sun hasn’t quite come around the building far enough to warm up my deck. My neighborhood is quiet; other than a distant lawn mower and few cars going by there’s nothing to listen to except for chickadees, swallows, red wing blackbirds, and some other songbirds I don’t know the names of. It’s a clear day and I can see the Rockies stretching away to the south all the way to the Chain Lakes and then some. They still have quite a lot of snow on them. There’s a May tree growing off to the side just below my balcony that in a few years will be almost tall enough to touch. I like May trees; like lilacs and crab apples, the gentle fragrance of the flowers is one of the best parts of spring in Calgary.
This year I’ve taken to sitting on my balcony quite a lot on weekends when the weather is good (and even when it’s tolerably miserable). Life has been busy…maybe a little too busy…and these moments offer some peace and quiet that I feel I desperately need.
Quietly EVE-ing
Life has been busy. Work has been kicking my ass since the start of 2017 which doesn’t leave much time for gaming. Even so, I’ve still managed to quietly continue my existence in New Eden, though my activity has shifted around some.
About Me
Hi! I’m Cheyenne (aka Iron Dragon). Welcome to my website! I love nature and am a proud Canadian, born and raised in Calgary. Cyan is my favorite color. Learning to live with anxiety and depression is a big part of my life right now. I enjoy video games, writing, crochet, and photography. Drawing? Web design? Editing? Camping? Fishing? Reading? Aquariums? Yes, those too. I probably have too many hobbies. Completely yarn obsessed!
Creative Community
Get sneak peeks at new content and in-progress colorways by joining the Iron Dragon community on Discord. I hang out there every day! It's also a great place to share your WIPs, finished items, and other creative projects like art, writing, photography, and more!
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