Saturday, January 09, 2021

Some Plans For Series Posts

 It was suggested to me by a reader of this blog on Wednesday this past week that I might want to think about providing an easier way for readers to go back into a series, such as the current "Trans Iowa Stories", and look up older posts. This particular reader had not been able to keep up to date and was digging backward through the blog to find the posts he had missed. 

I also had been considering ways that I could add the blog series "The Touring Series" to the header as a page, and perhaps work it up into book form at some point. Well, this particular reader sparked a couple of ideas and I wanted to share how I'm implementing the plan to make getting back into these series easier. 

First of all, the Trans Iowa stuff all has the tag "TRANS IOWA STORIES" at the end of each post. I did not know that you could hyperlink that and it would pull up the series in backward chronological order. Note- You still have to scroll back to get to where you want to be, but at least you have just "Trans Iowa Stories" posts to dig through! 

The other thought was to put up a page here where I could list each title and date and have that hyperlinked to take you directly to that post. No need to scroll. I think that's the reader's preference here, but that idea is a lot more work too. 

So, I have taken the opportunity to put the tag link in the header on the far right of the page. It is listed under the heading "My Events and Websites" and is simply titled "Trans Iowa Stories". Hit that and you will see every "Trans Iowa Stories" post listed from the latest published and then chronologically backward to the start. You'll have to scroll a lot, as there are well over 70 entries in that series now. Each new post that gets published will automatically appear on that list due to the tag. NOTE- Some posts that are not actually part of the series, but have news about the series in it and are tagged, "Trans Iowa Stories", will also show up there, so it isn't a perfect system.

So, for those that can't deal with that, I also built the page where all 70 plus links will live to take you back to wherever you want to go in the series. These are dated and titled. They are also listed in chronological order from first to last. This should allow for a quick and easy reference, or allow you to go back and read through sections you missed or want to re-read for the fun of it. The link is just under the header as "Trans Iowa Stories". I'll add new ones as I go. New ones may not go up immediately, but I'll try to keep that list up to date.

I'm going to get this done for the touring posts as well, but that will come later.  As a side note: I also put up a page about drop bars which has a couple of old articles by drop bar MTB aficionado, Matt Chester. Okay, if that all makes sense, then great, but if you have further thoughts concerning the plans, let me know in the comments! 

UPDATED: I also got "The Touring Series" up. It's listed under the header as well! ENJOY! 

As always- Thank You for Reading Guitar Ted Productions!

5 comments:

Phillip Cowan said...

I also saved that Matt Chester bar wrap article a few years back. While the info is good the real reason was the profile picture of his Ti bike at the end. Pure bike porn. That bike just has "The Stance". It's kind of the standard I judge other dirt road singlespeeds by. Everything you need, nothing you don't and beautiful to boot.If anyone knows Chester personally please tell him his picture isn't up at the Post Office any more and would he please come back and build a few more frames.

Guitar Ted said...

@Phillip Cowan - Yes, that is a perfect looking single speed. Matt really has talent in that area, but for whatever reasons, he was prone to self-detonation. He certainly left a trail of frustration in his wake.

Matt is also quite a knowledgeable fellow in terms of drop bar/fixed/single speed riding. His blog, in its heyday, was a great read. Maybe you read his articles?

I wished, for purely selfish reasons, that his business and artistry would have flourished, but the main thing I hope for him is that he is happy and healthy, wherever he is these days.

S.Fuller said...

That tagging and link feature works well. I use that for all of my TD posts when people ask me for my race experience or gear list. Good move.

Nooge said...

A tagging of your various “how to” posts would be great: cleaning the bike, tubeless, fat bike info, etc. I know these exist, but finding them isn’t always easy. And I am probably unaware of some old ones

Guitar Ted said...

@Nooge - That would be tougher, but I will look into it.