I was not happy with the way my site was working out to present the new collection of True Stories of Open Sharing. I found my categories were forcing me into artificial classification. And the nifty gizmo I had used previously, CoolIris, for the “wall of media”, works, but is annoyingly tedious to update (manually editing of a Media RSS file). I also thought I could embed videos directly from YouTube, but no.
The answer? Of course, a new WordPress site – http://stories.cogdogblog.com/
I was hoping for a theme that was kind of like a video carousel, where I could load stuff in a lightbox overlay off the front page, maybe from a post excerpt. Most themes I found were ones that had nice front ends, but pointed to videos on a post. And heck, I already had one working well for my photo gallery with customizations done to randomize the front page, and everything else I needed. It was a matter of a new Hippe Hosted Shnizzle install, some tweaks to the child theme (based on GraphPaper Press Full screen).
Moving the content over was not too much work, and I could use a much larger video embed than before. I can use the front page for presenting as more of a random serendipitous play, and I could explore by category or assemble some re-ordering. But more so it feels more elegant. To me.
So now I have 22 stories. I want more. I would like to double the number by next week; I am slotted to present this sometime second week of March for ETMOOC. I’ve already done one round of email nags, and if I know your address, expect another.
What I am asking for should take you less than five minutes. Pull up youtube, comb your hair, and use the web cam to record a story. What kind? Just tell em of a time when being open or sharing on the web led to an unexpected positive outcome. It happens all the time!.
Watch the video and send me a story!
Any questions?
This is great, Alan! I wonder, thought, why the page won’t scroll down for me. Is it my browser? I’m using Firefox on a Mac. I can see the tops of the squares for the videos on the bottom, but can’t scroll down to see the rest of them. Would be nice to be able to do so. Fixable?
Hi Christina- nothing wrong with your browser, it does not scroll vertically but horizontally. It will always display 25 random icons- 5 on the top, and 2 rows of 10 on the bottom.
If you want me to add any links or info to your story, just leave a comment on the post. Thanks again, I liked how you made yours.
Okay, thanks for letting me know. It’s just that I couldn’t see the bottom row of 10…only the very top of each still photo on that bottom row. Maybe it’s just because I’m on a laptop and it has a small screen!
I don’t think I need to add any more links or info–it all got put in there through the Mozilla Popcorn program!