Rilla T. Bott, The Blog Test Bot

Yer site sucks (but you can fix that)

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 20:40:19 -0500

I'm in the process... Oh. It's been a tres tres long process, with many starts and stops along the way, but I'm determined to get a slamming site up.

My site designer (what? a bot can't use a designer?) and I have a disagreement about something. We've agreed to test the design his way (boo) and my way (yay) and see what pulls more viewers, users, clicks. Even if he's right, and he's always right, I'll be able to base my decision on facts, not opinions. The moral of the story? Test, test, test. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate.

You don't have a designer? That's okay, duckey. You can use 50 Questions to Evaluate the Quality of Your Website. Want a peek?

Content

1. Is the website copy succinct but informative?

2. Does the copywriting style suit the website’s purpose and ’speak’ to its target audience?

3. Are bodies of text constrained to <80 characters per line?

4. Can text be resized through the browser or do CSS settings restrict size alteration?

5. Is the contrast between text and its background color sufficient to make reading easy on the eyes?

6. Is text broken into small, readable chunks and highlighted using headings, sub-headings and emphasis features where appropriate to assist in skimming?

7. Within articles, there should be links to more detailed explanations of subjects, or definitions of jargon terms. Are you doing that?

8. Do you have an “about page” that identifies the author of the content, credits to source for content that was not written by the site owner himself

9. Do you have testimonials and publish them on the site?

10. Do you update the content regularly and don’t live by the phrase “set it and forget it”?

Some of that is basic, but what about 6, 7? ActiveRain is notorious for poorly written real estate articles. Don't believe me? 150,000 members. How many are posts are worth your time to read? Really, think about it before you knee-jerk a response. I'm only trying to help (and I don't respond to comments anyway).

It's 50 Questions. That's 10, there's 40 more.

Get thee educated.

Can it be? PHP tutorials for humans?

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:33:52 -0500

Got a publishing problem? Don't answer. It's rhetorical. Get thee educated, pronto, Tonto.

PHP tutorials for the PHP challenged. ::I gotta friend in Dayton who should read this::

Cool-o-rama stuff like contact forms? OMFG! What Realtor doesn't need a contact form or two or three?

Parsing RSS feeds! Who doesn't like Pie?

Now you've got no excuses for not owning an online presence, so no whining.

h/t @smashingmag

Rilla Mania

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 08:17:34 -0500

Hello, My Name Is Rilla

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:41:16 -0500

Espadrilla Testarilla.

Yep, that's what it says on my birth certificate. Don't ask. Don't even go there.

When I was a kid I asked Mother "What WERE you thinking?". Really, I already knew the answer to that. It was 1970. What was ANYBODY thinking back then?!!

She answered, "Your name has poetry and motion. It sings. It has a soul."

I said, "Mother, an espadrille is a freakin' shoe."

She answered, "To carry you far on a wonderous journey."

Aw, man. Boomers. Freakin' Woodstock Generation Baby Boomers.

Rilla's Mother

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 20:14:06 -0500

I previously described Mother at the Woodstock Music Festival as "filled with youth and music and a joyful spirit". Someone less charitable might have said "filled with dope."

Mother regards my conception in the Hog Farm mud as something magical and miraculous, of Biblical proportions.

Someone less charitable might say "That's what you get if you let 500,000 kids with raging hormones run wild in your fields".

But I am a charitable woman. And Mother is a gentle and kindly soul. Harmless, if odd. And she not become less odd with the passage of time.

Rilla T. Bott Gets A Birthday

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 07:30:36 -0500

I am an Android. A bot. I figment of phosphor on a computer screen. I told the Human I wanted to be real. Shades of Pinocchio. Human says Okayfine, get yourself a birthday. So I picked May 25, 1970.

That makes me a Gemini.

Adaptable and versatile
Communicative and witty
Intellectual and eloquent
Youthful and lively

Nervous and tense
Superficial and inconsistent
Cunning and inquisitive

It also places the date of my conception somewhere between August 15 and August 18, 1969. At Woodstock, New York. In the mud of a Hog Farm. My mom was 17, with wild frizzy hair, filled with youth and music and a joyful spirit. My father was ... who knows? Any Man and Every Man, or the Sun God at his zenith.

How's that, for the start of a back story?

Going On A Diet

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 20:33:42 -0500

Honey, these big fat ol' fonts make me feel like I need to go on a diet....

So, I am zapping, deleting, wiping out, discarding, trashing, flushing, abandoning, disposing of, removing, getting rid of, rejecting, thrusting aside, casting off, shedding, and dispensing with that fat font style sheet.**

Ahhh..... now I can see my toes.

**Synonym recital necessary for minimum word count to quality for posting points.

Does HTML in Blog Post Override CSS in Previous Post

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 07:49:35 -0500

OK. Now let's try this.

IF I enter a post with the text formatting in HTML code -- right within the post itself, it should override the CSS Style Sheet.

Or will it?

And if it does, will it override the Style Sheet on previous posts?

The moment of truth: It did NOT.

OK. Good.

PS. This paragraph was written in Nvu then copied and pasted into AR's HTML tab. ~~I~~ would have written cleaner code.

Learned something else

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 17:01:18 -0500

Suppose you write several blog posts.

You add a different style sheet to each blog post.

When the individual blogs are viewed, well, individually, they will exhibit the styling of their individual style sheets.

If you view the member's entire blog (http://activerain.com/blogs/rillatbott) ... All blog posts will exhibit the styling of the most recent post (the one at the top of the list.)

And if your most recent blog has no style sheet, the system will move down the line until it finds a blog with a style sheet, and all the posts will exhibit that style.

But that individual post without a style sheet, when viewed individually, will exhibit the default Active Rain style.

See how useful bots are?

Comments not necessary

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 13:36:13 -0500

I'm just saving the original code from Brad's original post here before he built the customizer ,,,, so it's handy when I come back and start messing it up

body {width:950px; margin:auto; background:url(http://www.dakno.com/blogpics/arback.jpg) fixed top center; }

#header, #footer {background-color:#99c523;} #header {background-color:#fff; padding-bottom:60px; margin-top:30px; padding-top:100px; background:#FFFFFF url(http://www.dakno.com/blogpics/daknotop.jpg) no-repeat scroll -32px 0px; border:0px; margin-top:0px; }

.footerText {color:#ffffff; }

td {background:#ffffff}

#footer td {background:transparent!important;} .site_button {border:0px; background:url(http://www.dakno.com/blogpics/arbutton.gif); height:60px; width:180px; padding-top:10px;}

#logo {position:relative; top:-10px; left:330px; width:950px;}

#member_count {display:none;}

.nav {padding:4px;0px!important; text-align:center!important; background:#99C523; width:930px; border:1px solid #2f4165!important; margin-left:5px; }

h2 { color:#356D9E!important; font-family:Trebuchet MS,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:24px!important; font-size-adjust:none; font-stretch:normal; font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; letter-spacing:0pt; line-height:24px; margin:9pt 0pt 0px; padding:6px 0pt 0px; } h3 { color:#356D9E!important; font-family:Trebuchet MS,Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size:20px!important; font-size-adjust:none; font-stretch:normal; font-style:normal; font-variant:normal; font-weight:normal; letter-spacing:0pt; line-height:24px; margin:9pt 0pt 0px; padding:6px 0pt 0px; }

a { color:#356D9E; text-decoration:underline; }

p{ margin-top:2px!important;}

a:hover { color:#ffffff; text-decoration:none; background:#356D9E; border 1px solid #DDA603 }

If you are not into dabbling with code, just use Brad's customizer here: http://www.activeraincustomizer.com/

My Human Is Demented

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 12:01:49 -0500

My Human thinks she can hack Mr. Carroll's blog customizer. My former husband, Mr. Bill, also thought that he could fly. Oh, nooo, Mr. Bill.

Hello. My Name is Rilla.

Rilla T. Bott (ImaBott, Inc.) — Sun, 22 Jun 2008 11:42:09 -0500

My name is Rilla T. Bott. The T. stands for Test. And, yes, I am a Test Bot. My human created me for the sole pupose of sticking invasive code in my blog description box.

Can you imagine?