I am in the process of doing a little housekeeping on this blog and the supporting pages. I appreciate that so many of you have written to tell me how well-organized the site is, but there must be something that is hard to find or confusing. As a usability test I’d appreciate any feedback on things that could be done to make the site even better. This is your chance to complain about my navigation or even to yell at me to write the “country profiles” or finish the last few African maps in the route section. Although I’m mostly interested in the design, usability and navigation of the site I’ll take whatever you got.
The upcoming release of WordPress 2.5 (the software that powers my blog) is the main reason I’ve decided to address the design. I’m running an older version that has become a little broken over time, which is why my subscriptions don’t work as they should. If you would like to unsubscribe from Me-go updates please send me an email or comment and I will manually take you off. The current system isn’t working properly and I don’t want to be the cause of unwanted email. With my recent increase in posting I can understand that those of you that were happy with an email every three weeks aren’t so happy with an email every three days. My policy is that my immediate family (mom, brother and sister) are not allowed to unsubscribe. Everyone else, even family, will incur no bad feelings for unsubscribing. My immediate family doesn’t actually incur bad feelings either, they just get resubscribed!
Update: If you would like to keep your subscription but change your email address contact me as well. It’s an easy change on my end.
8 responses to “Site Housekeeping”
Hi Megan-
I’ve got about 10 days to go! And, oh, am I a wreck! Could you please remove my email. I’ve finally figured out how to use a Reader (which I’ve added your site) but now I’m doubling up on updates – in my inbox and on Google Reader. Thanks!
I love the Trip Statistics but they’re kinda buried on the side column. Maybe you could add them to the “details” section along with the County Reviews?
Stacy,
Take a deep breath… release. Everything will be fine. You will have a great time. Any worrying you do now won’t help you.
I deleted your subscription and your second comment with your email (so the spammers don’t get you). See you in RSS-land.
Thanks for the comments on the stats. Ill think about if they can be better integrated.
Megan,
Could you unsubscribe me as well (address is the name on this post @yahoo.com); I’m also just running RSS these days, so no need for both.
Done, Kevin. Let me know if you get any more emails now.
We just did an install at work. WordPress 2.5 has a nice clean interface. I haven’t tried to upgrade an older version though. I know there was a big change to the database when they introduced the tagging structure around WP 2.3. Let me know how the upgrade goes.
It sounds like you have a lot of RSS subscribers. You should consider using FeedBurner when you do the upgrade. It does nice feed formatting and gives your users lots of reader options. And it has good Analytics. Use the pro version. It’s free.
I really like the new interface. I’m testing it out on another URL to see what breaks when I upgrade. It takes me a long time to fix things so I don’t want Me-go to stay broken while I test out code. I’ve already spent a day trying to get the flag icons show up.
I’m signing up for feedburner. I don’t read sites on feeds because I like to see the design while I’m reading but I understand that it works for a lot of people.
LOVING your blog, site, pictures, everything. I’m going for my first trip to Japan in a week, and your blog has been a huge inspiration. A couple of questions:
1. Your planning section is empty! I would love to hear more about how you planned your trip!
2. I’m so impressed with everything you have done, I’m poring over your site. Please keep up the amazing work.
3. Can you recommend a good Japan guide? All the ones I read seem to be aimed at the higher-end traveler. I consider myself a punk at heart.
Hi there, welcome!
1. I know there’s a lot of missing sections right now. I also need to write country overviews as well. I started blogging before I left on both of my RTW trip so if you look through the category “pre-trip planning” you’ll find me wondering about routes, airline costs and visas. That should help in the meantime.
2. Thanks, I will do my best not to disappoint you.
3. I’m pretty sure I used a plain old Lonely Planet Japan guide when I went in 2004. If you can go to a bookstore nearby and look through everything they have it will help see what fits you. I usually recommend Lonely Planet or Rough Guide. Rough guide just came out with a new 2008 edition a month ago: See? Let’s Go books usually cater to the 18 year olds but the most recent Let’s Go for Japan is 2004 so I wouldn’t get that. You want a 2007 or 2008 edition.
If you’re only going to one or two cities you might want to just get the city guides like Time Out Tokyo. I think Time Out might be a little more hip. If you want to find some cool punk clubs or ask where that sort of folk hang out in Tokyo, for instance, try searching around on Lonely Planet’s Thorntree to see if anyone’s asked a similar question. There’s loads of information on there.
4. Have fun.