I AM NOW AN ADULT AND CAN DO THINGS ON MY OWN.
One of the benefits of switching to doing this all full-time is that I finally have free-time. I haven’t had a significant amount of free time IN SERIOUSLY LIKE A YEAR. So I have been putting off smaller cosmetic and organizational things this whole time, and they started to get REALLY BAD. Today was my first day without a single review to write (everything for next week is already done), so I wanted to devote time to fixing some things around here. Here’s what’s changed!
1) Smaller menu bar
It was starting to get crowded. Now, all my past shows I’ve reviewed are under the “Past Shows” tab. Any current shows I am reviewing will live outside that menu option. (Which means when Sherlock and Doctor Who come back, I’ll stick it outside of “Past Shows.”)
2) New Suggestions page
So, who wanted to drown in the disaster that was the old Suggestions page? No one ever, that’s who! So I copied over the Confirmed/Rejected lists to a new page, deleted the old one, and now we have a spiffy new process for suggesting shows to me.
From now on, I will go through the comments for suggestions, adding them to one of the two lists, and then I will delete the comments for suggestions. This way, y’all will never have to deal with that massive page weight that was the comments section. Make sure to bug me if the list is starting to get super long.
3) A Frequently Asked Questions page!
Ever wonder when I’m going to watch certain shows? Want to know how to contact me? Do you have other burning questions regarding Mark Watches? Read the FAQ first. You can also suggest I answer new questions pertaining to the site. Which brings me to the next part….
4) Forums!
So the old forums were on a different platform and it’s actually how Mark Watches got hacked last year. So, I went with the SimplePress forums. If you have a WordPress account, you can just log in and start posting in the new Mark Does Stuff forums! If you’re using anything other than WordPress, like Twitter or IntenseDebate, the cool thing is that if you sign up for an account on the forums, it will not ask you to log in twice. You can comment under your IntenseDebate profile in the comments, and then your forum name there. IT IS GORGEOUS. This is also where I will host the Ask Mark forum for all questions that don’t fit in the FAQ.
5) Schedule!
By request, I’ve created a Master Schedule for both my sites. Here, you will see what chapters I’ll be reviewing for Mark Reads, what episodes I am tackling for Mark Watches, when we will have liveblogs, and all of my tour dates. I will also announce and schedule new series on the calendar as well so y’all can take appropriate measures to purchase or acquire any books or shows in advance. (I’ll be filling in the calendar today, so I know it’s empty.) This is going to be IMMENSELY IMPORTANT when we get to reviewing Buffy and Angel at the same time, since there are crossover episodes that are to be watched in a specific order. So you’ll know which episodes I am going to watch once I fill it out. Neat!
Okay, I’m pretty stoked to get this done. Are there any other requests for things you’d like to see or features you would like to have? Please let me know!
Wheeeeeeeeeeeeee!!
Shiny 😀
May I suggest adding a link to/mention of LeetKey to the part about rot13 in the FAQ? I don’t know if something similar exists for non-Firefox-browsers, but it makes following rot13’d discussions much easier as it allows you to just set a hotkey for (de)cyphering highlighted text.
I've got a Chrome plugin that lets you just paste text and click a button. Looks like it's no longer available, but there are others.
That sounds awesome. I'm going to go look for it now; if it's really so easy as that a link would be graet.
How did I not know this was a thing?!
You so rock, my friend 🙂
Omg thank you, the last two rot13 extensions I used broke on ff updates.
Added a link to Leet Key. It is an essential tool!
Wait, what? Mods can edit the FAQ?
Oh, I just meant in his post. Because he's like, hey, add a link to Leet Key, it's this wonderful thing, but I won't give anyone a link! So I made him less of a Taunty McTauntypants.
Ohhh, all is clear now. I was confused.
Taunty McTauntypants
I'm not in Scotland.
I… I was never in Scotland.
Lookin' good.
Sounds really good!!!!!!
I think I'm going to spend a lot of time here in the next months and it excites me !
Spiffy!
NOOOOOOOOO I HATE CHANGE.
Wait, these are good changes.
WOOOOOOOOO I LOVE CHANGE.
New recommendation page looks spif-
UTENA?!
SPLENDIFEROUS
My brain suggests that the current shows be put under a current shows tab to match the past shows one… but my brain also sometimes sends me severely unhappy signals when it feels that I've taken more steps with one foot than the other or paid unequal amounts of attention to the notes of the musical scale, so on these matters I am not so sure as to the practicality of its input.
I would love to do this for my own symmetry, but I am leaving them out because my professional career as a community manager has taught me that the more you hide things behind something on a site where you have to do anything to get to them, the less they are clicked. Since whatever I'm doing currently will be visited the most, I keep it outside to accommodate them.
I wish this were not true because I LOVE SYMMETRY, but analytics have shown this to be true EVERY time.
Whist, ye witless, wishful Watcher! What wild wisdoms threadward wend? Wondrous 'tis, well wattest thou; Master Mark all things may mend.
Yay for free time!!
YAY GROWNUPNESS.
YAY SOME CHANGES THAT ARE ACTUALLY THINGS WE WANT UNLIKE SOME WEBSITE'S UPDATES.
YAY OUR GLORIOUS PUPPETMASTER MARK.
This looks great, Mark! Since you're asking for features we would like to see… would it be possible to have an index page of reviews for longer shows, like you have here for Harry Potter: http://bit.ly/MRHPcomplete
By the time you are done, Buffy will probably have 10+ pages of reviews, it would be nice to see them all grouped together on an index (although I absolutely understand if you don't want to do this since I'm sure creating such an index is a lot of work).
I like this suggestion. When I went to re-read some old BSG reviews it felt like I was clicking "older posts" forever. Though I would also understand if that's too much work
That'd be great. I won't be able to follow Buffy anymore but I'd like to read the posts later, maybe this summer. As you say, going back from s7 to s2 is not something I'm looking forward to. :S
I love that you called us Watchers. It makes me imagine I'll be drinking tea with you and Giles while researching vampires in a warm, dusty library with books and DVD's. Which is way better than drinking Ginger Ale and watching Netflix while hitting refresh in my browser.
Does that make Mark the Slayer?
Along with Buffy, Kendra and Fnzjryy (Song of Ice and Fire) – this puts Mark in GOOD COMPANY.
(although I am still a book and a half from caught up in ASoIaF so I suppose I should be prepared for GRRM to completely stomp on whatever opinions I might have of ANY CHARACTER).
Great changes! Jekyll is (still) missing from the "Past Shows" tab though. 🙂
I also wonder if it might be a good idea to sort the suggestions alphabetically. This would help us to quickly check whether a specific show is on the list yet.
Sorry if I'm on the wrong forum,
Just wondering… Is the Merlin you are going to watch the Merlin Miniseries with Sam Neil or Merlin BBC, in foreign countries also called The Adventures of Merlin, with Coln Morgan? Because both are worth watching. 🙂 Merlin BBC is particularly awesome.