10 RSS Icons That Suck

rss icon

By now everyone should know the ubiquitous RSS icon with its orange gradient and white arcs and circle. It is a standard that can be fit into just about any website design with some appropriate color modification. And yet there are those who feel they know better. They replace the standard with their own RSS icon, whether it be a variant of the original or something completely different. Here are some of the worst offenders. (Read more…)

Dude, Where’s My Link? (or the Risk of Phantom Link Insertion)

Okay, we all know that link love (i.e. pagerank) is a huge factor for Google. And that’s why designers want their links preserved in their themes and why sponsored themes were all the rage for a little while.

So, imagine this situation. You change to a new theme and find a link in your blogroll that you didn’t add. You go to link management and the link isn’t there to delete, but it is certainly there on the live pages. So, you go and check the theme file and all you find is a call to wp_get_links or one of its relatives. What the heck is going on? (Read more…)

5 WordPress Themes That Steve Jobs Would Love

Steve Jobs has always been an interesting cross between technologist, marketer, and auteur. Any product he has helmed has been marked not only by cutting edge technology, but a deep sense of style and effective design. Given his success, here are a few suggestions for themes when Steve finally decides to launch a personal blog. (Read more…)

About HostScope

HostScope is a new site that combines several of my web sites, both existing and planned, into a single place. Its focus is web design, development, technology, and general webmastery. As a result, it needs to cover everything from picking a web host to configuring a blog to monetizing your site. Whether I can live up to the challenge of this broad a mission remains to be seen, but it should be an interesting ride regardless. More info...