Post Type: Blog-Related (Update)
Yea, I know, I've been away for a bit longer. I had some IRL stuff happening a bit earlier than expected. 1 month earlier to be exact. But now with that out of the way, set up at the new place, I can restart activity properly here as well. And high time I should, after all.
Of course, I wouldn't just come back without a bang, so I actually Updated the Blog as well! It will be a huge help from here on out with posting, so it's good that I got to update its structure as early as possible.
Since I like being organized, I'll try to split into categories the info I can share right now on what I've been working on. Let's get started!
Blog Upgrade: General Aspect
To introduce the 2 new Elements in the blog, the Search Bar and the List of Tags, I had to change the general Aspect of the Blog. Mainly, to add a Sidebar to the right for those 2 elements, and make sure the blog is still sized properly. If it looks too big (especially on smaller displays), I would recommend using the Zoom feature to have the blog show fully on the display. I did consider for a bit placing the Sidebar on the Left (since I'm left-handed like that), but I decided to not disturb the balance of the universe in such a foolish way.
With this occasion, I can also let you know that on the Mobile, the blog still shows the Desktop version. It's by design, since the normal Mobile version of the blog looked like actual Hot trash (especially when considering the custom CSS and HTML elements like the Top Menu Bars and whatnot), so I decided instead to keep the Desktop version on there as well. I hope it's not that much of an inconvenience on your side... But trust me, it's better this way.
Blog Upgrade: Search Bar
Well, it might seem underwhelming, but honestly, it took a bit of work. Also, it's an extremely useful thing to have on any Blog, especially when I plan to have a lot more posts (and be able to search among them). It also enables me to implement the 2nd Feature...
Blog Upgrade: Tags
Indeed, the Revolution is now. Yes, Tags are basically expected on almost any Blog with various Posts on it, to further classify and categorize its content, and also give users the option to find specific types of content on it. The Tags that I implemented are mostly all the possible ones that can show in a game Review's initial part, where it specifies its Language, Developer etc. To that extent, you can now both click on the Tag used in each specific Game Review (the ones that have links, those are implemented), or just browse the Tag List and find your pick (I also split the List into Categories for even easier browsing of it).
All's good now that it's finally added, but how I got to make it properly.... It was quite a journey. The biggest hurdle to overcome was Blogger's limitations. For Blogger Labels (essentially, Tags), you're limited to only 20 Per Post, and as you could clearly see, I'd easily end up with way more than that. Quite a bummer, and a stupid limitation at that, considering that the other Label-related limitation is a maximum of 1000 Labels per blog, which I'll most likely never humanly reach.
Thus, I had to get creative. After quite a lot of time of different attempts and different solutions, both supported directly by Blogger and by custom code implementations, I came up with the Best Solution. Really proud of myself, even as simple is it is: using Search Queries (and unique "words" for those Searches). Basically, each Post will have hidden "words", that are essentially the Tags, but also written in such a way that they are unique strings of characters, instead of a word I could accidentally use in normal posts. Then, it's only a matter of making each Search Query, getting the links, putting them in the right place... Still took a bit of Leg-work by hand (Hand-work?), but it's finally there.
As a by-product of this, you also get a (relatively) easy Multi-Tag search functionality as well. To use it, simply go to the pages of the Tags you wish to search for simultaneously, copy the Tag name that will show up in the search bar for each, then put them all together in the search bar (obviously split apart from one another by Spaces), and there you have it! Now you can both search for your favorite Tag and make sure the game is in English as well! Also the other uses of it. Knock yourselves out! (well, when there'll be a bit more posts to search among... Soon enough guys I swear, trust meh)
As a by-product of this, you also get a (relatively) easy Multi-Tag search functionality as well. To use it, simply go to the pages of the Tags you wish to search for simultaneously, copy the Tag name that will show up in the search bar for each, then put them all together in the search bar (obviously split apart from one another by Spaces), and there you have it! Now you can both search for your favorite Tag and make sure the game is in English as well! Also the other uses of it. Knock yourselves out! (well, when there'll be a bit more posts to search among... Soon enough guys I swear, trust meh)
Blog Upgrade: Various Small Tweaks
While I was at it, I tweaked some other small visual aspects of the blog, like leftover elements I wasn't going to use, making sure there are "Previous/Next" page buttons, change some of the colors etc. . Speaking of colors, I was suggested in a comment (on the F95 forum page of Femdom University) by a user about a contrast issue with a color. Which was great, I fixed it and made sure it looks better now. If you guys have any suggestions on how can I make the blog look better, you can also let me know, I take any input into consideration (after all, I'd like for you guys to actually enjoy the blog and what I'm putting on the table :) ).
Blog Background Upgrade: De-Spaghettify Code
I realized the issue after making the first 2 Game Reviews. It was a relatively easy-to-make mistake, and once again, specific to how Blogger (but likely most blogs) works. When making a blog post (or really any virtual writing), you'll end up often re-editing yourself, copy-paste-ing around, moving blocks of text between paragraphs... And now that last part, that one, was the issue.
Before, I was first writing anything I made in a separate, Word, document, then copy-ing the text here. I had, this way, a reliable Backup, as well as using a relatively familiar environment for writing. However, there were so many issues with it, when transferring the text over, that it was extremely inefficient in the end (formatting was different, some fonts were not avaliable between the 2 places, spacing and Tab-ing was different etc.). I then switched to writting directly in the Compose View of Blogger, and ditching the idea of Word documents.
Before, I was first writing anything I made in a separate, Word, document, then copy-ing the text here. I had, this way, a reliable Backup, as well as using a relatively familiar environment for writing. However, there were so many issues with it, when transferring the text over, that it was extremely inefficient in the end (formatting was different, some fonts were not avaliable between the 2 places, spacing and Tab-ing was different etc.). I then switched to writting directly in the Compose View of Blogger, and ditching the idea of Word documents.
There came another issue soon after. I still had some leftover formatting from Word document. Also, I was, once again, moving text around and all that. At some point, when writing the 2nd Review, I was getting lag. Severe lag. In, essentially, a text editor. I hope I don't need to specify my PC's also not from the Farming Fields, it can carry itself quite decently in the best games even. I then decided to take a look in the HTML View of the Post editing.... Nightmares beyond human fathom. Essentially, auto-generated, jumbled up, spaghetti code. It was both from copy-pasting around, and from the left-over formatting from Word. Horrible looking, inefficient, barely readable, and most importantly, LAGGY AS FUCK.
To solve this, I did a complete revamp. I used some online HTML code simplifiers, basically hard-bleaching any formatting used in the 2 posts, then re-adding the formatting manually myself, and making sure the code stays as clean as possible. It's spotless now (mostly). Runs excellent, no more complaints. With that occasion, I made myself a Review Template with the new formatting and the new code structure, to be even more efficient with it. Indeed, it had been a revolution in the making...
Other Miscellaneous Stuff (but still related to my type of Content)
First, as usual, general playing through some other games, making sure to full-clear them, get as much info on the as possible, at times fix some of their issues myself (it can happen). Either way, I have a huge backlog of content I can share, so I'm not gonna' run out anytime soon, even after going through all my favorite games.
As a bigger overall project, I had been working in parallel for a while on Tower of Trample, a game I'll review at some point (depending on developments within it). Apart from making the Saves for it, I had been working with Fvlaenix on updating the previous Walkthrough of the game. I was slowly making my way towards the new content, and even finding some bugs myself. For the time being, I'm both still working on those, and also sort-of waiting for at least the finishing of the current Update proper, before considering making a full review on it. Yea, it might take a while.... But still, I got plenty of other Review-able games, so no worries.
And that's mostly it for the Update. I'm gonna' keep on working on new content, so stay tuned for that!
One more thing. I'm starting to release, on the "List of Covered Games" page, some of my Files that I have. At some point, I might get to make a Review for each of them (haven't played them for no reason after all...). Up until then, they might be a bit "rough around the edges", since when I get around to making the proper Reviews, I revise all the Files I had made in the past on said game and make sure they are proper and neat. But still, in the meanwhile, you can still check out a lot of what I've already done! Why not, after all?
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