March 2003

A few new things…

I made a few little changes today:

• Altered the template used for the search results slightly so more results will fit on a screen.
• Added a list of the recently commented-upon entries in this Recent News weblog to the Recent Annotations page. Can regular readers think of anything else (annotation-oriented or otherwise) that would be useful on this page, as a one-stop-shop for viewing what’s happened recently?
• Added a list of the most recently added background items to the front page of the Background Info page.
• Changed the layout of the annotation forms slightly, to go along with recent improvements to the default Movable Type templates.
• Added an FAQ in an attempt to answer some of the questions I get asked most frequently about the site in general.
• Belatedly added background pages for William Prynne/Prin and Ralph and Sir Thomas Widdrington. (I won’t always mention when I add background items here, hence the new list mentioned above, but these characters have been the subject of recent discussion.)

1 comment | Permalink | Saturday 1 March 2003 | New features

Claire Tomalin answers questions

A while back I pointed to a place at The Guardian where you could post questions for Pepys biographer Claire Tomalin to answer. This week she’s answered them. (Thanks Kim.)

She says she’s tried to use this site in the past but has been “frustrated by the site crashing.” I’d love to know what browser and operating system she’s using, and what exactly happens, as I thought I’d squashed all such bugs weeks ago. If anyone knows how to get in touch with her…

19 comments | Permalink | Thursday 6 March 2003 | Pepys in the media

What do you want from a discussion forum?

As previously mentioned, I’m currently looking at adding some kind of discussion forum. This would mean we can restrict diary entry annotations to more specific information, references and explanation, and move longer discussions elsewhere. This way those who are only interested in reading the diary and having obscure words and themes explained don’t have to wade through long conversations, and those who wish to discuss further can do so.

But I’d like to know what, if anything, you want to do with such a forum. Are there topics you’d have liked to discuss in the past? Are there things you want to start conversations about? Should any forum have discussions linked to each days’ entry or would a more free-form format be suitable (ie, just starting discussions on any topic when you like, rather than one per day)? Are there features you feel a new forum must have?

Or maybe you can’t see any need for another forum; if so tell us why. I tend to think there is a need, because at the moment the annotations are dauntingly long for anyone who just wants to read and understand the diary (rather than discuss it). But I’m happy to be proved wrong if enough people don’t see the point!

The overall aim of a new forum should be to make the annotations briefer and more pertinent. But as for the details… I’d like to hear from you.

59 comments | Permalink | Sunday 9 March 2003 | Housekeeping

Creating a guide to annotating

So it seems some people don’t want a discussion forum at all, and some think it might be a good idea. Given there appears to be little immediate demand, it seems a good idea to take a step back and look at what annotations should be. Having done that we can decide if our guidelines leave out other kinds of commentary that deserve an alternate home.

Previously, Pauline suggested some guidelines that seem a suitable starting point for discussion:

• Every typed annotation does not need to be sent/posted. It can be selected and deleted.
• “I” statements should be very brief and very related to the entry.
• Personal experience examples should be infrequent and limited to one sentence of few words, and preferrably be wry, very funny, or moderately disgusting.
• Quoted material should be briefly referenced, placed in quotes, and edited down to the information you want to present. Link can be included.
• Avoid copying more than a few pertinent words of the diary entry you are annotating into your annotation.

Is there anything you would add to this? Anything you don’t agree with? I would add some kind of guideline about a suggested maximum length for annotations — not a maximum number of words as there’s no quick way to count them, but perhaps a number of paragraphs (I previously suggested 2-3). And I’d add that a space should be left either side of a link to ensure it works as expected. Other than that… over to you!

44 comments | Permalink | Monday 10 March 2003 | Housekeeping

New annotation markers

You may have noticed the annotation format has changed, with the person’s name and the time now at the top. I hope this makes things easier for you.

Also, I’ve written something that marks which annotations are new since your last visit. It’s not foolproof, and because it relies on cookies(?) it’ll get confused if you use more than one computer or web browser to view the site. But I hope it’ll help make clear what you’ve yet to read. The Recent Annotations page is marked similarly.

It could be that right now everything is marked as new; this is what happens on your first visit. If you visit again in a couple of hours it should mark any new annotations correctly. The device “resets” itself after 90 minutes. So if you’re reading the site continually for 90 minutes then suddenly everything that was marked “new” will become old, and it’ll start watching for new annotations again. That may or may not make sense; I know it confuses me. Let me know if it seems things are going very wrong for you…

By the way, once I’m sure it’s working, I’ll make the code available so any other webloggers can use it.

5 comments | Permalink | Friday 14 March 2003 | Housekeeping

Anyone fancy writing essays?

A thought occurred to me recently… I was wondering if anyone was itching to write more about aspects of Pepys or the time he lived in. If so, maybe it would be worth creating a new section of the site for such articles. Every so often a new essay/article could be posted up and readers could, as ever, post comments. Any topic related to the diary or the times would be welcome (individual people, politics, language, fashion, etc.) and they could of course be rather longer than diary annotations. It might be a daft idea, or there might not be enough people interested in writing things — let me know what you think.

(This isn’t intended to be a substitute for any kind of discussion forum, which we’ve discussed at great length already. I may still do something to assist in separating or sorting different kinds of diary annotations, but that’s an issue separate to these essays.)

21 comments | Permalink | Wednesday 26 March 2003 | Housekeeping