Some administrivia today.
1. As of Monday, it’s been three months since I launched this blog. I have no idea what the typical lifetime for a comics-related blog is, but I can say I’ve kept this up far more regularly than I expected, with 162 posts in 94 days — an average of 1.7 posts per day! — and readers have made nearly 350 comments!
It’s also taking a lot more time than I expected, which has kept me away from other projects. (In particular, I’d planned a major update for the Alternative Browser Alliance this summer, which has become more urgent with the announcement and first beta of Google’s Chrome web browser.) I may be scaling back a little on Speed Force soon, but I’ll still aim for several posts a week.
2. I finally got around to replacing the banner at the top of the page. I didn’t want to stick with the theme’s default, since “train station” doesn’t really say “speedster,” and I was never really satisfied with the fractal “lightning.” (Besides, the smallest I could get that image without making it look really nasty was a whopping 50 KB.)
Still, I’m a web developer, not a graphic designer or an artist. Give me the graphics and I’ll build the HTML and CSS to turn them into a web page, but original art? It would make XKCD look like George Pérez. So instead of trying to draw something, I looked for photos of actual lightning on Flickr. I adapted “Lightning Crashes” by ~Prescott under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 2.0 Generic license. The banner can be re-used and/or modified under the same terms.
3. After a struggle for the #3 spot at Comic Blog Elite with Collected Editions, we’ve both been superseded by a number of high-profile blogs that have joined, including Once Upon a Geek, The Absorbascon and 4thLetter. Speed Force has been holding steady around #12 lately.
4. I’ve dropped the Recent Visitors/Viewers boxes from MyBlogLog and BlogCatalog. They add a lot to the download time, especially on certain browsers *cough* IE *cough* that wait until they’re loaded before displaying the main section of the page.
i dont think ive ever posted a comment here, but i just wanted to let you know that i subscribe to your RSS feed and read every post you make. a nice moment of joy in my day! thanks and keep on posting!
You are probably my second favorite blog, and definitely my favorite comic blog. I love to read your opinion of the latest issues. Keep up the good work. Hell, I wouldn’t mind you slowing the amount of posts, all I care about are the reviews from a Flash fans perspective.
Kelson the Mighty!
(‘Nuff said.)
I like the new banner, but it seems like it needs something…
Thanks, everyone!
@zieglarf: I see what you mean. I was trying to keep the left side mostly clear for the title, but I may have kept it too clear. I’ll fiddle with it more when I get a chance.
I’ve been really impressed by the amount of Flash-related content you’ve generated. You’re really doing a great job.
Maybe you could place a full moon behind the lightning strike?
.-= Wally East’s latest blog post: Mint Chocolate =-.
I’ve been reading from the start but never posted…
Definitely my favourite comic blog.
Good job!
Kelson – You produce one of the best blogs on the whole darn web. I’m constantly impressed by your content quality and quantity. I had no idea you had only been doing this for 3 months. It’s impossible to tell since you are doing such a professional job.
In my opinion, you are tied with one other site for having the absolute best comic book blog (the other being THE AQUAMAN SHRINE – http://www.theaquamanshrine.blogspot.com).
I like the new banner. However, if you feel it still needs some work, you could always hold a contest here at SpeedForce.org for readers to submit banners to you. Just a thought.
Keep up the great work!
The Irredeemable Shag
http://onceuponageek.com
Pingback: Happy Birthday to Me! Happy Birthday to Me! | Once Upon a Geek