Monday 15 June 2015

Not PC 2.0: Whither liberty?

Yep, as you may have noticed this morning, after ten years of torrid action, and no dirt to speak of, the blog has had a face-lift, a tummy tuck and a very modest boob job.

Long overdue. After ten years without any update whatsoever, the wrinkles were starting to show.

So now you can easily link to every post from the header.

You can easily post my posts to your Facebook, Twitter, whatever.

You can enjoy the posts in a much wider format – much easier to enjoy art and architecture.

You can easily reply to any post, or to someone’s comment.

You can also tell me with just one click whether a post is cool or crap.

You can see, days before, which posts will end up in your Friday Ramble.

You can easily find older posts, by either month or by subject. (So I’d better become more disciplined about subject labels.)

I can more accurately measure stats now.

And it should all look shit hot on whatever mobile device from which you might want to hook in.

“How cool is all that!” I hear you cry.

Sure, we’ve lost a few things. Like all the clutter. And muh links. (Let me know if there are any you need back.)

So you can now enjoy the same acid voice and pithy commentary in a much slicker, more easily negotiated and promoted home.

See. How cool is that.

Biggest loss, I think, is the Statue of Liberty who has graced our pages for the last ten years. But, sadly, our beloved beauty no longer symbolises liberty as she once did, does she.

In my own lifetime the liberty she once represented when commissioned in France has been perverted beyond recognition – not to mention how the perversion has accelerated since this blog began.

I’d be delighted to display a universally recognised symbol of liberty but – sadly, and possibly tellingly – there are few to none to choose from.

There are plenty of symbols for tyranny and dictatorship, but few if any for liberty. (What might that tell you, gentle reader?)

Mind you, I’d be happy to be proven wrong. What do you suggest I might use as a symbol or logo for liberty that might grace the blog for the next while?  What’s our best symbol?

Tell me in the comments. And then tell me how easy it was to comment.

(And, of course, happy to hear whatever other comments or suggestions you might have.)

14 comments:

Mark Hubbard said...

Nice, Peter.

Fantastic you finally have the tweet function, so useful. (I'll have to learn the linking to header thingy).

My blog is only in its fourth year but is already getting creaky, however, I'm not brave enough to go into formatting and try and fix anything just yet. (I lost my entire previous blog doing that.)

But yours is really looking great: fresh, uncluttered and - unless I'm imagining it - quicker.

Regarding the symbol, the Statue of Liberty still stands for me: the mess America has become doesn't diminish the Statue, the Statue symbolises how far the country has fallen from liberty. My 'vote' would be to keep it - it also brands you site well.

Cheers Mark

Peter Cresswell said...

Thanks Mark. Tweet function long overdue, like much else.

Good to hear it's happening quicker for you. That was my feeling too.

I shall cogitate on Our Lady. Ta.

Anonymous said...

Well done Peter... I like the look and I like the feedback buttons - except for the tl;dr one; what does that mean? Total drivel? My preference would be for all the buttons to be measuring the same thing on a one-to-five scale.

Anyway... I like the new makeover! Cheers

Dave Mann

Peter Cresswell said...

Thanks Dave.

tl;dr is what the yoof use to yawn off anything longer than 140 characters; it means "too long; didn't read."

A one-to-five scale might be a good idea. I'll see how we go.

Anonymous said...

Cheers Peter...

I would suggest something like the following - Yeah Loved it... Liked it... OK... Pretty Poor... Total Crap

This would give a good rating for you of what your readers think as it is a coherent measurement on a meaningful scale.

(I used to be in market research, LOL)

Dave Mann

Anonymous said...

Keep lady liberty
A reminder of what is lost

Sam P said...

Perhaps use Liberty, but add a few cracks & cobwebs until morale improves.

Like the makeover. Here's to another 10 years.

Jackie said...

How about Magna Carta - 800 years today.

Peter Cresswell said...

It is certainly the right kind of idea. Is it visual enough?

Greig McGill said...

I'm with Mark on Lady Liberty. Hell, I even got teary walking past her Vegas simulacra in April. What she stands for is undiminished. WHERE she stands... well, that might need a shake-up.

Now, a suggestion. Not for layout, but for commentary. I'd love to hear your thoughts on Liberland.

Peter Cresswell said...

Hmmm. Well, I have added Our Lady as an "icon" for the site -- which you should see on your browser's tab, and readers will see when Not PC is aggregates on other blogs. Take a look down the sidebar of No Minister, for example.
I'll have a play with adding her to this new site. Somehow.
Liberland? I can applaud their ambition, but I'm not sure that 7 sq km that is part of a border dispute between Serbia and Croatia would encourage the longest time horizons, would it?
Also, given how difficult Laissez Faire City found it to attract both land and punters -- not to mention Freedom Boat and Seasteading (or whatever it was called)--well, add all that together and I won't be buying a ticket there just yet.
Would be overjoyed to be proved wrong though.

Greig McGill said...

The more intriguing aspect to me is that even the idea is so terrifying that Croatia are using military force to prevent people entering. Of course, they claim that's just because the land is disputed. I'm not so sure.

Peter Cresswell said...

Considering all those borders have been disputed for centuries, I wouldn't be so sure about being unsure. But I'm happy to hear more if you wanted to write about it?

Greig McGill said...

Unfortunately I'm not sure there's more than opinion and conjecture. I was just interested in yours. :)