Gerry asks
Hey, I noticed a screenshot of SpaceChem on the banner up on top. When are you going to post a review?
Anyway, my question, if you have the time, is concerning your layout actually. I’ve been playing around with Chunk and I just cant get the top links (Science/Gaming on your site) to link to a page where all my posts on that specific category get listed.
I know that your links lead to the category itself (http://scientificgamer.wordpress.com/category/science/). Can you guide me on how it is that you edited the links ? Thanks in advance!
Yeah okay, I wasn’t going to do a post today but this is fairly quickly answered. Chunk looks pretty awesome but the catch is the limited widget functionality (I really don’t like that it’s all shoved down the bottom where nobody looks at it) that forces you to get creative with the single custom menu Chunk allows. Go to your blog dashboard and select Appearance/Menus, which allows you to create a new Menu where you can add and customise the links along the top bar. The Science/Gaming links are simple Category entries in the menu, Twitter is a custom link to my twitter account and the Ask Hentzau page is a jury-rigged form. It’s all very idiot-proof and set up so you can easily drag and drop what you want to create new menu entries and nested links.
If it’s a custom archive you’re wanting (i.e. like my Archive link, only instead of vomiting out every single post on the site it takes you to an archive of only science posts or only gaming posts) then I’m sad to say that’s not something you can do with the basic wordpress.com blogging interface. Trust me. I’ve tried. It’s one of the reasons I’m considering moving the blog to its own dedicated hosting and switching to wordpress.org software, which (I think) is much more flexible in what you can do with it.
Oh, and SpaceChem? I’m not going to review it, except to say that it was the only game that’s ever made me think so hard I gave myself a headache and I’m kind of glad I have enough distance on it to remember it for the awesomeness and not the crippling migraines. It was my second or third best game of 2011, though, and I put the banner up there because it’s really good at evoking a feeling of “SCIENCE!” despite having very little to do with actual science.
It was in Menus! Dang it, thanks muchly!
I’ve been playing SpaceChem in bursts. I know what you mean.. well its been that and my old gen Netstorm. Anyway, thanks again.
I know right? WordPress is very user friendly and the best blogging software I’ve used, but god help you if you want to do anything remotely complex with it.