Wizards & Wenches has moved

Goodbye Blogger, hello Wordpress!

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http://wnw.blogwarhammer.net

Blog Warhammer and Warhammer blogs

Blog Warhammer was launched this Tuesday and it's coming along nicely. I have found plenty of new WAR blogs and the discussions so far has been interesting. If you got a blog about Warhammer you are free to join us, and if you like to read Warhammer blogs then this is the place to find them.

I'm currently working on switching platform to Wordpress now that I got a host in Blog Warhammer, but hopefully it won't take too much time. Will use a full blogroll by then, so don't worry if your blog isn't listed.

And speaking of hosts. Since I got more bandwidth and space than I know what to do with, I was planning to offer some bloggers a space on the server. Meaning you can host your own Wordpress platform, get your own FTP with plenty of space, and a subdomain (http://yourblog.blogwarhammer.net). Sounds interesting? Maybe I will have active membership on Blog Warhammer as a requirement, so go there now and take part in discussion if you are interested! ;)

Here are some fresh new WAR blogs that was introduced on Blog Warhammer this week (in no particular order):

• The Frozen Elf
• The War Corps
• Tales of WAR
• Anonymous Defender
• Zizlak's travel diary
• OMGompers

Introducing: Blog Warhammer

I wrote in the last post that I was working on something, and I'm proud to announce what it is now!

A while ago I posed an idea I had: to create a community specifically for Warhammer bloggers. Since I only got positive responses I was hoping to make it reality. Before this weekend I was writing a new post where I was looking for someone to host it. I got halfway in the post, and then I wondered "why can't you do, you lazy bastard?". So I did. And I spent the last days in setting up a forum (setting it up is easy, finding a style that looks good is the hard part), and I just finished.

What is it?
Blog Warhammer is a community for people who blog about Warhammer. It's that simple; if you got a blog and it's about Warhammer, then you are welcome to join! The blog doesn't have to be solely for Warhammer, talking about it from time to time is enough. The more people here the better.

What is it good for?
Some people have been blogging for a long time, some have just started, and some are thinking about starting - hopefully the site will satisfy every type. Join into a tighter and friendlier Warhammer blogging community. Share your experience or advice with the community, and hopefully learn something in return. Announce your blog to people who can spread the word.

Only bloggers?
Bloggers are not the only ones who can take advantage of Blog Warhammer. If you like to read blogs and Warhammer, then this is the place to find them.

Sounds good? Go there and take part in the community, and help spread the word to other bloggers. I'm also looking for active members that want to serve as moderators, so PM me or something with interest.

Slow weekend

I read a article about blogging somewhere that said you shouldn't apologize for not posting lately. I didn't really grasps the purpose of that, but I bet it was something clever with psychology.

Screw that. Sorry for not posting this weekend. Have been busy working up a hangover, and then I have been working on a project. I won't spoil it, but it's something about... or no, it would be too easy to figure out. Let's just say it will likely interest a lot of people, and I will post here when it's done - hopefully any day now.

Beside, the WAR news have been boring anyway. Oh there was something called Road to War, but sounds more like a PR thing - haven't tried it yet. Booooring.

New design

As you can see, I have updated the design on the blog. The previous one was decent, but I wanted something with a little more colors in it, a wider main column, and not so much space wasted on the top - more room for posts. I also wanted to go back to pure white as background color for the posts, as it looks better when you have images in the text with the same background color.
Other than that, I mostly used a picture of a Disciple (the one you see on your left) to get the colors (red, blue, white and black), and I think it turned out pretty well. Not too screaming colors, but not too dull either.

I didn't really want a logo in the original sense, but more like a small banner (like the one upper right corner) and some art on the sides. I also wanted a male that looked a bit like a wizard (right side), and a female to fill the wenches part. Both are Disciples (so not actually wizards), and I will focus a bit more on this career now that release approaches.

Other than all that it's not much that has changed. I have changed the blogroll a bit, making it a bit more personal by writing some stuff about how I see the blogs. Right now it's only the blogs that I read frequently (more like "this is who I am, and this is what I read" instead of mass linking), but I will see if that changes in the future - there are many blogs I want to support, even if I don't currently read them.

The design is done in and for Firefox (as it follow the CSS standard the best), but I have checked it in IE6 and it looks good (except some few details, but I didn't expect less). It should be near to perfect in IE7, but I can't check as I don't have it on this laptop.

I hope you like the design as much as I do, please leave a comment on what you think. Better or worse. Like that and don't like that. Your a genius vs were you drunk?

Blog Warhammer

Warhammer Online's release date will be September 23 and here is why... no, I'm just kidding, I'm not going to discuss that on my blog. If I see one more "September 23, did you know?!" post I just might explode. Like a big... big... angry badger.
In fact, I now declare W&W to be officially September 23 Free *insert appropriate music*. (Now I can only hope it's not actually that date or I might get trouble.)

No, what I really wanted to talk about is blogging and WAR. See, back when I was playing World of Warcraft I read plenty of blogs, and the idea of starting one about WoW myself came to me more than once. What many WoW bloggers had in common was that they where a part of a community called Blog Azeroth. On it's forum bloggers discussed blogging with other bloggers. How to write, what to write, how to get publicity, advice, and much more.

It's a great concept. It would not only help us that already blog to get better and more in touch with each other, but new bloggers would also find a easy platform from where they can begin. We all know it's a bit hard to make people aware of your blog when you first start, so what could be better than drop a post on a blogger community, announcing that you are here and this is what you do. So why can't we have the same thing about WAR? Nothing that stops us I guess. All we need is a forum somewhere.

What could it be called? "Blog WAR", "WAR-bloggers", "Waaagh! Bloggers", "Blog [whatever WAR's world is named]"?

In other news, the new design for the blog that I have been working on for the last week is nearing completion. And by completion I mean that I haven't deleted this design for two days. With me, that usually mean it's something I will stick with... for a month. Expect to see some result Soon™ (could be tomorrow).

Host Warhammer images

Worth mentioning is that Khaos from WaaaghInsider has started a new site called Warhammer Images that will have image hosting for Warhammer Online.

It has several different account types, and the free one offer 60 1000 MB disk space and 3 30 GB bandwidth per month. The free account will also include a small banner at the bottom stating that it's hosted on Warhammer Images.

Now, before I get to what I really think about this service, I should mention that there is a account type called "Webmaster Deal". It offer unlimited disk space and bandwidth, and images don't get marked. The requirement for this service is that you have a website, that it's about Warhammer, and that you mention the service.

It's neat, because I personally don't have access to a FTP that I can dump images on (without feeling guilty), and the normal image hosting sites often have bandwidth limitations, which might not go hand in hand with your website/blog being linked on many places. I'm using Blogger, and while the function to shrink images is very nice, it's a pain when you want a image to actually be larger than the "large" size (which is around 400 px). So I have been using other image hosting services, but then we're back to the bandwidth issue again. With the Webmaster Deal, I will probably be using this service.

But what if you don't have a website about WAR? Just how much is 60 1000 MB disk space and 3 30 GB bandwidth/month compared to other image-hosting services?

• Photobucket offer 1 GB space and 25 GB bandwidth per month.
• Imageshack offer unlimited space and 300 MB bandwidth per hour.

It's a new service, and I wish them the best of luck, but maybe they should check out the competition and make some changes?

Update: As Khaos informed here in the comments, the free account has have its space buffed from 60 MB to 1000 MB and it's bandwidth buffed from 3 GB to 30 GB. That's a very nice improvement. If you got Warhammer images, this place might be just for you!
Some edits to the text to clarify this change.

Paul Barnett impressions

Perfect.


In another part of the world, Massively has some new screenshots of WAR from E3. Filled to the brim with RvR, squigs, Waaagh! and all that stuff.

And speaking of squigs, we welcome Da Squig Herder to the WAR blog community. /salute

Thanks Book of Grudges for digging out the Paul impressions thread, it's pure gold. Also, war lions are on the lose - you have been warned.

Blogging advice and Firefox addon

WoW Insider has a post called How to start your own WoW blog that has some simple, but good, points for anyone starting blogging. I was reading the comments and found someone referring to Scribefire, a Firefox addon. So I checked it out, and I must say I like it.

It's a addon that split your screen in half, so that you can see a website and write a blog entry at the same time. When writing a new post I often have some info from another page, and it's very nice not having to switch between the tabs but having a split screen instead. Also, the addon has way more editing options than Blogger has in it's editor, so that's also nice. You can even see previos posts and edit them, doing everything you can do in Blogger's pages, except you don't have to switch around soo much.

I can't say how it works for other blog platforms than Blogger, but give it a try and see what you think. Much recommended.

Edit: Webmonkey has a article called "Get Started With WordPress". It explains how you setup WordPress on a webhotel, or your own server.

Sandwenches and some wizards

Wizard Sandwenches Wizards and Wenches here reporting live from the beach.

Ok, I'm not really at the beach. I was just looking for a excuse to post a picture of girls in bikini.

I would probably be offended by the ridiculing my blog's name if I weren't baffled why I hadn't seen this one coming. I almost feel like the guy who set up the company Who Represents domain name (this is a true story, you can't make this up) whorepresents.com. Almost.

Since I have got plenty of comments about the name of the blog I thought I would explain the origin a bit. It's what my Age of Conan guild (on Soulstorm EU, gank them when you see them) is called, and fortunately they turned down my name suggestion of "Gutbuster Brigade" (from R.A. Salvatore's books, damn uncultivated plebs!) and went with Wizards and Wenches.

I was planning on doing the homepage for it, as I had done with my World of Warcraft guild (from which most of the members came). I worked out a design, very similar to the one I'm using here now, but didn't get too far on the coding bit. We were looking forward to a bright future of massive siege battles, decapitations, boobs and epic dungeons, but I lost interest in AoC somewhere down the path. Instead I started a blog to air my frustration with AoC and express my yearnings for WAR.

Tomorrow: Scotland and my third annual World of Warcraft guild meeting. Expect amusing stories, frustrating drama, and embarrassing pictures when I return. Who will beat "The Toilet Sleeper" this year?

What do you mean there are no such things as sandwenches?!

ChaosCast #3 - go team publicity!

Episode 3 of ChaosCast is just out... and my site is in it as part of the "new community sites" section! Thanks Keen, Snafzg and Syp for the shoutout. Maybe it was best the description got cut off when they did, or they would have pulled out the torches and burned my blog to the ground ;)

I'm usually outspoken, telling people what I think. Or it's because I'm a horrible liar, I don't know. Someone who comes and ask "what do you think about this?" will most of the time get the brutal honest truth, because if I try to tell them what they want to hear it's usually "er, well, it looks... different". I'm even more rarely outspoken with praise, so when I do praise, you know I mean it.

Keen, Snafzg and Syp, you're sites rock.

Easy Reading

One thing I notice when browsing blogs is the complete lack of line spacing. Most templates have plenty of spacing, but there are some who have templates that completely ignored this. If you have plenty of text, not having greater line spacing than the standard is a sin! Sorry Snafz and Keen, it has to be said ;)

With only a few lines of text it doesn't make that much of a difference, but once your paragraphs are growing to five or more lines the lack of spacing between the lines make the text extremely difficult to read. And we bloggers write just to please the readers.

There are different ways to set the line heights, either with a set number such as in pixels or points, or in percent. Pixels or points are not recommended, as it will make text in another size than the normal compressed or dense. In my layout I have all text with line height set to 150%, and 160% in the blog posts.
This code, if inserted into the code between the HEAD tags will increase the line height by 50% on the entire page, similar to this site.

I have tried Wordpress (a while ago, but don't think it has changed), but didn't like the lack of customization. Since I knew HTML and CSS I wanted to be able to change everything, to make my own layout. Blogger enabled me to do this. Of course it's better to use Wordpress on your own server, but that stuff cost money.

Next big thing to ease reading is the width of your text. Now there are tons of things to think when deciding the width of a text, so I will just keep it simple. It should be easy and fast for someone to jump from the end of a sentence at the far right to the next one at the left. The eyes should not have to to travel too far, and you should absolutely not have to move your head to follow a sentence.
The width of the text on this blog is almost too wide, I would say it's at the very maximum. It's a trade-off between to read wide sentences and scroll a lot.

If the width of a layout is set in percent instead of a set number of pixels it will increase as the screen resolution increases. What may look perfectly fine in 1024 x 768 can be horrible wide in widescreen resolutions such as 1400 x 900 (what I'm using). Just to mention some blogs, I have a few in my blogroll that probably uses percentage as width: Tobold's and Keen and Graev. On my screen the text go from edge to edge of my widescreen and I have to move my head slightly to read sentences. No offence meant to mentioned blogs, I am merely pointing out what I think is the best way to display large amounts of text, and that's mostly what blogs is all about.

To change the width of a layout can require some more editing than increasing the line height, since templates usually have a set width already. If your template is using a percentage width, simply adding the following should set you right. The number can of course be changed, but over 1000px will make the layout too wide (have to scroll sideways) for 1024 x 768 resolutions.
Then of course we have the entire thing with paragraphs, punctuation and writing like you never finished first grade, but that have nothing to do with layouts really.

Small changes to the layout

Done some changes to the layout. If you have visited in the last hours the design would probably have been... weird. Sorry.

Tested with a 3 column layout, but it felt wrong so it's back to 2 columns. In fact the entire layout is less wide than before, following the change to a smaller font in the posts. Bigger fonts is easier to read, but with smaller you can have more text in a smaller space... I guess it's just a matter of taste. The 8pt font size seem to be the most common among blogs, and Verdana the most common font of the serif sans-serif style. I have always views serif fonts for the web, and sans serif fonts for the printed paper. Serifs might make your blog look more like a magazine, but in the end it's easier to read without serifs.

Also did some changes to the post layout, moving stuff around. Removed some widges from the right column, placing contact info and profile in links on the logo instead, freeing some well needed space. I will see if I still like the way it is tomorrow, I have a tendency to keep changing stuff. And for those who wonder, the design is made by me from the ground and up - no templates here.

Tell me what you think. Oh and I was thinking of writing some stuff about design, and try to force my view of "easy reading" on bloggers.