Warmest Greetings,

Repeat After Me. Change Is Good. Change is Good.  

:: Monday, December 12, 2005 ::

We changed the forums software for Cre8asiteForums and, if you love "live" chaos, and the lovely sound of fists beating on keyboards, the forums is the place to be right now. It's a usability professional's worst nightmare. (We hate to see end users suffer any pain.)

The Invision board software, out of the box, is an options bonanza. It does everything but contact next of kin in case of an emergency. If we thought we had nifty ways to track the habits of spammers, who come for little "visits" before, we now have super duper hacks and procedures that would make any private detective envious.

The problem is the navigation. There are too many places to go and too many things to do. Still, we had done a lot of pre-launch work to get it to where we could tolerate the user interface enough to roll out phase I. Now, our members are providing user feedback and we're up to our necks with "Can you fix this?" lists.

The Shock of a New Haircut is No Different Than a New Website

We knew enough to communicate that change was on the way. But, even the Cre8 team has had to get used to the new UI. There were new "Skins" made to help mobile and colorblind members. But, it's a case of "Where did my 72 hours link go" and "Which one of the 13 navigation panels do I use to reply to a post?"

It speaks well of the community that they're handling this at all. Everytime somebody changes a web site, there's a chance that you lose your fans. Still, the actual event of watching a web entity change servers and then change software, without missing a beat, is something to behold.

It didn't blow up.

It's the Barry (Rustybrick) and Rand (Fishkin) Show!

Interviews, whose coverage was missed by a popular website that also ignored two of my interviews, (but I'm not offended and miffed, am I!!!!!):

Lee Odden covers Interview with Barry Schwartz (RustyBrick) of Search Engine Roundtable

and he also chased down Rand in Interview with Rand Fishkin of SEOmoz, which since Rand is the focus on a Newsweek article this week, and a two-times in less than 7 days "slashdot" attack, it's not a real headache to find the poor guy.

(Feeling a tad like Tom Cruise these days, Rand?)

and then my own contribution, which by way, is my very first ever interview of anybody on the planet - An Interview with Barry Schwartz

And, in the "Nobody Cares Kim" Department

I've declared this year as my "Backwards Christmas Year". Usually, just before Christmas, we romp into a field with a saw and chop down a tree, I get all emotional and tell the kids we must "Honor the tree spirit and be gentle with it". This year, we ran out soon after Thanksgiving and paid $45 for a pre-cut tree.

Now, this tree has sat, bare naked, for 10 days, in the living room, to the left of the pretty remote controlled propane fireplace. (Hey, I have a wood stove in my office and a cord of wood stacked in the driveway. I'm no prissy girl.) The cats think the fluffy tree is theirs to play with and claw.

Yesterday my husband, after me throwing out thunderbolt hints about it, put up the lights on the tree. As of this writing, there are no ornaments on the tree. Just lights. The boxes of ornaments, however, are placed nearby and my daughter has invited her boyfriend over for the THIRD TIME to help decorate the tree (and when he gets here, they go to her room and IM their friends for 3 hours.)

Yes, I know what you're thinking about that.

and yet...and yet, the Christmas shopping is not only nearly 100% done, but the gifts are WRAPPED already! In my whole life, this has traditionally been what I do on the same exact night Santa is popping sleigh wheelies in the sky. This year, I may sleep on Christmas Eve.

But first, I hope to round up the family to get some ornaments on the tree. Hopefully sometime before New Year's Day.

:: posted by Kim Krause Berg on 12/12/2005 03:50:00 PM

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