Drive-By-Shooting Sundays: Musings of the Chatty DM
The moment was nothing like last week’s hit.
“It’s too quiet.” Even Harry’s whisper sounded loud to his own ears. Fog shrouded the streets, meshing the dawn with hazy shadows. Nothing stirred. No cars, no people, nothing but silence.
“This fog is misting up my scope,” he cursed under his breath. “I’m going in.”
Harry put down the rifle and picked up a .45 revolver, ignoring the look on James’ face. He had his reasons for the revolver. Accuracy was one.
James always thought that autos were better. They had more shots, after all. But Harry had always been quick to point out that all you needed was one bullet to get the job done.
He stood up, eyes fixed on the building across the street. “I’m ready. Let’s get up close and personal.”
Today’s drive-by consult is for Musings of the Chatty DM, the blog of Philippe-Antoine Ménard (hé, cool, un francophone!). Here’s a glance at the site at the time of the hit:
Hm. I’m not sure what to think of a first impression. Personally, I’m not big on cartoons. I think cartoons should be used sporadically and be well illustrated to convey a message without downgrading the seriousness. (Is gaming serious? Damned straight it is.)
The cartoon isn’t a stupid-looking one. It conveys an adult with a GM screen, which does demonstrate gaming and readers can relate to it. (Unless you’ve never played tabletop. I kept insisting it’s a comic book but Harry tells me different.)
Because the cartoon is of a man, though, it may peg the site as gender biased – no women allowed. It’s not a bad cartoon by any means – personal preference makes me want to see an image. Harry was fine with the cartoon. Toss up.
The banner title is fuzzy, so that should be cleaned up to be sharper. Harry finds the comment bubbles interesting and I hate them, so it’s a toss up on that, too.
The tagline gets lost in the banner and isn’t visible at all. Who is Chatty DM? Why should I read these musings? What’s this site about anyways? It does tell readers what the site is about – your quest. But again, why should I read this site?
The RSS buttons blend into the navigation, making them nearly invisible and easy to gloss over. Make them more prominent or easy to see.
The navigation really isn’t clear. Minions? Who are minions? Start? What am I starting? About? About whom? A blogroll has no business being in the navigation and above the fold – get that out of there.
Also, the Chatty’s Goodies in the sidebar aren’t clear either. As a new site visitor, most of them are completely meaningless to me and won’t get me to click through. Never be clever – be clear.
The categories are nice. They’re clear and they’re just enough. It’s a good number to have and any more would be too much.
The posts are right there and visible, with an image on the side to keep content high. That’s great – but reproducing the same image as in the banner becomes redundant. Stick with using various images for posts.
I would add a “related posts” plugin to give readers something more to see, and I’d add the Sociables plugin, too. Having a “recent posts” in the sidebar is a thought, too.
The comment count should be at the bottom of posts to allow readers to read and then click immediately to comment without having to scroll back up.
The ads are fine and unobtrusive – except for Blooming Teas. One would be enough and you’d save some space. Three of the same type is overkill.
While we don’t usually click through, we noticed that your Forums are the standard default SMF theme – you could customize that to have it consistent with your blog image for a seamless look and make it far more appealing to people.
The main problem seems to be that the overall color theme is bland. There’s nothing really wrong with it, but it’s… forgettable. There’s nothing interesting to capture readers at a glance and no punch to the page.
If you had one choice of improvement, putting some bling into the site, jazz it up. Capture that split-second glance and compel readers that gaming is fun and exciting, not something to snooze over.
They’d had to work for their hit. The boys weren’t used to sneaking into close encounters. James had handled some of the trickier obstacles, picking locks and getting them both inside the apartment without a sound.
Once the victim faced the barrel of a .45, though, there was no question of missing the hit. It was clean… and it was final.
Want more? You got it. Check out our upcoming hit jobs:
April 27 – Bibliophile’s Retreat
May 4 – Blog Badly
May 11 – Ghost Blogging
Is your blog next? Are you ready to see how many hits it takes? Sign up in the comment section for your free drive-by, and we’ll schedule you in.
Or maybe you can’t wait. Maybe you like private affairs. Hire us for your drive-by for only $25, and get your private consult shoot-out within five days via email. It’s fast, it’s easy, it’s objective and it’s dirt cheap.
Contact us. Come on. You know you want to.
21 Responses to “Drive-By-Shooting Sundays: Musings of the Chatty DM”
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I don’t mind the cartoon much, but yes, yes, yes! something HAS to be done about the sharpness of the banner. It could just be my tired eyes, but I was having a lot of trouble reading the thought bubbles.
Great drive by, I definitely agree with most of the points. However, I don’t think that the cartoon of a man makes the blog seem more males only, mostly because gaming in general tends to be dominated by guys. On the other hand, if it were a picture of a female in the cartoon, I would probably assume it was more of a girl-gamers type of blog. So I suppose it’s just because of how gaming is mostly associated with guys? (Kind of like how dancing is mostly associated with girls… yeah, there are lots of guys who are very good at it, but it’s still a female-dominated field.)
Philippe-Antoine, great blog, and I love your latest blog post! Even though I’m not so much into gaming as my boyfriend is, you bring up points that I probably would have agonized over, were I a gamer.
Allison’s last blog post..A Taste of Yellow
Thanks guys! I’m definitively going to take these all into account for future upgrades.
The Banner was made by a Webcomic artist (I commissioned her for the job). The Fuzzy effect of the title banner was an artistic choice she made and I didn’t mind. However, you aren’t the 1st ones to mentioned that the fuzziness is not so good.
The Bubbles are part odf my branding, as in ‘Chatty’
There is one bubble missing where I will be able to put variable one liners (or maybe twitters) coming out of the cartoon’s mouth
Oh and the cartoon is actually a caricature of your’s truly.
Okay… You guys gave me quite a lot to think about… so let me go wash up all the blood and ponder this more thoroughly.
Merci!
@ Allison: Thanks for the feedback. I’m having a lot of fun on this!
The Chatty DM’s last blog post..Chatty’s Random Thoughts: Potions
I love the use of the “hand cannon” in the drive-by story, a nice touch James.
And I agree with Allison, thanks for introducing this blog – I’ll be looking at it closely, Philippe-Antoine, I love the subject matter!
Brett Legree’s last blog post..foot fetish? six weeks to a marathon.
James, Philippe-Antoine,
My first impression is, I want some white space. The page seems crowded, from banner to body. If I were to change only one thing it would be to make the gutter wider by narrowing the sidebar, which seems a bit large.
Next, the insiders-only thing: The cartoon doesn’t make me feel it (though I decided he had a comic in his hands, I think that’s all right). He’s friendly and soft shapes and okay by this female.
The initials and terms do make me want to back out right away (DM?). Recognizing that you don’t want to be overly simplistic in the title, how about using the tagline more effectively to explain to someone who unwittingly pops in from search why they should stick around?
James may think it’s cute but I never heard of RPG until he started bandying the term about. “Gaming” sounds like something I do with a deer rifle or a Monopoly board, and the rest of the tagline… ? Any clarification you can do (body and sidebar, too) without making loyal readers feel irritated is going to be a big help.
The fuzzy title I thought was supposed to be glowing. I liked it just fine.
The chat bubbles I got right away and I like them as a concept, but I think the title and tagline have to be more prominent so the bubbles fade into the background better. Maybe it’s time to change your blues to reds?
Hope this helps!
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: What Are You Doing For Me After Hours?
@Kelly: That is very helpful, thank you. The fuzzyness was effectively trying to emulate glowing… I realize that my blog is truly for initiates of Tabletop Roleplaying and chances are it will remain like that. DM stands for Dungeonmaster, the person in charge of preparing and animating a Roleplaying game session.
However, I have the occasion to change my tagline soon and will design it differently to more explicitly explain what this whole thing is about.
The Chatty DM’s last blog post..Chatty’s Random Thoughts: Potions
Philippe-Antoine,
We all love to convert new people to what delights us, and I think you have a nice writing style that could make that happen. In every field we have to watch our insiders’ jargon.
It’s not really people who completely don’t get it that I’m thinking of, but newer players, or folks who are considering it—people who are just putting their toes in the water and found you by searching or by recommendation.
Or by reading about you here!
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: What Are You Doing For Me After Hours?
Kelly: I hear you loud and clear! Thanks for taking the time to share this insight (and for both the positive and constructive feedback). I guess that when you migrate in initially closed circles, you tend to forget that true growth comes from catching interest in the wider world.
The Chatty DM’s last blog post..Hit by a (consultative) Drive-by Shooting
@ Kelly – I’ll disagree with you here. Philippe’s site is particularly niche, and it’s important for him to speak his reader’s language and reach that reader from the start. While it’s always nice to convert newcomers to gaming, most newcomers who will land on Philippe’s site will be those actively seeking out gaming information. Hence, they *know* what DM and GM mean, they know what RPG stands for. They have already been initiated into the jargon.
Online, it’s very important to target your audience effectively, and if Philippe removes these key terms from his site, he will be casting too wide a net and actually end up losing readers. As a pro web content writer, this is one case where I feel that the use of jargon is very required.
@James: What I took from Kelly’s suggestions is that my tagline could effectively mention Tabletop roleplaying…. I must say that I created the tagline a long time ago on a whim with what I though was a clever Dungeons and Dragons (D&D) pun. Way before I thought I would get readers.
Here’s what my original blog looked liked before I got it re-designed by an artist and a friendly hacker.
But it so happens that I have gained a lot of non D&D players so a more neutral tagline will be a plus.
I’m thinking to add some branding by saying ‘Where the Rule of Cool meets with the Rule of Fun in Tabletop Roleplaying’
The Rule of Cool and Rule of Fun relate to two fundamental posts I wrote that brought me a lot of readers initially.
The Chatty DM’s last blog post..Hit by a (consultative) Drive-by Shooting
NOT remove—then a lot of serious searches would be thwarted. Just enhance by explanation. There’s no reason that can’t be done subtly and excite/ engage old readers and new equally.
Not disagreeing with you…
Kelly’s last blog post..Tip of the Week: What Are You Doing For Me After Hours?
Hello, Chatty.
I think that’s a great idea to create a more memorable tagline. Although it’s difficult, try to add a benefit in the tagline for your readers . . . the why here. But this isn’t always necessary – a good memorable one works.
Also, like James and Harry, I didn’t even notice the tagline until I clicked back here to read this post. Make sure it’s noticeable.
I also like what they said about giving your forum a face lift to match your blog’s theme. I spent a great deal of time trying to get my phpBB forum to match my website. It’s not an exact match but I included my color scheme and banner there. It’s just a simple edit of the template and all you need to know is a little html, no php really required.
That’s cool the toon pic is of you. That might of made a difference with relevance of the picture had I known that. I didn’t get that it was only for men from that picture, but if James and Harry thought it could hint at that, then so will others. Something to consider.
As for what they said about the color scheme, “not bad but not great.”
I think the first thing you should try (it’s the easiest) is to change the background of your site. It blends too much with your blog template. If the background color was darker, the middle of your page (i.e. your content) would “pop” more.
In your style.css file, looks like you could play around with this code for the color:
body {
background-color: #567;
Also, you could try changing the color of your horizontal menu. That too would add a little color effect.
For the sidebar, personally I would put the Categories, Buddies, and Archives above the Recent Comments. As a site visitor, I want to see what your website is about, not snippets of what others are saying – but that’s just me.
I love the idea James & Harry said about using a “Recent Posts” plugin. That would be great.
Another plugin I’d like to suggest is the “Notify me of followup comments via e-mail,” like MwP has just below their comment button.
Ok last cheap-shot, at the end of your post there’s all this text in a box that’s just too much and I’d skip over:
This entry was written by ChattyDM, posted on April 20, 2008 at 6:58 am, filed under Geek Stuff and tagged Blogging about Blogging. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post. Post a comment or leave a trackback.
I know that’s part of the template, but that’s a lot to take in. A short list would do better.
Just my observations. I know you’re probably bruised, I know I was one day when I created what I thought was a masterpiece of a website only to have it shot down by forum members of a community I was involved in. But you know what, by getting feedback like this, I love my site now. This is good stuff.
John Hoff’s last blog post..Marketing In A Crowded Market
@ John: Oh don’t worry, I heal fast. So far my readers are more hurt/annoyed than I am (I really love those guys and gals).
I installed the Recent Post and sociables plugins this morning. I’ll add the ‘notify ‘ one too.. great idea.
I also have comment edit in there, which I know readers love.
I’ll have a look at the color scheme. A sharper contrast between the background and the main text could work. Although I had originally planned to blend in a watermarked image in the background… I’ll see how I go at it.
Thanks for the forum idea. I will definitively look into it.
Thanks again.
The Chatty DM’s last blog post..Hit by a (consultative) Drive-by Shooting
Good job, guys!
Mark Dykeman’s last blog post..Color Supplement – 20 April 2008
@Chatty: I think the glow and the comment bubbles could work, but they need to be done right. I understand what you were trying to do with those. Buy adding a stroke around the letters of the title and then doing a glow effect, you’d get a sharper image. Or if you didn’t want to use a stroke, then make the glow a different color, like the blue you have.
With all the great imagery involved in gaming books, you could easily make the banner neutral. I’d have used a dragon or some other cool monster, or something that related to the genre of the game involved. You also have the elements of the game to choose from, like dice, that come in some pretty cool colors. There’s a lot that could be done with a banner like this and these are the types of banners I live for. It’s perfectly acceptable to step out on the edge and do something way cool and exciting. Take advantage of that.
@Brett: The hand cannon was my idea. Pete and I were having a discussion the other day about handguns and I decided if I ever got one, it would be a classic .45 revolver. When he mentioned that the revolver would be more accurate than an automatic (no jumping around on each shot), but it would have only six shots, I came back with “Well, technically you only need one bullet to get the job done.” And since he knows what a marksman I am, he had to agree.
@ Chatty – I can’t comment on your post. I keep getting a 404.
What I did want to remind your readers (protective little buggers, eh?) that we don’t run around arbitrarily picking blogs to shoot up. Drive-bys are by request only.
To yourself: You mentioned disappointment that we didn’t take YOU into consideration when giving our views – but any stranger that comes to your site doesn’t know you and will have the same objective, impersonal views as we do (or similar). If you want more YOU to show through, you need to add more personality to your design elements.
You have great content, but make no mistake – you have less than seconds to grab someone’s interest. Only THEN will they read your site. Miss that split-second impression, and they’ll click away. I know your readers mean well, but keep the thought that “design does matter” in mind.
Plus, we never said it was ugly
I had lots of other great comments to add, but after typing for a half hour and losing it all… ugh.
Guys: Some of the plugins I installed this morning broke the comment system of my blog (that’ll teach me to install without testing)… it’s fixed and my buddy is investigating.
@James: Sorry about the busted comments… it’s fixed now. I got what angle you were taking… I had to let my bruised ego vent a bit and I chose the ‘You’ angle. All is fine, I really appreciate what you did! Ego has regenerated to it’s original self
The Chatty DM’s last blog post..Hit by a (consultative) Drive-by Shooting
@ Harry: it was a nice touch. I’m partial to the hand cannons too. I did some pistol shooting in high school (a friend’s father was a collector), and I was much better with the .357 revolver than with the .45 automatic.
Brett Legree’s last blog post..foot fetish? six weeks to a marathon.
Just glanced at your upcoming hit jobs–I see an absolute bloodbath coming up…no other way to put it…
Jesse Hines’s last blog post..The First Rule of Blogging
Great review, boys. I’m excited to see some of the suggested improvements at Chatty’s site. For my money, he’s got one of the top D&D blogs out there, content-wise.
As to the tagline, I’m torn about it. I like it, but it is very specialized. There are a lot of D&D players who won’t get the planar references (although the tide may be turning in that regard. Rumor has it Sigil is in the new DMG. Long Live Planescape!). The tagline on my D&D site is more understandable (The D20 stops here) to the average D&D player, if a bit boring. I’m not sure which is best, honestly.
I suppose if you’re getting a lot of non-D&Ders, the less obscure the better. I’d hate to see it go, though. Maybe move that tagline to your about page.
The Bubbles are part odf my branding, as in ‘Chatty’
There is one bubble missing where I will be able to put variable one liners (or maybe twitters) coming out of the cartoon’s mouth