Development

Pay attention class; How does the number of links per page affect the time it takes visitors to find what they're looking for on your web site? Two recent studies have produced some interesting answers.This article is a focus on usability, navigation and the conclusion that wider is better. Do we even care about usability studies? This certainly apply's to geeklog's "out of box" state, once it's customized all bets are off, but perhaps a second look should be given to the "flow" of geeklog.

I have been chomping at the bit to rework Geeklog a bit to allow the use of hierarchical (nested) categories for stories, links, etc. Implementing it won't be very hard as it is nothing more than a basic cataloging system (categories, sub-categories and items). However, my implementation plans are more generic. Find out my plans to implement this by clicking 'read more'

Periodically I try to hit up this site to see if there is anyone that might be willing to help out regularly with Geeklog development. I use \'regularly\' loosely. I think ideally all that is needed is a commitment of 5 or so hours a week. If I had a skilled PHP/MySQL coder working along side me I think we could really take Geeklog to the next level. As it stands it\'s hard to work on the next release and support the existing application. With one more person I think we could address all support issues with a release quickly and then get new feature implemented and out the door faster.

I know it is hard to find the time. For me I\'m lucky to get a couple hours in during the work week, a couple in during work and then a good 2 or 3 hours more on the weekend. That\'s I\'ll I\'m working with. I\'ve gotten a number of inquiries on help but nothing seems to materialize for what ever reason. If there is anyone out there that would like to see Geeklog raise the bar and has roughly 5hrs a week they can commit to *please* let me know. I\'m very flexible in how we can manage this. If you are a task oriented person I can divy out individual tasks. If you like \'owning\' a specific part of Geeklog (e.g. installation, plugin-support, etc) we can work something out.

What do you get out of it? Well, I find it very satisfying to see the number of GL users rise. People from all over the world use Geeklog including the USA, UK, Austrailia, Japan, Denmark, South America and Germany (are there more?)! Also, it\'s rewarding to see Geeklog start to compete, functionality-wise, with some of the weblog heavy-weights like PHPNuke, PostNuke, PHPWeblog, Scoop, Slashcode, etc. I\'ll never say a bad thing about other weblogs because I respect what each project brings to the table but I can say that it\'s a fun rivalry we have with them and I\'d be nice to really see those other projects start sweating over what Geeklog brings to the table.

If anyone is _seriously_ interested in helping out with Geeklog please let me know (tony@tonybibbs.com)