Pro Blog Design

Comments

discussion on "XKCDesign: WordPress vs MovableType"

1. 

   Reply Chris Jones 5th April 2008 at 5:31 pm

   That’s hilarious
2. 

   Reply Timo Zimmermann 5th April 2008 at 6:05 pm

   maybe a subdomain or at least a separate RSS feed and another name would be a good idea -
   my vote is definitely “keep it up”
3. 

   Reply Dream 5th April 2008 at 6:08 pm

   That’s terrible.

   Don’t get me wrong – I don’t see why you couldn’t create a successful webcomic on the topic of blogging, I just think you’re going down the wrong road.
   XKCD is fantastic, but that doesn’t mean you need to base your comic on it right down to incorporating its name in your own.

   I don’t think the joke you made was particularly funny either, or at least could have been presented a little better, but I’m sure that would improve over time.

   Anyway, I wouldn’t read your comic in its current form. I think if you tried something different and experimented with another form – not a poor attempt at XKCD – things could go much better and I would be interested.
4. 

   Reply Michael Martin 5th April 2008 at 6:24 pm

   Chris,
   Glad you liked it. :)

   Timo,
   Separate feeds is a really good idea. The more I think about it, the more I like it. Things may well end up that way. :)

   Dream,
   Thanks for being honest. XKCD is awesome, and you’re right, I could never get close to that level. (Who could??)

   But the style of it is the only style I would use for a comic. Aside from Freelance Freedom, it’s the only comic I read.

   This is why I made the poll. There is no way that I could write a comic that would appeal to everyone’s sense of humor here. It’s a shame, but we all do find different things funny.

   If enough people like it, I will try to keep it up. But I think I’ll use Timo’s idea, and give it a separate feed. That way, those who don’t like it won’t be annoyed by it. :)
5. 

   Reply Dream 5th April 2008 at 6:43 pm

   Martin,
   personally I’m happy if you create a different feed for the comic so those of us that don’t want to read it don’t have too. That’s cool.

   However, what you’re saying still doesn’t make much sense. If someone told you that yours was the only blog they read, but they were going to start their own called ‘Pro Blog Designers’ and write about designing WordPress templates would you think they were onto a winner?

   Even if you opt to keep the comic in its current style, I still think you could make a huge difference by giving up on the hero worship and picking your own, unique name.

   Anyway, good luck. Even if I don’t end up a fan of the comic, I hope it goes well for you and those who enjoy reading it.
6. 

   Reply Michael Martin 5th April 2008 at 7:20 pm

   Dream,
   No, but if someone wrote to me telling me that they were going to write articles in the same way/rate etc. that I do, I’d be pretty chuffed.

   This comic isn’t on the same topic as XKCD, so it’s not plagarism like that.

   And webcomics are different to blogs. Every webcomic has its own style, which is blatantly obvious.

   The style I want here is something very simple, with stickmen. And for those that know me, they’ll know that I was completely inspired by XKCD. There’s no point in trying to hide where my inspiration came from.

   Naming this after it may have been a bit far, but it was supposed to be another little joke. :P
7. 

   Reply Vinh Le 5th April 2008 at 9:20 pm

   Hey Michael,

   I thought the comic was interesting. But it could use a little more story and punch to it. I suggest checking out the other popular comics besides the two you read in order to get a better feel of things. I think your comic idea could work if you keep at it. Good luck!
8. 

   Reply Brian Purkiss 6th April 2008 at 12:39 am

   I liked it!
   :-D
   It’d be a nice supplement to your articles!

   I’d love to keep reading ‘em!

   Although…
   Are you sure you can do a whole series on just WordPress vs MovableType?
   You may want to broaden it a tad… but if you think you can do it – go for it!
9. 

   Reply Michael Martin 6th April 2008 at 1:09 am

   Vinh,
   I suppose I could make it more complex, but I would need to write a more complex joke then. Or spin things out a bit more? I’ll have to think about it. :)

   Brian,
   Thanks. The series won’t just be WP vs MT though. I agree that that would get dull, fast.

   It will be blogging and design in general. :)
10. 

    Reply Vinh Le 6th April 2008 at 1:39 am

    Hey Michael,

    I got a great idea. Why don’t you draw up a sketch of your joke real quick, then send it to about 10-20 people you know that would represent typical visitors to your blog in order to test your material before you post it on your blog. It lets you tweak and make it better. That is what the pros do for comedy shows. It is just an idea and if you need an opinion, feel free to send it to my stumble account.
11. 

    Reply kristarella 6th April 2008 at 1:56 am

    For a sec I thought you were republishing an XKCD comic and wondered why I hadn’t seen that one, but then I noticed that your drawing is different and read the rest of what your wrote.

    I like it, thought it was funny. Sometimes I have a very short attention span for reading – I love short comics!

    I do feel slightly uncomfortable about obvious “inspiration” of name and style, even though the subject matter is different. I would feel better if I knew you had Randall’s blessing on those fronts – of course no one has monopoly over stick figures. :)
12. 

    Reply Jonathan 6th April 2008 at 12:33 pm

    Love the idea— you just got yourself a new regular reader!

    xkcd is awesome yes, but Blaugh (www.blaugh.com) is worth checking out too!
13. 

    Reply Adam_Y 6th April 2008 at 1:03 pm

    Is this your first attempt at making a webcomic? If so it’s pterry admirable. I’m all for people giving it a go.

    The one thing I noticed though is that I think you are a better artist than you are giving yourself credit for… I mean the style of the building in the first and the clipboard in the last panel show that you’ve got a bit of style… try and make a bit more of it.

    But that’s more of a point of encouragement than a criticism… keep it up.
14. 

    Reply AJ 6th April 2008 at 1:31 pm

    I don’t see the humor >.<
15. 

    Reply Michael Martin 6th April 2008 at 3:37 pm

    Vinh,
    That’s a good idea. There may be an easier way of getting feedback though. I’m going to move the comic over to a separate feed, so after a few weeks, I’ll see who is subscribed to that feed, and ask for feedback in the comments.

    Once I have feedback on a few issues, I’ll be able to work out how things are going. :)

    Kristarella,
    I think you’re right about the name being over the top. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but not anymore. I’ll have to come up with something different for the next issue. :)

    Jonathan,
    Thanks, and thanks for sharing the link. I’ll check it out now.

    Adam,
    Yep, this was my first attempt. I didn’t actually draw it though; I just wrote it. The drawing was done by mcoy. The simplicity of the drawing is because I made him do it that way. He can draw more complex designs when he wants. The style is all thanks to him. :)

    Also, I loved your blog. Clearly I haven’t had enough of a sampling of good webcomics!

    AJ,
    Sorry, not everyone will have my sense of humor. It’s just a joke at the fact that WordPress skipped out version 2.4 and went straight from 2.3 to 2.5. :)
16. 

    Reply redwall_hp 6th April 2008 at 3:47 pm

    That was funny. Keep it up.

    I agree that you should put it on a subdomain, and have different RSS feed for it though. Comic.problogdesign.com, maybe?

    It may be a good idea to give it a name other than “XKCDesign” too. The XKCD guys might not like you hijacking their name…
17. 

    Reply Michael Martin 6th April 2008 at 4:23 pm

    Redwall,
    Another vote to change the name? Okay, definitely going to do that one. :)

    A subdomain would separate it well, but then it’s one more thing to do add to the sidebar.

    I could just keep it in the main blog, but exclude the posts from the main feed?

    I’m wondering which would be less confusing for readers.
18. 

    Reply redwall_hp 6th April 2008 at 4:46 pm

    You could do it that way, or there may be another solution. It may take some thinking though.

    I think excluding them from the feed might work though. It seems to work well for sideblogs.
19. 

    Reply BradBlogging.com - Increase Website Traffic With Easy To Follow Steps 7th April 2008 at 12:12 am

    It took me a while to realize that actual joke xD

    I think that your articles are the reason that I subscribed to your blog… if you catch my drift.

    Anyways thats just my 2 cents. Can’t wait to see what you’ll come up with next (This just totally caught me off guard!!)
20. 

    Reply Michael Martin 7th April 2008 at 8:42 pm

    Redwall,
    Guess I’ll have to think about it. :)

    Brad,
    I think you’ve summed it up well there, and that was my original thought as well (Hence the poll :) ).

    A webcomic is a little too different to just throw in with the feed. I’ll have to keep it separate.
21. 

    Reply Timo Zimmermann 9th April 2008 at 6:31 am

    if you think about a subdomain you can e.x. check how AppleGeeks[1] manages their “lite”[2] comics

    [1] http://applegeeks.com/
    [2] http://applegeeks.com/lite/
22. 

    Reply Michael Martin 10th April 2008 at 12:00 am

    Timo,
    Thanks for sharing. They seem to have a good setup there :) (And another fun comic to read!)
23. 

    Reply rjleaman 11th April 2008 at 3:30 pm

    Not every comic can be a winner, but there’s a lot of promise in this (and I gave a chuckle) – split off a separate feed and/or sideblog, yes, so the core value of the articles isn’t diluted, then go ahead and syndicate with gusto! :)
24. 

    Reply Andrea_R 16th April 2008 at 8:07 pm

    I think it’s hysterical. I thought the name was funny too.
25. 

    Reply kuldeep 23rd April 2008 at 7:29 am

    Keep it up! Nice one! I liked the idea
26. 

    Reply DazzleCat 8th May 2008 at 3:02 pm

    hahah!! very funny stuff !
27. 

    Reply jobbank 18th May 2008 at 2:58 am

    Between these two, I would go for WordPress then. I think it is better than MovableType..
28. 

    Reply blisters 20th May 2008 at 1:39 pm

    I can’t tell you how much I laughed reading that comic. It’s hillarious! I’m definately keeping it, and forwarding it all to my WordPress using buddies.
29. 

    Reply Zinni 8th June 2008 at 3:34 am

    Mildly humorous, but I would send the concept to an illustrator. I think a little better production value couldn’t hurt.
30. 

    Reply Adam 11th June 2008 at 1:08 pm

    Great comic, I’d personally change the name but I found it really funny. Keep it up.
31. 

    Reply best t mobile phones 5th March 2010 at 12:40 am

    What if i make a clone to wordpress and then implement this to it. Great post.
32. 

    Reply Rollladen 1st June 2011 at 11:51 am

    Great! Funny and cool idea! Keep it going, Greetings~!
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