I've looked at so many interesting things related to minimal web site designs yesterday and today. My mind is full of this and that. I created an idea for this site, doodled the layout I'd use. Then, I found this software, Chyrp-lite.

It has enough features to work with my old site and yet its simple to deal with. So far. I've thought others were going to work, gotten enthusiastic and then found they just didn't work for one reason or another. I wondered if I was just being too picky. Or, finding ways to nitpick and procrastinate about getting the site up again. I hope not.

Installing it wasn't difficult. Looks like it uses markup which I will have to get used to. Unless there is another option. This is my first post with the software. No problems found.

One way or another I've done what I wanted for the site layout. Not exactly as I envisioned it but its done. Sometimes I can get lost in the details and use that to procrastinate from the bigger work at hand. Not 100% wanting to start on the big picture.

I tried using the FSE (full style editor) with WordPress. I even liked the idea of it. But, at this stage its more work to deal with it than to go back to GeneratePress, which I've gotten to know and find pretty reliable. So, that's what I did. Chalk it up to a learning experience as far as the FSE editor.

I also added a contact form. Something new for me. Will see how much spam it gets and then decide if I want to keep it. I'm not even sure how it works yet. Does it need an email address? I didn't give it one. If it stays in WordPress that will work out well enough. I'm not expecting to hear from many real people versus spam, other than my Mother.

Next I will start going through all my posts from the last 20 years to update them, decide whether or not to keep some of them, and fix the broken image files on all of them. Thank you WordPress for not exporting them this time. (I'm sure it did before because I don't remember having to fix this many other times I've moved the site). Anyway, it will be like re-visiting myself, reading an old diary. Along the way I will tidy up categories and maybe even tags.

Then, what can I do about content scrapers? Nothing I've found or tried seems to work.

Hello. Welcome to my site. My name is Laura Brown, from Ontario, in Canada.

I make ASCII art. I was born in the year of the dragon. I like vintage science fiction. I'm an agnostic Witch. I'm a history enthusiast and I like learning new things about technology, science, and so on. Sometimes I'm contrary for the sake of being contrary. Well, you never know what you might learn when you don't just go with the crowd or popular opinions. 

Note: The colour combination for this site is based on the idea of - black, white, and read all over. I had the idea years ago and thought it was funny, in a good way. 

I haven't heard of all of these, so I expect some will be news to other photographers too. This matters especially when you are selling your photographs. If you are writing out something about the rights people have with your photos, these would be good terms to know.

Photos have copyrights assigned to them and you need to make sure you’re following the laws. Here are some things to consider:

• Editorial Use: the right to use in blogs, websites, magazines, newspapers, etc.
• Commercial Use: Can be used to market products/services.
• Retail Use: Can be used to create and sell physical products.
• Exclusive: Only one person can buy the license to use the photo. No-one else can use the photo.
• Non-Exclusive: Numerous other people can buy the license to use the image.
• Public Domain: There are no restrictions on the use of the photo.
• Creative Commons: Can put conditional usage of the work, until it is not required by law.
• Royalty Free: Anyone can purchase a license for the photo and use it for an unlimited amount of time and duration.
• Rights Managed: There are distribution limitations when you purchase a license. This is often the number of times the image is used/viewed by users.
• Rights Of Publicity: The subject of which the photo is used for is restricted.

Source: How To Sell Photos On Shopify - ShopThemeDetector

I don't think a generic web directory is very worthwhile these days. We are still keeping the old Open Directory Project going, now at curlie.org. But, now it is owned by one person who has their own idea of what matters. Software seems to matter more than getting people involved or helping them find it (again, or ever). One way or another I think the old directory is a bygone thing. Although I still like working on it and still (for some reason) can't leave it behind, I don't believe it is important any more.

But, I do think a list of links, better to think of it as a list of resources, about a specific topic, is a good thing and very useful. So I am still keeping and building my links for urban exploration and ASCII art and a few other things.

I have found that just an HTML list of links is a bit iffy. For some reason they end up a mess almost every time I have tried. Unless it is a very short list, three or so links. Larger lists seem to get muddled with HTML and one link gets the URL of another link and the original URL is lost, until you hunt for it again. It's frustrating. So I am using software, which has its own little battles and hurdles.

Here is my current list of useful software for keeping a list of resources (or web directory), specifically for WordPress and ClassicPress sites.

Link Library - I've tried others, may others, but I come back to Link Library. Not only is it steady, reliable and free to use (be kind and donate to support the plugin) but it brings out more features and is still in development and it works. It is huge when you first load it and try to work your way around. There is some help at GitHub, a wiki, which helps. Don't get discouraged or flustered, just keep working at it.

Simple Link Directory - I paid to use the pro version of this plugin. But, setting up links with categories is so confusing... I just wanted to stop spending so much time on just understanding how it works. I wasn't making progress, my links were sitting in text files waiting for me to add them but I kept having to add more categories that weren't categories because that's not how this works. Maybe its because I've worked in a web directory for so many years and got used to doing things in that way... but this never got simple for me.

Simple Links by Mat Lipe - This plugin is now closed, as of this month. I don't know why, likely assorted reasons. I still have my paid version. But, I never got it to set up my link lists the way I wanted them, even with the addons. It is a simpler plugin to work with than Link Library. If you can get, or still have, the paid version keep going with it.

Simple Link Library Plugin - Right now I'd say this is a back up plan. I did try it a little but it seemed to rely on the old core WordPress link plugin, which I already had. The screenshots look good and it says it has a broken link checker. It's one I'd keep a link around for.

Lastly, for people who keep lists of links I highly recommend Broken Link Checker. Although Link Library has this feature, others do not. Or, if you want to keep lists of links as regular posts to your site instead of using plugins, you really need something to help you keep track of which links have moved, changed, or bit the dust.