Less of a Post, More of a Cry for Help

Okay, okay, that was a bit dramatic.  I’m not jumping off of a ledge, but I am having a blog-rage.  I will explain.  First things first, happy 4th of July all 2 of you who are reading!  I hope you all enjoy a hot dog and think of me.  I mean that especially for those outside of the U.S..  Have a sausage and smile because had the French not saved our asses, we might be sitting here blogging to you from a commonwealth.  And I can assure you there is nothing common, nor wealthy about me.  (Damn it.  Words always win in the end, now don’t they?)

 

 

Okay, back to the cry for help.

 

It’s my library.  My blog archives.  It’s a mess.  I fear it looks like this.

 

 

Or worse yet, this…

 

 

Now, I thought I’d throw out the question to you all.  Does anyone have a better / easier solution for my archives section?  Is there a blog with a particular archive section that you like combing through?

 

I have my archives displayed post by post because my theory is that post titles are more enticing than archives displayed month by month, but I could be wrong.

 

What I would love is some wordpress shortcode that would display my highest viewed posts or “most populars” and then under that I can run the archives month by month.  However, I haven’t found a code that could do that on its own page.

 

So, I’m at a loss and I’m reaching out to you, my blogging brothers and sisters in arms.

 

Anyone have any ideas?  Before I get buried here…

 

Much love,

 

Mother

 

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Photo creds:  hot dogs, library, librarymess

 

50 thoughts on “Less of a Post, More of a Cry for Help”

  1. SM,
    I’m too lazy to help, but I still want to wish you a happy Fourth from a Commonwealth!
    Le Clown

    Reply

    2. casey, you are a blogging angel! seriously, thank you. i’m going to use the popular shortcode, i think. widgets don’t help me because i want to display this stuff on its own page…but, i think that shortcode will… i’ll let you know what i do and thank you for being awesome. much love, sm

      Reply

      1. very welcome! (believe it or not I JUST now figured out how to see notifications and responses like the above. Slow, I know, but I mean well 🙂

  4. I don’t even have an archive. Sorry Moms.

    On another note. Here in SA July 4th has absolutely no relevance to us at all. It is just another day so we will be eating a delicious stirfry for dinner. I’ll leave the super processed meat like cancer sticks for someone else. (How is that for melodramatic!?)

    Reply

  5. I’ve been trying to school myself in enough html language to able to figure that stuff out too, SM. If/when I manage to figure it out, I’ll let you know!

    Reply

  6. Sorry–can’t help you. I’m not WordPress literate enough. I was happy just to figure out how to put an image in my sidebar. 🙂

    Reply

  7. It will really depend on how you want to set an archive. The code above will work I think, it establishes your most popular or those with the most hits. The standard WP is by month.

    I am not certain with your layout, but if available you could set categories which then would let people to simply go to the category they are most interested in. You can combine the Favorites with the Category and display one or both on your sidebar (again it depends on your layout).

    You would need to take a look at your layout and your available widgets.

    Reply

    1. i think wp missed something here. because as the lovely writer says below, “you work so long on blog titles, you want people to see them and choose from there” – months and categories won’t allow for that. BUT, i think a combination of things will get me close to what I’m trying to acheive. will let you know when i do it… xo, sm

      Reply

  10. I’ll take a crack at this. Apparently if you create a new page and when you are editing your new page in the visual editor you can place short codes in it and the page will render the code for you.

    http://en.support.wordpress.com/archives-shortcode/

    It lists the customization options available for you. With a little cleverness you should be able to attain the look you are going for. I might just have to try this on my own blog lolz.

    Reply

    1. hello there shane, thanks for leaving this comment. i did check that page out. i have also tried to use the “most popular” widget in my sidebar, but it didn’t seem to work properly. weird. I may hand link some select posts and then run an archives by month under that, not sure yet… hope you had a nice holiday. i think you’re in the u.s., right? all the best, sm

      Reply

      1. Well I tried to help, it maybe something that WordPress introduces in the future. My holiday was cool but in Canada actually. Hope your holiday was great and hope to see more fun posts from you in the future. sp.

      2. ah, canadian. i should’ve known. everyone i like is always feckin’ canadian. lol. there’s a lot of truth in that. even dated one, years back. thanks for the nice note, shane. i look forward to reading your blog again too. xo, sm

  11. You mean your house isn’t neat and tidy? Hot dogs buried under the archives? The previous bloggers have good suggestions. For the non-technical, there are widgets for archives and top posts. Of course some of us don’t care for order and prefer to randomly search for whatever is appealing that moment. Have a happy 4th!! Be glad we be where we be.

    Reply

    1. scrounge, you always say something that is helpful. seriously. and yes, the hot dogs seemed to be buried under my library, but i’m going to figure out something soon. thanks for leaving this. xoxo, sm

      Reply

  13. Just read the comments and it seems like people have some idea how to do this even though I don’t understand what they’re writing so I will leave my comment to Happy Hot Dog Day!

    Reply

  14. I like the post by post method of listing archives. I have it by month, and I keep wondering, what’s the point of a good post-title if I don’t lay it out in front of people?
    Sorry, I’m useless at coding. But once you learn how to organize your archives by popularity or chronology, do spread the word. Thanks.

    Reply

    1. bhara, you nailed exactly what i was feeling. i like my post titles, i work on them, and now i have to bury them under the heading, ‘january’? it seems like there should be a better solution. i may manually link a couple of fave pieces and then run mine by month under that, if it works. which who knows if it will, i am also useless at coding. thanks for the follow too. i will respond in kind. all the best, sm

      Reply

  15. After you figure that all out will you give lessons on how to do this? It appears there is more than just me waiting for you to show us.

    Reply

    1. thanks for the 4th wishes, wendos. i hope you are well too. yep, i don’t know what i’m going to do with them, but soon, i have to do something.. they are starting to look ‘hoarderish’ — lol. xo, sm

      Reply

  18. I have things sorted by categories and by month but it’s still not an ideal solution, especially when there are a lot of posts in a particular category. I wish there were some way of listing post titles within a category but I haven’t found one yet. Doing lists manually would be….simply awful.

    Reply

    1. totally awful. tho, i may use a combination of manual and a shortcode. i’ll let you know what i do. you are right, none of it seems ideal. hmmmm… xoxo, sm

      Reply

      1. bwwwwaaaaaahaaa, TG, this comment was better than my post. 😉 i am also bloated from charred, meat products. but, alas, it’s the american way. hope all is well and it’s nice to see you here. xo, sm

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