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orion_joel
01-02-2009, 12:34 AM
Hi,

I just had this totally random thought of what i would like to do with a blog, but am really not sure if it is something that is possible or can be done.

I just realized that every time you post a new blog post it is the first thing that people see when they visit your site. This is not such a problem if you just make random non linear posts, about varying subjects and such. However what if you wanted to create a blog that had a definite path that it followed, for example a 30 day challenge or a in depth series, that landing on a post in the middle would kind of throw someone off the whole point.

So my question, is there a script or maybe a wordpress add on that allows for every new visitor to see the first post upon their first visit and then each subsequent visit would show the next post as long as it was published. I guess this could also work by an option which reverses the order your posts are shown, so the oldest one is always at the front, however this would probably not work for long time, readers always needing to go to the end.

I would guess it would have to work with cookies to define whether or not a visitor had been their before, and would also probably rely on a bit of creative programming, however i think that this could be potentially a way that except for maybe the longer term readers, would keep the blog fresh longer. Because if you have something like 60 posts already, they are going to be seeing new posts every time they visit for at least 60 visits, and potentially longer because by the time they have seen all of those there will be at least some more ready for them.

vangogh
01-02-2009, 10:21 AM
What you're describing sounds possible, but there would be some pitfalls. For example you can't control whether or not people clear their cookies so it wouldn't be a great way to control which page people land on. In general people can enter the site from wherever they want.

What you might do is simply have something clearly visible (maybe in the sidebar) that lets people know about the starting post in the series along with a link there. You could even write a sentence at the top of every post or if the series of posts isn't too long you could add a set of navigation links within the post itself.

You can also set WP so a page other than your main blog page is what appears when someone visits the domain. You can pretty much make any page you want be the home page of the blog.

Otherwise you'll probably need to spend some time better understanding wp template_tags (http://codex.wordpress.org/Template_Tags) to see what kind of control they give you.

I think you can probably find a way to set things up as you described, but I think there are better ways and more usable ways to have readers get the content they're looking for on the site.

Harold Mansfield
01-02-2009, 11:45 AM
There was a plug in called "sticky order' that would do something like that WordPress › AStickyPostOrderER WordPress Plugins (http://wordpress.org/extend/plugins/astickypostorderer/)

KristineS
01-02-2009, 12:39 PM
I know of bloggers who have done a series and usually they do something like what Vangogh suggested. The give the series a title and make a page where new readers can see each post in the series since the beginning. That seems to work quite nicely.

orion_joel
01-02-2009, 07:47 PM
The clearing cookies thing, was my main concern as well.

The primary reason i was thinking about this is because my other blog that i don't have listed here is actually kind of a linear blog, many of the later posts don't make sense without the first few posts, and some of the posts along the way. This is not to say that you have to read them all, however i was thinking that having it done the way i mentioned above would keep it fresh for new visitors longer.

I will have a look at the plug-in for the sticky order, this sounds like it may easily enough let you reverse the order the blog is displayed in. My only concern then would be long term readers would probably get annoyed by not seeing the latest post when they visit.

vangogh
01-04-2009, 12:15 AM
In version 2.7 of WordPress you can create a sticky post, or one that remains on the main page of your blog. You could probably set the first post to be sticky and maybe add an intro paragraph explaining it's the first post and why you think new readers might want to read it first.

I still think your best letting your newest posts be at the top of the main blog page and add something to click back to the first post. Make it something obvious so people easily find it. I think new readers will click around and find the old posts and loyal readers won't have the same post shown on every visit.

orion_joel
01-04-2009, 02:14 AM
Yeah i guess that kind of makes sense. There are probably other better or just different options which will probably achieve what i want better then this idea anyway, when i really think about it.

Harold Mansfield
01-04-2009, 02:48 AM
If all you are posting is that one subject matter, how about just the widget in the sidebar near the top of the page that lists most recent posts ?
If they are labeled say : Episode 1 : Blah, Blah, Blah
Episode 2 : Jibber Jabber

..and so on, it should be sufficient.