124 thoughts on “you gee ell why”

1. Your site’s not that ugly, Wil. I agree about the ads, though.

2. Yes I agree… “You-Glee”. Your site is becoming cluttered. (Note: I keep on returning because of your CONTENT and not the decor. Ewe r won ov thee feuw peepl hoo kan spel!)
   SUGGESTION: Get rid of the trickle down supporters and create your own business with links to support yourself. It’s okay to be a little narcissistic to support yourself and your family. If you find this suggestion more successful, you can always send me a Polo/T-Shirt with “50,000 Monkeys @ 50,000 Typewriters Can’t Be Wrong – http://www.wilwheaton.net”
   As for the massive array of your LINK BUTTONS, you can cycle them weekly/monthly a few at a time and guage their popularity by how many downloads each get. This way you can weed out or revamp the ones that are less popular.
   Have fun with the “Redecorating”. My vote for blog background color would be Black or Red – NOT!

3. LOL! I’ve considered hinting at a redesign for some time but have been hesitant so as not to offend! 😉 Hey if you want a nice site that is 100% Web Standard, accessible, and Mobile drop me a line! I’d love to contribute!

4. hope this link works. 8)
   do the colors match?
   see the WW everywhere… well i thought it was neat.

5. oh well the link didn’t work right (no img allowed?). sorry – check it here…
   wilweatonbanner1.jpg
   peace

6. Hey Wil,
   I’m not that techno-savy so bear with me here! No comment about your specific blog entry but I just purchased your books and read them with great interest. Wow. This may be a very strange thing to say (and I hope you understand what I mean), but it’s weird to see you as a real, average person. Somehow, people that one sees on TV become ‘larger-than-life’. I guess thats kind of like the first time you see your teacher in the grocery store or washing his car — it’s odd to think that they have lives outside of the classroom. Actors are real human beings! Who would have thought it 🙂
   I admit I’m a ST TNG fan (well-a closet fan :-)).
   I loved your ‘behind the scenes’ stories. Opened up a whole new world. Thank you for your honesty. With those books (and this blog) you are really making yourself vulnerable to virtually anyone. That takes courage. A rare quality in these days of superficiality. Way to go!
   Take care.

7. Hi. I’ve been reading you for a while, but it’s my first time to comment.
   Your blog looks fine as it is, although I agree there is a little clutter.
   If you’re having problems with the comments – you could try adding haloscan instead.
   Stay well
   xxx

8. Good day Wil. I think what makes a good blog site is the content and not so much the design. You certainly have great content going on here and that is what’s important. Clean and simplistic designs have always been a good move in designing blogs.
   And regarding WordPress 1.5 — as some of the other commenters have already expressed, it’s pretty much easy to install and seeing as you’ve been running MT, I’m sure it’s going to be a walk in the park for you. The customization? Well, could take a bit of tweaking around, but if you enjoy tweaking around with the codes, then WordPress is definitely much flexible in that sense.
   Keep up the great work and good luck on what you decide on! 😀

9. Before getting to involved, I strongly suggest reading Don’t Make Me Think by Steven Krug.
   The best book on usability and design I’ve read.

10. Geez, wading through all the sucking up here is worse than a lollipop convention.
    I’ll call it like it is.
    Wil, the site redesign is long overdue. All the cool kids are pointing and laughing at the design.
    Stick with MovableType, it’s the most powerful and best supported app out there. The 3.x plug-in system is good.
    Ask Jason Kottke for suggestions on the site. He’s brilliant with design and knows his CSS.
    And while I’m offering unsolicited advice, switch to Flickr for your moblog.
    And lastly, update the FAQ.

11. Hey Cruftbox,
    First off, I don’t think there’s any sucking up going on at Wil’s House Of Pancakes. I think there’s just a lot of people who honestly like the blog the way it is (like me).
    Second, Gee Whiz, The Cool Kids? Hey Wil, do you really want to sit at the Cool Kids table?
    Third, Kottke’s sight is too tightly packed. Also the headlines and subtext are too similar. I find his site to be too hard on the eyes. I like Wil’s blog because it is so easy to read.
    Wil, don’t change a thing about the user interface. Please.

12. The changes coming are good ones, I promise. And Cruft is right about updating the FAQ. It’s about three years out of date.
    Some plans:
    * Unclutter the whole damn thing, so it loads faster. This includes removing most of the graphic link buttons, limiting the number of text links on the index page, and severely limiting (if not completely removing) the BlogAds.
    * Rebuild the entire site, either in Movable Type, or in WordPress. Right now, I’m playing with a development version of WordPress, and I’m very excited about what it can do. It may not be for me, but I’m enjoying the test drive.
    * Get a CSS that works.
    * Once the site is rebuilt, I’ll be able to update the “static” pages more frequently and easily. Right now, I have to hand-code everything in the non-blog pages, and it’s a pain in the ass. When I can use MT or WP to manage those pages, they will become far more relevant. (I’ll leave the old pages in a archived directory, as a few readers have requested. They’re a nice historical thingy, if nothing else.)
    * I’m not going to mess with things too much. Most of the serious changes will occur at the markup level, and regular readers won’t notice any real change in the content. Hopefully, it’ll just be faster load times and more frequently updated content.
    * Finally, I’m not making any announcements must yet, but . . . it rhymes with “podcast.”

13. As an ex-MovableType user who recently switched to WordPress (and, trust me, my computer skills are extremely fewer than yours, surely), I suggest WordPress (no, they aren’t paying me).
    Honestly, your site is fine as it. Though I rarely read it (for some reason, many of my friends link to you). Take no offense; I just don’t find myself with tons of spare time.
    Hope you made Hollywood in time. Two minutes isn’t much.

14. Hey, Wil,
    I just found out that my webhost (dreamhost) has a setup where they do the install of WP, and it just *works*. (Thinking baout moving my blog from livejournal to a subdomain of my site…) I know you’ve probably sunk a bunch of time into it now, but maybe check and see if logjamming has the same? G’luck!

15. Hi, Wil. This is my first comment on your site although I have been reading pretty regularly for the last four months or so after not reading it for the last couple of years. I have a thing about the asthetic look of a site, and I will admit, other than not believing you really wrote this site, the non-attractive design kept me away.
    Luckily, I downloaded one of your speeches you have linked above and listened to the whole thing, which then got me to buy and read Just a Geek (I felt a kinship when you posted about listening to Never Let Me Down Again by Depeche Mode on the set of Star Trek), which got me reading this site and posting about how much I admire you on my own blog.
    I was a total technophobe and now I am a powerbook toting, wordpress using, css learning geek all because I started blogging.
    The first time you install WP is the hardest, but once you do it is an absolute blast to use. It is the easiest to use when creating designs and I have had a total blast using it. I highly recommend the redesign, it would be cool if you had this thing looking a little less like /. and more like Stopdesign.com. But that is just my $.02 and thanks for letting me see ever so briefly into your world.

16. What I meant to say was. I love your site the way it is. I hope you don’t change it too much.

17. Okay, so, no.
    I’m like the hamsters that just had babies in my kid’s habitrail, only they had them in the wheel, you know, and they’re popping out of the wheel and sliding down the green slide, and I’m all like–you CAN NOT keep your babies in a wheel–so I take them out with a tea strainer, place them carefully on the shavings, and they carry them back up into the wheel again!
    That is to say, I’m really used to this place.
    You change this site and I’m not going to be able to find my way around the Internets anymore.

18. This is my first time here. Followed a link. . . Salon? Oh cool, the Star Trek guy, I thought.
    115 comments. Damn. No wonder you’re having trouble. How does one sift through that many comments anyway?
    I’ll add to them and comment on your planned blog overhaul. I just did one, used WordPress (if I can get it up, anybody can) and was impressed with the usage and overall look (I copped a free theme). My only difficulty is that I can get few of their plugins to work.

19. I’m afraid this is rather out of point…
    Coming from a different country, I was wondering what a geek is, and what are the so-called ‘ramifications’ of being called a geek in the US? Is it a derogatory term?
    Also, is there a difference between a ‘nerd’ and a ‘geek’ in the US context?
    Where I come from, people who over-indulge in computer games are considered ‘lackadaisical’, ‘slack’ or at best ‘playful’. If one wants to be considered a nerd/geek (in my cultural context), one must stay at home and study hard.
    Sorry… another question…
    I had the impression that one of the defining characteristics that epitomise ‘geekiness’ is the eagerness to abandon stereotypes and to be one’s eccentric self. Is that true, or must a geek also fit into a certain stereotype eg like computers, like star trek etc?
    Can a geek like sports or would that result in the his expulsion from the mold?
    If that is so, isn’t it a bit Orwellian because one of the reasons the ‘geek’ subculture was developed was so that people who were a bit different from the mainstream could be in good company?
    Anyway, awfully sorry for the awful rambling. Just rather fascinated by this… ‘geek’ culture thing.

20. Wil,
    I was just at the “hear” you read site and that pic… OMG! They made you like a drunk Johnny Depp. Now the album art is fine, but my god. BTW when are you comming to Texas again? Love to hear you in person.

21. Hi Wil!
    I don’t expect you to remember me but I’m the guy from the Sci-Fi Convention in Pasadena last month who bought two books (“Just A Geek”) from you.
    My friend, Linda, got her book and she was thrilled to know that it was signed by yours truly. Btw, I told you during our ‘small’ talk while you were signing the books that it was Linda who introduced me to WWdN.
    Anyway, I just start to read “Just A Geek”, I think, three days ago and I CAN’T put it down. I feel like you were talking to me personally and I’m your best buddy, lol! But seriously, you ARE a very good writer and I’m happy for you.
    It’s so exciting (and very cool!) to show your book to my friends and co-workers and bragging that you signed it!
    Anyway, this is quite long now. I just want you to know that even though you really don’t know me and I was not a fan from the very beginning, I AM NOW A FAN. I’m excited for you future endeavors and hoping the best for you!
    Take care!
    Ting
    P.S. As I was reading part of your book about “The Rules of Attraction,” I was telling myself, “Wil should not be upset about not getting this movie because the movie sucked big time!” lol! But then again, I know that if you happened to be in that movie, that it’ll be a BETTE movie and I’m not patronizing you since I saw some of your works before. I’m a movie addict (I have personally seen and reviewed in a private group fansite more than 140 movies for the entire year) and if I have the chance to be a bigtime producer like Brian Grazer or Jerry Bruckheimer, I would love to produce a movie with you in it! I’m dreaming big here. But hey! The say, “Dream big! It’s free!”

22. will,
    k, this is my first post
    any way people are just not useing teh right browser to view WWdN, try Dillo, its faster at rendering your site than it is Google’s!
    anyway peace out

23. Wil,
    If you don’t want a zillion extras, maybe you should use a lightweight blog solution. I wrote my own blogging software in PHP, which integrates with the CMS I wrote. All of my blog code is in a few script files.
    You should check the value of the session max life in your PHP configuration. Maybe that is why are you getting logged off. I had the same problem on my site.
    http://us2.php.net/manual/en/ref.session.php
    Also, I met you at Mysterious Galaxy, where you signed your name in my PalmOS paint program, SproutPaint. SproutPaint is available on my website.
    Here’s a screenshot with your digital signature:
    http://www.sproutworks.com/images/wilwheaton.png

24. Hey, I say if you’re going to redesign then go retro. Let’s take a trip back to 1995. Have a black background with star pattern and no less than 6 different fonts on the page in neon colours. Don’t forget lots of animated .GIFs. You can’t go wrong with some of the ol’ standards such as things rotating 360 degrees, things eternally flaming, unicorns prancing in glitter, and an opening envelope for your e-mail.
    Don’t forget to put everything in frames, oh and I can compose a background .MIDI for you too.
    You’ll be the envy of everyone on Compuserve.

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