New links section

I finally recently got around to adding a list-of-links section in a sidebar on my journal page.

The idea is that instead of the overwhelming giant list-of-links entries I used to post, and instead of the saving-links-but-never-posting-them approach that I usually take these days, I can post brief links to items that don't need a lot of explanation, in a lightweight format that doesn't require a separate entry for every link.

I think I stole the idea from Making Light, though I'm sure others have done it too. I'm using a Movable Type plugin called MT BlogRoll, which is designed for creating a list of blogs that you read regularly or that you particularly like at the moment or whatever. But instead of using it to link to entire blogs, I'll be using it to link to specific individual articles, entries, photos, and other fun and/or interesting and/or unusual stuff.

Some people use del.icio.us for this kind of thing, but I don't really like the UI of that.

At the moment, my version is just a list of links with brief descriptive names. In the future, I plan to add these enhancements:

  • A feed, which can then be syndicated to LJ if people want it there.
  • A way to view past items, not just the ten or so most recent ones.
  • A way to see slightly more detailed descriptions of some items, probably by mouse-over hover (another idea I'm stealing from Making Light).

The main reason it took me so long to implement this, after pretty much deciding I wanted to do it some months back, is that I wasn't sure where to put the list. Making Light has "TNH's Particles" and "PNH's Sidelights" in a left-hand sidebar, with other stuff in a right-hand sidebar, but I prefer a two-column layout, and I didn't want to displace the recent-comments sidebar. But I finally decided that if I kept the list of items short, the recent-comments list would still be visible to most visitors.

Anyway, as usual, lemme know if you run into any problems with the new feature, or if you have any comments or suggestions for improving it.

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