I have considered adding a Daring Fireball-style linked list feature to Initial Charge for months now. But, just didn’t have the technical know-how to build it myself and couldn’t find the right WordPress plugin to do it. That is until Ben Brooks wrote about his setup for The Brooks Review which included a link to the Daring Fireball-Style Linked List plugin he was using on his site.
It took a lot of work yesterday but I finally have it all configured and integrated into the design of this site. Standard articles will continue to appear exactly the same as they always have, but will now include a “●” in front of the title in the RSS feed. The real change is the format of my shorter pieces that will now link to an external site from the title. These link post items can be distinguished from standard articles by the “→” to the right of the title and the “●” next to the date. Clicking on the title will take you to the primary source and clicking on the date will take you to the item’s permalink on Initial Charge.
These link post items will also look different in the RSS feed. Clicking on the title will take you to the external source and a “●” will be included at the end of each post that will take you to it’s permalink on Initial Charge.
This may not sound like a big change, but what it will result in is a more active website with a much more valuable RSS feed. And, although I have always linked to my sources, the source link will be much more prominent than before. I hope everyone will be as happy with these changes as I am. And, if you have any comments about the new format — good, bad, or otherwise — you can direct your emails to comments@initialcharge.net or mention me on Twitter @initialcharge.
