[noah]

Well, “Latest News” is the most recent … but also some items of particular importance that I want to make quite prominent.

I have not yet moved them over into the “News archive”.

“News Archive” is basically all other news items dating back to Jan 2012.

Some “Latest News” that is of less importance, or is overtaken by events I move into the “News Archive” quite quickly.

It is surely quite an anomaly that I cannot just show 25 posts and then have a clickable heading /button to display all the rest without duplication?

(As a national newspaper journalist for 30 years, I am so impressed by most of this stuff, and the multiple ways of archiving in particular).

Curiously, I have done a few tweaks and Google PageSpeed Insights is now giving this site 84/100 on desktop (OK, it falls to 52/100 on mobile).

[noah]

Tom and Brad,

Thanks for the responses.

Although I like the idea of a toggle button, that is not quite the problem here (although could well be useful at a later date, if I get brave enough to edit the php file).

It is what Tom has identified: the presentation of the posts items (there are 343 published posts) is the issue.

There are only two important categories: latest news and news.

But I don’t know how reliably to publish these EXCEPT by placing them all in some form on the opening page in WordPress.

(I have the same issue with http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com, which is a News Pro site.)

Take Carlex’s “Latest News” with 35 posts. I use the Featured Posts widget. If I limit the posts to 10 and activate the “Show Category Archive Link” I will get all the posts – starting again with the first 10.

I cannot see how I can prevent the listing of posts that have already been displayed.

It would be useful if there were an “Exclude Previously Displayed Posts?” option at this point, but there isn’t.

The problem is even worst with the news archive.

I cannot show 50 posts, say, and then activate the “Show Category Archive Link” which will then show the first 50 posts all over again.

Readers will give up and assume that the link is just a duplication.

This website has controversial and highly influential news items, and around 400 unique visitors a day. Seeing everything in the archives is important, and readers do read the older posts.

I COULD break up the News Archive, and place posts in, say, different years.

But issues that began at the end of 2013 are still relevant today.

Obviously, the posts are also sub-divided into other categories, but that assumes readers are competent to search using these categories.

I like a simple, large chronological news archive where readers can just scroll down.

Basically, I need a Page 2 of the website, which doesn’t start duplicating Page 1.

In the absence of this, I think it is preferable to have a clear archive on page one – even if it is playing havoc with my web speeds.

Thanks to you both for your replies.

[noah]

Thanks for that. Any idea why the default News Pro has all this for its block quote? I cannot see what the colours are for, or in what instance they would appear.

I have replaced all this:

blockquote,
blockquote::before {
color: #999;
}

blockquote {
margin: 40px 40px 24px;
margin: 4rem 4rem 2.4rem;
}

blockquote::before {
content: "\201C";
display: block;
font-size: 30px;
font-size: 3rem;
height: 0;
left: -20px;
position: relative;
top: -10px;
}

.entry-content code {
background-color: #333;
color: #ddd;
}

cite {
font-style: normal;
}

With this
blockquote {
border-left: 5px solid #ccc;
color: #a5a4a4;
font-style: italic;
margin: 30px 0 30px 45px;
padding-left: 15px;
}

Styling pull quotes with the CSS file seemed hit and miss so I just used Shortcodes Ultimate. Is there any reason not to?

[noah]

Ah ... that was embarrassing. The "after entry" widget area had my entire archive. (I can only say, I didn't put it there - it must have jumped in during the theme upgrade, along with many other odd things the widgets have been doing).

Thanks a lot.

[noah]

I have just been sorting the same problems with my update to News Pro at http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com

You almost certainly do not need to re-size the pictures, but run them through the Regenerate Thumbnails plugin.

You may want to address your slider arrows and get them back within the slider.

I did this by changing the slider css to reduce the left/right px in lines 185 and 194:

.flex-direction-nav li .next {
background-position: -52px 0;
right: -10px;
}

.flex-direction-nav li .next:hover {
background-position: -52px -50px;
}

.flex-direction-nav li .prev {
left: -10px;

[noah]

Thanks so much for that

[noah]

Thanks so much. Really helpful.

[noah]

I am controlling the number of posts displayed by setting the Genesis - Featured Posts limit to 50.

I am wanting to create another page(s) of Featured Posts for ease for readers. Otherwise, it is a long scroll. But I would prefer a long scroll to having the non-Gensis WordPress archive of article excerpts and irregular sized pictures. Sorry, hope that is clear.

I will look into your code, but terrified of messing with the loop: these articles are in different categories appearing on different Widgets, so the archiving here is quite complex.

Thanks.

[noah]

It's a nice site and can see your problem. Not sure I have seen an example of the ads between posts. It would be a shame to ruin the nice tint/grey dividing line between the posts.

What's wrong with having them as images in the post with a discreet "Advertisement" announcement above, to differentiate with your editorial pictures?

I wonder about the pictures at the bottom (the entire post archive?) where it says: Christina / Little Victorian.

It is not obvious what that is about (you need to look to see the scroll bar) and maybe needs a heading of some sort. Possibly make it a bit deeper, and have (smaller) ads above?

It would be great to see what ads between posts look like and whether it is too intrusive for a site like this.

Golden rule of Lord Northcliffe (the press baron): get the readers in and advertisers will look after themselves.

[noah]

Thanks, Erin. Mailchimp support were very good and it is sorted. I don't find the UI of their site very clear: it was very counterintuitive to find the place where I needed to make a change. But all done. Thanks

[noah]

Congratulations with this. It is really good content, which is the most important thing. Interesting words that are a pleasure to read and lovely photographs.

I think the header is a bit dull, and being black with so many other black headings and rules on this theme it is lacking contrast. What about a header from one of your lovely pictures? This would hold the site together a bit, especially if you made it quite deep.

The other point is that all the posts are the same size, so it is a bit fragmentary and lacking in emphasis. I would suggest a nice big picture from your most recent travels at the top, or better still a slider.

These are very minor points compared with the whole, however.

 

[noah]

I deactivated the Genesis Simple Headers plug in and that has stopped the text-overlay problem. But it was still not showing the header  completely.

I then realised I had not deactivated all the plugins. I did so, and the header worked.

BUT the plug-in causing the problem is the W3 Total Cache: my most vital plugin along with Joost's WordPress SEO.

It is the problem: the colored content box and header are now looking as I intended. What can be done?

 

[noah]

Thanks brad. This worked on my test site. Now I have a very similar problem with the real one which is live: http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com.

[noah]

I think that looks really good. Congratulations. I think the typography of the business name could be more elegant. The main photo needs attention, and so does the one of you, which is a snap really. I'd get a proper portrait.

[noah]

Oh. It appeared quitting Safari and coming back again after making a cup of tea fixed this. I must have been too impatient.

All I am trying to do is recreate the  bullet point short articles on News. Where it says Featured music and Today's headlines.

 

 

[noah]

That looks very good. How do you create the "mini" posts on the home page as shown on the demo site?

I am after column of "news in brief" with a tiny picture beside the headline.

My website is a UK one: http://www.leaseholdknowledge.com, for which I am using twenty eleven, but I am working on development site subdomain with genesis. Early days, though.

Anyway your site looks good. On the home page can you place any of the pictures on the right just to give variety? Or do they have to be on the left?

Best wishes,

[Author]

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