Spring Cleaning 2012

It seems like I feel a need to clean up my website at least once per year. As you can see, I've changed some colors, removed/reduced some patterns, and removed some useless code so the site will load more efficiently (you probably can't see that last part.)

Actually, I've was pretty happy with the old design. Of course, I needed to rearrange some buttons and add a link to my new Deviant ART account. What pushed me over the edge was a something I found in my documents folder. Apparently, I had archived an old version of my site from 2010. It ain't pretty




 (Eep.)

Sure, some of the pieces aren't bad on their own and you can sort of see how this mess evolved into the current version. But the amount of clutter... How did I not notice all the clutter? And if I was blind to the clutter back then, how do I know I'm not blind to terrible amounts of clutter right now? So, with paranoia as my guide, gave the site a little overhaul. It's now leaner and cleaner than ever before.

I may be making some minor tweaks as the new site settles in, but, for the most part, you can just enjoy the new site...at least until next year...Maybe.

-Marj

Urban Underbrush Readers' Poll Results

A few weeks ago, many of you took part in the Urban Underbrush Readers’ Poll to share what you liked (or didn’t like) about the comic. Now, I’m giving you the results. Here are the answers you voted for, ranked by popularity. I’ve also included some commentary.


1. Who’s your favorite character?

First Place: Maxwell (40%)
Second Place: Dynamite & Detonator / Vincent / Scatter (15% each)
Third Place: Leslie (10%)
Fourth Place: Cassidy (5%)

I’m not surprised that Max is the favorite. He’s a nice guy who gets the best pop culture jokes. I’m glad that Dynamite and Detonator made a decent showing since they often carry the stories. Vincent was a surprise. He’s so quiet I was wondering if you even noticed him. The rest of the cast did about as well as I expected.

2. Which settings would you like to see?

First Place: House and Roof Garden (45%)
Second Place: City (40%)
Third Place: Visit other places (15%)

Actually, these results reflect how often I intended to use these settings anyway. About 50% to 60% of the story will take place in the house, 40% in the rest of the city and 15% in some other locations.

3. Explosions?

First Place: There are enough explosions (60%)
Second Place: We need more explosions (40%)

Everyone likes a good explosion, but you guys clearly understand that they probably can’t happen all the time. Urban Underbrush has continuity. It’s not the kind of cartoon where everything falls apart one week, and then it’s inexplicably fine the next week. Plus, the characters make a big deal over how important their home is. So I can’t be blasting pieces off of it every other week. I do promise to blow things up whenever I can get away with it.

Not surprisingly, no one voted for fewer explosions.

4. Human Stories or Animal Stories?

First Place: Mix (90%)
Second Place: humans only/animals only (5% each)

I’ve always liked stories with both animal and human characters interacting. I really don’t see the point in keeping them apart.


5. Romance Stories

First Place: Keep doing what you’re doing. (45%)
Second Place: More stories where Vincent and Leslie do couple things. (25%)
Third Place: Vincent and Leslie are creepy. Make someone else hook up with someone. (20%)
Fourth Place: Keep it to a minimum. (10%)

I kind of screwed up this question. That line about Vincent and Leslie being creepy was based on something a friend of mine had said about my comics many years ago. I thought it would be funny to include it in the survey. But many of you like seeing Vincent and Leslie together but ALSO want to see other characters hook up, so I couldn’t get an honest answer from that line of questioning.

Most of you seem interested in some light romance stories. Not a lot of people flat-out objected to them anyway.

6. Favorite Chapter?

First Place: Ch 5 - Bicycle Ride (42%)
Second Place: Ch 2 - Storage Problems/Ch 4 - Grass Roots History (16% each)
Third Place: Ch 1 - Rabbits Move In (11%)
Fourth Place: Ch 6/ Ch7/ “I haven’t read all the chapters” (5% each)
Fifth Place: Ch 3 - House Warming Party (0%)

I hope to do more wacky stories like Chapter 5. It’s easier to write this kind of story now that we’ve settled in and met everyone.

I’m not surprised that Chapter 3 received the fewest votes. It’s the shortest, most uneventful chapter. Its only real function is to transition into Chapter 4. Some of the individual comic strips are pretty funny, but, as a whole, it can’t compete with the longer stories.


7. How often do you read Urban Underbrush?

First Place: “I check every update” (75%)
Second Place: “I check every few weeks” (25%)

My sponsors should be glad to hear this.

8. Least Favorite Character

First Place: “ I can’t answer this” (40%)
Second Place: Caius / Blair (20% each)
Third Place: Clive (10%)
Fourth Place: Cassidy / Scatter (5% each)

I’m genuinely surprised to learn that people don’t like jerks. That’s not sarcasm. I honestly thought people loved selfish, cynical, mean characters in cartoons.

I’m not planning on making any changes based on these results. The least favorite characters only “won” by a small margin. Not enough of a negative reaction to cut them or change them. Besides, we’d have a pretty boring story with no antagonists.

Oddly, Clayton and Slasher are the only characters who received no votes for “Favorite” or “Least Favorite.” Cassidy and Scatter are the only characters who received votes for both “Favorite” and “Least Favorite.”

So there you have it.  That’s what people think of Urban Underbrush (as much as we can trust an internet survey.) My thanks to everyone who took the time to share their opinions. Maybe next time, I’ll give you a free wallpaper or something.

-Marj

Moving Day

Moving is always a chore. Of course, I wasn't physically moving last week. I was moving my entire website to a new, improved and more affordable web server. Don't get me wrong, it was still a chore. Of course, I may have made the jump more complicated than it needed to be. Perhaps the rest of you can learn from my errors.

My first mistake was doing too much research. The web resources I found always included some worst-case-scenario stories about web hosts who punished customers for leaving. Apparently, in the 90's, hosts would often register a site in their own name (instead of in the customer's name) so if the customer tried to leave he was told that he could not continue using the same domain name and address unless he stayed with his current provider. These days, a grudging host will just bury the transfer directions and/or stall on sending the necessary transfer codes. It turns out that my old host was very accommodating when I asked for transfer codes and instructions. Unfortunately, my research had put me so on edge that when I finally contacted tech support my help requests sounded like I was making demands in a hostage situation. Sorry, tech support.

Time was my other enemy. I had planned on making the move two weeks before my old contract expired. This way, I wouldn't be paying for two hosts at once for very long, but if something went wrong, I'd still have some time to make adjustments. It was almost a perfect plan, but a personal crisis or two made me push the move back for a week. It turns out that, while you can change servers in a few hours, it is currently impossible to transfer a domain name in less than a week, so if your domain expires in less than a week, you need to renew for the year before you are even allowed to begin the transfer process. Sigh.

All's well that ends well. I'm set up on the new server, which has shown little or no signs of disappointing me. You readers probably won't notice the change, but you might find the site a little faster, more reliable and easier to find on search engines. Keep me posted.

-Marj