Calendar theme for 2022?
I’ve been thinking I should get out and do some photos for the 2022 weblog calendar but can’t decide what to do. These have been the themes so far:
2018: Historical images
2019: Brutalism
2020: Columns
2021: Stairs
I would love suggestions.
Also, this November is the blog’s 20th anniversary. I can’t think of anything suitable except maybe a redesign, but do we need new features?
Update: Here’s a quick history of the blog to explain my reasons for not having updated the look or the mobile version. This blog started in November 2001 on Blogger, with no commenting, and went on like that for some time. After a point, Google bought Blogger and discontinued the system I was using where Blogger kept the posts in its database and transferred them to the website via FTP. This was when the blog was on montreal.com.
I moved the site to WordPress, but WordPress simply could not import all the posts from the Blogger database – there were a lot. So I started fresh, with commenting this time, still on montreal.com – but then that server had a bad disk crash and I lost a lot of posts and comments (which still makes me sad – there was a lot of good stuff on there, from many participants). I got the domain mtlcityweblog.com and restarted again with a new WordPress install but no history.
Anyway, this is why a) the contents of the current blog only go back to 2017 and b) why I’m nervous about trying to move the whole thing to the latest WP and a new template. Yes, I can back it up and I do, but it may not be possible to keep the whole thing online if it goes blooey during an upgrade. There are more than 10,000 posts on here now, and nearly 33,000 comments.
Ephraim 13:49 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
How about faded signs of yesteryear. Though, a lot of them would be banks of yesteryear… The Molson Bank on 288 St-James. There’s an old Bank of Toronto sign somewhere in town. SAQ at Rachel and St-Denis was a City & District with the bee hive clock and a “Banque d’Epargne” sign.
Blork 14:13 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
How about views of famous Montreal landmarks marred by dirty disposable face masks all over the ground?
Regarding features, I sometimes wish there was a FB-like “Like” button for people’s comments, but that’s a (gasp!) slippery slope.
Meezly 14:20 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
I feel like the alleys of Montreal are pretty unique. I know it’s been done before (what hasn’t?) but there are so many alleys to explore and it’s a nice organic change from hard edged architectural images.
Tim S. 14:20 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
Defunct signs would be cool. Or maybe street furniture, flower boxes, that kind of thing?
dhomas 14:24 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
I don’t know about themes for the calendar; I’m usually pretty happy to be surprised by whatever Kate decides on.
With respect to site features, though, I can add my wishlist items:
A proper mobile site (it sorta worked at some point, but hasn’t in a long time)
An “edit” feature for comments, so I can fix my silly typos.
ant6n 14:36 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
suggestion: make the website more mobile friendly (I think it works well on ios, not so well on android). Enable https.
has archive of the older version been recovered and integrated here? Maybe there could be a button like “on this day 1/2/5/10/20 years ago”, going into the archive.
MarcG 15:00 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
The simplicity of the website is one of its strengths. I like the idea of an ‘edit’ feature as well but that would require accounts which sounds like a bother and it might deter some people from commenting.
mb 16:12 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
Definitely old street signage, Montréal has plenty of it!
Kate 17:11 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
Meezly, you’ve got an idea there. Thank you.
GC 18:07 on 2021-08-12 Permalink
I can’t think of any good suggestions at the moment, but congrats on the milestone anniversary!
thomas 12:22 on 2021-08-13 Permalink
An idea would be to feature the very narrow residential streets of Montreal that have survived redevelopment in isolated pockets in Montreal and are largely unknown unless one stumbles across it by chance. So I am thinking of streets like: Lartigue, Saint-Rose & Dalcourt, Demers, De Chateaubriand, Le Jeune. Though, perhaps, not visually interesting enough.
Kate 13:23 on 2021-08-13 Permalink
thomas, rem acu tetigisti. To find a theme that is both culturally interesting AND can be photographed interestingly, that’s the challenge.