EDIT: and changed subdomain, figured out I will need advanced DNS capabilities in the near future.

EDIT2  (Dec. 1, 2012): changed “most popular” setup, added donation widget, introduced new rating graphs with scripting, little SEO targeting, “noindex” for old blog, added social buttons…

While I start testing out the new stuff I got from Japan, you can enjoy the new stuff I added to the blog lately. Quick walk-through:

• Page rewriting and merging

The “Vendors” and “About” page now contain more information, I’ve been asked lately about J-List’s and NLS’ parcels so I added pics to the page (well actually I made only the NLS ones, but found examples on the net for J-List). The “About” page now has a quick history of the blog, some context around onaholes, safety and a contact form.

• follow widget (on the right column)

Following the blog by email is now possible again, I just have to tick a checkbox when publishing a new post and you can receive notification that something new is out. I personally prefer be notified by RSS feeds instead of emails (and so do other busy people too), so I added a RSS-button for easy access to the RSS feed, and a link for Google Reader. You won’t miss a thing, and it provides better privacy than WordPress.com behavior (“Dave Turner likes this post” with a link to Gravatar profile, from where you get to personal blog, Facebook, Twitter,..)

• subscribe to comments option

Started a conversation in the comments ? But you want to be informed as soon as a new comment is added ? Tick “Notify me on new comments”. As easy as that.

• “Overview” page

I set the blog to show 3 posts per page so it’s not too heavy for mobile devices (because yes mobile device support is pretty good with this theme). That’s ok but what if you want to just take a look at everything here ? Clicking “older posts” link at page bottom until the end of the actual 9 pages, or relying on search engine screenshot classification by date ? Hell no, a summary must be Obviously the “Overview” page gives you an overview of all items, easier to discover new items quickly.

• Automatic price update

‘told you with a shared hosting you can do funny stuff not possible on WordPress.com, like PHP scripting. From the blog’s side it’s just an image showing a price for every item, but the request URL actually activates a script that retrieves the item page from the store, extracts the price, creates an image from it and put it into cache. Image because I dislike iframes and javascript mess, it’s pretty much “set it and forget it”, tells the actual price (since NLS updates it weekly according to Yen-Dollar exchange rate) without putting too much load on the server. Simple yet effective code.

That’s it One more thing: the new review scores. Chosen criteria are:

1. Realism (how much life-like ?)
2. Pleasure (does it feel good ?)
3. Packaging (boring blister or cute box ?)
4. Cleaning (easy and efficient to clean ?)
5. Novelty (original and wacky stuff ?)
6. Price (worth the money ?)
7. West-friendliness (compatible with western anatomies ?)
8. Materials (quality material, and do you risk cancer ?)
9. Discretion (hiding, noise ?)

I gonna start using it from the next review on, yes the previous reviews will get it too See ya’ !