New Year’s Wishes From Credit Writedowns

Happy New Year, Credit Writedowns readers! I hope the new year finds you in good spirits. I am battling a bit of a cold but I am in pretty good spirits myself. So I want to use this opportunity to thank you all for supporting our site, making comments, sharing articles on Facebook, Twitter, and e-mail, and for making blogging an enjoyable experience for me and the other writers here.

So what’s new at CW and in the world of finance and economics? Well, first at Credit Writedowns, we had switched to partial feeds because site scrapers were hotlinking to our files and causing problems for us on the search engines. As of this morning that is over. The full feed is back. I don’t think there any other major changes to report; so instead let me ask a favour of you: please respond to this post with suggestions on ways to improve your user experience on the site. Should we use a different comment system? Are the fonts wrong? Is the grey background annoying? Would you like to see more posts per day or less? At what time would you like the daily newsletter delivered? What should we do to make it easy for you to share your opinion in the comments and to share posts with your friends? Please let me know so that we can make the right changes to improve your experience on the site.

Oh, there is one thing that has changed recently – the links post. I have started to put the links post into the feed automatically. It goes out the same time every night. So it is more reliable than when I do it myself. But it doesn’t show up on the site – just in the feed. If you don’t subscribe to the feed, then you don’t get to see the links. Please let us know if this works because it is a lot easier since it is automated. P.S. – The best address for the feed is www.creditwritedownns.com/feed.

Later today, you should expect a post by Claus and one by me on our first thoughts for 2011. That’s it for now. I look forward to hearing from you all.

Best regards,

Edward

12 Comments
  1. jimh009 says

    Now that you mentioned it…that gray background is rather annoying as it makes normal, non-bold text difficult to read.

    Edit – Perhaps keep the gray background for everything but the actual post itself? For the post background, have it white. The gray would nicely frame the post this way, too.

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Jim, I’ll see what can be done on that score. I’ve noticed that bolded text in quotes gets blurred out as well and are hard to read.

      Happy New Year to you.

  2. Anonymous says

    Now that you mentioned it…that gray background is rather annoying as it makes normal, non-bold text difficult to read.

    Edit – Perhaps keep the gray background for everything but the actual post itself? For the post background, have it white. The gray would nicely frame the post this way, too.

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Jim, I’ll see what can be done on that score. I’ve noticed that bolded text in quotes gets blurred out as well and are hard to read.

      Happy New Year to you.

  3. Anonymous says

    Now that you mentioned it…that gray background is rather annoying as it makes normal, non-bold text difficult to read.

    Edit – Perhaps keep the gray background for everything but the actual post itself? For the post background, have it white. The gray would nicely frame the post this way, too.

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Jim, I’ll see what can be done on that score. I’ve noticed that bolded text in quotes gets blurred out as well and are hard to read.

      Happy New Year to you.

  4. Stilesbc says

    I could do with fewer posts. Don’t particularly find the daily currency updates from Win Thin or Marc Chandler very useful. However, I would read a more in depth column from either on a less frequent basis. I read mostly from my Google feed. I click through if I feel compelled to post. So the grey background doesn’t bother me. I like the new links format. Highlighting foreign language articles (German and Spanish) would be a cool feature for me, but I’m not sure if that gets in the way for others.

    I know there’s problems associated with anonymous commenting, but its likely the only way you’ll see more activity. Quite often, I just don’t want to spend the time (yes, 10 seconds) to log in, so I don’t comment at all.

    That’s all I can think of. I’ve been reading daily for two years now, while Naked Capitalism, Zero Hedge and a few others were removed from my list because filtering all their content began consuming all the time I preferred to spend reading. So you’re doing something right! Thanks, and Happy New Year!

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Great feedback, Matt, especially on the commenting part. I need to think about my own posting schedule. Right now, it’s down to 1-2 posts a day and most of the rest come from the other bloggers. Let me absorb this one and see how I can work it in. Happy New Year to you as well.

      Cheers.

  5. Stilesbc says

    I could do with fewer posts. Don’t particularly find the daily currency updates from Win Thin or Marc Chandler very useful. However, I would read a more in depth column from either on a less frequent basis. I read mostly from my Google feed. I click through if I feel compelled to post. So the grey background doesn’t bother me. I like the new links format. Highlighting foreign language articles (German and Spanish) would be a cool feature for me, but I’m not sure if that gets in the way for others.

    I know there’s problems associated with anonymous commenting, but its likely the only way you’ll see more activity. Quite often, I just don’t want to spend the time (yes, 10 seconds) to log in, so I don’t comment at all.

    That’s all I can think of. I’ve been reading daily for two years now, while Naked Capitalism, Zero Hedge and a few others were removed from my list because filtering all their content began consuming all the time I preferred to spend reading. So you’re doing something right! Thanks, and Happy New Year!

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Great feedback, Matt, especially on the commenting part. I need to think about my own posting schedule. Right now, it’s down to 1-2 posts a day and most of the rest come from the other bloggers. Let me absorb this one and see how I can work it in. Happy New Year to you as well.

      Cheers.

  6. Stilesbc says

    I could do with fewer posts. Don’t particularly find the daily currency updates from Win Thin or Marc Chandler very useful. However, I would read a more in depth column from either on a less frequent basis. I read mostly from my Google feed. I click through if I feel compelled to post. So the grey background doesn’t bother me. I like the new links format. Highlighting foreign language articles (German and Spanish) would be a cool feature for me, but I’m not sure if that gets in the way for others.

    I know there’s problems associated with anonymous commenting, but its likely the only way you’ll see more activity. Quite often, I just don’t want to spend the time (yes, 10 seconds) to log in, so I don’t comment at all.

    That’s all I can think of. I’ve been reading daily for two years now, while Naked Capitalism, Zero Hedge and a few others were removed from my list because filtering all their content began consuming all the time I preferred to spend reading. So you’re doing something right! Thanks, and Happy New Year!

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Great feedback, Matt, especially on the commenting part. I need to think about my own posting schedule. Right now, it’s down to 1-2 posts a day and most of the rest come from the other bloggers. Let me absorb this one and see how I can work it in. Happy New Year to you as well.

      Cheers.

  7. Stevie b. says

    Hi Ed – it almost goes without saying that you\’re the reason I started visiting your site daily 2 1/2 years ago, so IMO it would be nice if your posts could be highlighted so I don\’t have to hunt for them!

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Happy New Year Stevie. I will try and remember to put “by Edward Harrison” at the start of my articles. That way you know it’s me. Expect a 2011 forecast article from me shortly. Cautiously optimistic!

    2. Stilesbc says

      Is it possible to have a separate feed for your articles, as well as one for all the other bloggers combined (and perhaps a third for yours plus theirs – like it is now)? That way you’d be able to keep (or even expand) your network of co-bloggers, while not inundating your own readers with content. In today’s growing “information age”, it seems like customizability is what wins eyeballs.

      Heck, put all of the posts in different buckets and allow readers to mix and match what they want to create their own feed. Probably some labour involved in setting something like this up. Just thinking out loud.

      1. Edward Harrison says

        Definitely possible. There are author feeds that are built into the blogging platform. Let me see if people want this before I promote it though.

  8. Stevie b. says

    Hi Ed – it almost goes without saying that you’re the reason I started visiting your site daily 2 1/2 years ago, so IMO it would be nice if your posts could be highlighted so I don’t have to hunt for them!

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Happy New Year Stevie. I will try and remember to put “by Edward Harrison” at the start of my articles. That way you know it’s me. Expect a 2011 forecast article from me shortly. Cautiously optimistic!

    2. Stilesbc says

      Is it possible to have a separate feed for your articles, as well as one for all the other bloggers combined (and perhaps a third for yours plus theirs – like it is now)? That way you’d be able to keep (or even expand) your network of co-bloggers, while not inundating your own readers with content. In today’s growing “information age”, it seems like customizability is what wins eyeballs.

      Heck, put all of the posts in different buckets and allow readers to mix and match what they want to create their own feed. Probably some labour involved in setting something like this up. Just thinking out loud.

      1. Edward Harrison says

        Definitely possible. There are author feeds that are built into the blogging platform. Let me see if people want this before I promote it though.

  9. Stevie b. says

    Hi Ed – it almost goes without saying that you’re the reason I started visiting your site daily 2 1/2 years ago, so IMO it would be nice if your posts could be highlighted so I don’t have to hunt for them!

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Happy New Year Stevie. I will try and remember to put “by Edward Harrison” at the start of my articles. That way you know it’s me. Expect a 2011 forecast article from me shortly. Cautiously optimistic!

    2. Stilesbc says

      Is it possible to have a separate feed for your articles, as well as one for all the other bloggers combined (and perhaps a third for yours plus theirs – like it is now)? That way you’d be able to keep (or even expand) your network of co-bloggers, while not inundating your own readers with content. In today’s growing “information age”, it seems like customizability is what wins eyeballs.

      Heck, put all of the posts in different buckets and allow readers to mix and match what they want to create their own feed. Probably some labour involved in setting something like this up. Just thinking out loud.

      1. Edward Harrison says

        Definitely possible. There are author feeds that are built into the blogging platform. Let me see if people want this before I promote it though.

  10. fresnodan says

    I think your perfect just as you are…
    Don’t go changing… (I’d put little musical notes around the phrase, but I don’t know how to do that)

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Thanks Dan. And a happy new year to you as well!

  11. fresno dan says

    I think your perfect just as you are…
    Don’t go changing… (I’d put little musical notes around the phrase, but I don’t know how to do that)

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Thanks Dan. And a happy new year to you as well!

  12. fresno dan says

    I think your perfect just as you are…
    Don’t go changing… (I’d put little musical notes around the phrase, but I don’t know how to do that)

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Thanks Dan. And a happy new year to you as well!

  13. Anonymous says

    Edward,

    All the content is some of the best available. You went to a new blogging engine a few months back, which has made accessing your page slower and more cumbersome.

    Thanks for all the hard work.

    Barry Schaeffer

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Happy New Year, Barry. So you’re getting slow page loads – is that right? Is it that the page starts slowly or ends slowly. Also, what about the navigation has been muddled. I definitely need to know.

      The font size issue has been fixed and the grey background is less grey. Other issues still being fixed – including some annoying ads I noticed this morning.

  14. Barry Schaeffer says

    Edward,

    All the content is some of the best available. You went to a new blogging engine a few months back, which has made accessing your page slower and more cumbersome.

    Thanks for all the hard work.

    Barry Schaeffer

    1. Edward Harrison says

      Happy New Year, Barry. So you’re getting slow page loads – is that right? Is it that the page starts slowly or ends slowly. Also, what about the navigation has been muddled. I definitely need to know.

      The font size issue has been fixed and the grey background is less grey. Other issues still being fixed – including some annoying ads I noticed this morning.

Comments are closed.

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