Name Change and Website Problems
I’ve been thinking for a while that I don’t really like the name “Buenos Aires Travel Guide“.
I mean, for a start, I don’t actual do or write about any travel at all! I just write reviews about Buenos Aires itself, and try to create, as best I can, an online guide for those coming to visit BA. Not much travel once you get here, so that word is a little useless.
And so, I decided to remove the word “Travel”, and replace it with the word “Argentina”, just to make sure no one is confused exactly where Buenos Aires is. For example, I know that George W. Bush is an avid reader of my blog (is that a good or a bad thing?) as he wants to learn more about the place his twin daughters have been visiting, and he almost certainly thinks Buenos Aires is in Brazil.
So Dubya, especially for you, this is the new name of my blog:
Buenos Aires, Argentina Guide
As you can tell, I’m a fan of no-nonsense, descriptive names. “It does exactly as it says on the tin” 
On a side note, have any regular readers (that means you, Mr. President) noticed any problems with my blog stalling, loading slowly, or occasionally not loading at all recently? I have seen it a few times lately, and I’m wondering if it’s just me. Please let me know by commenting below - I would really appreciate it…
I hope you all keep reading as a ‘new dawn’ awaits us here at the Buenos Aires, Argentina Guide!
January 22nd, 2007 at 10:16 pm
Alan,
Nice information on the site. I’ve really enjoyed reading it over the last month or so as I’ve been planning my first trip to B.A. (Feb. 9-23). I especially like the restaurant reviews and tips on things like going to the Hippodromo. (BTW, have you seen this page on B.A. pubs? http://www.scoopergen.co.uk/scoopingabroadargentina.htm I know that you — like myself — enjoy a good pint or four, so you might find it interesting.)
But the main reason I’m writing is to provide feedback on your site, per your request in the post above. I’m a Web producer, so I often manage to convice people I know what I’m talking about when it comes to this kind of thing:
- Site performance: Yes, I have noticed some hangups in the past couple of days. The problem seems to resolve itself after a few minutes, but it is a new problem.
- The name of the blog: Just my opinion, but the comma really kinda messes up the new name. Methinks you can do better. Maybe … Notes from Buenos Aires or Buenos Aires Chronicles or something clever like Buenos Aires: Riding the Wave Before the Yankees Ruin It.
- And now your URL doesn’t match your name, but that’s not a huge problem.
- A design observation: Maybe it’s the browsers I use, but it seems odd that you have two right columns on your template. The center column, as it were, should probably be removed as far as I can tell. The same categories appear in the far right column. (And pardon me if I have no frickin’ clue what that art element is at the top of the center column … An ‘Alt’ tag with info about what that is might be helpful if you’re going to keep it around.)
- Off the subject, but I see the What’s Up B.A. site gets a lot of press. Amazing given that I think it’s one of the most poorly designed and least user-friendly site I seen out there as far as English-language B.A. sites.
Meantime, keep up the great work. Really looking forward to experiencing the city rather than just reading about it.
- Bob Payne
Seattle, Wash.
January 23rd, 2007 at 1:08 pm
bob is right, the comma is not working.
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:12 pm
Thanks Bob and Diva… that’s a lot of really good advice Bob.
I have just removed the comma for now. There is another reason the title is like this now. But it is my little secret until someone guesses.
If you don’t mind Bob, I’d like to email you soon to discuss your suggestions
Thanks again!
That site about the beer/bars in BA is great! Will definitely come in useful…
The blog seems to have stopped ‘hanging’ today. Hope that is for good!
Cheers,
Alan
PS - I also agree with the What’s Up BA comments. It does get an awful lot of exposure for a badly designed, non-user-friendly site (not that my design is perfect, as you say)… but I’m going to shut up now because I have a friend who is friends with the person that runs it, and 1. I don’t want her to shout at me, and 2. I don’t want to burn my bridges for a possible future networking opportunity with What’s Up BA!
January 23rd, 2007 at 4:37 pm
No problems with loading over here!
January 23rd, 2007 at 5:16 pm
Thanks Cesar… just sent you a quick email too
January 23rd, 2007 at 10:41 pm
are you going to write about other places in Argentina?
January 24th, 2007 at 9:36 am
>There is another reason the title is like this now. But it is my little secret until someone guesses.
Hmmm perhaps for the same reason why my post titles are so dull yet serve another purpose?
January 24th, 2007 at 2:54 pm
We have a winner!
(i.e. Marc)
“Build it and they will come” is a nice philosophy… but it needs a little bit of help along the way
I do seriously hope that the blog posts are not dull as well!
January 24th, 2007 at 3:02 pm
Damn… I see the page hanging, stalling and not loading again now
I wish I knew what the problem was (any ideas, anyone?) Guess I should contact my host…
Oh, I forgot to say before… the ‘art element’ that Bob asked about in the top center column is the official flag of the city of Buenos Aires. And very nice it is too!
No idea how to add an alt tag to it in the wordpress template though… I could do it for a standard html page, but can’t work it out for this…sorry!
January 24th, 2007 at 8:10 pm
Create a static html page of this blog’s index page.
http*://www.buenostours.com/asdf.html
Check that page when things are sluggish. If that doesn’t load then your host probably has server or bandwidth problems.
If it does load fine then it could be mysql crapping out.
You don’t have any of your third-party tracking scripts (ie Google Analytics) in the header so that’s probably not causing it.
Of course there could be other problems but those are typically the most popular.
You can also do a reverse IP on your address to find other sites hosted on the same server and see if theirs are down too.
January 25th, 2007 at 12:08 pm
No problems loading here.