Yup, that has got to be the weirdest title that you have ever seen me publish in the history of my blog. Although I guess Back from the grave is a close runner up right? So, what is this (short) post about? I recently reached 500 posts, and have since then even surpassed that number now. As my blog will (hopefully) continue to grow with me writing more reviews, I have also found it’s becoming very hard with my current menu structure to find older posts. The menu on my homepage had not been updated in ages and was very cluttered. I used to have one that featured dropdown tabs where you could immediately access a review. But as some categories have now grown way out of proportion, that became very unwieldy. For the past two days I have been working very hard at cleaning up those categories and making something new: an Index. You will find the Index on my mainpage . As you can see when you lightly tap the Index button without pressing it, each category has it’s own index page, with movie and tv-series having subcategories. From there it’s as simple as picking what you want to look at and pressing the button that will take you to a page that contains an A-Z list of every review I’ve written for that particular category.
See a review that you like to read? Just press the link, and it will take you straight to the post. Some movies might fall into multiple categories, which is why you will see them make an appearance in more than one Index. As some movies also have remakes, when it’s necessary I have added the year in which it was made to the link, in order to distinguish between the old and modern versions. A few Index pages contain only a few entries, but that’s simply because I haven’t published much posts for them. Doesn’t mean that won’t be happening in the future though. If you rather want to scroll through a particular category, that’s also possible of course. Just don’t go the Index and press any of the category buttons which will just have all the reviews underneath each other from newest to oldest posts. Well, that’s it. This was honestly quite a lot of work, so I really hope that you like what I have done with the place! Please let me know in the comments section if this was helpful, and if it has made Raistlin0903 a bit more user friendly. For now, I wish you all a very good and hopefully relaxing and enjoyable weekend!
Raistlin0903 
Menus are a tricky balance, huh? I’ve fiddled around with mine several times as what looks good on desktop doesn’t necessarily work great on mobile, and vice versa. Hope the new format works for you! 🙂
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Haha, so true Pete. And as I am not really a tech wizard I’m always struggling with this. I was really getting fed up with my old one though. It was way too cluttered, had not been update in many months, and it was just very hard to find stuff. I hope the new Index is going to help people. I’m pretty glad with the way it turned out, but of course I hope everybody who reads this likes it as that’s the most important thing of course lol😊
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I try and keep my archive page up to date … but I keep forgetting. I know there’s about five I need to add to it … but the effort of even thinking about doing it is too much
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Haha, I know exactly what you mean! But well, I just got fed up with it the past two days, and figured I would do something about it😊 Now with this new index page I can simply add a new review to it, and it’s much easier to keep up with in that way. I’m pretty happy with the way it has turned out, but well…I just hope my readers are too, as I made this for them of course! 😅😊
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Rats, now I’m going to have to sort mine out, I forget to update it! The new menu system looks great on your mainpage and is easy to use. Good job!
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Phew! 😅😅 Thank you! I was really worried when I started updating thinking what if people don’t like it! But glad to hear the first positive feedback. It’s taken me quite some time, but I’m happy with it myself as well. Hope everybody else is too!😊
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Such a great blog on a post by post basis; I try and do a bit of work tidying things up every so often, but everyone needs to clean house sometime…
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Thank you! 😊😊Haha so true! Since I had the week off from work, I though this was a great opportunity to do clean that house up. It was quite a bit of work, but I’m happy with the final result😊 Hope the readers are too as I definitely did it for them 😀
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As blogs grow, we really have to maintain them! Lately I’ve been working on deleting old posts that are not useful/relevant or just don’t fit in with my current brand. It’s taking a lot of time haha.
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Haha, it really does! Eventually I might have to resort to that at some point as well, but at the moment that’s not yet necessary😊 I think the Index I made at least for now works good, at least I hope it will😊
Good luck with you own maintanance project! 😀
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Thank you?
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*Thank you!! (I put a question mark on the other comment by mistake haha)
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Haha, no worries, I did wonder about that question mark haha😂😂
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Never delete older posts, they still bring traffic. Regardless of whether it is current brand or not
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They were the kind of posts that wouldn’t bring traffic. It’s been 5 years, I’d know. Thanks for the advice.
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Very tidy. I’m also trying to make mine look better so will be doing that myself shortly. Congratulations on a wonderful catalogue of posts.
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Thanks so much for this very kind comment! I really appreciate it! 😀
I really was fed up with the old menus and decided to try something new. I’m glad it’s to your liking!😊 Looking forward to seeing how your blog is going to turn out, but I’m pretty sure it will look awesome 😊
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Your index is impressive, and I’m sure it will prove useful for your readers, especially those like me who have come across your site fairly recently.
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Thanks so much for the kind words! I’ve definitely tried my best to get this up and running, and I’m glad that people so far are responding positively to it😊 I will try to keep it as up to date as possible with each new entry 😊😊
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It looks like a lot of work. I take my hat off to you!
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Very nice Michel. Maybe you’ll be a good influence on me!😁
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Thank you so much Kim😊 It really too me quite a while to finish this, so I’m pretty glad that I had a week off work this week😊
Haha..well, good luck, as I said it takes a while to do this😊 But that said, I think your blog layout is already very cool!😀
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Err… raist my rival, it was pretty obvious that your menu was out of control. I never said anything as it is your blog
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Lol…don’t I know it! 😀 It was a thorn in my side for quite a while now, but as I said I’ve never been really good with computers, so I’m glad to even be able to run this blog😂 Seriously though, I’m glad I managed to get it to a better layout, and hopefully this new index that I have created will help people find what they are looking for😊
PS: I never consider this “my” blog…okay, I might run it, but I’ve always considered this to be a blog for everyone, so every comment and suggestions are always welcome😊 So…thank you…my rival😉😊
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Right try this. Put Horror Movies > Western Horror > Asian Horror > Others (or archived). Your horror movies is the main category, you don’t have to put every subgenre in your menu. If anything it bloats your navigation. Just the two main categories like Horror Movies, Western or Asian. You can then add stuff like Japan horror or Korean Horror as a third category. It will still turn up as Asian horror as you’ve lumped them together. Take a look at how my Anime menu is done. It’s like that. Any older categories that you don’t use or isn’t as popular, think about either retiring them, shunt or combine categories to free up space on your menu/navigation.
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Thanks for the suggestion😊 Problem is though that I’m a multi topic blog and have so many things that I blog about, that it’s never clear what my main category is. Horror might seem like my main category, but it honestly isn’t. Anime has a lot of posts too, so does sci-fi, and sometimes I decide to write more book reviews😂
Either way, I will try and tinker with it some more, and maybe put the movie categories in one place and the tv series categories as well, that should free up some more space in the menu. Thanks for the suggestion😊
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Done! 😊
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Well done with sorting out you bolg. 500 posts? I just checked mine, and have posted 3,683, in 8 years! I think my blog might need a very long time to sort out! 🙂
Best wishes, Pete.
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Haha, thank you. It was actually also a lot of fun doing this, besides it also being practical😊 At some points I ran across some posts thinking: “ When did I review that one🤔😂😂”. But yeah, it had to be done, it was a becoming a bit of a mess😅😅
As I said back then: very impressive Pete, I will never reach that amount ever😊😊 Very well done!😀😀😀
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Congrats on the big 500! I am glad you didn’t wait any longer to sort stuff, not because I’ve noticed anything (to be honest, I didn’t even really notice your index at the top until this post) but because once you go past a certain point, it becomes so much work that it is overwhelming.
Once I’m fully caught up on getting all my reviews into their own posts and properly dated and tagged, I might try something like this.
One question I do have for you. What is the difference between a “tag” and a “category” for you? And was it to find old posts, specifically, or something else? I know you mentioned some of this in your post, but I’m more interested in how you arrived at your destination, if that makes sense?
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Thank you so much for the kind words and this great comment! 😊
It was a lot of work doing this, but then again if I didn’t do this now, it would have been even more work eventually, until it probably would have become impossible.
As for your question..erm looked over the post again, but I don’t really know what you mean by mentioning the word tag. I used to have menus that had tabs, which basically was a menu structure that contained every review I wrote as a separate menu item under a category. But that was becoming really unwieldy, really fast. So as I now reached the 500 posts, I figured I needed to do something. So, I came up with the index which I guess works much better as it’s easier to keep working and provides a much easier to use overview for people that arrive at my site and want to find/read stuff😊 So that’s pretty much the reason I guess😅
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It’s so hard to find that balance of functionality and looks, and it’s also so easy to just stick with what we have, so bravo for trying to make things more convenient for your visitors. The dividing by genre is a nice touch to your new index!
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Thank you! It really is hard. As mentioned in some of the comments I’m not exactly a computer wizard, so it’s not something that I can do very easily either. But the old menu structure was just way too unbalanced, and it really had to go. I’m glad that most people seem to like this so far, and I’m pretty happy myself with the new index too. It’s also much easier to keep updated, so there is that😊😊
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Wow, nice job! 👍 It’s a pain to reorganise, but it’s always worth the time and effort. Congrats on 500!
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Thank you so much! It really did take quite a bit of time, but I’m glad to hear that so far people seem to like it, and I’m pretty happy with how it turned out myself. The index itself will also be much easier to keep updated😊
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Glad to hear you’re taking the leap towards an index! I didn’t make my A-Z index until I was 227 reviews deep. It would have been a nightmare for me to do it any later than that. Believe it or not, I actually do remember all thousand something reviews that I’ve done. But it does help to be organized. Good luck with yours!
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Thank you! Yeah it was about time I did that really. The menu as mentioned just became way too cluttered and it didn’t feel right anymore. Haha, that is amazing though! I definitely, when putting together this index, came across some posts where I was like: hey, did I review that one? I completely forgot about it! 😊
Even though this took me quite a while, I’m glad I’ve put it together now, and it will be easy to now keep it updated, that’s for sure 😊
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Congratulations on 500 posts!!! The index looks really good, and an excellent way for readers to navigate your blog. I might have to get an index started on my blog sometime soon…
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Thanks so much! 😊 That’s very kind of you to say! I’m pretty happy with the way it’s turned out myself, and so far from the feedback I am receiving most people seem to think that as well. It’s now just the simple matter of keeping it updated which shouldn’t be too hard! 😊
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The index is very handy! 🙂 Consolidated menus are much easier for visitors to a site.
On my site, as you know, I’ve limited my top menu to the basic categories with the subsections in each drop down menu. If someone wants too a review from a specific genre they can either do a search or consult the tag cloud for a specific term out of the most used ones.
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Thank you! I’m glad it seems to be liked by most people at the moment, and I’m honestly quite happy with it myself as well.(It took quite an amount of time though lol😂).
I think in the end everyone will have their own ways of doing things, but my old menu was something I most definitely wasn’t very happy with 😊
As for you layout, it definitely works great too! 😊
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Thanks. Less is more sometimes… 😉
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I’ve been thinking of doing something similar but I still need to take the time to think it through, make it efficient enough so that I don’t suddenly forget to update the index or something too. Hope it works for the best for you, Michel!
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Well, once you have the index up and running it’s just a simple manner of editing the page each time you publish a new post. As long as you keep it updated it’s pretty easy to do. The biggest part of putting this one together was adding all the reviews from the past on the pages. Now though it should be fairly easy to keep it updated. I’m pretty happy with it, and the response to it so far has been positive😊
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Screenies from my favorite Ghibli movie!
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Haha, well I though they were appropriate for this post😂
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Congrats on 500 posts! That’s a great accomplishment. It’s nice to see the reorganization too. I know it will make navigating the site easier 🙂
Luckily, I got my category pages all set up before I even did my first post, so never had to do a big organization. I’ve had to keep up with it all the years since though, which is a feat in an of itself, hehe 🙂
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Thank you!😊 Well, at first I used to put all new posts in the menu too…but it has gotten way too cluttered so I’ve rearranged it now, and made the index. It seems most people seem to like it, and I’m pretty happy with it myself. All I need to do now is keep the index updated, which is easy to manage really, every week😊
Haha…and yeah that definitely is a feat and one you should be proud of, as it looks great!😀
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