Hey, all! Quick update on what’s been and will be happening with the site.

First, if you haven’t been following Scary-Crayon on tumblr, please do so! I’ve been comparatively prolific on there when it comes to posting images — mainly action figure photos — and occasionally I have something brief to say about a film I’ve just watched or some other observation. Scary-Crayon also has a Facebook page, so feel free to like us there, too.

So I know we’ve been pretty lite on content lately — hopefully (and I know I always say that) that will change soon! Among other things, we’re going to be in attendance at the San Diego Comic-Con, which means awesome daily coverage assuming that everything acts right with the laptop and wi-fi and stuff. AWESOME.

I’ve also been working on a few tweaks and changes to the site. As I’ve probably said before, I’m really fond of the layout — even though the web seems to be moving to a point at which it’s become really outdated. Video reviews are becoming the standard mode of product reviews, even though they’re hardly the best format for content delivery IMO. But then, anyone can upload a video and YouTube pays users for ads and multiple subscribers, so it’s hardly surprising. And as much as we complain about the shortcomings of video reviews, lots of people still watch them — which makes them an increasingly more effective medium for communicating information even if the format is not ideal. For that reason, I imagine I’ll have video content soon enough, and I’m looking into purchasing equipment towards that end.

But in the meantime, I’ve been making some simpler changes. For whatever reason, I still like having individual features outside of the blog — so I wouldn’t expect that to change anytime soon — but I am admittedly a bit disheartened by the near total absence of comments we get even when a feature’s pageviews aren’t disappointingly low. I suppose it could be because SC articles don’t excite people to the point of needing to comment, but I suspect it’s (also) because of the quest one has to brave in order to comment. Read the article, then click this link to come to the blog, then read/scroll past the blog entry to get to the comments below, THEN leave your comment. It’d take a fairly committed reader to slog through all of that, right? While this was admittedly was something I initially took into account, as it would theoretically cut down on completely useless comments, I don’t want to discourage folks who might have something worthwhile or encouraging to say but not the time to embark upon a lengthy voyage to say it.

So I’m testing out comments on feature pages to see if that makes a difference. Right now I’ve changed the review of The Avengers to that effect, and later today I’ll have a new Crayon Haiku (the first official one since 2009, GASP) and maybe a Dusty Plastic HELLside offering with inline comments as well. I don’t know if that’ll actually make a difference, but it’s worth a shot?

Finally, a couple of shout-outs. Toy Review Daily is a (relatively?) new toy review site I’ve been checking out as of late, and Matt of X-Entertainment fame is back with a new site: Dinosaur Dracula. I kinda resent that he can post a photo of Krang sprayed with Easy Cheese and get 70 comments, but that’s popularity for you! And it’s not like you’d ever catch me spraying my figures with Easy Cheese, anyway. I spend enough time cleaning toys with a toothbrush and soap as it is.

Anyway, back soon with more content. Ja!