Blog Tips #2: Thumbnails—Avoiding Traps, Cattywampi, Pitfalls, Blunders, & Dumpster Fires
Time to delve into the mysteries of thumbnails, and not the ones on opposable thumbs👍👎. Nope, we're talking about those little critters that show up next to a blog title on the Top Chess Bloggers page and the All Blogs page. The thumbnail is supposed to be that little extra inducement that draws a reader's attention. And gets them to click and view the post!
All too often, however, those little rectangles (NOT postage stamps, please!) are harbingers for disinterest and disdain. Or potentially doom if you are participating in a blogging contest. So, this blog offers insights into ways to fail at thumbnails and how to fix 'em. (BlogChamps' Season 7 blogging competition starts 1 October Season 7 Registration + Format. Thumbnails WILL be judged as part of the blog!)
First, let's start by briefly mentioning some characteristics of a good thumbnail. A well-designed thumbnail should be visually, and perhaps textually, informative. It should offer insights into the blog topic. And please don't annoy your potential readers by using a thumbnail that draws them into a topic unrelated to the imagery. You might fool them once, but they will remember you. And never brighten your door again. Finally, do not create a thumbnail on this site that requires parental guidance for the underage.
Okay, that sounds easy enough. Are there any specific thumbnail suggestions I should learn about on chess.com. YES!
Use chess.com’s recommendations circled above!!! The ideal thumbnail has a 16:9 ratio and should be less than 5MB. And add a caption! It’s another way to engage readers! If the image is copyrighted, then you can copy and paste the copyright symbol as part of attribution. Be aware that if an image is your AI creation, then you might want to place watermarks on your creation before posting. No copyright law protects AI creations, but watermarks are a strong form of deterrence to prevent others from commercializing your pride and joys.
Okay, enough scene setting. Let's mask up and prepare to dissect, and perhaps reassemble, some blogs that range from "Meh, they should have applied this simple fix" to "OMG...no." Fear not but do prepare to enter the thumbnail laboratory (not lavatory). Where, like Doctor Victor Frankenstein, we will sometimes try to put the pieces together in a way that brings life to a DOA thumbnail. And sometimes have to throw our hands up and admit failure as the appendage is simply too badly broken.
Traps
It's easy to fall prey to haste. A rush job that overlooks and bypasses some guardrails that could have kept a thumbnail vibrant, providing an initial boost of energy that stimulates the eye and brings to life the underlying text. Often it is as simple as the age-old adage of trying to fit a square peg into a round hole. Though in most cases it's someone trying to fit a square box into a rectangle and inadvertently cropping off key visual cues on the top and bottom. We'll look at other traps as well. Let's venture on.
Top Blogger//Title: Planinc Shows How to Play the Ruy Energetically with Black
Wrongness 1: The white borders on the sides. Now it resembles some old Polaroid photo that got cropped at top and bottom, but they were too tired to clip the sides.
Thing 2: The title was Planinc Shows How to Play the Ruy Energetically with Black. Okay, from fireworks one can infer energy. But I don't see anything directly chess-themed in this thumbnail.
Wrapping it up for internment: Not a lot of energy was invested in creating this thumbnail. And the image does not speak for itself.
So, let's see if we can quickly create something that leverages fireworks but has more of a chess theme, eh.
Fireworks: check.
Chess and Ruy Lopez: double check.
16:9 ratio: Of course!
Caption: Sure, why not. A touch jejune perhaps, but adequately linked to the image and the blog topic.
AI image: Yes. I often offer "lazy man's solutions". After all, I'm lazy.
Title: Never mind. That doesn't matter here. The below happens all the time #1.
Winner of the Ring of Bo. Switch that up and what do you get? Bo-ring.
There is nothing about this image that draws me in. We've all seen this bland image too many times to care. Even a bad thumbnail can generate more interest than this overly simplistic approach to thumbnailing.
Title: Herding and Checking and Skewering! Oh My!
What a great, Wizard-o-Oz'ish title! Too bad the thumbnail (seen below) is a bit of a mess. Not terrible, just not on par with that great title. The image does prove that you can fit a box inside a rectangle, but at the price of scads of distracting white space.
This one is admissible of several solutions, particularly given the full board is available as a starting point. Showing some actual players strikes me as simplest, perhaps even the best move!
Note that I created "frames" around the two images in PowerPoint. The starkness of the black framing draws the eye to this post. Next, I grouped the images and saved it as a picture.
Still, it could have been improved by having the frames around each picture overlap. Yeah, let's see what that looks like!
Yeah, that's the ticket. Now the thumbnail is balanced with some of that unnecessary extra space in the middle vanished. That said, I believe there are some 16:9 ratio issues left to be addressed. But this is close enough for hand grenades. And all I'm doing is throwing some general-purpose bombs around to make some points I hope you'll find valuable.
Let's sink to the next level. Descending below the "That's easy to remove, repair, and replace" to "This could require some engineering. Or even reverse engineering." Next, we enter the realm of the cattywampi!
Cattywampus (pl. cattywampi) - Sahmethin is goin wrahng 'ere.
"Cattywampus is an informal American word that can mean either diagonal or in disarray or disorder. The word may have been influenced by catty-corner, which also means diagonal, and wampus, which could have been slang for flail or a mythical creature. The word is often used to describe something that is going badly, awkwardly, or in the wrong direction." Definition courtesy of Professor Microsoft Bing. Wow, that's too long to retain my attention. Let me shrink it to three words.
Kevin's daffynition of cattywampus: Something ain't right.
[Aside 1: I made up the part about the plural of cattywampus being cattywampi. But it seemed logical. Octopus is to octopi as hippopotamus is to hippopotami, so cattywampus should be to cattywampi. Methinks. And I'm sticking to it. Also, I always heard the phrase kitty-corner, not catty-corner. Huh. Oh, well. So it goes.]
[Aside 2: The plural has π in it. I love pie. It's a math geek thing.]
Anyway, we've moved into our second category of thumbnail injuries and illnesses. Here it is usually immediately obvious something has gone wrong. And often the problem could have been avoided or fixed with a band-aid or a brisk brushing up.
The below happens all the time #2.
If you cut the nail to the cuticle, you damage the entire digit.
A failure but a boringly common mishap. Better to start a dumpster fire than bore us with this. Also, boxes rarely fit well inside rectangular thumbnail openings. Time for a mulligan. 'Nuff said.
Top Blogger//Title: Pragg & Hikaru's New Blitz Weapon In 2024
Oof. That's shaving it a bit too close on top. The good GM Illingworth retains an audience because of his title and the excellent information he brings to the table. But this skull clipping (skullduggery?) is a clear case of trying to fit a picture oriented vertically into a horizontally designed thumbnail. With an inevitable result that shows up in a shockingly high percentage of thumbnails. Sigh.
Below is a partial and easy fix. It doesn't yet have the correct ratio of 16:9 but that's easily adjusted. Plus, the image is clearly more relevant to the title of the blog. Furthermore, everybody recognizes Hikaru and Pragg. Most of us wouldn't recognize GM Illingworth in a pinch. On the plus side, at least he was styling in that suit. Could be a Hickey Freeman design at a casual glance.
Here we go again.
Problem One: Oh, c'mon. All they had to do was import this image into any photo editor and crop off at the bottom of the picture and keep a full head shot. Couldn't they have at least done a "Save and Preview" before hitting the "Publish" button? And then done any necessary photo editing. And finish by reuploading the picture before publishing. Apparently, that is too much to ask based on hundreds of blogs monthly that repeat the same tiresome mistake.
Issue Two: Low quality photo. Very grainy. That makes this worse than some of the other scalps taken by lax thumbnailers.
Strike Three: Chess, anyone? What's the chess theme? Heck, just add a chess logo to the shirt with a cut and paste. Do something for the faithful blog readers on a chess site.
Solution: New picture of higher quality fitted correctly to meet the chess.com "suggested" criteria. That "suggestion" is best followed. By and of itself, that suggestion avoids many of the problems seen across the thumbnail spectrum. But frequent neglect of sound suggestions contributes to posts that offer up a torn and purplish bruise of a thumbnail. Or even a torn off thumbnail. Ouch.
Title: Welcome to my Blog #0
Copying chess.com images and then posting the square image into a rectangular thumbnail...sigh. Sometimes it can be fixed. An example of a simple fix will be offered for the next example of "something has gone wrong here."
A brief aside: "Welcome to my Blog #0" is a conundrum of a title. Zero is one of the most important creations in math, but at the same time it is nothing. So, I'm not sure what to make of a title that isn't good enough to be "first" but instead occupies some meta-mystical place that is clearly beyond my comprehension.
What does the unfortunate title have to do with the poor thumbnail, you ask? The symptoms seem obvious, and the disease is poor attention to detail. Hopefully this isn't a pattern that shapes their interactions in the workplace or school.
Title: Professor Doctor Wumpus!!!!!
Another square image shoved rudely into the poor receptacle that is a 16:9 rectangular shape. I sure hate to see a nice image cropped top and bottom like this. And it was so unnecessary.
Heck, I'd have just pasted two or three of the square images side by side and checked the fit!
Probably only two are necessary but I'm just messin' around a bit here. And assuming the basic concept is understandable. Though I always worry when I use any variant of the word "Assume". In the military assumptions are a classic way to get you and me sideways.
Title: When You think of possible moves
The image on the right below is what showed up as their thumbnail. Ouch. Square image in a rectangular box. Because of that image, the possible moves I found myself pondering (given the title shown above) are for the pieces and arrows that didn't show up!
The original image (seen on the left below) is clearly better. How did I find the original image? I opened their blog, copied the image of their thumbnail (again, it's shown on the right below), and pasted the copied image into PowerPoint. Lo and behold, the image on the left showed up. That image on the left and the title of "When You think of possible moves" (given above) could send a positive message. If given the chance. Can we perform some deft surgery?
Yes, I think that can be fixed relatively easily. Here's one approach. Put an image beside the board that shows chess players! Almost immediately you've created a rectangle that is almost ready to be placed in chess.com's thumbnail rectangle. Gawrsh, that was hard.
You could also sandwich the chess board between images on the right and left. That requires more effort but can be worth it. And you might want to frame the two images above to avoid that stark borderline separating left and right. But we already discussed framing once. Repetition seems unnecessary.
A single cattywampus, or even a few, is a problem that is usually subject to a relatively straightforward fix. As we move to pitfalls the errors become more egregious and the surgery required more intrusive. Even anesthesia starts to crop up as a necessary option.
Pitfalls
Pitfalls are hidden and unsuspected hazards. Though my querulous mind sometimes suggests it's as often a matter of simply not paying attention. On the board some of the pitfalls are so common they have been categorized. Examples include failing to control the center (whether directly or from a distance), neglecting development, time mismanagement, overlooking threats, missing tactical opportunities, etc. With thumbnails there are also pitfalls to be wary of.
We'll look at two examples. First, ignoring guidance, resulting in a gross abuse of the 16:9 thumbnail box. Second, tunnel vision.
Title: two dogs
Sigh. If it should be obvious by now that square pegs don't really fit into round holes or 16:9 rectangles, then how oblivious is it to try to stuff a vertically aligned photo into a horizontally aligned thumbnail box. It's 16:9, not 9:16!!!
Just editing the original won't work here. Stretching would be too distorting and cropping...well, cropping was what effectively happened, and we can see that did not work.
Instead, one potential fix is to frame the original photo with material on each side to achieve the ideal 16:9 ratio. Or put two dog pictures side by side. Heck, one could be a picture of dogs playing poker!
Let's see what we can do without much effort. But play on the whole dogs, cats, and mice imagery from cartoon capers.
Of course, I'd prefer this without the white borders. That bright white is distracting. Easy enough to fix! Use the caption feature and clip the dog picture. Let's try again.
And that's how you continue to work on something until you're satisfied! This isn't perfect by any means. But it's much better. That said, the 16:9 ratio is incorrect. So, more thought would have to go into this.
But I don't like cats. Sigh. Of course you don't.
I'll disperse the cats. I'll get rid of the mice as well. And personally, from the get-go I'd be inclined to take the full photo from above and next to it I'd paste another image of dogs playing chess.
Hey! Those dogs on the right look like AI cheats!!
Sigh. Okay. I'd go all Andy Warhol-ish on you, but this is starting to wear me down. So, you're only getting three images. And at least one of the B&Ws should be sepia-toned, and perhaps the other should be colorful, Niemann-like outlines of the dogs. But this is just a blog post. Not an art festival.
Please, sir or ma'am. One more question?
A question, or a complaint disguised as a question? Can you sense my eyebrows arching?
Well, I think it's just a question. Could you, would you, should you add some frames and then fit it to the 16:9 ratio?
Oh, you are pressing your luck with that part about whether or not I should do something. That's awfully close to a red line o'mine.
Title: The Tactic Fork in real life
The fork seen just below was the thumbnail image on the screen. Though I always considered myself a chess epicurean with immense appetites for the game, I never actually pictured ingesting the opposing pieces. Doing shots for every piece that's lost? Sure, that's a thing. But what is one to make of this common utensil?
This thumbnailer's problem struck me as the dreaded tunnel vision. They focused on the word fork and one of its most obvious meanings. To wit, the common kitchen fork, four tines and a handle. Not as useful as a spork, but more acceptable in finer dining venues. And our thumbnailer never made a vital connection between this common utensil and the pieces on the board. For instance, a story with villains and members of a royal chess family in distress. What could I possibly mean? Read on stout reader, read on.
Indeed, I considered both various chess forks and dining forks. For a while. But neither approach was getting me far. One criterion was to avoid the prototypical (aka, Bo-ring) imagery of one piece forking several other pieces. Indeed, I was bound and determined to stick with the kitchen utensil as a centerpiece! But how to bring chess more directly into the kitchen? AHA! You eat in the kitchen! (Dining rooms hardly seem worth your average home architect's time these days.) Presto! The epiphany I had been waiting for struck. Now it was time to invest some effort doodling with an AI art tool. Below is a sample. I like it!!!
I'll never look at chess forks the same way after this!
Afterthoughts: "Real life", as seen in the title, is a phrase to be avoided in any case. But honestly, how boring is a picture of a common kitchen utensil. Particularly with no sense of whether it's a Royal Fork or just two little pawns suffering indignities.
Perhaps you expected more on pitfalls. But I chose to move on quickly to blunders. After all, pitfalls are there for everyone. It's kind of like living in Florida and having a sinkhole open up under your house. SURPRISE! That certainly wasn't on your agenda, but you were at least cognizant of the possibility based on your location. But blunders? Post-blunder reactions often leave both sides shaking their heads. Though the other side may be as likely to erupt in cheers or laughter. Or both.
Blunders
Oh, I cannot believe they did that. And if they meant to do that and were aware of the likely impact, then it should get four question marks, not just two.
In many cases a thumbnail blunder cannot be rectified. But it did serve a purpose for the reader, giving them warning that this blog is not worth investing a single click. Sometimes you must take comfort in such small benefits.
The below happens all the time #4.
I guess I should add that the white framing was an artifice of mine to make sure this travesty of a thumbnail stood out. In case you're viewing this on a black background.
Do I really need to say anything else? Didn't think so.
This happens all the time #5.
In the same cataclysmic category as above. You may have seen those commercials that end with the catch phrase "Priceless!" The catch phrase here is "Worthless."
Sigh. Square box. Rectangular opening. This is so common. And so wrong. If you play Bird's opening, I recommend you flee from, not click on, any post that can't even manage to show the entire board but purports to offer knowledge of this opening.
Title: idk i am writing something
And posting obliviously as well. Thank you so much for participating. Perhaps chess.com will award you a badge for your time and energy invested. If you manage to post this ten times (they usually do manage a deca-blog). Aren't you proud! 🥱🙄
At least it's easy on the eye.
Title: The Art of Chess: How Grandmasters Think and Master the Game
Wow. That title does go on, and on, and on. And it's bright red so you can't overlook it. Oddly, this one can be rescued quite simply. So, it's a blunder that is not a total loss!
Okay, in newspaper lingo this is akin to burying the lede. In this case the concept is buried underneath the garish, nearly luminous text banner. Simultaneously it obscures the heads of two super-GMs. Then there's the fact both the top of Shahkriyar Mamedyarov's head and the bottoms of the chess pieces were cut off. How could Shahkriyar possibly think when his skull is exposed to the sky? Meanwhile, Magnus should be pleased to have lost only half a hand and perhaps a few strands of hair off the top of his pate. Finally, that blurry background led me to spend way too much time trying to figure out what those things were on the wall.
Let's see if we can't fix things just a little. Even the chintzy Microsoft Paint that comes on most computers can be of some use here. First, let's remove that distracting, fuzzy background.
Okay, that white lighting is a bit harsh. Let's use a "Fill" feature (results shown below) to change the mood. I suspect gray would have been better, but I wanted to see what I could do in a flash. Why gray, you ask? Thinking, little gray cells, Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie, GMs thinking...maybe not?
Hmm...still a bit stark and barren. I know, let's add some text! But nothing like the garish original attempt. Plus, add a dark blue frame to offset that otherwise startling light blue background. Finally, stretch the image just a bit to meet the 16:9 ratio rule.
Could this be improved further? Certainly! There are some little glitches in the fill amongst other idiosyncrasies. But at least now it isn't an obvious failure.
[Yes, it's time for another aside: One side of me looks at that final image and wonders if all GMs think best with a thumb beneath one eye and their index finger obscuring their lip. It reminds me of NFL coaches who obscure their mouth with a hand or a clipboard when transmitting instructions to the players on the field via the headsets installed in some of the helmets. Hmm...there's a good thumbnail somewhere in that random stream of thought. The players communicating with and directing their living chess pieces?]
Okay, blunders. Got it. Usually too messed up to bother with. But occasionally something can be rescued. But how about those dumpster fires? Surely no good can come of that! You might be surprised what we can cook up with an open flame.
Dumpster Fires
Time to talk about the worst of the worst. And to address the question recently espoused, we'll start with a dumpster fire that has a surprisingly easy and pleasant resolution. In my opinion. At least to the thumbnail problem. I would not choose this venue to address the body of that blog.
Title: Sicilian Dragon Opening
Well, it wasn't a titled player, so I immediately suspected no reader would receive theoretically sound advice. Or even advice that poses a serious challenge to most players.
Compounding any initial derision we have a thumbnail, shown below, that was at best muck or dross. Before I offer some diagnostics and then chart a way forward, feel free to ponder the thumbnail and the hardly better original image.
omg. my response is all lower-case because i am capped out after seeing the above. also, how do u manage to make a horizontally aligned, text rectangle that still doesn't fit in the 16:9 thumbnail rectangle? here gg=good grief, not good game. time for you to stop thumbnailing, sir/madam/title of your choice [please don't claim to be a cb (candidate blogger) or above]. ur blugging is on full tilt.
Okay, Mister Idiot, how would you do it?
Glad you asked! And this went very fast as dragons are a fave of mine.
"I've got the vector, Victor." Airplane (1980). If only we were so lucky as to be getting out of here.
Yeah, that's going to get a lot of views. This is beyond salvation.
Title: Life Through the Eyes of a Chess Legend
In the realm of the inexplicable I present the following for your consideration. Match the thumbnail below with the title above? I wouldn't do that on a bet. Yes, this was really a blog.
Bottom line: I am ill-equipped to respond equably to this. Fortunately, it was a post that I wasn't allowed to read. Thank goodness for small favors. Even so, I wonder how that title could have sparked this thumbnail creative failure. Color me confused.
Title: Sigma (A series. Perhaps to get their badge of dishonor?)
I feel so deflated. Even burned out. Encounter enough dumpster fires and that happens.
I'm sorry. This cannot be fixed. Time to light a fire that burns this thumbnail to the ground.
Final Example
WARNING! When posting on highly topical events it is more critical than ever to get the thumbnail right. Failure to do so can spark a firestorm of criticism. And crush the number of views. Both outcomes should be expected for a dumpster fire of a thumbnail.
I'm simply going to show some Olympiad images of the winning teams from India. The first, and horrible, attempt at a thumbnail got it half right and half horribly wrong. A real mishap of a mashup. The second set of two images lets you see the images that formed the basis for that horrible thumbnail attempt. And the third image is from a story about the Olympiad's winning teams.
That top half is enough to set chins wagging. Or provoke granddad jokes about, "Not by the hair of my chinny, chin chin." The "creator" and purveyor of that horrible mishap was working with two great images (shown below) but still managed to create a train wreck that tumbled off the rails and caused a smoking stinkhole of a thumbnail.
Let's rush quickly to more palatable images of both teams.
Well, now. It's good to be able to place faces of the men to their chins. The women still look fabulous. And the color schematics are excellent. Professionals at work!
Finally, let's look at a combined and very professional image of both the men's and women's winning teams.
I wasn't planning to include any Olympiad material in this post. But that horrible first thumbnail merited some attention. The individual failed to recognize that when you post something so topical, there is no room for error. And the error was overwhelming. It may have gone beyond a mere dumpster fire and veered into the territory of a junkyard with 20,000 burning tires. Unforgettable.
Before I conclude, did I mention that BlogChamps kicks off their Season 7 blogging competition on 1 October? It's not too late to join (Season 7 Registration + Format). 😁
And finally, in conclusion, here's my favorite thumbnail from my own blogs.
Prior Blog Tips in the Series:
Blog Tips #1: Beating Blogger's Block
