We’re doing some slight tinkering. Any feedback is appreciated. (Also, if we break something, please let us know, along with any relevant details — “I can no longer load the page in Netscape” or whatever.) Thanks!
We’re doing some slight tinkering. Any feedback is appreciated. (Also, if we break something, please let us know, along with any relevant details — “I can no longer load the page in Netscape” or whatever.) Thanks!
The “who we are” is redundant, I think. Otherwise, the drop-downs are OK, but I would combine profiles and posts into a single drop-down for space. Where you really need it is in your most popular entries, recent entries and regular features.
I like the drop down boxes (
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Will the aesthetic changes include coming up with your own ideas for posts? ‘Cause that would be swell, too.
I would also drop the sidebar, from LDS Links on down.
Bryce, I trust you were trying to link here.
Doh! Yes, I was.
Steve, we’re not going to drop the counter and the TTLB link just to placate your inferiority complex. But good try.
I’d push up the comment policies link up near the top. Perhaps next to the Recent Comments header? Seems like many newcomers are unaware of their existence.
We ain’t copyin — KB has a drop-down menu for _categories_, while ours is for _bloggers_. Also, ours is tan. :)
Yes, I noticed the drop downs at KB. They turn out to be remarkably easy to add in. Of course, that probably means I put them in wrong or something.
Greg, you must now Apologize to Steve Evans. It’s the custom.
The drop-down menus look great.
Adam, if custom requires, you may apologize to Steve on my behalf. I don’t really know the protocol of your secret fraternity of apologizers, and prefer to let my rare and exceedingly mild insults have their time in the sun.
The drop-downs for the blogroll are nice as far as making the sidebar manageable, but they do have the unfortunate effect of denying other blogs linky goodness from T&S. You may want to reconsider.
Generally, I like the dropdowns for the author profiles and posts. I’d get rid of them for the other things, for two reasons. 1) The more clicks people have to make to get somewhere, the less likely they are to do it. Putting links to the other blogs, etc. in drop-down boxes will result in fewer referrals. Leaving them out of boxes allows the title to catch the reader’s eye.
2) More importantly, the link to my pages links disappeared from the boxes :(
Agreed — keep the links for the Bloggernacle (since we all depend on them to drive traffic), but for the other LDS links, etc., I think a drop-down is fine. And I would do a drop-down for regular features, or eliminate it entirely (I’ll bet nobody uses it, same with the calendar).
Ben,
I know I’m leaving out your pages at the moment — I was having trouble making that category fit right into the drop down menus.
(Is there a way to lock the size of the drop down menus? So that they don’t just get wider if there are wide items on the list? I left out category 11 (Resources) entirely, because it made the sidebar expand an extra half inch — not fun. Even as is, one of the drop-downs is causing the text to shift left about an eighth of an inch — you can see it on load up. Also, coding the form with a width instruction, i.e.,
style=”font-size:11px;color:##993300;font-family:verdana;background-color:#E9dbc0;width:150″
does not solve the problem.)
try making the sidebar width !important ?
I agree that the drop-downs are effective for the permabloggers and guest-bloggers but less aesthetically attractive and effective for the links to other blogs. Having a list of bloggernacle blogs helps to show how developed the community is and it pleases the ego to see the name of your blog in the list.
But those are just my thoughts. Feel free (as always) to ignore them. :)
You can shrink the size of the drop-down, K-man. Not sure how to do it in WP, but in MT you sure can.
It seems to be blowing right through !important . There’s an !important on the style sheet already, and I tried adding it to the form too. No luck.
How about a bit more parity on “notes from all over” instead of Adam’s pet causes?
I just had “Spinozist” come up in the random adjective generator above “Who we are.” Which of you ladies and gentlemen put that in the adjective list? You are my kindred spirit—unless it was inserted in the same spirit as “poorly reasoned,” which also just came up! :)
Here’s a question for Bryce (or anyone else who may know the answer) :
Is it possible to have a check box, where one can check to see the blogroll as a link list versus a drop down menu?
I.e.,
“Check here to see the blogroll as a link list.”
And then something like
if (checked)
{
include (blogroll1.php)
}
else
{
include (blogroll2.php)
}
Is that kind of option feasible to do in PHP? (Perhaps it would require a cookie, to set “checked” for a particular viewer?)
Scott, I thought that was what Kaimi’s notes were for.
I think I’ve got the width problem figured out — the key was using the “class=” in the form description, and setting up the proper style in the CSS.
Kaimi–
In theory, that shouldn’t be too difficult. Cookies for sure.
Even better — the T&S toolbar for IE and Firefox. How great would that be?
The drop down menus look better white.
With the drop down menus, I cannot choose to open a link in a new tab or window, so for that reason I don’t care for them.
How’s this for a rule of thumb: Use drop-downs for internal site navigation, regular links for external pages.
Kaimi —
There’s no instructions on how to email the permabloggers anymore (did it exist before? I’m not sure).
Good catch, Bryce.
Just another opportunity to appreciate T&S. I’ve been getting a kick out of the random word engine in the top right corner, that says:
Quite possibly the most __________, yet ___________, onymous Mormon group blog in history.
A lot of words that show up there are unusual. I still need to get around to looking many of them up. So I spent a little time figuring out most of the words that show up there. At least I think I have most of them now. Sorry for the length of this, but maybe some will get a kick out of the adjectives and words T&S is using to describe itself:
abstruse
acclaimed
adamant
admired
aggravating
aggravating
agoraphobic
alliterative
ambitious
anacoluthic
annoying
antideluvian
antidisestablishmentarian
Anti-Nephi-Lehitish
apocalyptic
apocryphal
Aristotelian
Augustinian
banal
basilic
bathetic
belletristic
bizarre
bombastic
boring
bothersome
bourgeois
bungling
callous
canny
captious
Cartesian
catholic
caustic
cavalier
chafing
charismatic
chiastic
Christian socialist
clairvoyant
clueless
commented upon
commercialized
communitarian
compelling
complaisant
concise
confusing
contemplative
contorted
controversial
cool-headed
copacetic
countermajoritarian
crass
criticized
daffy
dangerous
Delphic
demagogic
demagogic
denounced
denounced
derivative
deteriorating
ding-an-sich
disconcerting
disgruntled
disturbing
dyspeptic
dyspeptic
easily dismissed
eery
efficient
elitist
energizing
enthusiastic
ephemeral
epicurean
ergonomic
esoteric
esoteric
evanescent
exasperating
exasperating
existentially stunted
fallacious
fatuous
feckless
forgettable
functionalist
gallant
garish
gaudy
genteel
genuine
globalized
goggling
grandiloquent
gutsy
half-baked
ham-fisted
harmless
harrumphing
Hegelian
hen-pecked
hermeneutical
hide-bound
high federalist
hip
Hobbesian
Holmsian
hotheaded
humble
humiliated
hylic
hyperbolic
iconoclastic
ignored
ill-conceived
illogical
imperious
imperious
imperturbable
impressionistic
incomprehensible
incongruous
infamous
insignificant
intellectual
invigorating
irenic
ironic
irredentist
irrelevant
irritating
Jeffersonian
jejune
judgment proof
juristic
Kaldor-Hicks
Kantian
labyrinthine
lachrymose
legalistic
libeled
liliputian
linguistically challenged
lively
logical
logocentric
long-winded
lucid
luddite
Machiavellian
magniloquent
malistic
Marxist
mawkish
mellifluous
mendacious
mensual
millenialist
misunderstood
monomaniacal
mordant
most contested
mottled
moving
mugwumpish
mundane
neat
nebbishy
neoclassical
neophyte
nit-picking
notorious
noxious
nugatory
obsequious
oleaginous
optimistic
original
Orwellian
Orwellian
Oscar-nominated
overhyped
over-the-top
paleolithic
paleolithic
palliative
pallid
pallid
Pareto optimal
parliamentarian
paternalistic
perfect
perfervid
peripatetic
pessimistic
pestiferous
pestiferous
pettifogging
petty
PG-13
phat
phenomenoligical
phlegmatic
pilloried
placid
Platonic
pompous
poorly insured
poorly reasoned
porous
portentious
poseur ridden
postmodern
post-Sunstonian
posturing
powerful
pre-modern
pro-Brighamite
progressive
promethean
prominent
propaedeutic
protean
protestant
provocative
pseudo-intellectual
puckish
puerile
pugnacious
puissant
pulchritudinous
puritanical
pusillanimous
quasi-contractural
quiescent
quotidian
raucous
recondite
reflective
reflective
regressive
reinterpreted
repetitive
revolutionary
rhadamanthine
ridiculed
ridiculous
rip-snorting
riveting
riveting
romantic
rural
savage
scatter-brained
scientific
scientific
scintillating
screable
seaworthy
self-absorbed
self-important
sententious
sesquipedalian
significant
simpering
simplistic
sinister
slap stick
Socratic
sophomoric
soporific
soporific
special
Spinozist
spoofed
steely-eyed
stirring
stultifying
stultifying
stunted
sub-optimal
surreal
sybaritic
sycophantic
talked-about
taxing
tedious
tempestuous
tenebrous
terran
thought-provoking
tralatitious
trenchant
triedral
trifling
uncanny
under-rated
unintelligible
unionist
unpredictable
unread
unstable
unusual
uplifting
utilitarian
vegetarian
verbose
verbose
voluntarist
well-seasoned
wise
witless
zealous
zygotic
Whoops … looks like I have some doubles. Oh well. :)
gee, danithew, too much time on your hands ;)
I hate to tell you this, danithew, but you can get the complete list just by looking at the page source.
LOL. Bryce I should have known. It was still fun because whoever puts this thing together enjoys words and so do I.
Steve Evans,
I abase myself for my stupid rudeness. I wallow in dog’s vomit deep into the night, wailing. I am unfit, I am unclean, I am sorry.