Some Changes

[jough]

Hey kids,

Once in a blue moon I see something that's not working right and decide to fix it.  This usually results in two dozen little changes, hopefully all for the best.

Anyway, you may notice a little message box up top there, which will soon hold messages from our sponsor.  Click or don't click - it's all good.

I also closed the Ray's Place and Variety Hour fora for now, since they're dead at Achewood.com.

The Lileks forum, long an ugly sore on the face of the site, is no more. It's become the Blog forum.  Viva la wider scope.

I also changed a few of the forum descriptions.

One thing you *shouldn't* notice is that the CSS styles are now included as a linked style sheet.  This should save me some bandwidth and save you all some time to load each page, since I reduced the page weight by 15%.

I think that's everything.

As always, let me know what I broke.

-- Jough

EDIT:  I knew I forgot some things.

The forum was renamed to the "Achewood Forum," at least at the top of the page, to help search engines distinguish us.  Those little *****s are clever, but they're not that clever.  They need all the help they can get.

I also mucked about with the header layout EVER so slightly.

-- J.

[CortJstr]

Anyway, you may notice a little message box up top there, which will soon hold messages from our sponsor.  Click or don't click - it's all good.

Maybe this should spawn a new window? Links clicked in postings spawn so it would be consistent with the rest of the board.

[CortJstr]

Also the the ICQ button doesn't look like its rendering right when the flower is green. There's a boxy deal around it.

[jough]

New window: done.

I have nothing to do with the ICQ graphics, as they're supplied with the board software.  However, I'll take a look.  Maybe I can fix it in Photoshop.

[CortJstr]

So it is just me or when the Lock icons are blown up real huge they look more like purses. Look at the looked forums (in 800x600). It's crazy man. Can we not afford key holes up in here? What if some people sold their eyes like Ray did?

[jough]

Bitch bitch bitch...

You are welcome to make/purchase a set of new graphics for the forum.

[AugustWest]

So it is just me or when the Lock icons are blown up real huge they look more like purses. Look at the looked forums (in 800x600). It's crazy man. Can we not afford key holes up in here? What if some people sold their eyes like Ray did?

A)  Doesn't everybody use 800x600?  Seriously, I'm asking.  Any smaller and I can't see this shit.  And this ain't an age thing, OK. I've been nearsighted for 20 years or so. (I was farsighted for 15 years before that.  Been wearing glasses since I was 3.  They're a part of my damn head.)   How the fuck does anybody read print smaller than this?

B)  Who gives a shit if the locked forum icon looks like a purse.  I don't give a damn what it looks like as long as it's not my naked ass. No offense CortJstr (cos' I love you, man!), but this ain't an issue I'll be losing much sleep over.

[AugustWest]

Jough, I've been struck today by the "Achewood Forum Forum Index" link that I have to click on to get back to the start page.  I like the "Forum Forum"  thing.

What would you think about changing the name of this forum to "Forum Forum"?

[jough]

CortJstr, you're my bro and I'd totally throw down for you if some punks were hassling you in a pub, but I gotta back my man August here and agree that the graphics are a very small concern.  However, I am also pretty much anal about my web sites so I'll probably stay up all night one of these days making new graphics that look less purselike.

And I think the most common screen resolution is 1024x768.  I still design my web sites for 800x600 (minimal) and try to make them expand gracefully above that, but 800x600 just doesn't put enough on the screen for me.

The trick is to use a 19" LCD flat screen set at 1024x768, which makes everything very big and easy to read while still offering a decent amount of real estate.

I don't know if any of you know that I'm partially blind, so I have to sometimes use a digital magnifier to blow up parts of the screen, or graphics, etc. sometimes when I'm designing.  The only problem with the LCD is that it's pretty low contrast compared to a CRT.  But I'll trade a little contrast for brightness and clarity any day - and the Adobe Gamma Loader is a wonderful tool.  I use it every day because otherwise I wouldn't be able to tell the difference between blue (unvisited) and purple (visited) links.

[jough]

Jough, I've been struck today by the "Achewood Forum Forum Index" link that I have to click on to get back to the start page.  I like the "Forum Forum"  thing.

What would you think about changing the name of this forum to "Forum Forum"?

I noticed that - it puts "Forum Index" after whatever the name of the forum is, so if you name it "Something Forum" then puts "Forum Index" after it making absolutely no sense.  It should just add "Index" that way it would be "Title of Forum Index."  I have proposed this to the powers that be.

I could change it (it's just a line in the language file) but I liked it too.  It's like that

Paris
in the
the Spring

thing.

[AugustWest]

Man, I just really have trouble seeing anything much smaller than 800x600.  What am I missing in terms of detail (or otherwise) by subscribing to the large print edition of the intarweb?

[jough]

Well, it depends on the size of your monitor.

800x600 is best for a 15 inch screen and smaller.

1024x768 you get the same size fonts on a 17" screen as you would a 15" at 800x600.

I use 1024x768 but prefer a 19" LCD screen with 1024x768 native resolution.  They're harder to find (most 19" LCDs will have a 1280x1024 native resolution) and text is pretty much huge on my screen, while I still have a decent amount of screen space for large graphics and lots of text at once.

FWIW, I use Mozilla Firebird and set my browser to 800x600, and then pull the 600 down so I don't have to scroll as much.  So I run more like 800x1000.

[CortJstr]

I don't really care about the graphics, I was just looking at the index last night and nobody was posting so I was bored.

I have to run 800x600 at work because of my small monitor. I've tried going higher at home (17" viewable, I think) but a lot of sites are designed for 8x6 and the fonts just get too small if I go higher. Games and Word and stuff are fine but beyond that I get all squinty.

[AlohaDawg]

I had this job where I had to look at database tables and spreadsheets and junk a lot and now, no matter the size of the monitor, I always use 1024 x 768 and since I can still see everything, it's OK....until someone else comes over to look at the computer or work on the computer. Then I get complaints about "how tiny" everything is. I'd rather see MORE on the screen at once and not have to scroll around to find things.

[misterhaan]

i always use the highest resolution setting i can, because i want to be able to fit the most possible on the screen.
at home i use 1600x1200 but then scale down to 1280x1024 sometimes since i have a 17" monitor and the dot pitch makes 1600x1200 a little blurry (can't draw pixels small enough).  at work, i have a 15" lcd monitor with 1024x768 native resolution and i can't fit any where near enough stuff on my screen!  i have no problem reading small text (provided the monitor isn't making it blurry), but i do have a problem when i can't even have one window open where i'm doing my work and another one open to look at with little to no overlapping.  since i've got windows 2000 at work, i've been using a little program called vitrite that lets me change the transparency settings on programs so that i can look THROUGH the one i'm working in at the one behind it that i need to look at.  i've also had to make my taskbar double as tall as it should be just because i need to have so many windows open at work all the time.  one of these days i might see about requesting a better (for me) monitor--i'd rather have a CRT than be trapped in 1024 . . .

as for browsers, i also use firebird set to 800x600 (at home and work), but i don't make it taller.  i design my sites so that they fit easily on 640x480.