New Blog Template

[Nodd]

As some of you may already know, the main site is going to get a bit of a revamp. Here is some of what you can expect in the new update:

• The site will be wider to accomodate for new webcomics and images
• The social bookmarking has been written from scratch by me, meaning no awful auto-rollover annoyances when trying to click on "read more". Agh!
• Slightly more emphasis on the forum and archives to help you (and others) find what they want easier and more quickly
• A new banner! .. and other images
• The return of the dropdown menu, which a lot of people seemed to love (!?! oddness.)

This new template is 100% coded by me, from scratch. No ammending of other templates which means I have full control over the look. Whilst I'm no designer, I hope the new layout will please more of you than with the current one


Okay, so thats the sort of visual and usable aspect of the update covered. What else can you expect to see? Well, there is going to be more exlusive content and regular updates, thanks to the addition of some forum members contributing to the main site. Yup! We will now have some authors, not just me

First onboard is Hudders! If you wish to contribute, please contact me via PM (Private message) or e-mail with 1-2 sample articles and which areas you wish to cover. If you fear your writing skill may suck almost as badly as mine, don't worry as we may also introduce editorial roles getting others to tidy stuff up. (if your good at ideas, but poor at implementation.. lol, like me!)

Cartoonists/artists obviously don't need to write articles, just send 1-2 comic strips. Or if you can;t be doing with all that, I don't mind posting them up for you




When to expect this update?

Possibly tonight!! the template is finished. Just a few bits to check over first. At the latest, this weekend 

[Hudders]

The new banner image doesn't work properly for IE6.

I know you're probably going to say that people should use firefox, (and I agree), but the site should be compatible with all browsers.

The problem is purely down to the fact that IE6 doesn't render the transparency in PNG images. If you changed the image to a GIF then there wouldn't be a problem.

EDIT: The dropdowns don't work on IE6 either.

HAHA I'm going to EDIT again: You should reduce the number of information "boxes" at the bottom of the page to exlude "recent posts" so that the black bit at the bottom looks tidier. The remaining boxes should be the same size as eachother and lined up horizontally.

[Nodd]

No I do aim to  make the site look the same in all browsers (IE and firefox atleast), hense why I reset both browsers to the same defaults using css, before building upon it.

Here is how it looks in IE to me:

http://www.noddegamra.co.uk/images/nodd_screen1.jpg
http://www.noddegamra.co.uk/images/nodd_screen2.jpg


I was against PNG, but it couldn't handle the drop shadow without the awful white crispyness around the image. boo!

The dropdown and boxes looks fine to me. Please submit screenshots and let me know your version of IE.

[Hudders]

http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a364/hudders/nog/nodd_screen_IE6_1.jpg
http://i15.photobucket.com/albums/a364/hudders/nog/nodd_screen_IE6_2.jpg

I'm at work so I'm using IE6. I can't show you the dropdowns because they simply don't work.

EDIT: Dropdowns work now.

EDIT2: Can you screen-shot the front page again in firefox for me? My first post looks shit on IE because I've used a png. If you can get me the screenshot, I'll replace the current pic with transparent backround with one with a white background. Nevermind, I fixed it.

[Nodd]

ok.

does the dropdown menu work now? only the forum should have a dropdown option.

aslo, the 3 info boxes at the bottom float automatically. Somehow the padding or margin is not right for some reason, as its pushing the last box down to the next line. darnit. i will try and fix this.

I will also try a workaround for the banner.

[Hudders]

does the dropdown menu work now? only the forum should have a dropdown option.

Ja.

It's in grey though - is that deliberate?

[Nodd]

yeah

+ i think i fixed the other 2 problems. can you check for me please?

[Hudders]

Yeah that works now.

Cool. 

[Nodd]

phew, thanks for your help mate

[Hudders]

No problem. 

If anyone's reading this and hasn't visited THE MAIN PAGE this morning, might I suggest that you do?

There's a new comic AND EVERYTHING!

[Nodd]

haha, yeah!

Agh, it's exciting!

*does 80 cock puchups!*

[Hudders]

I wish there was a way to have more blog-forum interaction.

Almost as if you could have another board called "Blog" which people can't start topics in, but topics appear automatically for each blog post. Of course, the comments on the blog posts and the comments on the forum topic would have to be combined somehow. 

How are you doing guest access to the forum at the moment?

[Nodd]

i was looking into doing a script which automatically pulls the latest posts from the rss feeds, and rotates the display of the blog post titles. That way people can see the new stuff.

i was hoping for combining, but its REALLY complicated. boo!

hopefully, the new blog will attract everyone there first, then they will come onto the forum to talk about other stuff

as for guest access, they can see all forum posts, but not post/reply anything.