Altering site look....AGAIN

[Calash]

Yeah... I am hopeless :)

So far I just have the front page, and I am still trying to work on some of the colors. I am not sure if I should put a pattern in the background, or just leave it a solid color and try and find a good contrast.

http://www.necrotania.com

The cool part about the new one (IMHO) is that it is almost 100% CSS with no tables at all (some added content generates the tables)

Let me know what you think :)

Edit: Removed Test Link. New skin is not on main site pages.

[tbonekkt]

Definitely like the new one better!! My only suggestion would be to add some hyperlink styles instead of the default colors...

Great job!

[Calash]

Yeah, I still got to adjust the link colors and possable the font style a bit. I will probably be tinkering with it today a bit to try and get it perfect.

Thanks

[muijefr]

Your new header is very complementary to your new colors and style scheme. A large departure from the previous but it shows definite growth in your design and focus. I suggest 5 to 7 px cellpadding, though you have no tables, as a css margin specification. At this point, a chat forum might work as a home page, rather than WebMaster messages and Comments as it now appears. It looks like your getting your ship turned around. Good progress. Keep us posted. :D

[(jj)]

Looks a lot better than your old version :)

However, as muijefr pointed out, your left/right margins are pushed to far out. In Netscape and Mozilla the first letter on the left is cut off and the last letter on the right is right to the edge. You need to bring your margins back in so the text is not pushed to the edges in IE.

[Calash]

Thank you for the praise and the advise. I am suprised I missed the padding, it is something I usually look out for. As both of you suggested I added a 5px padding to keep it off the edges. I also adjusted the link colors, fonts and the scroll bar color. I am not sure about the scroll bar since only IE can see it, but I did want to try it and see how it works

I think the most difficult part will be to skin the forum to match. I got my story section skinned, but the forum is another beast. Still, it will be a good learning experiance.

Do you think the site is too wide? The main DIV is set at 800, but it does have a small border that may cause trouble. I can shrink the content down easy, but beyond 10px I will have to redo the logo. Not a huge deal, but if it is a problem I would like to get it fixed sooner than later :)

[muijefr]

Good job on your link colors, fonts, and the scroll bar color adjustments, I like it. :p
RE:

Do you think the site is too wide?

This might be a toss up. My first though was to go with 1024x768(wider). It now requires a small amount of nav right when viewed @ 800x600 and a little more nav is no problem. On the other hand, the left side line width is a bit wide for comfortable reading. You might take a little away from the left side and give it to the right side. That's going to make the right content appear more important than it does now and make reading the left side easier. The right side will benefit from this modification. Keep us posted. :D

[bdoc]

Really dig the new one. Good improvement from your last one!

[Bannerzap.com]

Nice job. I like the on-line storytelling site idea.

[Calash]

Thank you all for the good feedback. I am still trying to decide about the width, but since it is CSS now that will be easy to change if I change my mind.

I almost got the new forum skin done. It takes a bit to get use to Invisionboards skin system, but the transition from the front page to the forum is almost seamless, so unless you look it is hard to tell when you are on a HTML page or when you are in a script.

My plan is to get all my updated pages ready with the new skins for my PHP abd CGI stuff, and then switch it all at once so there is no gap where you are jumping from one skin to the other.

This forum is a great place :) A few weeks ago I was ready to give up on the site and not renew, and now I am rebuilding and having fun again :)

[Crawdaddy79]

You know you're doing good when all I have to say bad about it is your smileys! Yes.. They seem to have a white border (erm.. the four while 'leafs') around the black border that's already around them, highly contrasting against the brown background, making it look sort of cheap.

I feel just that little bit takes a lot away from the overall look of the site, but it all in all, it's very well laid out and easy to navigate.. And most importantly it's pleasing to the eyes.

And it's a lot better (though less original looking) than your old layout. :)

[Calash]

ACK! The curse of the smilies designed for lighter backgrounds!!!

:)


Thanks for pointing that out, I got so use to seeing it during the design of the site that I totaly forgot about it. I have edited some of them to fix the problem. The animated ones may be difficult, but most of them should be real easy to fix.

[Calash]

Well, I got 90% of the site redone and I put it into active use. Personally I think it came out very well :). Thank you all for your help.

I still have a couple of pages to do, and I got a strange issue with the forum. For some reason, once in a while, the images for the smilies in the forum do not load fast enought. The result is that the main <DIV> is to wide and gets bumped down below then menu, and it stays there until you reload. I think I fixed it by shrinking the smiley table.

I am not 100% sure about the fourm colors. I may redo some of the colors to make it blend a bit better.

[muijefr]

Your emotioncons are great and the dragon is all time! Made my day. I hope Jade and Laurey see it. :p

yzxc in the graphic section of the forum is looking for a parchment paper background like you have. Would you be so kind to check it out. :D

[Quazar]

Originally posted by Calash
ACK! The curse of the smilies designed for lighter backgrounds!!!

:)

dont know what u use for editing your animated smileys,
prsonally i use Animation shop (from jasc software)
its simple and easy and u can make individual pixels transparent
to get rid of that white glow

[Calash]

Originally posted by Quazar
dont know what u use for editing your animated smileys,
prsonally i use Animation shop (from jasc software)
its simple and easy and u can make individual pixels transparent
to get rid of that white glow

I was using Imageready that came with Photoshop. Using that I have to edit each frame of the animation. A bit tiresome, but it does work :). I will have to look into Animation shop and see if it will make my life easier.

I have to hunt down some more dragon emotioncons. Took me days to find the DBZ ones :).

[Quazar]

most progs you'd have to alter each frame anyway.
what i norm do is fill background with transparency using various levels of toleance.

[Calash]

I have done some work on the graphics in the forum section, as well as a bit in the other sections. Basically I made a new button set that seems to match my current colors, and I also added a title graphic that is site-wide.

Please take a look and let me know if you think the new graphics work well with the site.

Thanks

[Quazar]

looks cool, apart from the annoying standard windows defaults for the drop down menu options in the forums, they sort of really look out of place with the fact that they r blue.

also, maybe just a slightly bolder typeface for the info on the selection buttons for poll, new post etc, more in line with your logo typeface.

[Calash]

I edited the pull-down dialogs to make the font a bit better, though I am not sure what you ment by them being blue.

I also regenerated the buttons with a different font as well as a brighter background. They seem to be a bit easier to read overall.

[!CC]

Whoaaaaaaa major changes afoot.....and it's looking really good......really like the new look !!

[YvetteKuhns]

This site has GREATLY IMPROVED! WOW! I am glad to see the solid background which makes it easier to read the text.

Not much to suggest except very trivial details.

The hit counter is a contrasting color, and that is not what you want people to see. Consider using webstats that are hidden from viewers.

Below the hit counter is a . (period) that links to your email.php that says I should not be there. Why is it there?

The Main Menu image could just be plain bold text or maybe not use the effects. As is, it appears as important as the logo, but it shouldn't.

Your links page has a bunch of banner links. Maybe you can scatter them among other pages or make a few links pages and only include a few banners between text links. Too many banners on one page are overwelming, especially when animated.

And rename the link "Links" to Fantasy Links or whatever to be more descriptive. How many people click on the links pages on other websites? Not too many unless they think it would interest them. I would sooner click on Fantasy Links than just Links (too generic).

You don't have your copyright info at the bottom of each page. Not that it would stop anyone from stealing, but give credit where credit is due. And if anyone wants to ask permission use some of your work, they know who owns the copyrights.

These are simply trivial things. The site really looks nice as is. ;) Nice job! :)

[Calash]

The email.php is a random email address generator designed to cause problems with email address harvesters. It was something I picked up in the PHP forum a while back. It is nothing necessary, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

The counter is another one of those "new web site" things that just seem so cool to use :). You are probably right about not needing it. I use awstats and L10 hit counter for my more detailed information. The L10 is a very nice utility that has a flash interface for viewing the web stats.

My link page is a big old mess :). I was planning on making a script to try and organize it a bit but I just have not had the time. Several of the sites are friends of mine that I exchange links with. It would probably be best if I divided them into separate pages.

Thank you for the suggestions. I am always looking for ways to improve the site's look and feel.

[YvetteKuhns]

Like I said, the suggestions are simply being picky. The site looks great and you have done so much great work in so little time. It makes me crazy since I haven't had time for my site. Too busy with clients' websites.

[Quazar]

Originally posted by Calash
I am not sure what you ment by them being blue.


the drop down menus on your forum pages (standard ipb layout to chose sort order for viewing posts etc) it uses standard windows default config images.