Shout out for a Beta
May. 6th, 2004 06:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
icarus![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif){kind=small}
singtoangels has been a doll helping with the Percy Ficathon site. So she asked me if I could find her a beta for her story. Well, I couldn't find one right away, so darn it, I volunteered to do it myself.
I am cursing up a storm right about now.
I stayed home from school today, as I have an all-day conference on Saturday and a group project meeting on Sunday. I relaxed this morning by going through her story with a fine-toothed comb. Now, I'd only saved it to the Temp folder, but I just stepped away for a bit because WG wanted to check his email. Of course he took over. All I asked was that he not close any of my files.
Yahoo was running a bit slow, so he closed some programs.
Including the story.
It's gone. I searched with Explorer and all I find is a broken shortcut. I've checked the Temp files, everything. It's vanished.
I've used up my allotment. I don't have any large patches of free time until Tuesday afternoon. That's why I took today off. Hell.
I'm going to take another shot at finding
singtoangels a beta. Would anyone like to beta her story?
There were no SPAG errors, and only a few word recommendations. Everything I wrote had to do with clarification, story development and characterisation. She's the same person who wrote Idyllic Days for the Percy Ficathon.
Now tonight WG and I are going to review the basics of Microsoft Word 101: Saving Files, because this is not the first time. Though this is partially my fault. I popped it open and started typing instead of saving it first.
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Date: 2004-05-06 07:47 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-06 07:54 pm (UTC)Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-06 07:58 pm (UTC)Just make sure you give me
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Date: 2004-05-06 08:46 pm (UTC)http://sams-corel.rocksyou.org/isf
-sam
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Date: 2004-05-06 10:00 pm (UTC)Wow.
And you found an unusually nice thangka of Manjusri. Thank you.
WG weighs in *g*:
"We need a larger font for the navigation buttons and the print on the main section." I'm pushing 40 (and he's older). Teeny fonts are an anathema to us.
He says, "the blue on black is hard to read," so the blue needs to be brighter (maybe just larger will do the trick).
He's also concerned about the readability of the writing over the thangka. The headings work though, with that dark see-through background.
Is there any way we can set it up for my 800 pixel-wide (I think that's right) system? I'm on a laptop, and the person who'll look at it the most is me. Besides, I have a special sympathy for people like me, trying to work fancy websites with animation over a dial-up and running into screen sizes that are all screwy on our postage-stamp screens. :D
I know. I'm squeezing the screen size and increasing the font size.
Shall we have the stories open in a different window? I've had a request that the stories be a dark font on a light background. I'm not going to be doing outside links any more, but uploading an archive.
We'll need to have some kind of disclaimer warning that these are NC-17 slash stories on that opening splash page.
And... do you need something from me? Since I'm trying to do something for the people helping out? Certainly in the final design, be sure to put a link to your site, you know, 'site-design by'... ;)
Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-06 11:02 pm (UTC)Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-06 11:16 pm (UTC)Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-06 11:36 pm (UTC)On Netscape my very first reaction was "Oh my lord; a CSS page where some image (other then the one that's supposed to be there of course) hasn't mysteriously migrated to smack dab in the middle of the screen!" You wouldn't believe how often that happens, and it's the one thing in the world that makes me push the back button and never return to a site again without even trying to see if the content's worth it. So, yay to that!
The very first thing I noticed that was screwed up a bit by using Netscape was that the headers bump into the line of text below them. This isn't that bad, I've often seen pages where headers end up with there bottom halves covering a third of the line beneath them, where here it's just flush to the top. Both lines are still perfectly legible, it's just a bit jarring and the eye (well, mine at least) is drawn straight to it. The only other thing I see is that the side menus (as well as the back to home link) are at the top of the page instead of where there supposed to be, so parts of the links run into the framing graphic. On the left side it's not that bad, but of the right side it makes some of the links pretty illegible. Here's a screenshot (http://www.geocities.com/dei_chan/unicornfic/netscape1.htm), so you can see what I'm talking about.
In Firefox the links are all where they should be, although the header thing remains. Screenshot. (http://www.geocities.com/dei_chan/unicornfic/firefox1.htm)
The main problem comes if you change the text size, because then the words end up sprawling out all over everything. This is a bigger problem in Netscape then Firefox, since at 14pts (what I normally browse at) almost all of the links under Harry Potter Fanfiction become almost illegible, since they're in the middle of the corner of the frame and the blues almost match. In both the back to home link end up with half of it in the title graphic, it's just the they're entering it from different sides. Also, now that it's bigger I see if a header is long enough to be two lines long, the second line ends up in the space between the top two normal lines below it, as you can see in the firefox shot. Netscape (http://www.geocities.com/dei_chan/unicornfic/netscape2.htm), and Firefox. (http://www.geocities.com/dei_chan/unicornfic/firefox2.htm)
Sorry to rant on about this, it's just that I have a few friends who always poke me towards previews of their new layouts whenever they're updating their sites so that could learn how they look on my normal browsers, and I guess I've reached to point where I automatically do the run through since it wasn't until I was uploading the screenshots and composing this message in my that I realised that you weren't one of those friends and wouldn't be expecting me to pop up with browser rantings. *laughs*
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Date: 2004-05-07 12:01 am (UTC)All characters from the Harry Potter universe are the property of J.K. Rowling and those stodgy corporations. No money is made from these stories, or copyright infringement intended.
Icarus :D
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Date: 2004-05-07 12:07 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-07 12:52 am (UTC)Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-07 05:59 am (UTC)Hmm ... a lighter version? i can do that. :3 larger font huh?
So, your using the 800 x 600 resolution?
Well, then, i'll fix it up in a flash for you. Now that i know your age ... i feel so teeny tiny and so much younger. X.x
Anyway, off to fix the layout! :3
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Date: 2004-05-07 06:10 am (UTC)The only browser i've ever used is Internet Explorer.
I had no idea that was the effect on other browsers. ^_^
I'll be fixing icarus slash fiction layout because ... well ... icarus said so.
hope you like the next one. :3
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Date: 2004-05-07 07:08 am (UTC)I am ancient and decrepit. ;) Or at least, somewhat depressed about the gray. Last I looked I was 28.
On the other hand, WG has more gray, so ha-ha. :p
Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-07 09:23 am (UTC)Oh, I like this one, it's lovely (especially since blue's my favorite color). I meant to mention it at the bottom of the last message so you wouldn't think the way the browsers screwed around with it were enough to put me off, but by the time I got done with the main message I was falling-down tired and just sent it off so I could get to bed.
None of things Netscape does to it are enough to bother me much as long as I keep the text-size down, I have no problem with images that're supposed to be in the middle of the page being there. It's just that often when I head into a CSS page on Netscape a side bar or title image or something will have somehow ended up in the middle of the screen, covering whatever text is there. When I saw the lack of this I was happy, and mentioning I was happy made me rant about pages where it does happen, because I hate it so much.
Really, as I said, apparently I've reached the point where if I see a preview of a CSS page I automatically do the Netscape & Firefox run through I've gotten used to doing for my friends (or else the sleeping pill I was struggling against while typing last night made my brain mushy which lead to the same results) and report back what happens. Compared to some of the really weird stuff I've occasionally seen my browsers do to a page, sidebars breaking out of their places and smushed headers aren't that big of a deal (and I do realise that it's really all my browsers' faults; by now Netscape should have figured out how to be at least as CSS compatible as Mozilla, which Firefox is a version of, although at least the page is visible and working, which it quite possibly wouldn't have been with earlier versions of NS.)
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Date: 2004-05-07 10:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-05-07 01:26 pm (UTC)I've uploaded your current version here: http://percyfest.muse-wanted.com/Icarus_Slash_Fiction/isf.htm
I haven't touched a thing, honest! But I can go ahead and add the disclaimer on that first page. (This is fun.)
I haven't heard back yet from
As far as the way it appears in various browsers, I would snap up your little helper there as a long-term site-testing partner. Few people have the patience to look at a site through multiple browsers. I understand that if you design websites that work well in any browser it's a credit to you, and a feather in your designer's cap.
Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-07 04:58 pm (UTC)You like the font on the font titles to be all the same?
Heh. you liked the font, huh? that's my favourite font ...
Garamound (itacicized)
-sam
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Date: 2004-05-07 05:13 pm (UTC)I figured out how to make the links open in a new window. I put this up as a test, though I'm planning to replace everything with your new version. Check out the essay section (http://percyfest.muse-wanted.com/Icarus_Slash_Fiction/index2.html). I made the H1 fonts larger, though WG is right, the blue is hard to read.
We definitely need the essays and stories uploaded as individual files rather than linking to outside sources like LiveJournal. Gosh I hope I have enough space for this and the Percy-fest.
As for the Harry Potter fanfiction navigation links...
Should we have just one page that has all of the Harry Potter links, and then have the navigational links skip down using [link]#[jump to]?
I want to make it easy to update. I think if I create a separate page for each navigation button, then when I add a fic, I'll have to add that link to four different pages. If I have it skip down, then I'll still have to add the link in several places, but at least it's on the same page. So it's only one page to update.
What do you advise? I don't have any experience with this beyond making that mass of links on my current site.
That would mean that file-structure-wise we'd have:
1) A page with all the 'Harry Potter' links (sorted the various different ways)
- a folder with the Harry Potter stories.
2) A page with all the 'More Fiction' links (possibly a separate page for the outside links)
- a folder with all the Lord of the Rings stories
- another folder with all the original fics
3) A page with all the essay links
- a folder with all the essays
4) A page with the art links and the Quiz
Or do you think I should have a separate page for each navigaton button?
I wish I could just update one page and then have the buttons sort them like in Access, but for that I need PHP and a database I'm sure.
*Icarus sweeps off hat and bows.* I await your wisdom in this matter.
Icarus
PS -
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Date: 2004-05-07 05:17 pm (UTC)My computer is ancient too. 1024x768 resolution and 56k modem, dial-up.
X.x My parents gave it to me when they chucked me out of the house a few years ago and got a new one.
being 21 is fun but occassionally lonely. -__-
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Date: 2004-05-07 05:35 pm (UTC)-sam
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Date: 2004-05-07 05:37 pm (UTC)Anyway, you can tinker as much as you like. I've got the old version saved in my hard disk anyway so if anything goes too wrong, you could just visit http://sams-corel.rocksyou.org/isf or ask me for the files. I'll send it via e-mail if yahoo allows it.
-sam
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Date: 2004-05-07 06:10 pm (UTC)< a href="#" target="_blank" >< /a >
If you ask me, i'd preffer to have a harry potter fiction foledr that would look something like this:
Icarus slash fiction
-hp(folder)
-rating.htm
-pairing.htm
-title.htm
-updates.htm
-fics(folder)
-fic.htm
-fic.htm
-fic.htm
-fic.htm
-fic.htm
For me, it would be more confusing to have a jump-to page with everything in it. It's easier to have it in different pages because there will be less data in each page and you won't get confused and it won't take that long to update. Besides, with separate pages, it would be easier to load. 0.o
When my site was hosted at geocities my page was full of jump-to my art links blah, blah, that sort of stuff and it is harder to update, trust me, i have alot of art. (err ... some got deleted when my computer got fixed. -_-)
also, the folder structure you've made is nice. very orderly.
Although ... the art links page doesn't really need to be in it's own folder. It just needs it's own separate page, also the quiz.
:3
so ... that's just me.
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Date: 2004-05-08 09:16 am (UTC)Hey Sam, we've got to work on readability. Before you do too much, I found some things out while uploading links and working with the site last night.
Having the links scroll over the picture is gorgeous, but it's hard to read. If I were cruising this website I'd hit the back button because readability is the main point.
For a short list of links it works, but the main pages of Harry Potter stories have 80 links, with a paragraph of description each. Ouch.
When I uploaded them I found that it's too much to read in a tiny window. When you add the picture behind it... it's just not workable.
What if we had the Thangka image on the splash page, and just use the wings on the inside?
Your design is beautiful, but I think people would stop reading after clicking on a couple stories (and my goal is to get people addicted).
The iframe needs to be nearly twice that size, and it needs to not have a picture in the background distorting what people are trying to read.
I feel horrid and ungracious saying so, but it would be worse if I just nodded my head and then had to change it.
I've learned a lesson in web design here. If the site has little content, the focus needs to be on the design -- to keep interest. If there's a lot of content, the focus has to be on making that content accessible.
Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-08 12:14 pm (UTC)Anyway, i just finished working on your splash page title and placing and stuff. I'll just put the picture of the thangka in the splash.
alright? and ... I'll sort of enlarge the iframe spage abit. :3
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Date: 2004-05-08 01:59 pm (UTC)I made it available in two different sizes/resolutions.
http://sams-corel.rocksyou.org/isf
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Date: 2004-05-08 04:17 pm (UTC)*Icarus rubs palms together.* And now for some uploads.
Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-08 05:05 pm (UTC)I hope it works on all browsers now ... X.x
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Date: 2004-05-11 10:13 pm (UTC)Help. I've tried to upload the Manjushri picture, and for some reason it comes out all distorted. Help. What am I doing wrong? The picture is saved correctly... (http://percyfest.muse-wanted.com/Icarus_Slash_Fiction/isf.htm)
Icarus
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Date: 2004-05-11 11:07 pm (UTC)try re-saving and re-uploading it:
http://sams-corel.rocksyou.org/isf/swordandbook.jpg
or
http://sams-corel.rocksyou.org/isf/
if it still doesn't work ... i'm sorry.
also, about the HP folders, why not do this:
-HP
-fics(folder)
-title.htm
-title.htm
-title.htm
-pairing.htm
-pairing(folder)
-hxd.htm
-rating.htm
-rating(folder)
-G.htm
-PG.htm
-PG13.htm
-R.htm
-NC17.htm
and so on and so forth. do you get it? :-?
Anyway, just a suggestion, knowing you have tons of fics and having them all grouped in one page only ... it might get devastating to load. 0.o
:3
-sam