| Archive for Downsizer For an ethical approach to consumption |
| jema |
Do you like the new front pageWhat do you think? |
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| Bugs |
Looks even better now it's up there and after the tweaks, pics and logos, I think it'll be fandabidozy. | ||||
| tahir |
A lot better. the articles need refoerrmatting though and there needs to be a separtor between sections on articles and traders. There's also a white line at the r/h of the traders section which I'm sure isn't meant to be there | ||||
| bagpuss |
It looks good. I think much tidier than before but my article seems to have vanished from the front page | ||||
| tahir |
Serves you right, you and your dodgy mixer... |
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| jema |
There is a white line to the right of articles seperating articles and traders, and I am going to have problem removing the line to the right of traders as that is logically the same as the middle line. |
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| jema |
Back now 
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| tahir |
that's just appeared on my screen. |
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| bagpuss |
great thanks |
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| ian1 |
looks good to me!
well done you 
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| boff |
very nice
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| Joey |
yes.
it is tidier and easier to scan down and read. Is it true we are going to loose the downsizer.net logo with all the photos on it? I really like it. |
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| tahir |
We do too, unfortunately it doesn't scle down so that when we have links elsewhere that need a logo it just doesn't work, that's the main reason why we had to change it. Neilk definitely did a good job on the original. |
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| jema |
I think we all think it will be a real shame to lose the old logo, but the new one is very nice too
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| Jonnyboy |
I have quite a few red X's coming up. | ||||
| tahir |
Where? I'm seeing all the images |
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| jema |
No red X's for me either. I have now finished putting images in, but I dod not see why that would have been effecting you. |
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| Guest |
What was wrong with the old one ?
Andy B |
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| tahir |
It was a bit tricky finding the articles and other resources, now everything's much more in your face. |
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| Nanny |
new front pagethere isn't a not sure...............a tad "busy " for me is how i would explain it but probably only because it was brand new and i need to look at it more than once to get the new gist |
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| jema |
Re: new front page
Well we put new bits in, and are now discussing taking the old bits out to deal with the busy aspect, it is now too busy even for me
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| Nanny |
new front pagei look forward to the more lazy version then |
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| gavin |
Neat and clean - like it
All best - Gavin |
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| dougal |
I like the idea, its a great improvement, but tidying the detail execution will make it better still...
There's a more strategic problem (for a front -entry- page): You still have to scroll down to see whats there... (and there's nothing indicating that scrolling takes you to anything *different* to what you currently see...) For consistency, I'd limit the text alongside to the same height as the thumbnail - so that the spacing between thumbnails becomes regular. I also note that some of the 'latests' have a blank line after their heading. Wasted space & inconsistent. Dunno if this is possible, but I'd reduce the full-width 'Latest' section, in number, still further, so that on a 1024x768 (?) screen you'd see that there were other things below... The spacing between the Articles Categories is inconsistent (but see below!) Still think the main menu belongs consistently (across all pages) top left, and that Search deserves equal prominence. Is it possible to remove the blank lines between forum topics? Thats inconsistent and wasting prime space... I'm not sure about the necessity of the horizontal "path" menu (just shows "Home") being there at all on the Home page. Removing it would align the header bars... maybe space for one-off navigation buttons/tabs indicating the riches within.... ? But that is *prime* space - mission statement? I'd associate the login panel with the "who's online" one... BTW 330 guests? 
I also don't know that I like the ordering of article topic categories - shouldn't cooking, smoking, brewing, wild food be gathered together rather than scattered.... And Home Ed with IT and Starting Out... Transport, Sustainable Construction & Recycling go together too..... SO... what about tight blocks of related categories with a bigger space between blocks! (If it can be done with inconsistent spacing lets make the most use of it) I'd try and equalise the space between Trader Category thumbnails (by giving the same number of lines of text to each - using blank CR's if req) I also wonder about the big space under traders. And I did wonder about horizontal 'pairing' of article categories and traders... Its good, but there are some damn details... Its neat, but could be cleaner... |
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| Gertie |
WOW!!! Well impressed, chaps. Well done. I have to say I had a pre-conceived idea of how it was going to look, Jema. Think it looks a lot neater and easier on the eye, than I expected.
(Pat on the back coming your way!) 
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| Mrs Fiddlesticks |
i do like it!
Really want to see how it looks with the new logo now!
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| jema |
We are still squabbling on that one. http://forum.downsizer.net/viewtopic.php?t=3326&postdays=0&postorder=asc&start=15 I still kind of prefer my layout in many ways. |
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| nettie |
I think it looks great. I think I would prefer the borders round the pics to be green rather than blue, but it's a job well done
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| dougal |
The thumbnail spacing is looking much better than it did an hour ago (at least in Opera) - but a TINY detail point - the text alongside eg Home Brew, seems top aligned to the thumbnail, (IMHO nice), while for others eg Transport, it seems vertically centred on the piccy (IMHO twee rather than sharp) - but they all need to be the same!
Is it possible to chop the article synopsis down to one para, the height of the pic? (Or maybe better with 1 blank CR extra for a little space, and contrast with the Article/Trader blocks) What will Mambo let you do with the headings? - I noted that the wildflower site linked yesterday used some subtle underlinings... is there a link to whats possible? (BTW Jema one of your "mirror" screenshots yesterday showed a link to an article Intro to Mambo (?) which is not on here!) Having chopped the stray central "Home", there's a slight misalign with the 3 column headings. IMHO they'd be better aligned or notably offset - replace home with nav buttons or mission statement? |
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| jema |
Done the top alignment.
The slight misalignment at the top of the centre column is hard to avoid, as it is part of a trick for search engines. Synopis should be shorted, but I cannot hack peoples completed articles, in the future we will ensure this. We can use style sheets to do whatever with headings. Firefox btw has a feature to allow you to play with these a lot, so anyone who fancies a play! |
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| jema |
I have made another tweak, making the top thumbnails bigger. Is this better or worse? | ||||
| Bugs |
I think that's better, esp as most of the pics for the articles should be to go with the article and it will be nice if they are quite clear.
We can work around the too-small pics for the categories by tracking down more resizeable pics as we go along. |
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| nettie |
Can there be a category for "Make your own" please? I would hope that this would be a category to be expanded in future, and it's distinctly different to "reduce reuse recycle", which is where the "make your own" articles are residing at the moment. | ||||
| jema |
THat would seem to make sense, we have a make you own forum after all. Bugs! are you listening! |