Scans_Daily: Exodus

[angelophile]

Well, the migration of Scans_Daily seems to have gone off without any major hitches and is now OFFICIALLY OPEN.

Thanks to the admirable efforts of my fellow mods skalja, schmevil and sandoz_iscariot and the admin at Dreamwidth, we've got a shiny new comm with, hopefully, fewer technical issues, more features and far better technical and legal support which should serve as a permanent home.

Our members are awesome and already there's some great stuff going up, despite only being open a few hours. Death's Head! Nextwave! Deadpool! Impractical costumes! Japan! Blue Beetle and Booster Gold! Funny smut! (Okay, the last one's mine, but it's still cool.)

I'm also pleased with the new layout that I designed shamelessly stole and tweaked is working out. There's still a few minor issues with it that hopefully we can correct, but the layout and header banner's been well received.

Functionality's much improved too. No more annoying cut codes since standard cuts are now working with the RSS feed - which, if you want to follow it here on Livejournal, is available as scansdaily.

Now go visit before I sic Madam Fatal on you.

Comments

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Oh, you made that layout?

Care to listen to some bitching - uh, I mean, constructive criticism? :P

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

I think the plan is to create a suggestion box and take it all there. I know there's still a number of issues with the layout, but I'm hoping to persuade someone with a greater knowledge of CSS to help out. My knowledge is... limited and if it's anything more complex than altering font sizes and colours, I start to flap.

But fire away and it's a start getting a list together of stuff we still need to tweak.

If it's more than tweaks, CERTAINLY NOT! :D

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Well, I did code this almost from scratch...

The layout is pretty good, but there's some ares which could use some code optimization... and other bits and pieces I'd like to move around. That's it.

So it's okay if I mess with things a bit?

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

It's more than okay. If you're familiar with CSS and willing to put your head together with me, it'd be greatly appreciated. I have a rudimentary knowledge of html, but my knowledge of custom CSS is even more basic. If you'd like to and are willing to look over the custom CSS we're currently using, I'd appreciate the input.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Okay.

In basics, go to the body CSS section and delete the "line-height: 1.8em; part. This will make the text go back to single spaced text. I really dislike doublespaced text, I've always hated it because it's a waste of perfectly usable space, and that's basically the only real issue I have with the layout. This however, breaks the sidebar navigation (Recent entries, profile, etc.).

To fix that, go to "div.module-navlinks a" and add "line-height: 2em;" (no quotes) at the end. This makes the text go back to normal.

Unfortunately, both Opera 10 and Internet Explorer 8 really hate S_D. I have no idea why, but both browsers are pushing everything after the Calendar header down below the main page. And this is with the unchanged CSS o_O. It might have something to do with how the page is built. Not sure yet. :(

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Oh, and I'm also trying to figure out why the sidebar items are apparently as wide as the whole layout instead of being smaller. (You can notice them overlapping the blank space between single entries if you look closer.)

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Are you able to see the full CSS for the layout, or want it sent to you?

I'll try the other bits!

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

The ENTIRE CSS section is in the source! Talk about bad optimizations...

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Okay, I tweaked. I tried cutting the line-height:1.8em line entirely, but the page then looks TOO tightly spaced to me. Double spacing probably was a bit much though, so how about a compromise? I've set it to 1.5 em instead, which still gives the text a little room to breathe without being excessive to my eye. I also set the navlinks to 1.8em as they were before, rather than 2em, which left an ugly (to my eye) gap between the navlink bars.

However, doing all this does appear to have created a slight issue with posts like this one (http://scans-daily.dreamwidth.org/1199922.html) with the graphic overlapping the text.

I'm getting some really weird results with the tags in Safari now too.

If you'd like, I could give you access to the test comm I used to test tweaks for the layout and imports etc before applying it to the comm itself? Then you'll be able to tinker with the CSS we're using in the DW environment.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

That would be better, yeah. :p

You should restore the community to its normal state and let me tweak the sandbox instead. ;p

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

That's what I was thinking. I'll give you the keys to the sandbox and we can bug one another there?

Your help's greatly appreciated.

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Actually... I'm considering recoding the damn layout from scratch into something similar to what I use at my own site.

The design and colors are great, but the code layout is just too complex and unwieldy. Is it based on another theme?

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Yep.

But, hey, don't spend time recoding the entire thing as something different. We took quite a while tweaking it and I'd like to keep it basically the same as it is now, just try and smooth off the rough edges...

[foxhack.livejournal.com]

Oh, it wouldn't be THAT much work. I'd basically be making the exact same layout that's currently in use, only coded as something simpler.

By "something similar to what I use at my own site" I mean that I'd be splitting everything into its own CSS section, but preserving the current layout. The look is perfect! I don't intend to mess with it! All it needs is some code optimization.

[angelophile.livejournal.com]

Ah, I'm with you.

I invited you as a maintainer to the test comm on Dreamwidth and posted there so we can bounce ideas around in context.