From: the dark one with no windows Insane since: Sep 2001
posted 10-05-2004 04:34
the background picture is nice, but seriously distracting as your foreground elements are transparent. it's really hard to concentrate on figuring out what the site itself is about.
speaking of which, i am by no means an engineer or physicist. is that the reason i'm failing to find the relevance of the title 'Abigail dreams' and the pretty, scenic image to quantum coils and rocket ignition?
frames are okay.. general layout is not bad.. but there's just so much going on visually, i doubt many would make the effort to hang out and discover what i'd imagine are fascinating articles on ... whatever it is your site is about =)
-------------- "...cause it's a war between evil and it's a war between good ..."
From: Rochester, New York, USA Insane since: May 2000
posted 10-05-2004 18:43
You are also not going to get a good code review on a frames site because most of us won't spend the time weading threw the subframes to find the relavant code.
Well, I like it., or at least parts of it. And I dont mind frames, they rarely annoy me, and although they're being phazed out, they will always be compatable , too many sites use em.
10 Quickies:
1. It can't resize, but thats the disadvantage of having a full picture in the background.
2. I've got me the broadbands , but Im sure its a fairly slow download on dialup.
3. The background in the lower right loses its background in some pages.(Quantum Effects).
4. The two boxes at the bottom are silly, if you put your logo in the top right and removed mister lower left, you'd have a lot more space for the "main view-screen" which is something it lacks.
5. [back] [forward] [reload] [bookmark] <- Why ? I can imagine with your frames back and fourths can mess things up, but if you have a good navigation there is no need. and [css] [source] and [tracker] dont seem like any use to anyone but yourself.
But the [print] button, I can understand that. I hit it though to find it printed the page rather than open a plain printable version.
Or does it do both behind the scenes ?
6. bottom righty should be either above or below the main content window horizontally in my opinion. (i.e [page] ntnumber2Strezz )
7. Have you tried it without the white borders ? I feel their not needed as the darkend background seperates the windows well enough and may look nicer, maybe. Although it may make your scroll bar stand out a bit. Oh and as well as the bg image being darkened maybe lower its contrast ?
8. After taking a look at it in IE , I realised the scrolling up/down doesnt work/exist in Mozilla, also I'm surprised you havent stuck in some CSS to make the scrollbar match.
9. Oh and why do you have a clock in the top right ? its only hogging resources, everyone has a clock on their taskbar (Macs ?), and is seemingly displaying the time in your country, not mine anyway, its +3 hours from here.
10. And if I want my ip I can get it elsewhere. It reminds me of those childish sites that linked to file:///c:\ saying the website had downloaded your computer or some jazz.
But whats this: [ North Pole AutoTrak @ 108kHz ] whats 108 Khz ? Whats an AutoTrak?
I realise most of the above is negative , but what the hey, its easier.
1) Yes, no resize and yes it's because of the single bgImage. I did try to keep it sized so that the 800x600 visitors will get it as the whole screen without having to scroll.
2) I remember visiting on dial-up, but I can't remember if it was too slow... there are really only 3 images on the whole site (not including the pages with buttons & banners): 49k, 32k, 6k. Everything else is code.
3) Thank you for telling me - should all be fixed. I don't know what went on there...
4) Which 2 bottom boxes? The left and logo?
5) When I first designed the layout, I was an active member of the codingforums. Those links were actually used for examples when the newbies would ask how to do things like that. The [css] & [source] are there for my own, just to let other coders know that mine is free and readily viewable; "View-Sources, don't hide them".
6) I don't understand what you're telling me...
7) I have tried the site without borders - people get lost and complain that there's no 'seperation of information'. So the borders are there to help focus visitors to the seperate information (main, menu1, menu2).
8) I admit, this site was originally for IE5+/Win only. Again, after hearing so many complaints from NS/Moz/Mac users, I've been trying to get the site to work smoothly in most other browsers and OSs. Last week I noticed that the scrolling links are at the far center left of the screen - I've yet to figure out why they're all the way over there... And for scrollbars in Moz; I've never seen coloured ones in anything other than IE. If you know of the code, please share!
9) That's another example for others to see; shows the time and date in my hometown, Murmansk (in case anyone is interested in my radioactive city).
10a) I'm thinking of removing the IP address... does seem a bit strange for some reason. I actually put it there to see my own address, but now that it's burned in my mind, I may take it off.
10b) [ North Pole AutoTrak @ 108kHz ] is a message for some friends of mine.
Thanks for the input!
##### WarMage #####
I know there are a lot of people whom are intent on everything being standards compliant; I'm not one of them. Most of the time when someone meantions thing inside my code, I just cringe. Personally I like frames/iFrames. Scrolling down a long single page, then having to scroll back up to the side menu makes me feel like I'm going backwards all the time. My basic idea of frames is one for the menu(s) and one for the content. (Does that make sense?)
##### LaSun #####
>the background picture is nice, but seriously distracting as your
>foreground elements are transparent. it's really hard to concentrate
>on figuring out what the site itself is about.
Thank you. The 'transparency' is something I put on the site just to be different than most other sites one would visit - especially one about quantum mechanics (dictionary-style).
>speaking of which, i am by no means an engineer or physicist. is
>that the reason i'm failing to find the relevance of the title
>'Abigail dreams' and the pretty, scenic image to quantum coils
>and rocket ignition?
Abigail Dreams: the dream I have of designing and building a working eGrav craft. A friend once said to me that if anyone is going to figure out how to build a [warp] engine, I would be the one to do it. I'm no brain, but I think I may have some ideas that can work (funds willing). I've now only one hobby (dream) and that's to get this thing designed, built and running.
>frames are okay.. general layout is not bad.. but there's just so
>much going on visually, i doubt many would make the effort to
>hang out and discover what i'd imagine are fascinating articles
>on ... whatever it is your site is about =)
Whatever my site is about?! LOL. It's hard to bring up such a topic without scaring my visitors. I can't just come out and say I'm trying to build a UFO. LOL, even funny when I hear myself say it! As I look at the image again, I'm thinking I put it there to give a sense of calm, openness, and freedom. The feeling I think we would all have if this project is ever successfully designed and built. If UFOs are real and do travel between stars or even galaxies, imagine the feeling of just going out there... anywhere.
But, I can change the image to something else - ideas?
Great input from all of you, thanks! It helps me a lot.
~ Roads? Where we?re going we don?t need, roads! ~
> Yea, I really think you need a taller main content window. Whats in the left could be put in your "home" and your logo at the top right.
5) When I first designed the layout, I was an active member of the codingforums.
Those links were actually used for examples when the newbies would ask
how to do things like that. The [css] & [source] are there for my
own, just to let other coders know that mine is free and readily
viewable; "View-Sources, don't hide them".
> Thats nice and considerate, didnt realise. You could have a seperate plain page for them. Then you could link to all your source.
6) I don't understand what you're telling me...
> yea when you type [ 1 ] without the spaces it links to inmate 1 it seems. What I mean to say is
Page1
page2
Page3
page4 etc..
takes up more space than horizontally:
page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 if you know what I mean (including input boxes). I'd suggest placing under the main content. IMO it doesnt require a whole page/window. And removing it would mean more space to stick your logo top right.
7) I have tried the site without borders - people get lost and complain
that there's no 'seperation of information'. So the borders are there
to help focus visitors to the seperate information (main, menu1, menu2).
> I obviously haven't seen it both ways so I can't tell. All just suggestions like the rest.
8) I admit, this site was originally for IE5+/Win only. Again, after
hearing so many complaints from NS/Moz/Mac users, I've been trying to
get the site to work smoothly in most other browsers and OSs. Last week
I noticed that the scrolling links are at the far center left of the
screen - I've yet to figure out why they're all the way over there...
And for scrollbars in Moz; I've never seen coloured ones in anything
other than IE. If you know of the code, please share!
> As far as I know you can only do it in IE, but you still should for IE people. It wont conflict with other browsers.
9) That's another example for others to see; shows the time and date in
my hometown, Murmansk (in case anyone is interested in my radioactive
city).
> Radioactive ?
10a) I'm thinking of removing the IP address... does seem a bit strange
for some reason. I actually put it there to see my own address, but now
that it's burned in my mind, I may take it off.
> Oh I know, it is handy now and again: http://www.icklepix.com/404fsdfsdfsdf
You could do what I've done, or put it on your page for your friends to see with the source code links.
From: the dark one with no windows Insane since: Sep 2001
posted 10-16-2004 13:34
quote:Whatever my site is about?! LOL. It's hard to bring up such a topic without scaring my visitors. I can't just come out and say I'm trying to build a UFO.
wow... that's actually quite fascinating...
but why wouldn't you come out and say it? far from scaring visitors away, i think 'i'm building a UFO!!' would attract much more attention (and like-minds) to the project than the subtle (albeit, poetic =) ) visual-diversion approach you've taken.
quote:But, I can change the image to something else - ideas?
it's not so much what the image is. just that it's everywhere! makes it kind of hard to read.
what about leaving that image on it's own then maybe using elements of it in the rest of the layout, like in this example ...
quote:The 'transparency' is something I put on the site just to be different than most other sites one would visit - especially one about quantum mechanics (dictionary-style).
or you could keep the fixed background, but resize it and push the mountains to the side so that the words in the main frame only scroll over, say, the blue of the sky ... ?
or, just set a more contrasting opaque colour as the background of your frames, like in this example ....
something like that ...
i'm off now to find out how u plan to build this UFO of yours ....
posted 10-01-2004 05:45
