Main index
Feb 26 2007 12:44
right well we've had some discussion on main index already, here's a few extra things:
- central bit very narrow, and it has gaps at the side as well, these could go.
- would be great to have in the tag cloud a few key tags which we manually select cos they're good, but randomised to display a certain number at a time.
Feb 26 2007 14:01
#2
What happened to the regions section that was in the test version we had last week?
Feb 26 2007 14:02
#3
I dont think regions have been setup yet. Hopefully once thats done we will get it setup with googlemaps.
Feb 26 2007 14:15
#4
yeah ditto sectors
need to do separate graphics for each region for thumbnails in the region intros as well. could we use a grey world map with the different regions all shaded slightly differently? then use a cut-out bit focussing on the actual region in each region intro?
Feb 27 2007 00:20
#5
John. wrote:
could we use a grey world map with the different regions all shaded slightly differently? then use a cut-out bit focussing on the actual region in each region intro?
that'd be nice, or even pale-ish colours.
Feb 27 2007 10:24
#6
yeah, though if we used different pale colours for the different sections then the map too would be OTT.
Feb 27 2007 10:54
#7
for front page, we could even have say latest news, latest other, then 3 blocks with random history, random though, random organise pieces...
Feb 27 2007 19:14
#8
all full width?
Feb 27 2007 19:30
#9
nah i thought random article could be split?
Mar 1 2007 17:33
#10
alright I think I've found best format so far for front page (and maybe other index) lists.
Have set up imagecache to resize to max 100px height and/or width, then crop to 60x40 which gives us a completely standardised image size whether the original is portrait or landscape. That means it goes in the list without the format being different every time, so have to worry less about the format breaking if images/headlines overlap between stories. The only variable is headline and intro lengths which don't mess things up so much.
Also I've set teasers to crop to 200 characters, and set the view to display the cropped version, so we never get really, really long teasers. I reckon if possible we should put a character limit of around 180 on the field itself.
thumbnails as links and stuff will require template.php overrides, which we've not done yet for views, so one for later. Shouldn't affect layout that one.
Going to put a couple of footer links on the main news index.
Not sure about new content block (would be nice to have teasers, but hard to standardise). Reckon history block looks good with that image size.
So getting there.
Mar 1 2007 20:05
#11
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alright I think I've found best format so far for front page (and maybe other index) lists.Have set up imagecache to resize to max 100px height and/or width, then crop to 60x40 which gives us a completely standardised image size whether the original is portrait or landscape. That means it goes in the list without the format being different every time, so have to worry less about the format breaking if images/headlines overlap between stories. The only variable is headline and intro lengths which don't mess things up so much.
yeah that's fucking great. i think maybe cropping could be slightly different... but can sort later.
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Also I've set teasers to crop to 200 characters, and set the view to display the cropped version, so we never get really, really long teasers. I reckon if possible we should put a character limit of around 180 on the field itself.
hmmm not sure that's going to happen though cos we don't have time/skills to do enough proper ones i don't think.
could "..." be put at the end of cropped ones?
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Not sure about new content block (would be nice to have teasers, but hard to standardise). Reckon history block looks good with that image size.
yeah. new articles should just be the same as news. we should try to put thumbnails in everything.
- I also think we should get rid of the arrows from the ones which have thumbs and/or teasers cos they're not necessary.
- could new content in right block (i made like old version, i.e. inc news) be like that as well? no arrows, with thumbs + teasers?
- currently the teaser text is bigger than head text cos it's bold. so think we should maybe embolden titles, and possibly shrink teaser text a size.
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So getting there.
fo sho.
also why is the top top box wider than the rest? can we have all that wide?
also what's the deal with news now? just promoted ones? in which case should we promote everything decent with thumb?
Mar 1 2007 21:48
#12
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Also I've set teasers to crop to 200 characters, and set the view to display the cropped version, so we never get really, really long teasers. I reckon if possible we should put a character limit of around 180 on the field itself.hmmm not sure that's going to happen though cos we don't have time/skills to do enough proper ones i don't think.
could "..." be put at the end of cropped ones?
... could, but it's really complicated to do that afaik, so maybe better just to go back to full length. I reckon it'd be good to stick some kind of character limit on that field though - not so everything has to match, but just to avoid really, really long ones.
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yeah. new articles should just be the same as news. we should try to put thumbnails in everything.
OK we'll need to add relevant cck fields to do that - and put intros on all new content as well inc. library.
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- I also think we should get rid of the arrows from the ones which have thumbs and/or teasers cos they're not necessary.
Can get rid of them, but it doesn't make any more space for the content - just the arrow disappears. So I want to leave there for now as a reminder to work out what's causing that, but yeah agree.
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- could new content in right block (i made like old version, i.e. inc news) be like that as well? no arrows, with thumbs + teasers?
On each page? Yeah definitely if we sort intro/images for every content type.
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- currently the teaser text is bigger than head text cos it's bold. so think we should maybe embolden titles, and possibly shrink teaser text a size.
Yeah could probably do that I think. Trying to do it only with view settings and css, but should be possible with that.
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also why is the top top box wider than the rest? can we have all that wide?
Top top box isn't in the panel. Have to find what makes it thinner.
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also what's the deal with news now? just promoted ones? in which case should we promote everything decent with thumb?
promoted ones means we only use ones with thumbs in, so I reckon so yeah.
Mar 2 2007 17:02
#13
catch wrote:
... could, but it's really complicated to do that afaik, so maybe better just to go back to full length. I reckon it'd be good to stick some kind of character limit on that field though - not so everything has to match, but just to avoid really, really long ones.
yeah yeah ok. maybe 4-500 chars or something?
cropping might still be ok... leave it for now i reckon.
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yeah. new articles should just be the same as news. we should try to put thumbnails in everything.
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OK we'll need to add relevant cck fields to do that - and put intros on all new content as well inc. library.
this is mentioned on the library thread now.
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- I also think we should get rid of the arrows from the ones which have thumbs and/or teasers cos they're not necessary.Can get rid of them, but it doesn't make any more space for the content - just the arrow disappears. So I want to leave there for now as a reminder to work out what's causing that, but yeah agree.
right cool.
ok so a few things i think will make front page a lot better
- get rid of big white space down side and big libcom logo + star, replace with small one.
- shrink teaser text in all feed things - across whole site
- kill arrows from feeds with thumbs/teasers
- put arrows in footer link bits perhaps? shrink text in footer links too
- shrink text in curved bar things - about, news, latest additions, etc.
- shrink about + error text in box
- close up spaces between things in feeds, around boxes, etc.
- have randomised tags in bottom box not the same every time, with "marxism" in big letters
- get sector/region click maps working.
Then i think it'd be fucking excellent.
Mar 2 2007 17:10
#14
John. wrote:
ok so a few things i think will make front page a lot better
- get rid of big white space down side and big libcom logo + star, replace with small one.
Yeah I reckon that logo has to be smaller. If could work out how to do it properly it wouldn't matter, but I can't 
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- shrink teaser text in all feed things - across whole site
I think we can do that yeah.
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- put arrows in footer link bits perhaps? shrink text in footer links too
Yep, yep. Maybe arrow smiley for those to save complex css.
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- close up spaces between things in feeds, around boxes, etc.
Some of that's really hard to work out, but yeah if we can.
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- have randomised tags in bottom box not the same every time, with "marxism" in big letters
Randomised is a piece of piss, have to keep tags tidy though if we do that.
Mar 2 2007 17:38
#15
catch wrote:
John. wrote:
ok so a few things i think will make front page a lot better
- get rid of big white space down side and big libcom logo + star, replace with small one.Yeah I reckon that logo has to be smaller. If could work out how to do it properly it wouldn't matter, but I can't :(
yeah, it's better work-safe wise having it small anyway. could you kill the star and shift everything over to the left like now? or would that be tricky?
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- shrink teaser text in all feed things - across whole siteI think we can do that yeah.
cool
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- put arrows in footer link bits perhaps? shrink text in footer links tooYep, yep. Maybe arrow smiley for those to save complex css.
yeah, that arrow smiley would make lots of things easier, cos i bet getting rid of the extra line break before them would be nigh on impossible.
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- close up spaces between things in feeds, around boxes, etc.Some of that's really hard to work out, but yeah if we can.
yeah i know that shit takes time.
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- have randomised tags in bottom box not the same every time, with "marxism" in big lettersRandomised is a piece of piss, have to keep tags tidy though if we do that.
yeah good point. hmmm would be great to randomise from a selection of "key tags" which we know are good. but i spose might not be possible.
Mar 2 2007 17:40
#16
I think I'm going to kill the star and put a text site-name. Will look shit, but can easily swap for something else later and will fix the other issues a bit.
Site might go funny for a while!
Mar 2 2007 17:42
#17
excellent
Mar 2 2007 18:31
#18
with wider index I don't think the block headers work full width. Still like them when it's half-width though.
Going to change front page news feed to a view instead of a block to see if it's better.
Mar 2 2007 18:55
#19
i'm guessing you're shrinking the text in teasers now?
it seems to be shrinking it in articles as well at the moment... e.g.
http://libcom.org/history/vietnam-gi-resistance
Mar 2 2007 18:59
#20
yeah tried it, didn't realise it'd shrink in articles as well. should be fixed now.
Mar 2 2007 19:02
#21
er yeah but now it's not shrunk in feeds. does it look like that won't be possible? if not what about RSS?
Mar 2 2007 19:05
#22
how's that?
Mar 2 2007 19:18
#23
amazing! hmm line spaces in small text are still pretty big, would be good to close up if poss. and between normal sized text tbh. the problem yesterday with bigger spaces between and smaller between paras was fixed yesterday as well btw.
Mar 2 2007 19:24
#24
catch you're a legend - smalltext now perfect
Mar 2 2007 19:26
#25
reduced line-height on intros, will look for line-height weirdness elsewhere.
dunno what happened with paras
Mar 2 2007 19:31
#26
ooh looks like you just did the main text right? looks good!
about the overlaps of stories/images, etc. could it be fixed by coding in some say image which is just a transparent gif but which stretches across say 200px at the bottom of every teaser?
Mar 2 2007 19:35
#27
just thought - could we left align thumbs beside titles in the feeds? doesn't seem to be much reason for them to be below, just takes up space
Mar 2 2007 22:06
#28
got thumbs next to titles and intros now. Works with standard thumbs. Reduced line-height so there's not such a big gap as well.
Yep, did main text.
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about the overlaps of stories/images, etc. could it be fixed by coding in some say image which is just a transparent gif but which stretches across say 200px at the bottom of every teaser?
Nah there's ways of doing it - just want to avoid hacks like that so it's nice and clean 
Mar 2 2007 22:26
#29
alright I added fields to library content type, and update front page view. Going to make it "promoted" as well.
Took bullets away from panels (i.e. anything in a panel doesn't get bullets). Obviously we might want them on forums lists later, but it looks a bit better just for now.
Mar 3 2007 09:36
#30
tagadelic - sort order can be random, but it'll still be the most popular ones. Reckon a slightly larger number of tags might fix it, or changing css.
Ideally we want a tag 'search' box like on delicious, at the end of that cloud where you type a word and it takes you there. Or even better or as well, a tag filter system for all content, where you type in as many tag's as you want and it filters site content by them