My site... be gentle

[fillip]

threads in this topic seem a bit thin on the ground, so i'm gonna help out a little.

My site - in developement (http://www.casemodgod.co.uk/)

This is the first website i've actually attempted in full (including hosting, forums etc etc. )
Most of it isnt there yet as i need to setup MySQL b4 i can setup the mssg boards, but it's a loose framework for the site.
The idea behind the site is simply a place to showcase my sumer project i keep harping on about. I wanna do a project log here and @ bit-tech so will need somewhere to host the stuff, so i thought i may aswell do a sort of weblog thingy for it.

There is a small intro. to my forth coming case, but not much content yet - anyway, see what you all think.

Any comments, suggestions, 'gentle criticism' would be welcome - especially from those who've been doing web design much longer.

thanks.

[furious trout]

Do i get a prize for being the first visitor :p

Looks pretty cool, the only crticism i've got is the javascript thing in the status iot gets a wee bit annoying after a while :wacko: - other than that it's looking good!

[Darv]

I like it. Nice colours and layout.

Will look better once theres more content. Keep it up. B)

[Starbuck3733T]

You'd be well advised to move to XHTML 1.0 transitional and CSS1/2 for formatting and positioning respectively before you get yourself entrenched in the 'bad ways' of doing things.

Some sites to check out:
www.alistapart.com (lots of good stuff. Especially 'better living through XHTML')
http://www.nypl.org/styleguide/xhtml/guidelines.html (although this is for NYPL, it's still GOOD!)

Trust me, it'll take more work up front, more testing, but when your site is compatible, can be validated, and degrades gracefully in older browsers you'll thank me ;)

PS: the javascript thing is obnoxious. There was a memory leak in some browsers having to do with window.status scrollers, but I don't remember which ones. Short answer: loose it.

All this brought to you by Starbuck, the professional web guy.

[fillip]

ooooh responses already - so quick!

Furious trout and star - i was already half way towards removing that bit of JS cos it p****s me off too!

Furious trout - what sorta prize??... :unsure: ... :huh: ... :blink: !

Star - cheers for advice, the xhtml function in dreamweaver hasnt been very kind to me - tried to make a start on making it xhtml compliant. thanks for the links - i'll check them out.

I'm trying to setup a forum on that site too using PHPBB - prob is that current hosting doesnt support MySQL (extra £25 i cant afford right now) so has anyone got this working on an Access database using an Access DNS? I don't think it's possible but just wondering.

[mnpctech]

Nice, but your page needs a theme to give it life.. Some sorta logo graphic or pictures would be a good start. You probally know this, but I'm clueless about all this web creator talk ^_^

How about a photo montage of "in progress" of your project on the home page.

Hey, I'm visitor #1 also.... Need my shipping addy for the prize? :p

[fillip]

This is a prize that can't be posted ;)

I know what your saying, think is, it's more a less a holding page unril i can actually get started on the project - either easter/summer depending on what i can afford to get hold of.
I just wanted a bit of feedback from ppl who are in the know so to speak.


Thanks for all your help so far.

I've updated all html to be xhtml - well, nearly, still a few
tags to close.
and got rid of that JS message.

[fillip]

and now got the stupid php counter working :lol:

[Starbuck3733T]

Good good. Now that you've got xhtml, nuke dem tables! ;)

I won't give you grief if PHPBB isn't XHTML, though. :-D

And the book im working on now: http://www.sitepoint.com/books/css1/

Good stuff. Good book!

Also, the guy I work with auctions his logo design services off on ebay, and he does really nice work. If you'd like, I'll talk to him and see if he'll cut you a break. I think his typical logo is 74.99 for 4 variants. I'm trying to find his website, but I can't for the life of me! (Bad for a web designer! bad bad!)

[fillip]

Originally posted by Starbuck3733T@Mar 17 2004, 09:30 PM

I won't give you grief if PHPBB isn't XHTML, though. :-D



good, considering i didn't write the thing! :D

Good good.* Now that you've got xhtml, nuke dem tables! ;)

I presume you mean get rid of them?
I read all the requiremtns on that second site you posted but didn't see any new regulations/standards for tables?
^^^ IGNORE THIS ^^^ just looked at the link u posted :rolleyes:

How would i organise the layout without the tables there? Is this really advanced CSS or something?

As for logo design... dunno, don't think i can justify it for what is essentially a hobby site. I will try myself when i get more used to Phop and have some case photos to chop together - i appreciate the current logo/header is pants ;)
Thanks though. Just out of interest, was it $75 or £75?

Last question Star, and to anyone else who could help - those radio buttons for the dynamic poll are horrid because of the white edges showing. I cant change the colour for love nor money though. tried it through a linked style sheet, direct style within the html document and tried attributing the values to the actual radio button tag but nothing will change the white to match with the table background.
I read about this bug that exists in most browsers which is why it is difficult to remove this white border - however, the advice on getting around this problem didnt work. any other ideas?

[Starbuck3733T]

How would i organise the layout without the tables there? Is this really advanced CSS or something?

Tables are for displaying data in 'tabular' format. Meaning stuff like #s, prices, complex lists. Anything where the organization of data is more important than the layout.

I'm still looking for a good 'starter' site for moving away from tables, but what I've learned so far (and would have a hard time explaining, unlike regular HTML which I've been doing for like 7 years) is that CSS2 (positioning) seperates content from presentation. you design the content, and the CSS2 says where it goes. Usually, sections are '<div>' tagged.

Like I said, I wish i had a good 'starter' site.

Just out of interest, was it $75 or £75?
That would be $75. Just thought I'd try to help.

those radio buttons for the dynamic poll are horrid because of the white edges showing

That's an IE/Netscape 4.X thing. Stop using those piecese of shite--slow, buggy box model having-- (and I mean this in a very hardcore way) and download Mozilla or Firefox (a REAL MAN's STANDARDS COMPLIANT browser. You'll be surprised how much faster web pages render in FF or Moz.

As far as fixing them, try setting all the background colors to your red. The <body> the <table>, <tr>, and <td>.

[fillip]

I did a bit of research after your post last night, and a lot of what i read on CSS2 and the layout of tables etc with it just made my head hurt. Esp. after only learning html (obviously now out dated standards) in the last 2 years.

I'll give it a go when i have some spare time, but for this site i'm gonna leave the tables in the html - i'll only mess it up trying to change it now.

$75 for four variants of a logo?! jeez that's not bad at all. If this was going to be a dedicated hardware/review type site i'd seriously consider it since my p.s. skills are almost non-existent. But, i'll find some tut's when i start on the case and try and make some kind of logo out of a couple of piccies and make the page header a bit more impressive too.

AND... Finally! sorted those bloody radio buttons out :rant:
I already tried setting all colours to red and nothing changed it, so i spent best part of an hour cutting bits out of the stylesheet until i found the offender. For some reason if the bg colour for form elements was defined in the style sheet as the colour i actually wanted it to be - i.e. that darkish red, it would display it white around radio buttons and nothing else... no idea why, even when i created a specific style for just radio buttons i got the same, in the end i just hacked some of the elements out of the 'form' style and now the nasty whiteness has gone :D