A Conversation for Old Announcements: January - September 2011

Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 221

McKay The Disorganised

My post was naturally assuming that alabaster would be the default skin in question. smiley - bigeyes

smiley - cider


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 222

kea ~ Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy lies a small, unregarded but very well read blue and white website

Or the badger skin! But otherwise alabaster for sure.


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 223

Jackruss a Grand Master of Tea and Toast, Keeper of the comfy chair, who is spending a year dead for tax reasons! DNA!

Brunellie is the one for me! can't stand any other smiley - biggrin


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 224

Pastey

You're all wrong, Goo is the best skin.

Actually, that's kinda true and kinda so totally wrong smiley - smiley

Goo actually works best of the skins on mobile devices. There's a little mess up because of the advanced search menu being pushed down with a narrower screen, but other than that the original skin is still holding its own.

As for technical ju-ju to allow users to customise, we've got some ideas that we're thinking about. And this is *thinking* about. Remember that the first and most important thing is to relocate and settle, then we can run smiley - smiley However, one of the things that's come up while we were under ndas' etc was the idea of providing a very basic, clean layout similar to Plain, but each block of content would be nicely ID'd up ready for CSS. Users would then be able to create and store their own stylesheets, effectively creating their own skins. This idea then progressed so that the user could submit their skin to a showcase/gallery where others could see them, and choose to use them if they wished. But remember, that's just an idea nothing decided as we didn't need to worry/decide about that.

smiley - rose


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 225

Nosebagbadger {Ace}

But i like having skin - its quite cruicial!


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 226

Jackruss a Grand Master of Tea and Toast, Keeper of the comfy chair, who is spending a year dead for tax reasons! DNA!

its my 3rd most favorit organ smiley - biggrin


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 227

2legs - Hey, babe, take a walk on the wild side...

man... this badger skin is gona be out of this world... smiley - evilgrinsmiley - ponysmiley - handcuffssmiley - winkeyesmiley - run


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 228

Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista)

"As for technical ju-ju to allow users to customise, we've got some ideas that we're thinking about. And this is *thinking* about." (Pastey)

Or you could just officially support the "unsupported" Plain skin and encourage people to exchange CSS.

If you haven't played with this, give this a try...

Open "Preferences" from a DNA skin, then edit the URL so that the skin name is "plain".

Refresh the page - you'll see there's an extra "Stylesheet" field. Paste in the following address:

http://www.paranormal.org.uk/mustard.css

Click the "White" radio button and "Update details".

That's how I have been viewing the site for the last four or five years. It took an afternoon to do that; more major redesigns might take a week, but once they have been achieved they can easily be shared. smiley - geek

(To get rid of it, just go to "Preferences" and pick any other skin...)


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 229

Pastey

I didn't know you could do that smiley - biggrin

But yes, that's exactly along the lines we've been thinking. Although with a bit more control by giving the elements unique ids so they can be referenced specifically

smiley - rose


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 230

paulh, vaccinated against the Omigod Variant

smiley - ok


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 231

Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista)

The problem is that there are a *lot* of things that can be done with the site, and *are* being done, that the folk hired to do the "upgrades" didn't have the remotest idea about and thus couldn't test for compatibility. smiley - geek


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 232

Mrs Zen

What sort of things are you thinking about?


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 233

Z

Yes Peet -

If they were included in the upgrade, that would imply that they're not included in the documentation.

Which means we need someone to make a list.

Are you volunteering? smiley - evilgrin


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 234

Pastey

Evil grins aside, Peet I'd very much appreciate a list of these features. There is so much here that I think you're the only person who knows about smiley - smiley

smiley - rose


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 235

Witty Moniker

Peet would make a great Guru.

Wouldn't you like to be a Guru, Peet? smiley - grovel


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 236

Pastey

Peet would make a great Chief Guru...

Fancy a job Peet? Lots of responsibility, no pay, mucho kudos though.

smiley - rose


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 237

8584330

Yay, Peet! smiley - applause


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 238

Pastey

I'm not sure he's agreed just yet, we might need to set 2legs on him...

smiley - rose


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 239

Amy Pawloski, aka 'paper lady'--'Mufflewhump'?!? click here to find out... (ACE)

I thought we wanted Peet to say yessmiley - huh

All the mufflewhumps you want...


Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

Post 240

Peet (the Pedantic Punctuation Policeman, Muse of Lateral Programming Ideas, Eggcups-Spurtle-and-Spoonswinner, BBC Cheese Namer & Zaphodista)

smiley - geeksmiley - blush Awwww, thanks.

I really wish you had asked me to make a list five or six years ago. A combination of old age and Statins has played silly buggers with my memory. smiley - huh But I'll post any of the "tricks" they've broken as I remember them.

Some of these are broken in DNA too, since the BBC started "working on it".

One example was the ability we used to have to use the < /. >, < ./ > mechanism to post relatively short links to awkward BBC URLs by using a "../../" structure at the start of the URL to "back up" to the "dna/" in the URL. When the BBC started playing around all those links in existing posts became broken. (It's been so long since I used this mechanism, the "Buffy" boards were still around, so my memory of it is a little hazy... smiley - erm)


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Tuesday 21 June, 2011: A Message From Robbie Stamp

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