h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Are we planning to keep classic goo, and if so will it be upgraded to show the new smileys?

Hello there,

Since the Italics are seriously busy, I thought I'd drop by with what information I can glean.

My understanding, based on the Italics' post on F13470555?thread=6575865#p80067928 , is that Goo will be retired to make way for the new design, for a number of accessibility reasons.

A lot's changed in the years since it was made, and while it's a very special thing, and obviously important in the history of the site, n web design terms it's incredibly elderly.

Fingers crossed the new design is amazing!

As for whether the new smileys will ever come to Goo, I'd think it was unlikely given the above, but I'm not qualified to answer that for definite.

Whoami?

I'm a Goo user myself, but fully understand and (for the most part) agree with the decision to retire it.

However, the idea that skins might in some way be customisable in the future may save Goo and the other skins. Read the last section of Gnomon's piece on the Plain skin (under 'Customising the Skin'):

A21136196

If external stylesheets are supported by the redesign, there's no reason why we couldn't recreate the skin elsewhere on the web and just link to a http:// rather than c://.

Essentially, the default skin would point to a stylesheet of the BBC's choosing. That would fit all the accessibility requirements and look just as 'corporate' as it needs to be.

However, if we had the option to link to our own stylesheets, we wouldn't just have a choice of four skins as we do now. We'd have as many as we could design. In your Preferences, you'd just link to your own stylesheet, or to mine or Gnomon's or whoever's. Wordpress, Gallery and MySpace all work along the same lines - the content of the page doesn't change, only the CSS.

I guess we'll just have to wait and see if we can preserve that option.

one day, people will just accept the wonder that is alabaster!!

I agree, Jon. Sadly, we're losing that one, too.

I'm happy so long as they keep the new design simple (and white)

How can I explain this?

Here's the Cavendish Cavaliers website, with the link to the stylesheet removed:

http://cavendishcavaliers.com/index2.php

And here's the page with the proper CSS:

http://www.cavendishcavaliers.com/index.php

The content of both pages is the same. It's only the CSS that's different.

The original Cavaliers page was set up in a slightly different way; but the look of the page was essentially defined by another different CSS file:

http://original.cavendishcavaliers.com/

The point is that if we can keep the option of setting our own stylesheets in 'Preferences', we can retain *all* the skins by simply posting their URLs; not only that, but we can create new ones.

meanwhile, I am busy with a workaround for my personal space.