Online Debate Network (final)

[apokalupsis]

Finally updated the live site with vBadvanced and my new style. Many features working (including the shoutbox which if there is interest, I'll release the code for - it's through Tag-Board), many features still being worked on. But the layout will be the same. ;)

One question though, is it "too light"? Should the white background be a little darker? A light blue or light grey perhaps?

www.onlinedebate.net

[KW802]

Finally updated the live site with vBadvanced and my new style. Many features working (including the shoutbox which if there is interest, I'll release the code for - it's through Tag-Board), many features still being worked on. But the layout will be the same. ;)

One question though, is it "too light"? Should the white background be a little darker? A light blue or light grey perhaps?

www.onlinedebate.net

:confused: That URL points to a front page in all browns that is static and not using VBA.

Edit: Never mind. Remember, update your index pointers first then tell people to check it out. :p

Edit #2: What happended with the quote box in the upper right? If nothing else that splash of color helped break up the all 'blueness' of the header.

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[apokalupsis]

:confused: That URL points to a front page in all browns that is static and not using VBA.

Edit: Never mind. Remember, update your index pointers first then tell people to check it out. :
What do you mean "index pointers"? Also, are you sure it just wasn't your cache (if you had been there before)?


Edit #2: What happended with the quote box in the upper right? If nothing else that splash of color helped break up the all 'blueness' of the header.
The quote box was dynamic. It is still in the works of being coded. It was breaking the header and was the sole hangup of release. So I took it out to update, and will work on the header some more on the dev site.

[KW802]

What do you mean "index pointers"? Also, are you sure it just wasn't your cache? :)
Could not have been my cache because that was my first visit; previously you were using the family... URL. ;) By 'index pointers' I meant what ever configuration you have indicating what your index page is. For example, on my site I can explicitly point to a file to act as an index page or I can let the server configuration defaults do their thing by searching sequentially for named files.


The quote box was dynamic. It is still in the works of being coded. It was breaking the header and was the sole hangup of release. So I took it out to update, and will work on the header some more on the dev site.
If you want a semi-painless quote-of-the-moment module, just let me know. The one I'm using now just draws random quotes from a flat file; crude, but pretty simple to maintain.

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[apokalupsis]

Could not have been my cache because that was my first visit; previously you were using the family... URL. ;) By 'index pointers' I meant what ever configuration you have indicating what your index page is. For example, on my site I can explicitly point to a file to act as an index page or I can let the server configuration defaults do their thing by searching sequentially for named files.
Well, I did rename the old index file. It used to be index.html, I renamed it to index.htmlbak...but just now, I renamed it a 2nd time to something that isn't even close to "index". Perhaps that was the problem? I don't know, I've never experienced anything like that and I've not seen it in my browsers.


If you want a semi-painless quote-of-the-moment module, just let me know. The one I'm using now just draws random quotes from a flat file; crude, but pretty simple to maintain.
Thanks, I may bring this to your attention in the future. Right now, it isn't so much the code, as the header layout. It was creating horizontal scrollbars. The error is still produced at the dev site: www.myfamilycorner.net The code was fine, it was just the way the header was sliced. Myself and a couple others have tried variations, but thus far, no good. I don't want any horiz scrollbars for 800+ resolution.

[DarknessDivine]

Looks really good! I love the sleakness of the table headers...Did you design the skin yourself? Just curious as I would like mine rounded as well...;)

[KW802]

Thanks, I may bring this to your attention in the future. Right now, it isn't so much the code, as the header layout. It was creating horizontal scrollbars. The error is still produced at the dev site: www.myfamilycorner.net The code was fine, it was just the way the header was sliced. Myself and a couple others have tried variations, but thus far, no good. I don't want any horiz scrollbars for 800+ resolution.
Looks like it's because the silver box is at a hard edge of the right side of the buttons; ideally you'd want this to be able to go above the buttons as your window width decreases. If you'd like I could take a crack at it.

Edit: Are you sure you narrowed it down to the header causing the problem?

[apokalupsis]

Looks really good! I love the sleakness of the table headers...Did you design the skin yourself? Just curious as I would like mine rounded as well...;)
The skin was made by someone else. But it didn't fit right on vBadvanced, so I had to code that myself (w/ the help of Brian of course). ;) I've tweaked the skin of course, to my liking. The roundness of the corners was a must for me, I hate blocky blocks.

[apokalupsis]

Looks like it's because the silver box is at a hard edge of the right side of the buttons; ideally you'd want this to be able to go above the buttons as your window width decreases. If you'd like I could take a crack at it.

Edit: Are you sure you narrowed it down to the header causing the problem?
I'm sure it's the header. Once it was removed (the block), the scroll bars disappeared.

And if we don't put it on the far right, it will show up in the middle of the header, and that may look funky IMO.

My gaming site (which uses a different portal, soon to be updated to vbadvanced) has far right tables: www.ez-company.net (select the Techie theme)...I don't know why it works for that, but not for the new header on vb3.

If you want to give it a shot, you certainly can. ;) Let me know what you need.

[KW802]

If you want to give it a shot, you certainly can. ;) Let me know what you need.
You on MSN? My experiments with http://www.myfamilycorner.net/ led me to the footer. What I was doing to experiment was to do a view source then copy & paste the code into FrontPage to tweak it. I then changed my screen properties to 800x600 (to make sure that I wasn't guestimating when I got the scroll bar) and it appears to work fine. :D

If you're on MSN give me a holler at kw802@hotmail.com

[apokalupsis]

I don't use MSN, I do have AIM though. I also use pm's. hehe

[KW802]

I don't use MSN, I do have AIM though. I also use pm's. hehe
My AIM was being piggy-backed on a family member's AOL account; when they dropped AOL my AIM account got whacked at the same time so now I can't even reregister with the same name. Grumble, grumble, grumble....

Give me a minute to shoot you off a PM then I'll go see about putting a new AIM for me out there.

[Milorad]

as you know, I really like the style, and the logo...

just a few minor things to mention...


1) the area around the reply button on the news items looks like a table is too short or something...

2) Your left/right modules are a variable width which allows the "Community Stats" title to wrap. This looks VERY odd. Changing it to something like "statistics" would sort this out, as would setting fixed widths on your left and right columns.

3) I strongly suggest using the same shadow effect thing on the bottom of all your modules on the CMPS to fit the 'look' of the rest of your site and also round off the bottom corners. Just place the following under the closing table tag of each of your modules.


<table width="100%" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
<tr>
<td width="12" height="19"><img src="http://www.myfamilycorner.net/forums/odnimg/misc/catfoot_l.gif" alt="" /></td>
<td width="100%" background="http://www.myfamilycorner.net/forums/odnimg/misc/catfoot_bg.gif"></td>
<td width="12" height="19"><img src="http://www.myfamilycorner.net/forums/odnimg/misc/catfoot_r.gif" alt="" /></td>
</tr>
</table>
<div style="padding: 5px 5px 5px 5px;"></div>


You may want to find that code in your forumhome template, so you'll preserve things like the imagedir variable :)

[apokalupsis]

hey, thanks a lot, I'll look into those changes. ;)

[Milorad]

its been days, you're slacking! ;)

[apokalupsis]

Hey, #1 was done on day 1. #2 is done now. I'll deal w/ #3 soon. ;)

[apokalupsis]

OK, I finally got around to using the closing code on the blocks...that looks very nice IMO. Thanks for the tip! ;)

However, I'm not sure what you mean by this...


You may want to find that code in your forumhome template, so you'll preserve things like the imagedir variable :)

Also, I'm still working on the news. I want the entire news area to have the same background, so they appear to be "one big module" with just a few news articles. There is a thread here that shows how to do that...but it didn't come out right. I'll work on that again soon.

[Milorad]

Sorry my reply took so long apokalupsis, I kinda dropped off the face of the earth for a while.

the part you quoted, basically I just wanted to ensure that you used the code from your existing templates, rather than the code I posted (which was pre-parsed HTML).

either way, you did good, it looks fantastic :)

[apokalupsis]

ah, yes...and ty. Also, the Shoutbox has been fully integrated now as well. Will release it soon.

[Samir]

Nice site. I like the template and the integration. Clean while still catching the eye with nothing seeming out of place.