Talk:New Skin
The overview page? Though I know I've not been very active lately (I'll try to do better!) I do still find it useful when I'm trying to work out which threads are which.
-Lexin 13 April 2006 21:04 (GMT)
Oh good - nice to hear all that work's not wasted. Some others have recently suggested that the overview page is too complicated, that it doesn't give much overview at all.
Will have to think of some way to tidy up the overview page then. It has always run over the right side of the screen, but now we have a menu there... Must put code in a box with horizontal scrolls, or something like that...
No problems with the new skin then?
-Iris, posting as Admin 14 April 2006 06:51 (GMT)
Having experimented I don't think I've set my browser to view it correctly (I do intentionally keep some of the 'bells and whistles' of FireFox switched off).
I get a set of squares down the left hand side of all the pages saying that this site is trying to take pictures from the main site and that this is a Bad Thing (which it would be if this wasn't part of the site). So I've reset my skin to the Cologne Blue option. I can upload screenprints if that would help?
-Lexin 14 April 2006 09:22 (GMT)
You're getting hotlink messages? That has nothing to do with your browser settings. Sites are never built with fancy settings in mind, but with average users who use their browser as-is. People who get change the settings generally know what they're doing, so they also know what to do and what not to do.
But of course, if you don't know what you're doing, you can screw up an average page pretty bad if you do strange things with the settings. If you, say, define a non-monopaced font as the default monospaced font, or something silly like that, things will inevitably go wrong. Because people who built sites count on monospaced fonts being monospaced, to name but one example. If you define them otherwise, it's not the site's designer's fault things don't match up.
Please, if this is happening at anyone else's screen, let me know - because of course it shouldn't. wiki.faramirfiction.com is allowed to use faramirfiction.com's images - and I cannot think of any reason why on your computer this should go wrong. The same rules that specify that hotlink attempts should be diverted to the hotlink image also specify to make an exception for faramirfiction.com, wiki.faramirfiction.com, etc.
You can see images at the main site, right?
Do please email a screenshot to faramirfiction@gmail.com because I have cleared my cache, tried all the browsers I have, tried different computers and internet connections, and there is no way I can recreate that effect.
-Iris as Admin 14 April 2006 10:09 (GMT)
Test: This image is stored at the main archive. It should NOT show a hotlinking message.
http://www.faramirfiction.com/images/64t.jpg
Ok, I've tried this and for me it works. Posted this image here (where it's allowed) and at my LJ (where it's not allowed). Here it's visible, at my LJ I get the hotlink warning. Of course you need to clear you cache in between, or your browser will just be pulling the image out of the cache instead of downloading a new version. So the anti-hotlink system does what it's supposed to do.
The only way this image here would show up as the hotlinking warning is if you've just seen it in a place where it's not supposed to be (ie. at a site that's hotlinking it), and your browser has stored a hotlink warning version of it in its cache, and now puts that cached version on this page.
-Iris 14 April 2006 10:29 (GMT)
Just wanted to defend the overview page as well... I like it and do find it useful... So please don't get rid of it...
As for the new skin, it looks good and it's working perfectly fine for me :)
Laurelote aka -Gold Flower 14 April 2006 12:14 (GMT)
Good to hear the skin is working as it should on your end. The old one was looking so old fashioned! What do you think - shall I have the quote bar here as well, as at the main archive? I figured many of these pages were already complicated enough, but I can always add it.
And the overview page - sure we'll keep it, it's not bothering anyone. And you can even update it all by yourself!
It's just that with your brilliant indexing by character and location, and with the new path pages, which are basically chapter specific overview pages, the significance of the overview page is becoming less as there are other ways to find the chapter you're looking for. And at the same time, as the number of chapters grows, the readability of the overview page diminishes.
-Iris as Admin 14 April 2006 12:45 (GMT)
The advantage of the overview page is that it is easy to see where the paths split off from the one that you have been reading. The path pages do not show where these occur.
It has also made my indexing much much easier.
I'm glad you're going to keep it for now... I'd offer to update it for everyone if it'll save it. ;)
As for the quotes... I love them, and I was delighted to see that you kept them on the main site. My heart is saying yes... put them here too. But I think you right... Some of these pages are a bit complicated and so they should really be kept as simple as possible... As lovely as the quotes are, they're not really necessary.
Laurelote aka -Gold Flower 14 April 2006 20:11 (GMT)
I've fixed the problem with the overview page spilling over across the righthand menu by adding a simple scroll. Looks a lot tidier now, and in most cases you only need to see the start of the title anyway.
- I'm glad you're going to keep it for now... I'd offer to update it for everyone if it'll save it. ;)
Oh, I was never doing to delete the overview page, so don't worry about needing to save it. But just the same- I would greatly appreaciate it (and I'm sure many other users with me) if you could update the overview page whenever you spot a new chapter that's not up there yet. Of course I'll continue to do the same, but I simply cannot be at my computer 24/7.
-Iris, too lazy to log out and back in again, so posting as Bot 17 April 2006 13:28 (GMT)
I'm still getting that hotlinking message so I've put a screen print in email to you! I'm pretty sure it's something I'm doing, but I'm blowed if I know what.
-Lexin 15 April 2006 13:32 (GMT)
That's really, really odd. I'd love some one-on-one time with that browser of yours! (If it is your browser. Are you getting the same results if you use another browser from the same computer?)
The way this hotlinking protection works, is that whenever a request is made for any image in our faramirfiction.com/image folder, the server redirects it to the hotlinking image, unless the request comes from www.faramirfiction.com, faramirfiction.com, wiki.faramirfiction.com or www.wiki.faramirfiction.com. You always have to make this exception for your own site (ie. the archive), plus any other locations (in this case, this wiki), or you can't access your own images either. In this, no distintion is made between the site where the images are stored and anything external.
So for you to be getting a hotlinkink image here, but not at the main site, defies any logic, as the wiki is in the same list of exceptions as the main site. I've tried to mess up my FF in the most spectacular manner but didn't manage to recreate the effect.
Long story short- I've copied the offending images to a folder within the wiki's folder. Of course it's wasteful to have the same images on the same server twice, but hey, they're only two small images. You should be able to use the default skin without problems now. If you're still having problems, you might want to format your harddrive and start anew. Or otherwise, Cologne blue is a nice skin too...
-Iris, still as Bot 17 April 2006 13:28 (GMT)
I've emailed you some more pictures...yes, I get the same result with a different browser, even with my firewall switched off and with the cache cleared.
It's bizarre. But now I get the hotlinking image at the main site as well, which I didn't before.
-Lexin 17 April 2006 15:22 (GMT)
By the way, does anyone here have a paid LiveJournal account?
-Admin 27 April 2006 08:36 (GMT)
Yes, I do.
-Lexin 27 April 2006 17:37 (GMT)
I do as well (as of yesterday in fact)
Laurelote aka -Gold Flower 27 April 2006 17:51 (GMT)
Excellent! Would either of you be willing to do me (and other visitors here) a favour and go to http://www.livejournal.com/syn/, and add this site's feed to LiveJournal's syndication (bottom of that page)?
As I understand it, anyone (also us poor, simple souls on a free account) can add a syndicated feed to their friends list once it is created (I, for example, have BBC News on my friends page), but you have to have a paid or permanent account to create one.
Of course never mind if they charge you extra for adding a feed (you never know with these people), but otherwise I reckon there'd be some people interested in updates on their friends page.
Feed URLs are:
For the main site:
http://www.faramirfiction.com/rss/
For the wiki:
http://wiki.faramirfiction.com/index.php?title=Special:Newpages&feed=rss
http://wiki.faramirfiction.com/index.php?title=Special:Recentchanges&feed=rss
Cheers,
-Iris 28 April 2006 06:31 (GMT)
Well I've added the first one (named it faramirarchive). I think I've done it right but I'm not sure to be honest...
Will add the others now. :)
Laurelote aka -Gold Flower 28 April 2006 07:01 (GMT)
The other two are named wikifaramirnew and wikifaramirrc
Hopefully that's what you needed, but anything else just ask.
Laurelote aka -Gold Flower 28 April 2006 07:08 (GMT)
Great - thanks. I have them all added to my friends now.
Strange though that there aren't any feed items displayed yet. I would have expected them to already show the items that are in the feed right now... that's how it works anywhere but at LJ.. but perhaps they'll start showing once there are new items - we'll see.
I'll put up notices on the main site as soon as we actually have confirmation it's working.
Thanks again,
-Iris 28 April 2006 07:44 (GMT)
Update: On the accounts' info pages, it says:
Last checked: Never
Next check: 2006-04-28 06:57:12
So I can understand that their aren't any items yet when the feed's never been checked. But the time listed at 'Next check' is the same as the time the account was created... so the next check is at some point in the past, not in the future.
But anyway, other feeds seem to get checked once per hour, so we'll wait and see.
- scrolls throught dozens of items on her friend's page of LJ*
Seem's to be working now... ;)
Laurelote aka -Gold Flower 28 April 2006 11:48 (GMT)