sonofsanta Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 As I keep on mentioning, I done gone won a proper fancy writin' contest for being good at putting words down and stuff like that, so it's time I had a website for my writing. Because I am a nerd I couldn't possibly just install Wordpress, pick a theme and away I go; no, I have to build the whole bloody thing from scratch, don't I, because I do love to faff. So could I please, kindly, if you wouldn't mind, I'd be awfully grateful, if you lovely people could pop on over to MattDovey.com and let me know what you think of the design (in particular the readability of the fancy fonts) and any problems you spot, or any thoughts in general on the design. It's not quite perfect on mobile (seems to resize down the secondary text much smaller than it should be in Android Chrome) but it's workable. I figure you lot are going to be pretty relentless at finding holes if holes exist. I've got a full backup of the database and the code, so if you reckon you can break it, do so and let me know how you did it. The background image is chosen randomly from half a dozen designs, so if there's one you don't like, let me know which one you got. Once you go to the story, though, it'll set a specific style and stick on it. Thanking you in advance, my lovelies
Steve21 Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 First question would be what's the background supposed to be? As get totally different on IE and FF One is like a green background with out of focus white bits on, and one is rain on a window Or is it supposed to change? Steve
Steve21 Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 http://mattdovey.com/styles/rain.jpg vs http://mattdovey.com/styles/green.jpg ^ Steve - - - Updated - - - Oh ignore me, I can't read it seems Steve 1
sonofsanta Posted October 30, 2015 Author Posted October 30, 2015 First question would be what's the background supposed to be? As get totally different on IE and FF One is like a green background with out of focus white bits on, and one is rain on a window Or is it supposed to change? The background image is chosen randomly from half a dozen designs I've designed it so I can set a mood-appropriate background for a story, and the style will stick from the point you load a story until you load a new one. If you've not yet got a style (i.e. you land first on a page where no style is set), it chooses randomly from those available. Those two styles--green and rain--will follow you round the site now, until you load the story at which point it will be set to an autumn theme. After that point, you'll be stuck on autumn, because there's no other story to force the style to something new. 1
Steve21 Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 Haha aye read that just after I put it Assumed it might have done it per reload etc. Don't know if there was a specific reason, and more just a picky thing in terms of consistency, but any reason why About us and Home aren't titles (It's Matt), but then on Stories it becomes the title is Stories and Matt at the top? Steve
Nixon77 Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 To be honest its a bit 2006, but its very east to read which might have been your intention.
sonofsanta Posted October 30, 2015 Author Posted October 30, 2015 Haha aye read that just after I put it Assumed it might have done it per reload etc. I didn't want it to jump about with every page load, but stay fairly consistent as you browsed, only changing as required for a story. I figure most people won't open it in two browsers at once to notice Don't know if there was a specific reason, and more just a picky thing in terms of consistency, but any reason why About us and Home aren't titles (It's Matt), but then on Stories it becomes the title is Stories and Matt at the top? Steve I take it you mean that the big text is Matt Dovey on every page, but on a story page that shifts to the top alongside the top links? (The top links, btw, should be consistent on every page, so if you mean that they change then let me know). It's because my name is the most important thing on the page--not being arrogant, I mean from a marketing perspective--except on a story page, where the title becomes more important, but I still need my name to appear somewhere. I didn't think blog post titles were important enough to warrant the huge text up the top, and a giant Home always looks a bit cheesy, I think.
sonofsanta Posted October 30, 2015 Author Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) To be honest its a bit 2006, but its very east to read which might have been your intention. Probably not a coincidence that 2006 is about the time I finished my web design degree and stopped keeping up with changes in the field any expansion on what it is that makes you think that, though? Easy to read is definitely the main concern though--function over form, and all that. And from a form perspective, well, writers' websites are not usually very pretty, so I only really need to be good enough. Favourite worst example: what George RR Martin used to have. Edited October 30, 2015 by sonofsanta
Gibson335 Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) Good luck with it. As a writer myself, I managed to achieve the following: Winner of short story competition judged by editor from Pan books Publication of winning story in Dark Voices 2 (the anthology that replaced the Pan Book of Horror series) Book singing at Forbidden Planet bookstore Publication of short story in FEAR magazine Publication of short story in Dark Voices 4 Publication of short story in Rattlers Tale magazine At that point I drifted across to novels. Have now written several, none of which I managed to get published. Came close once, got some interest from both an agent and a publisher, but for financial reasons they decided not to pick up the option. I floundered around for a while afterwards, to no avail. Sadly, whilst I loved writing short stories and found novels to be a chore, I subsequently found I no longer had the required frame of mind for short stories, and so now, some 20 years on from my first stab at novel writing, I write scraps of novel ideas I know I'll never complete. I think you either have it or you don't: I had something, but just not enough. I wish you a brighter future. Edited October 30, 2015 by Gibson335 3
Norphy Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 At that point I drifted across to novels. Have now written several, none of which I managed to get published. Came close once, got some interest from both an agent and a publisher, but for financial reasons they decided not to pick up the option. I floundered around for a while afterwards, to no avail. Sadly, whilst I loved writing short stories and found novels to be a chore. Out of curiosity, have you considered self publishing what you have on the Kindle store? I know that there are a lot of people out there who do that but you never know what might happen. If the likes of EL James can do it, why not you?
Gibson335 Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 Out of curiosity, have you considered self publishing what you have on the Kindle store? I know that there are a lot of people out there who do that but you never know what might happen. If the likes of EL James can do it, why not you? Have considered, but simply haven't invested enough time into what it takes to do so. Part of that is knowing that I really would have to re-edit my work in order for it to be more current, and can't commit to the time that would take - basically, making excuses not to do it rather than just doing it, I guess.
ICTDirect_Dave Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 Milk first? Are you MAD?!?! Good simple layout, nice and easy to read, though a better Nav might be nice. It's clear from your writing style that you love Pratchett so I wouldn't worry too much about stating the greatness of Discworld Good stuff 1
sonofsanta Posted October 30, 2015 Author Posted October 30, 2015 Good luck with it. ...I drifted across to novels. Have now written several, none of which I managed to get published. Came close once, got some interest from both an agent and a publisher, but for financial reasons they decided not to pick up the option. I floundered around for a while afterwards, to no avail. Sadly, whilst I loved writing short stories and found novels to be a chore, I subsequently found I no longer had the required frame of mind for short stories, and so now, some 20 years on from my first stab at novel writing, I write scraps of novel ideas I know I'll never complete. I think you either have it or you don't: I had something, but just not enough. I wish you a brighter future. Thanks. I don't know if I'll ever get into novels--I mean, I'd like to, there's no career in short fiction alone--but it's still a few years off at least. And even then, if I learn enough, make the time, and write something worthwhile, it still takes a large dollop of luck to get anywhere, so I'll take all the good wishes i can get. Milk first? Are you MAD?!?! Good simple layout, nice and easy to read, though a better Nav might be nice. It's clear from your writing style that you love Pratchett so I wouldn't worry too much about stating the greatness of Discworld Good stuff Cheers Dave how specifically do you mean a better nav? I mean, there's not a lot to really navigate through, so it didn't seem worth having a drop down; what would you change about the current set up? And I'm not mad. I'm scientifically correct.
ICTDirect_Dave Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 I'll confess that I didn't notice the rather nice little nav at the top, I was drawn to the links below the search bar at the side, so i guess I was moaning about that bit more I'll let Studio 60 tell you what I think of your 'Science' You might need to turn it up a little... 1
sonofsanta Posted October 30, 2015 Author Posted October 30, 2015 I'll confess that I didn't notice the rather nice little nav at the top, I was drawn to the links below the search bar at the side, so i guess I was moaning about that bit more I'll let Studio 60 tell you what I think of your 'Science' You might need to turn it up a little... Maybe I need to emphasise them a bit more then. What background did you have, can you remember? Might need to tweak the colours up top a little bit.
ICTDirect_Dave Posted October 30, 2015 Posted October 30, 2015 (edited) It was blue to start. Then firefox crashed and it reloaded green. I didn't notice it on the blue, and on the green i was just finishing reading so didn't look Edited October 30, 2015 by ICTDirect_Dave 1
sonofsanta Posted October 30, 2015 Author Posted October 30, 2015 It was blue to start. Then firefox crashed I'd panic about that, but, well, Firefox I say this with all the love in the world for Firefox, that I've been using since Phoenix 0.7, but it does have its moments.
sonofsanta Posted November 4, 2015 Author Posted November 4, 2015 (edited) I've tweaked the site layout to be a bit more consistent in its typography and a bit more sensible in its sizing, so it should be a prettier and more readable now. This includes sizing down the ENORMOUS TEXT up the top and making the top links bigger so they stand out some more. Any more thoughts are, as always, appreciated Edited November 4, 2015 by sonofsanta
STK91 Posted November 4, 2015 Posted November 4, 2015 I can build you a new website if you are interested? with a very easy to use content management.
sonofsanta Posted November 4, 2015 Author Posted November 4, 2015 I can build you a new website if you are interested? with a very easy to use content management. I've only just bloomin' built this one! phpMyAdmin is all the content management I need <3
pete Posted November 25, 2015 Posted November 25, 2015 Don't you need a "media enquiries" page now you're in the paper? (Page 6) 1
sonofsanta Posted November 25, 2015 Author Posted November 25, 2015 Don't you need a "media enquiries" page now you're in the paper? (Page 6) The Horncastle News? I wish they'd bloomin' tell me when they print the story. I only spotted the Skeg Standard one by chance, and that was two or three weeks ago so I'd stopped checking the other town papers. Better get me a copy if they've printed it as well, then!
pete Posted November 25, 2015 Posted November 25, 2015 Yup. There was a teaser with your mugshot from the website in last week's paper (spotted in barbers yesterday) saying it'd be in this week's edition. 1
sonofsanta Posted November 25, 2015 Author Posted November 25, 2015 Yup. There was a teaser with your mugshot from the website in last week's paper (spotted in barbers yesterday) saying it'd be in this week's edition. This is what I get for not keeping pace with the exciting world of Mid-Lincolnshire news. Thanks for the heads up!
korifugi Posted November 25, 2015 Posted November 25, 2015 This is what I get for not keeping pace with the exciting world of Mid-Lincolnshire news. Thanks for the heads up! More importantly - theories of ancient, aeon spanning battles aside - do we know what happened with that plant pot?
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