Linking often will trigger the spam feature, which means I have to manually approve... one link shouldn't have set it off tho.
BrionS
· 7 months ago
That explains why it didn't show up immediately. I saw no notice that my comment / reply was being held for moderation / approval. That could be confusing.
Also not fond of the way replies are all at the same level and in-line with other comments -- hard to tell replies from comments and which replies are to which comment / reply. I know it says 'Reply' but there's only the horizontal rule visual distinction. I guess I'm nitpicking now. :)
Brion Swanson
· 7 months ago
I really like this reply mechanism! Disqus certainly seems more usable than the default commenting system. Now if only you could somehow link the stopthecap.com accounts with discqus so people don't have to create two accounts to comment. :)
Brion Swanson
· 7 months ago
Site looks good Phil! Here's a few things so far:
- Take Action! is cut off in FF 3.0.10 in Linux also -- in addition, Issues and Providers get cut off in the same manner - Commenting doesn't remember my name, email, or website in FF (no log-in, but for some reason the browser doesn't recall past entries for these fields.) - It is a nice theme, but very dense. Old theme is dense too, but left a lot of white space as you mentioned. Hard to tell exactly where my attention is supposed to be focused with everything the same size at about the same "level" on the page. - The RSS feed is not likely to be found by anyone way at the bottom and without the standard orange icon. - Search could be more prominent or part of the top bar if you want it easy to find. - sans-serif font is easier to read IMO - noting what markup is allowed in comments would be helpful (some HTML, other markup?)
More to come as I test in other browsers / OSes
Dave Meyer
· 7 months ago
Looks very good initially except Stop the Cap title is upside down. Mac Leopard, Safari 4 Beta.
Phillip Dampier
· 7 months ago
That is on purpose... beta test
Phillip Dampier
· 7 months ago
Comment editor being to the side and not below existing comments is going to irritate me... I can feel it. Makes it hard to reference others' comments.
BrionS
· 7 months ago
Agreed. Couldn't remember if that's how it currently is.
Phillip Dampier
· 7 months ago
I might experiment with Disqus and see if that works or clashes... it's a comment system management service. Might clash with the look of the site though.
Dave Meyer
· 7 months ago
Re: Issues/HissyFitWatch. Theme photo is placed twice, one large, one small with first line running for a few words down left side of large photo. Mac Leopard, Safari 4 Beta.
Phillip Dampier
· 7 months ago
Yeah, that is weird... only visible from Issues category, not when clicking on article itself.
The thumbnail element is an add-on (as seen in Recent Headlines). I didn't think it would also turn up in the article only in some placed. Might be a bug.
Also, the vertical line appears to be coming from the fact the picture is stuck right in the middle of a quoted text section.
BrionS
· 7 months ago
Site looks surprisingly good on Windows Mobile 6.1 using Opera 9.5 Beta browser.
- All CSS appears to render - images download and are properly scaled - Javascript works - Flash doesn't work (but that's to be expected)
Only two problems I ran into:
- This is a rather "heavy" site in terms of amount of data to download per page. To wit, it's a site about broadband caps and one would expect broadband users to be most interested. However, on the go reading is probably not too far outside the realm of possibility. Perhaps there's a CSS theme for the media type 'handheld' that removes a lot of the fluff and trims it down for mobile devices - this page crashed my phone in Opera after trying to click on the 'Share' widget. It's likely that the size of the page simply overwhelmed my memory, but just thought I'd note that it did crash in Opera
Mazakman
· 7 months ago
I like the site Phil, but as others have mentioned... The Stop The Cap ! at the top ofd the page is indeed upside down....but I have a feeling that you already knew this. Will have more time to explore this new layout a bit later today...
Firefox 3.0.10 Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit
Mazakman
· 7 months ago
Oh yes...the Take Action drop down doesn't display the two menu items completely.
BrionS
· 7 months ago
Windows Mobile 6.1 with IE 6 Mobile....
...lost cause - don't worry about it
BrionS
· 7 months ago
Layout suggestions (no idea how they'll actually look):
- Search this site widget on the top of the left-most column. Easy to see, eyes naturally go to the top-left. - Content Tags followed by Recent Headlines under the Search - Quote of the Day and Main content in the center column - Recent Comments and Popular Content in the right-most column
That should balance the page out a bit and make the search and most desirable links (tags, recent headlines) easy to find.
The current layout is very left-heavy.
Brion Swanson
· 7 months ago
Mac iBook G4 - Safari 3.1.2 (resolution 1024x768)
Several problems: - contrast between panel background (light gray) and text area (white) too close to tell in comment area -- darker background would show up better on poorer LCD displays - content scales but the quicklink bar does not. At this resolution "Take Action" moves down a row and to the right so that the pop-up text is half off screen - as resolution goes down, fonts get proportionately larger and start to look bad in the navbar at the top
Mac iBook G4 - Firefox 3.0.10
- same probems (due to resolution and LCD) as Safari
BrionS
· 7 months ago
One more comment for now:
Please add a Login link or button to the final page that is obvious. The current site's login button is not obvious except to those familiar with WP.
Dave Meyer
· 7 months ago
I have trouble discerning hotlinks (color) especially the important Issues/Legislative contact list. Perhaps use light grey as used in "Welcome to Beta List" date, issues, comments or a contrasting color.
Dave Meyer
· 7 months ago
I missed it! Bold it is.
Phillip Dampier
· 7 months ago
Testing Disqus. Of course, now oddly the comment box from before is still there, along with this one....
Phillip Dampier
· 7 months ago
Test from old comment box.
DPM
· 7 months ago
Take Action menu item dropdown requires enlarging the window. Mac Leopard, Safari, resolution: 1680x1050.
Corrine
· 7 months ago
WP Logon comment test.
Phillip Dampier
· 7 months ago
I have temporarily turned off Disqus. There are some issues - namely comments left in the editor on the right of the article don't appear.
BrionS
· 7 months ago
Corrine, how did you set your avatar?
Phillip Dampier
· 7 months ago
Avatars here support Gravatar, sort of a one stop place to set avatars for display on any blog that supports gravatar.
All Comments
Also not fond of the way replies are all at the same level and in-line with other comments -- hard to tell replies from comments and which replies are to which comment / reply. I know it says 'Reply' but there's only the horizontal rule visual distinction. I guess I'm nitpicking now. :)
- Take Action! is cut off in FF 3.0.10 in Linux also -- in addition, Issues and Providers get cut off in the same manner
- Commenting doesn't remember my name, email, or website in FF (no log-in, but for some reason the browser doesn't recall past entries for these fields.)
- It is a nice theme, but very dense. Old theme is dense too, but left a lot of white space as you mentioned. Hard to tell exactly where my attention is supposed to be focused with everything the same size at about the same "level" on the page.
- The RSS feed is not likely to be found by anyone way at the bottom and without the standard orange icon.
- Search could be more prominent or part of the top bar if you want it easy to find.
- sans-serif font is easier to read IMO
- noting what markup is allowed in comments would be helpful (some HTML, other markup?)
More to come as I test in other browsers / OSes
The thumbnail element is an add-on (as seen in Recent Headlines). I didn't think it would also turn up in the article only in some placed. Might be a bug.
Also, the vertical line appears to be coming from the fact the picture is stuck right in the middle of a quoted text section.
- All CSS appears to render
- images download and are properly scaled
- Javascript works
- Flash doesn't work (but that's to be expected)
Only two problems I ran into:
- This is a rather "heavy" site in terms of amount of data to download per page. To wit, it's a site about broadband caps and one would expect broadband users to be most interested. However, on the go reading is probably not too far outside the realm of possibility. Perhaps there's a CSS theme for the media type 'handheld' that removes a lot of the fluff and trims it down for mobile devices
- this page crashed my phone in Opera after trying to click on the 'Share' widget. It's likely that the size of the page simply overwhelmed my memory, but just thought I'd note that it did crash in Opera
Firefox 3.0.10
Windows Vista Home Premium 64bit
...lost cause - don't worry about it
- Search this site widget on the top of the left-most column. Easy to see, eyes naturally go to the top-left.
- Content Tags followed by Recent Headlines under the Search
- Quote of the Day and Main content in the center column
- Recent Comments and Popular Content in the right-most column
That should balance the page out a bit and make the search and most desirable links (tags, recent headlines) easy to find.
The current layout is very left-heavy.
(resolution 1024x768)
Several problems:
- contrast between panel background (light gray) and text area (white) too close to tell in comment area -- darker background would show up better on poorer LCD displays
- content scales but the quicklink bar does not. At this resolution "Take Action" moves down a row and to the right so that the pop-up text is half off screen
- as resolution goes down, fonts get proportionately larger and start to look bad in the navbar at the top
Mac iBook G4 - Firefox 3.0.10
- same probems (due to resolution and LCD) as Safari
Please add a Login link or button to the final page that is obvious. The current site's login button is not obvious except to those familiar with WP.
Just go here and set yours up: http://en.gravatar.com/site/signup