Site Design Followup
Hey guys and gals… I’ve been working for days (in my sickness) on making the website more friendly. I like the look of the comments now.. they look clean.
I also widened the site by 20 pixels… which gives me a little more room to put things.
I still have to widen the forums.
BUT.. I need your help!
Where can I make it obvious that there are new posts?
Right now it’s tough to figure out when I have new posts and it makes it difficult for me to communicate with you guys.
Right now I have a little box on the homepage and one on the sidebar.. but they really don’t stand out. I can’t replace the lesson box on the right as that’s the most important part.
I even tried going with the blog format for the site over the weekend, but that ended making my site look like a lot less than it was.
So.. any suggestions would be welcome! You can comment below for now or in the forum later.
Thanks so much!
-Marina
Telephone
Oke PedanticKarl, I’ll take HFW as the starting-point, now you make sure she gets this homework. : )
Lets get her started.
So the starting position is hotforwords = Philology , which means a love / passion for words.
Now we have passion and words.
Words are spoken or written. Lets use the writing bit because that’s what you do on a site. The speaking bit are the video’s.
Written words are both digital and hard-copy. Because the love for the words comes from the meaning / the history of the word hard-copy is the logical one to take.
Now which types of hard-copy are there and which one of those comes close to the type of research you do?
Or should you look at hard-copy with passion in them?
The other one is passion. What is passion (find the words), a burning desire, fieriness, etc.
Which images come to mind, which elements can you use, which colors do you associate with them ?
The words [ will be a cakewalk ] for you. If you have trouble with the images, there is always somebody here to help you.
Now you don’t need to build a new site at once, but you can use these elements in your current site.
And once you have the right concept you will just die to start the new site-design.
Your concept will lead you trough the decisions, Choices will become obvious. It will not be a struggle but a great journey. It will give more dept to the site. Deeper thoughts will have gone into the site-design, and it will show. People, who have no clue about the design, will feel that everything is all right.
You can pull this off, as long as you set your mind to it. And remember, its not what you do, but why you do it, that’s important.
Hey Rijk,
I found your homework and I like what you had to say. What you have described is called “Mind Mapping”. Also, I am a student of the de Bono Thinking course as well as many studies in analytical and creative thinking. I have participated in many challenges requiring both the left and right side of the brain and so I understand where you are coming from.
What you have described (design) is just one element, or one dimension of the total package. There are countless of other elements to consider such as business decisions, many of which revolve around concepts such as SEO. Are you aware that Marina had to add a certain widget to the site to counteract a specific functionality? That action addresses a specific need of the site getting recognized by the search engines.
Keep in mind, at this time Marina is not depending on some prima donna who is going to hold her hostage. Marina is in control of her destiny and she is doing an awesome job and I am behind her one thousand percent. At some point in the future, things will change and Marina will make the appropriate decisions.
As you said in your last sentence, it’s not about the WHAT, but the WHY. I utilize the 6 Ws all of the time. Have you ever looked into the many web site disasters of the recent past ten years that tried to solve design issues. The K-Mart web disaster comes to mind as well as many others.
By the way, what do you think of Google and it’s simple home page. Do you know what kind of company Google is? What is their bread and butter product offering?
I knew you would understand the hint
I am not a website builder or something like that. The topic is called Site Design Followup. And designing is a big part of my profession. So that’s the part I can help / reflect.
Thus far I haven’t noticed this way of thinking on the current overhaul.
I understand that only design is not the answer. One of the big questions that hasn’t been asked and which is of major importance: Why did you come to this site and what makes you come back.
But we’ll wait and see what happens.
It sounds like you can nudge her in the right direction.
Good morning Rijk,
You made some great comments. I like the way you think. I am answering your comment (#94.1.1) here, so my comments don’t get squeezed.
This is Part 1.
It is interesting that you picked up on the title, as the word “design” is a key element in your profession. The word design is an interesting word and most people think of it in terms of visual designs or graphic design or referring to the visual arts. My training is in electronic engineering and I don’t call myself a designer, but I have designed many electronic circuits to solve specific problems. My type of work is very abstract and most people can’t appreciate the type of work that I do. I think you’ll find this wiki on design interesting. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/D.....esign
In terms of the word “design” in the title of this post. I don’t want to second guess Marina, but she may have had a broader intended meaning when she used that word. When you read her description at the top, you will notice her use of one of the Ws referring more to a structural design. Part of her statement:
“… it’s tough to figure out when I have new posts…
difficult for me to communicate with you guys.”
One of my suggestions was to add a date/time stamp next to the Recent Posts box. Someone else also mentioned it. I also suggested adding a colorful image that says “New” next to the Recent Post title, but then it starts getting cramped. Maybe using different font colors to indicate the common meet up place.
Communication is an important part of this site and Marina has mentioned many times over the last year of building a community of like minded people. I think she has done a fantastic job and you will see many many compliments from people that visit this site.
Rijk raised an interesting point in connection with Passion.
The name of the site is Hotforwords but the predominant colours of the site are ice-blue and snow-white; they hardly convey any idea of passion.
If the blue were to be changed to a hot colour that would change the white to white-hot, so it wouldn’t need to be a huge change.
Food for thought?
However, beware cultural pitfalls within the audience demographic.
Food for colors, good site Bob.
I actually don’t care if the color is blue, whit or purple with a hellish green lining. As long as that choice was made deliberate
Now they just seem so random.
Part 2: To answer your question: (ref your comment #94.1.1)
“Why did you come to this site and what makes you come back.”
I have been following Marina’s video lesson from the very start when she posted her first video on YouTube in March 2007 when this site did not exist. The domain name existed, but pointed to her YouTube channel page. It was later in 2007 when Marina started to develop the site. That was fascinating to watch as she started tweaking things.
It was early in 2008 that the site started taking off as more an more people subscribed. I visited the site often, but I did not become a subscriber until June 2008. Why? Two reasons.
I became a subscriber because of the community of people that were discussing various aspects of words. I am fascinated by natural languages as well as computer languages. English is my second language and had studied French and Spanish in college. I had also been investigating the history and origins of the names of European cities, specifically Northern and Eastern Europe.
The reason that I come back is because of like minded people like you. I have met many great friends on this site and that compelled me to also become a TA. The most important part of me becoming a TA is to serve Marina and to leave my ego at the front door and to serve the community of subscribers that visit here every day. It’s people like you that make it a pleasure to visit this site every day.
Hey Rijk, I have read every one of your comments and I like the way you think. I know that sometimes you might feel that you are critical, or that Marina isn’t listening. I can assure you that Marina reads every comment and she considers every comment of great importance, no matter how critical .
Marina is a very special person and I have a special place for her in my heart. She is one of the most awesome people that I have ever known and as you get to know her you will come to appreciate her as I do. One way to get to know Marina is to read and watch every interview. Click on the “ALL WORDS” link above, then click “Every Post On This Site”, and look for the interviews.
Regarding your statement;
“It sounds like you can nudge her in the right direction”
I can tell you with great certainty that I am not that powerful. There isn’t anyone that I can nudge, except myself, and even that is difficult at times.
If it seems like I can nudge, it is only because I can relate to Marina’s way of thinking and I am just acknowledging and reflecting her wisdom. Read the many articles that Marina has written on this site and you will appreciate her style of writing and thought process.
Your comments Rijk are very important to Marina and your participation on this site is very welcomed. I always enjoy talking to you.
Good evening PedanticKarl,
Electric circuits. Those are more like the flow-sheets used to determine the layout of theaters, factories, etc. So I understand you. Your adduction is both alpha and beta. I am pure beta.
I will question everything, whiteout question things the thinking stops.
The question Why did you come to this site and what makes you come back. wasn’t intended to you personally, but a general question.
If I was Marina, I would use the question as a homework assignment. NOT a poll, cause than you already give the answer, you want the answer to be in their own words. We both know what the answer is, but we could be wrong.
Sometimes I think she reads all the posts and sometimes I don’t think she does. So yes it does feel like she isn’t listening. She did state it’s tough to figure out when I have new posts… difficult for me to communicate with you guys. That would implement she isn’t able to read them all.
Marina has a special place in your hart. To be honest I care more Leonard, Venomrock67, Beevee14, CJ, GP, Bob, you. They / you really talk to me. All the replies I ever got from Marina were questions to clear up what I meant. That’s not talking that’s gathering information.
In the critical notes I more or less stand alone in those ones. But that doesn’t bother me.
Constructive criticism that’s how I would like to call them. And they should be more valuable than the comments that say everything she did was great. I think its unfair towards her to say everything she did was great when in fact she didn’t. Comments like that, are not gonna help her get better at what she does.
Like you I try to read all the posts. And yes the dates next to the Recent post should change to the date of the last post. You’ll at least know where the others are.
You can nudge people in the right direction. With your question you made me continue and post comment94. You do it without even noticing it. Challenging them with a question is one, making them come up with the answer them self’s is another one.
But for it to work there has to be communication in both directions.
I don’t get the response so I can’t nudge, you are closer, so do get a response, so are able to nudge. I am counting on you.
To put it in easy understandable words. Marina is building a house and she asks which color the curtains need to be. When she should have asked: what are the operational requirement, what style and what typology(s) are the houses surrounding my future house, should I use the same style, or repel and have a totally different style.
By asking the wrong questions she is getting the wrong answers.
So for now all I can say is, Marina you have lovely curtains.
And occasionally the tap is dripping, could you fix that.
let’s see, suggestions to make website more friendly. well, the site underwent some changes but it hasn’t gotten that ‘more friendly’ feel to it yet. it’s more business as usual again with less folks visiting the site. that’s the cold hard truth of it.
The question should not be suggestions to make the site more friendly , but what does friendly mean. Which sites do you experience as being friendly and why. The why is the important word.
Three basic things you could do to improve homepage:
1. Lower top ad (ad above HotForWords banner) and place on or near the bottom of homepage
2. Keep Latest Video, Recent Comments, Forum, Upcoming Events/Quote, & Twitter together and place ads under twitpics. There’s lots of free space there that can be utilized for ads.
3. Try out different background colors
She is a miracle in the words department and a lot of other things, but she doesn’t seem to have that same quality in designing.
We the designers can only go back to our enclosed game reserve. And occasionally glimpse over the wall and make a critical remark while we watch the masses make a mass out of things.
We fight a losing battle. Most people have no idea what design is they call out its ugly or its beautiful. Those are just hollow words they only express there own opinion. You can not base a design on opinions. You need something else, something you can have an objective discussion [ discus sion ] on.
@GP Looking at your remarks you are either in the design-department or in the medical department. The latest would concur with your gravatar.
Rijk
Helpful comment.
I think Marina put this topic page here so there would be a place to go to have objective discussion on design, layout of the site, etc.
Upon remarks:
The work I engage in is mostly complex and esoteric in nature and a decent understanding of design, modelling, infrastructure analysis, photography, restoration, etc. is required.
I have brought up the need for a concept several times, offered to help brainstorm about it. But there is zero reaction from her.
No in designing she is (still) one of the masses. In designing [ I can run circles around her ]
Marina is at the controls, so for the site to really change she needs to change the way she thinks about designing.
If she doesn’t, sure, the site will get a different layout and a change of colour here and there, but it isn’t really gonna change.
I would like to be her soundboard on the concept of the site. She needs a bit of conceptual thinking.
Can’t remember where, but one of the TA’s said she made this site to become a community for people with an interest in words.
So what she needs to do is name one word that describes the site for her. And that one word is not hotforwords!
So Marina there is your real challenge.
What is the one word / sort sentence that describes the site for you. Which one word describes the idea behind the site-design?
sort= shortHey Rijk,
You said;
“So what she needs to do is name one word that describes the site for her. And that one word is not hotforwords!”
Huh?
Do you know what HotForWords means?
As, in Hot For Words
Watch this video.
Specifically, watch from 1:04 through 1:17
http://www.hotforwords.com/200.....06/21/hot/
Did you see Marina light up with passion when she said, “I’m excited about words”. Then, watch Marina at 1:32 when she says, “or passionate about something” Did you see her passion?
So, yes, HotForWords is a perfect word that describes Marina’s passion for words and is a perfect name that describes what this site is about.
But it is not a word you can use as the concept. At least not for now. Or you should analyze different videos and see which elements you can use / transform to use as a site-design.
Then you should reflect on what hotforwords means for you.
For me its a school, so school would be my concept.
But I can’t make that decision. She needs a word that has a lot of different pictures / images associated to it.
If, if she really wants a concept she needs to reflect.
Yes, HotForWords, so let’s see some hot colors. Too much blues. It’s starting to make me feel seasick and depressed.
Maybe a sad flower like Heather Nova can bring some cheer to this situation
Heather Nova – Gloomy Sunday
–
-I will start over_________The nude test…of rocks not sub-LIMED…10 sec to the 11 sec…What do you think of this art ;_0
His wife had the brains for business and he had the art. Pollock has been dubbed as a drip artist but it’s an insanely clever technique when it’s done on huge canvases.
I tried canning vases! … What happen was the vinegar was no-good
… 
…I ate my pea soup and spitted the chunks of leeks out … 
… test of drips___soup?___vote for hemp canvas___the schooners the ___the wagons are wet and dripping sweat 
Pollock; A Homage
The strings called bass peformed beyond the naughty -(N)-dripped and throwned__crowned
…
…flys brought the flu and flown
http://tweetphoto.com/594da9
I can’t really judge it. Its made up out of a lot of different layers and I can’t see those on the picture.
I’ve seen Pollock’s paintings close up, huge canvas pieces hanging in art galleries, and there are some good videos available as well that show him working on his paintings that help to illustrate his technique.
another thing that’s b.s. is edit elite. edit should be here for site users.
What is edit elite? I made it so that you can edit your own comments again. Check it out.
maybe i meant to say ‘edit lite’ but didn’t have edit option so it came out as a typo. so, was there a link you wished to provide me with(?)
please dearest teacher
assuming the genie is not a jinn in disguise. the unlimited wish request really isn’t a good idea, there are decepts with that.
perhaps you desire me to get down on my hands and knees and beg you for the edit feature (i clicked on that yellow strip and it didn’t do anything) as if the inconvience was justified in the asking just so that i may continue with these worthless paltry comments of mine
if you just think the wish…
ya … it sucks.:)
test
what sucks!!!….dictation???? or note making?….please make it RaiN
what sucks!!!….dictation???? or note making?….please make it RaiN
The clock…..Mae WEST….sometimes my eyes are not as sharp as my typing skills….frills is skilled, soul my chilling dilled flavor is________________ HotForWords__________ 
crazy is the edit and my world too 
tweet!*!
thanks, marina. last i’d heard there were difficulties figuring out how to make edit work again. nice to have it back. : )
thanks teach ; )
Congratulations, I hear you are well once again. : )
I said it before. This is not a redesign, it is a new layout. There is no concept or theme, so it doesn’t matter what she does. Calling it a design is showing disrespect toward the word design and I would have thought better of you.
So I share GP’s opinion.
I get the feeling you don’t get to read all the comments, so I’ll repeat it.
Thanks for reinstating the edit function, but,
Marina,[ they ought to throw the book at you ] for removing the edit function in the first place.
Then you can change that sea green color to something different. Thing is I like the white background, the sea green colors, the blues, the calming color tones. So you should change those.
You can start by changing the background color since white really isn’t considered a color in the socio strata’s mind set, and even though that may be a sterotype, it is a belief held by many still to this day.
I suggest you redo the entire site design starting now. Something is amiss.
Looking at your remarks you are either in the design-department or in the medical department. The latest would concur with your gravatar
There is a problem with the older comments, they were one comment deeper and now we have lost those comments.
The reaction of James to CJ was something like stop that you….
normal link
1e not used
2e not used
not used at all
one of these is bound to work. (testing the page-link, this “” is causing problems) PedanticKarl knows about it
http://img185.imageshack.us/im.....ktest3.jpg
Marina, could you look into the links I made and see what the code has changed to, what I typed is in the picture.
Thank you milady.
Rijk,
Go to the Help Desk to see my answer.
Marina, to answer your question above:
“Where can I make it obvious that there are new posts?”
I like the Recent Posts box with dates the the upper right.
If you can squeeze an inline image after the Post Title, that image might look like this.
Example: GTW Game [image NEW!]
I recommend leaving the New image up for only one week or two weeks at most. Since each title is date stamped, it will be easy to remember to remove the New image.
You could create other images to nudge people to a certain posting.
With titles that are long, maybe the New! image could be the first part of the title.
Example: [image NEW!] GTW Game
It depends on what you mean with new posts. If you mean a new video or an other new page (like Book soup meet) Than the recent posts does do that job.
Thirst I thought the recent post was for new post, made by anybody, in that topic and so strange that the date didn’t change.
So if you want to make it clear there is a new post in a topic, maybe have the date + time change behind the names of the topic (of the recent post).
I really really like the HotForWords Home page.
Love the real time views counter at the top.
The page looks very inviting and elegant.
I have mixed feelings about some of the bolding text. I’m usually the bolding guy. I had liked some of the text unbolded (Latest Forum Discussions Topics), but I think either way is fine.
Nice Ad placements down below. Love that HotFor ds image.
Also love the blue sections in the upper right with the YouTube, Twitter and Facebook selections.
Very impressive.
Wow 292 comments on this page. Must be very important subject to the student body. Im just so happy to see this old site get a good over haul that I think it desperately needed. I’m so excited! How does that song go? I’m so exited…..dum dum dum…
Marina, I think you fixed it
no.. not fixed.. I have two widgets running… the default one does not show any of the comment.. I want it to show part of the comment. Arrgh!
Ahhh yes, we do want to see that
Yes you did fix it.
Interesting, I had also wanted to make a comment about the Recent Comment links being part of the username versus the page section name as it is now, which works.
NOW I fixed it.. took me FOREVER! Arrgghh! but it works now. Yay!
Yeahhhh!!!!
Marina, I was watching your progress and I could see your analytical thinking. You did GREAT!!!!
I love this girl. What a trooper.
Looks awesome.
Do you sometimes feel like an :alien: ?
and I’m glad that Marina is not :sick: anymore.
Well, don’t be a :ninja:
You know that I’m not :whistle: Dixie here.
Yes, I am being :silly: , but remember I am an :angel:
when I am not being the :devil:
Well, :kissing: for now and have a :heart:
All is
:biggrin:
Ok Karl where are they? I know your hiding them some where. I can’t se them except in your comment.
Marina is in the middle of some tweaks. They should be baaaack
Great I missed the smileys.
Hey Capman,
Just put your cursor over the symbol, and the underlying code pops up. Take note of that, then you can type in the code when you want the emoticon.
:sick: :biggrin:
:alien: :ninja: :whistle: :silly: :angel: :devil: :kissing: :heart:
Hi PK,
For the meantime, is there a full list somewhere of the codes to type in to get the emoticons?
Some of my favorites (like
) aren’t working anymore. 
Hey Evan,
Capman911 placed a list of smileys here.
How interesting — last night I could see all the emoticons / smileys; now they’re all just codes.
Marina, is it only me or are the Recent Comments links not finding the earlier paginated pages?
When one clicks on a user name in the Recent Comments section over at the far right, that link takes you to the comment made by that user. But, if the link is going to an earlier paginated page, nothing happens. It seems that the link can’t find the paginated page.
Oooooo I see smileys
I meant to say above, that the clicking the link does take you to the page where the user made the comment, but the link does not take you to the comment itself. See if this smiley works :heart:
Argghh! I hope I can fix that!
If you want me to study some code, PHP, CSS, etc I’d be happy to do that.
You volunteered for Marina and I am not Marina, but could use your help with some php that is “supposed” to work for dealing with strings of non-ASCII characters. The following two do not work as expected (more details at http://www.hotforwords.com/200.....ent-153129 ):
$the_length = strlen( utf8_decode( utf8_encode( $the_string ) ) );
$is_short = preg_match( '/^.{1,$max_length}$/u', uft8_encode( $the_author ) ) );
Here is a quick heads up Marina.
When I click the link in the comments in the Dashboard, it finds it.
So, I’ll look at the differences between the box on the left and the Dashboard. I think it is an easy fix.
Marina, I see the issue.
The Recent Comments box on the right does NOT pick up the pagination page sections. “…/comment-page-1/…”
where the Dashboard does pick up pagination.
My guess is that the Recent Comments section, if it is a widget or an Add-On should have a setting that says that pagination is ON.
Time check
Time is accurate
you’ll work it out. site looks good. video today. job well done.
I like cars ads but I really don’t care for that above the HotForWords banner
wait a sec…
that add up top over the HotForWords banner on the homepage
it seems to obstruct the image of the site
just saying
I just dropped by and MY OH MY!
So MUCH has been done here! The site is looking fabulous!
I’m looking forward to exploring all the new organization over the weekend.
Great Job Marina!
I’m liking the new tweaks in the last hour or so.
One more Recent Comments item in the list going from 4 to 5. Larger names and titles and bolded links. All very good tweaks.
I saw some other tweaks at the bottom with a horizontal color section. The color didn’t match the right hand column. those kinds of things can be fixed, but I imagine it’s a pain sometimes as one needs to tweak an image one time and CSS at another time.
Yes, that book on the Home page looks great where it is in the upper left of the page. I still like the Home page very much. Gives me the warm and fuzzies.
Excellent tweak Marina, changing the top nav link “My Book” from the Amazon site to the new Book page
http://www.hotforwords.com/my-.....book/
Testing to see how internal links are treated.
Agent Provocateur (internal)
versus an external link
Agent Provocateur (external)
Ahhhh, much better,
I like the links bolded so they stand out better.
Thank you, oh wizard master
I see in “the shaun’s” link below that the external indicating link icon has a red square indicating it is an image as opposed to a web page. Nice features.
Hey, Marina. I designed a refined template that you can look at for your site. Maybe it can be of use to you. The link is: Hotforwords site template
The navigation links above are looking great.
The Random link under All Words link works great. For me, everything is starting to come together nicely and I like the look and feel of the site.
For future navigation link expansion, I would move the Search text box just above the Latest Video section, where it had been recently. It is OK where it is now.
I see that the larger display Ad has moved from below the navigation section to just above the page container. For aesthetic reasons, I don’t care for that location and I think it also presents too much of commercialism, where the Ads mixed in with the rest of the site never bothered me.
I know it’s a tough balancing act of where to place such a large rectangular Ad. Placing several of those kinds of Ads into that white rectangular box on the home page would work for me, but then the Ad does not get top billing, so to speak. A larger rectangular Ad could also go below the Author section below the comments.
I know it’s a painful juggling act. Ohhh, oh, I think Olga is going be here any minute now. Quickly, hide those juggling pins.
Gravatars not linking to personal links? You know it would be cool if our screen names linked to a personal profile page on HFW site.
I keep wanting to pres the Forum word on th right, could you make that happen.
I am repeating this comment from another blog, because I have no way to refer to it.
.
Re the new design:
1. What happened to the comment-numbering system?
2. A blank line between lines of comments gets deleted.
3. The edit function is gone.
4. The smiley menu is gone (although I have seen some smileys, so perhaps if one knows the code…).
5. The sandbox has disappeared (although the instructions for it remain, but I hesitate to experiment here to see if the HTML still works).
.
I hope these all get fixed.
The codes for the emoticons are:
[neutral]
[wink]
[smile]
[razz]
[mrgreen]
[mad]
[shock]
[evil]
[twisted]
[oops]
and there are others, but this is important, where I have brackets [ ] put colons : in place of them! I can’t write it out exactly or it will show up as a smiley. and also leave a space.
example: Hey Bud! What’s up! [grin]
actually make it a double space to be sure
Take care CampKohler
You are not suggesting that having a list of codes that only certain people know is preferable to the previous smiley menu that was available to all, are you?
No way am I suggesting that. The obvious is, is that the previous smiley menu that used to be at the top of the comment box is way better, but I couldn’t tell you for sure if it’s coming back, I hope it does but of course only M knows. So in the meantime with this site design issue that’s how it has to be done for now.
I agree…
Do you keep a todo list? Things I miss from the previous version:
(1) text based list of all posts and pages you have ever published (2) comment number (3) number of comments and threads in the post (4) link gravatar to user’s site (5) edit window.
You are probably looking for this.
http://www.hotforwords.com/blo.....g-index/
At the moment that page has not been CSSified by the new design and I’m sure Marina will place it in one of the nav links above.
There is a “secret”, not so secret master index available for you to peruse. Guess how you can call it up?
Hint: 404
It’s CSSified now.
Is someone out of bed?
404 is a palindromic number {screams}
////_._\\\\
Good one GP,
Too bad that {smaercs} isn’t
\\_\./_// doing laps (no mention of breast strokes)
omg, now you’ve got me started
/\_._/\screa/[]/-[]\-/[]\aercs/\_._/\
/\_._/\screa/[]/-[]\-/[]\aercs/\_._/\
That is too funny
guess we can leave it at that for now, huh
*wink wink*, *nudge* *nudge* *ha*ha*
It’s now called http://www.hotforwords.com/sit.....e-index/ I’ll figure out where to put it in the site.
Yipeee!!! Great Stuff. Thank you.
She is out of bed.
Don’t you just hate going to bed and staying in bed?
see you changed the position of the ad. Did you look at the pshop I did of the menu area of the shop ?
You once experimented with black background for comments column. Please continue that experiment of having a colored (non-white, non-black) background (with dark text) for the comments column.
The colors used at present are blue-gray, light-blue-green and dark-blue-green. There is likely to be something that matches/contrasts these three colors and can form a suitable background for the comments column (with dark text).
Printed matter is best read with a white background. The sites I have seen using reverse video are quite annoying and are hard on the eyes. (I am sure that they think it looks really cool, but it’s real turn-off.)
Agree about “reverse video” — see (2) at http://www.hotforwords.com/200.....ent-152404
PS: Most of my time is spent inside the text editor vim (http://www.vim.org/about.php), and I use a black background in it.
PPS: Continuing with my spending most of my time in the text editor VIM with a black background: the text is colored (not white). Since I spend a lot of time at the editor, having a white background seems to fatigue the eye quickly. A color-scheme for VIM configures VIM to use different colors for different parts of the interface (background, normal text, programming language words, words being searched, misspelled words etc.); people have created all kinds of color-schemes for use in VIM.
Since one of your goals is to let people know of your posts, how come the “Recent Comments” box no longer indicates the associated post?
It is not that there is only one single place where people comment (and it is not that the “Recent Comments” box refers to the comments on the post being viewed) — need to indicate to people that “Recent Comments” is recent-comments from any post on this site.
I have been sitting here watching the flow of Tweets to Marina on the Twitter widget on the right. How in the heck can you keep up with all the comments that are made to you? I would go crazy trying to keep up with them. No wonder we don’t get replies from you sometimes as the comments are staggering. It’s a constant never ending flow. WOW I feel sorry for your IPod phone and it’s battery.
The widget on the right recycles the comments.
Oh ok. I thought I saw the same tweet a couple of times. Thanks. I learn something new every day.
Checkout Wow! A fireman’s hose of tweets at Capman911!
http://i27.tinypic.com/1rb3hy......jpg
Hey that’s pretty cool.
Hey, have you guys tried the Radio player at the bottom?
Very nice. Dang, I never need to leave this site now.
Listening to Groove Salad, nicely chilled.
Anyone, know where the bathrooms are?
He PK I found it the Bath Room is off to the right at the bottom. It’s listed under Feedburner.
http://tinyurl.com/nnm8ap
I miss the edit function. : (
You know this could be Marina’s bathroom.
JK Marina
ha ha ha great
Feeling any better or did the night make it worse?
.
Looking at äläx ‘s screenshot. And his comment I must agree, the menu is camouflaged. The first time I didn’t see it.
.
So here is the idea:
- move the ad to the position right under the hotforwords ad. If possible split the Youtube and twitter link in-between put the google ad.
- Move the menu down right under the ad.
- Draw a thin white line between the menu and the Youtube / ad / twitter area. This separates the menu from the ad and it will seem the whit HFW paper shines trough.
I noticed a thin white line at the right and the bottom of the site.
I added a thin dark grey line at the top and the left. This way the page jumps towards you / is separated from the grey background.
You probably think WTF is he talking about,
So here is the picture of the new head layout (click)
.
Hope you like it. : )
.
.
Ps I wanted to use the Neuro-gasm ad, but it seems to be gone. Deliberate, or intentionally.
Hey Marina, I know your tired of suggestions about the site, but let me duck first in the Recent Posts collum when you mouse or hover over a video or article post the section gets blackened out. Would it be more feasible for it to a little more translucent where you can still read the words underneath the mouse over? If not then I understand. :smike:
Hey Mike. That’s an easy fix. Marina will get around to it.
Here is a Round Tuit for you.
http://www.joe-ks.com/archives.....ndTuit.jpg
Thanks PK for the Round Tuit.
If she changes the dark grey to white it will appear you look trough a hole on the HFW paper.
Hmmm I didn’t think about that.
What’s a :smike: ? is it a Mikey Smilie or is Mike smirking?
It’s a Mikey smiley. lol
or a smiley Mike lol
Karl does the site now self reload every five seconds cause I get the tab at the top where it says Site Design Followup keeps recycling every few seconds. Or could this be from the twitter up dates that keep rolling down on the right hand side?
I thought it was from the Twitter widget, but it looks like there is a auto refresh coming from woopra. Hehehe. I bet Marina is having way too much fun with woopra and chartbeat. Don’t forget to wave to Marina.
I looked at the HotForWords Home page again with new eyes and I really like that page. What does it for me is the fonts. The fonts make that page and each of the sections has plenty of white space to give it a very elegant look. I like it.
Of course I realize that you are not done, and there is lots of opportunity to do something with that white space at the bottom. That space could be filled in with a textured background, or objects or widgets could be added such as a slide show, or HotForWords quotes from the interviews or more Ads, or it could just be left as is with maybe a darker color.
If you have the time, you could also try changing the black backgrounds to a darker complimentary color of PowderBlue. Maybe a Teal or darker Teal might be a nice complimentary color.
I like the Related Posts section above and saw some nice related posts for the other pages. Lots of nice features being added.
Hey Karl about the space at the bottom how about a great big cut out of Marina so we can put it in our bed rooms so we can sleep knowing our Teach is looking over us. :smike:
Great idea!!
Is this what happens when your run a high fever?
I should have sent the chicken soup with lots of chili peppers overnight delivery.
I think it’s neuroway who’s running a fever.
Marina? eu…no-way.
I have changed my mind. Guys and gals, please ignore all my comments below. I think the background colour should be bloody red, with green flames on the bottom, and flashy yellow letters on top of it. Forget about all this blue, it makes me sick!
And gray or black clouds on the top, shooting flamy thunderbolts that would criss-cross the webpage and get lost below in the green flames of the bottom. Yeah! That would be a cool design.
Oh! And I forgot to mention my latest idea also. I think sulfuric banana-yellow vapourous smokes should spit out of the green flames on the bottom, with white winged cap’n caps flying all over the screen in the bloody red background while the customers are trying to read the posts. The letter “C” would flash on the caps, replaced by random symbols at regular intervals. The cap’n cap should be no larger than 66 pixels though, so it doesn’t get too intrusive and grasp the attention of the users and other customers. That would be a technical prowess to implement I’m sure, but I am also quite confident in the design abilities of our teacher.
Gee. And while we’re at it, I think the flamy thunderbolts coming from the black clouds on the top should strike the flying cap’n caps from time to time in a randomly fashion, and send them all burning in orange and yellow flames down into the green flames of the bottom where they would bet burned and lost. Yeah! That would be a freaking cool design indeed!!!
Wooohooo!
And yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk!
Ooops.. I think I have let my enthousiasm about the new design go a little too far this morning..
And yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk.
And yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk!
Push it push it! But not on the 2600th one, push it push it, but not too fast not too far, push it push it, and yo ho ho and a bottle of milk… oops… yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro. (could be another catchy top-box slogan I think.
Damnity. I forgot to close the freaking parenthesis above. And more edit facilities. sail it sail it, but not to fast not too far (and no wheelies plus no stoppies). Blow it blow it (but not on the 2600 one). Push it push it (but under 65 MPH). Ugh. And yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk.
And no wheelies and no stoppies, and no blowing on the 2600th one, and no black and no red and no gray. But you can still push it push it in the pinky blue, and yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops yo ho ho and a bottle of milk.
Something’s missing.. I absolutely have no idea why, but I think something’s missing. I think the neuroadds on the top should be replaced by cap’n crunch adds, with perhaps a slightly more powerful slogan (but not too intimidating though, so all the kiddoes of the english-speaking world would feel quite welcome and at ease on this site). The slogan could be shown as a short drop down item in the form of a white navy cap’n cap on a navy blue background (perhaps with a touch of pink), and automatically expand when the customer.. I mean the student would browse their mouse over it. Something that would be a very subtle reference to the background blue colour. For instance: “In the navy blue, yes, you’ll win your cap’n cap’n golden stripes, in the navy blue, yes, in verity you will sail away in your cereal bowl every morning with your big blues and your little blues and your middle blues, in the navy blue, in the navy blue, kiddoes of the universe, hear the calling of the cap’n crunch whistle on all channels and frequencies (but don’t hear it on the 2600 one ‘cuz we’ll come for you, yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro.. ooops.. I mean yo ho ho and a bottle of milk). In the navy blue, your cap’n cap will spin like a starship in orbite, in the navy blue, in the navy blue, intelligence is pinky sexy, and yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro.. ooops.. Yo ho ho and a bottle of milk, in the navy blue.”
The neurodrink reference would now be just a slight subliminal puff in the “yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro.. ooops.. yo ho ho and a bottle of milk” motto. It would give the cap’n crunch products their due share of attention and let the customers forget a little about all these neurodrinks (which none of them is blue by the way and who the hell knows if they are good or not anyways).
Grosso modo, I say away with the neuroadds and ahoy with the cap’n crunch adds! YES AHOY, AHOY, and yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk. I feel there’s way too much neurostuff around here. With all sorts of ungodly shades and weird colours. Let’s keep it blue and simple. Ugh!
What the heck? No more edit comments?
I think I typoed somewhere in my post above.. I think it should say: “but don’t hear it on the 2600 one ‘cuz it’s not good for you”. And not “don’t hear it on the 2600 one ‘cuz we’ll come for you, which is way too aggressive and uneducated.” Ugh… And yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk.
Looking really good now.
I agree with CJ about the “Recent Comments” panel. We don’t need large Gravetars on every panel; if you make them the same size as on the “Forums” panel, you could double the number of comments and include which page they’re on.
Other than that I think it’s great. Maybe time to stop playing and see how it works for a while?
Gravetars is an interesting typo. Working the graveyard shift tonight, heating up the tar in the pits, ha, sizing up them gravetars.
Your reply does not have sufficient Gravitas. :p
Gravetars are those walkways at cemetaries placed in between burial plots. Sorta reminds me of the layout at those minature golf places I used to go to as a kid.
I agree with Bob, gravatars the same size as the ones of the forum.
And limit the text to two lines, this way there are more recent comments visible.
M A R I N A,
Wow, I’m really impressed. I love the new changes taking place. I like the aqua blue/green title bars and the associate baby blue panels. The background has like a nice light powder blue. Away with the haze grays! Yeay!
• Share this article – should be all on one line. Also it’s missing many other links to other sharing pages i.e. Friend Feed, Blogger, Ping, bit.ly, gmail, wordpress org & com.
• Related post – Could be expanded. Maybe placed on the side bars to save vertical space.
• Title menu bar – would look cleaner if they where a pull down links. Right now it looks crowded and even I’m lost of where things are. Colors got to go. You wouldn’t dress yourself in non-complementing colors would you?
• The dotted line – Make that bolder and you could dispense with the tabbed nesting. Keep the nesting but I don’t see a need to tab it if you have the dotted line to separate the comments. Or better yet, make the first reply indent once and all the others follow. I don’t like this idea either. I only see making the web page wider to be the best solution. I’m running a 1440×900 on an old loaner machine. Everyone else is running much better machine than I am.
• Recent comment – I loved it when it was longer. Also enjoyed the time stamps to see how long ago the comment was made. I also like where the comment was made so one can see which page the comment was made.
That’s a list of my suggestions. Boy I’m excited about the changes. It was long over due.
hm. am i the only one who thinks that the home page is too overcrowded and too colorful?
what i see when i get on the hp is this.
okay. it says “HotForWords” in big bold black letters, so i know where i am. great. but most likely i knew where i was going before i got here. web pages don’t show up just like that in a browser.
second thing i see: four ads. top right: neuro. top left: book. right in the middle: google ad. right underneath: neuro. (plus, they tell me what to do and i don’t really like that.:P order this! drink that!)
the banner and the ads take up more than half of what i can see.
okay, so i know i’m here, there’s a lot of stuff, a lot of colors, a lot of pictures, a lot of ads. — what now? there must be some sort of … oh, there, the menu bar. well. it looks almost like it’s hiding from the things around it or something. and it doesn’t really help that some letters have different colors.
I agree that the ads are too many and too large and in the wrong place. See my previous comments about page layout.
The ads are necessary for they help pay for the servers and bandwidth. If you saw the bill your jaw would drop. The goal is to keep the site free to everyone. No purchase necessary.
No, I said the homepage was cluttered. Read my earlier comments on this post.
Yes I agree the homepages looks like a spam site. I don’t normally see the ads for I run an anti-ad tool. I know what you mean it’s hard to find out where you should click to go to the page you might be interested in. ‘Less is really more.’
If Marina would switch to a pull down menu system we could suggest where to put the pages under. The home page should just show some photo links of where people can get started.
Thanks for your input Alex.
What you’re showing is the header of the home page and not the full page. Most site visitors have the ability to understand how to navigate those up and down levers to view the page with. It’s not like a TURN DOOR KNOB CLOCKWISE TO OPEN DOOR sign is required.
I know that, Jack, I wasn’t complaining that the ads were there; just saying that they are too big and taking space that could be used for things that Marina considers more important.
If she thinks that making the site look like a freeway on election day is important, that’s her prerogative.
LOL funny picture.
I don’t think she can change the size of the ads. I know I’m unable to do so on my site.
I just wonder why it’s necessary to have two ads for EVONY on the home page, one right across the top and another vertical one at the bottom of the page.
Google controls what is pushed in those spots. Companies bid for those spots by biding for keywords. If the post was about peanuts then we would see ads for that word. If no one paid for the word peanuts, then you would get a random ad.
It’s not a perfect system but it save time for you don’t have to drum up companies to advertise on your site.
Exact Cap’n J! I agree with everything you say.
And yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro…. ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk!
Talking of peanuts, neuroway seems to have gone nuts this morning.
@bob, the peanuts, neither the nuts, make the monk.
Trust me. It gets annoying. They think they are cool but they’re really not.
Yes Cap’n! I am myself sick of all these adds! And I seriously think I will change my nickname to Cap’n Crack!
I think you are right cap’n J. I think all your suggestions should be followed to the letter.
And yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk.
pppfffffffffffuuuuuuuuuuuittttt! (and it’s not the 2600 one I tell you it is true). And yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk.
I know you didn’t check to see if Im correct. I could have been BSing you. Always and always check to see if what Im claiming to be correct. I could be starting a new myth. That myth would be spread around and make it common believe. Making all those people look lazy and stupid for not checking sources. Then we need people like Marina exposing the myth. All could have been avoided if lazy people would take action and discover for them selves what I claim is verifiable.
Yes! I see that you are correct! You could be starting the myth of the blue afficionado cap’n. Crunch the colour, I say.. I mean.. Yo ho ho and a bottle of neuro… ooops… yo ho ho and a bottle of milk.
Blue, so the them is marina. The Blue is nice, close to the grey but because of the thin white line you can get away whit it.
Triangle gives an idea that there is gonna appear something, but …..
How about that scrolling feature, can you make that work?
Hey Rijk,
Regarding your question on the Forum for a test page. There used to be a Test for HTML Comments page, but it is not available at the moment and maybe Marina will re-instate it. For now, why don’t you use this section to test your link issues. For testing, try replying to one of your earlier posts in this section like I am doing now.
http://www.thestar.com/gta/cri.....cle/696733
I found Marina’s long-lost (Polish?) twin. Kinda reminds me of the stir crazy skit.
[clinic] = [pay-offs]_______f-u-n-n-y
I like the light green color. It’s like being in a Green room at a tv studio site. Calms the nerves. :smike:
[verb pink] (supposedly from 1503 Middle English “to thrust”). Webster has the following meanings for the verb pink:
It seems before 1503 (in 15th Century, 14xx), there was a noun pink referring to a kind of ship!
(I did listen to the lesson on pink, thanks to PK’s recent tweet.)
Hey thanks for watching Hs4Mm.
That is a great lesson. I hadn’t seen it in awhile and since we were talking about web colors, I thought it would make a nice lesson for today.
Marina, I rested my eyes by going outside and getting away from my monitor for awhile. When I came back and looked at the HotForWords Home page again, I embrace the color scheme. I love it. One thing I like about it is that the PowderBlue color (been calling it green) on the far right hand column is not loud, but is a nice subdued tone. In other words, it is not overpowering. I think is meshes nicely with the rest of the page. In one way, it kind of reminds me of racing stripes, giving the page that sleek look.
I think there is always room for experimenting with different colors of the page as aLx alluded below.
Lets ALL say it together…
…the color looks baby girl blue
Where’s the Beef, oh I mean where’s the smileys? Will they eventually come back or you going to get rid of them? I know it’s taking some time to remodel and paint and put up new curtains and it all is looking great. I like the new view of the site. Some real cool innovations. :smike:
Oh, that’s a good one SMIKE.
Marina, this is fantastic! Just got to the bottom of the page. Really, really like!
Wow Marina, you just keep on working away.
I like the new additions, the colors and the Twitter widget.
All very nice additions. I like the new tweaks.
Love it.
I am near death…. but I won’t let that stop me!
&nsbp;
Hahahahaha, you are way toooo funnny Marina.
You crack me up.
I love this girl. Gangbusters to the end!!!
high fever brings inspiration…
yeah. you’re like some cool geek gansta playing blackjack on your iphone.
Oh wow! You are such a super trooper. Your courage and determination is so … sexy? Well its sure damn attractive that’s for sure.
Keep up the good fight dear! Kick that flu out of your system. We are all pulling for you. Drink lots of tea that make you go pee. LOL.
kids not dead is sleeping. Have you not had supper?
Does the site look ugly all green?
on the right?
Correct äläx,
The color that Marina and I are calling “green” as a shorthand is the one at the far right. It has the shimmering of green or sea green when contrasted with the black and white. It’s an illusion. I tested the color with my color picker and using one of the swatches on the net, the color is most closely described as “Light Cayan #2″
The HFW Home page is a 3 column format.
I agree äläx, I also get the feeling of something incomplete. I can’t put my finger on it. That’s what I first noticed, but, after awhile, the colors start blending together.
Nothing wrong with Light Cayan. That is if you’re an oil painter who likes to paint paintings of seascapes and ocean settings.
got some windsor blue going on there
Actually, I like this shade of green. It’s soothing.
With the black contrasts, it gives it a dimensional look.
I like the Revolution theme with these colors better
than the Magnet theme which seemed to me to
have more of the crayola look, where the Revolution
theme with these colors is more refined, and elegant.
But what about the homepage? I put green on it as well.
At first, there seems to be a shock to the senses, but I like it. Here is why. If you look at the Magnet theme, it is 2 columns with the same color theme. To me it does NOT look personable. However, the 3 columns of the HotForWords Home page looks awesome. I think it has that refined look to it.
The first thing that I thought of when I saw the green column on the right on the Home page is, “Look at me over here, I am important”. So, I think you may have hit on an idea regarding bringing attention to some sections of the Home page that people will appreciate.
three columns? green? what?
i see only one column that’s changed its color — on the right.
and it’s not green.
ah, thanks. yeah, i used this to compare colors.
anyway. i like the colors but it looks incomplete.
yes, i know the hp is three columns. but there is no “green” — only the column on the right has it. only thing that’s changed it the background of the headings. which is now some dark blue or dark torquoise or something.
what i mean by incomplete is that there’s only one column that’s green. actually, it doesn’t look like the site has changed a lot. — except for the “green” background of the column to the right.
the hp is very … hmm … colorful. and that’s … hm, i’ll think of something.
anyway … if the “green” was a theme that would not only apply to one column …
know what i mean?
for instance, the headings and their background of the “green” column have a certain appearance, a certain style. but this style is nowhere else to be found. it looks totally different than the rest of the buttons and all.
i’d love to see what the hp would look like if every column and heading etc got … well, synchronized, sort of. to make it look more … closed (as in a cricle) or … whole …
It’s got a nice feel to it, color rich. Also I agree with Karl about the Rev stuff. I won’t spell that R word out though. It’s like why get added to some dumb wtchlist for that.
Hey GP. or Marina could go with the NAVY colors as Navy translated into Spanish is Marina. OK, where is Che Volay. He’ll translate it into taco.
I read that article too. Che was here earlier. Maybe succulent clam or baby shelled oyster or some sort of crawling insect food color (lol)
Mad about saffron or mad at saffron. That stuff is expensive. $40 per 1 gr, but ohhhh so good.
By the way, the color green is a more neutral color. For example, you could try pink like some YouTubers, but that may chase away all of those macho guys. If you go with flamboyant colors, then again, it may turn off a certain demographic.
With all white, one can easily get lost. The contrasting colors give the site dimension. I think the two color scheme is fine and you could always experiment later with 3 colors or shades. Light blues, with shades of gray, or earth tones with tans and light browns are good.
For now, this is good and you could try experimenting with a test page on another server. I spent weeks on tweaking the colors of a page once just to get the feel right.
My monitor/s are showing a dark seagreen color. Karl mentioned the neutrality of that color. It might be distracting from the page content. Something needs adjusted with that.
I don’t see any green on the borders. I see dark sea blues and baby blues. They look really nice btw. I know it’s not my monitor.
right. there is no green. blue-ish colors and torquoise.
and what does karl mean by, all three columns?
and what the hell happened to my gravatar?
tff
It’s not your monitor, but most likely the brightness is set too high. Just like commercials that are too loud, have you ever noticed the brightness levels of LCD monitors? I see them being set way too bright in most cases. Even people that still use CRT monitors have their brightness set way too high.
Hey guys, here is an HTML 140 color chart. The closest color match that I came up with using a color picking tool is the one at the bottom called “PowderBlue”.
See if you agree just using your eyeballs, or your own color picker.
http://www.html-color-names.co.....-chart.php
Powder blue, that’s it, with a hint of pale torquoise. How about salmon color, Marina eats a lot of sea food.
Burly Wood is a nice color, and different Siennas. Book lovers and literary types like bookish colors too.
how about “aliceblue” a little lighter
http://www.html-color-names.co.....ceblue.php
I’m just mad about my safron and she’s just mad about me
they call me mellow yellow
Here is a more refined set of color charts and links.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/W.....eb_colors
Nothings ugly with this site and host….around…
Color symbolism and color psychology are culturally constructed linkages that vary with time, place and culture. In fact, one color may perform very different symbolic or psychological functions in the same place. For example red… …Blue is non-threatening, yet confident and stable. Many police uniforms are blue because the color says confidence and security, while being non-threatening…Hope you are feeling well 
1) Re blue-green on home page: the unused portion at the bottom of the first two columns would be better black (rather than the current white). The white of the unused space and the blue-green of the used space do not go well with each other; black for unused space will go with blue-green.
2) White text on black background is EXTREMELY hard to get correct! By “get correct” I mean make the text visible to all — given any version of white on black, there always will be users who cannot read it. At present, I am unable to read any comments! I can see the date and time, but not the comments.
White for background of comments and blue-green for background on right-most column do not match with each other — I suspect it is because (1) both are light (lots of glare) and (2) there is a lot of background in the comments column. I suspect there is a color that can be used for comment background and comment text that will match the blue-green on the right column, but I can’t come up with the color of the top of my head. Making the comment background darker is in the right direction, but making it black bring up the harder problem of invisible text.
Black for unused space on home page is OK — and white for background of used space on home-page is OK since used space on home-page does not have much background (unlike comments that have lots of background)!
Incidentally, I wanted to use a blue-green theme for my website (gravatars don’t link to web-site yet) — but I don’t have the time to play with colors. So I used blue-green just on borders; it is especially visible on the border of my purpose on the home page: the very important purpose is in gold text on black with blue-green border.
I always thought it would be good to have a Icon to click on if you had a “word” suggestion. That way Marina you don’t have to scroll through all the comments to look for word suggestions.
that’s good, blue text with black background for forums and recent posts. styling.
think that amber text needs to be a lttle brighter it’s kind of hard to see.
yes, text could be more highlighted. i’d keep quotes and upcoming events in black n’ white text.
Don’t like the horizontal scroll bar at 100 magnification, recent posts, look to far over?
i’m twitter jonesing & i ate candy at the movies so i’m gunna quit it with techie talk until i’ve had a salad or sumtin
A wild idea,
What is the difference between recent comments and last post on the forum?
Not a real difference now is there, and if you want your students to use them both why not, if possible, mix them up.
He you changed the recent comments, looks a lot better : ) George is happy. Maybe to save space, if possible start the text behind the grafatar.
You read my mind
Maybe a stupid question, but why does it say at the bottum of every video or other new post, including this one:
Author: HotForWords with your picture beside it ?
To me it seems like kicking in an open door.
I haven’t seen any other author. You are the only one who can be the author, so, Why ?
Captain Jack can write posts and I think other TA’s can write them as well. That author thing came with a theme that I got.. I can remove it.. I just thought it looked nice.
Marina,
Now that you’re a Go Daddy girl next time you’re in Arizona you may want to check out this cool place called the Heart Attack Grill located in Tempe Arizona if you haven’t already
the waitresses there are dressed as hot nurses
pic
http://www.walltoowall.com/Gra...../HAG18.jpg
article
http://www.walltoowall.com/Gra...../HAG18.jpg
It’s not the food that’ll give you a heart attack.
LOL@Bob
I wonder how many have died happy with one hand clutching their heart and the other hand clutching a hamburger or a sexy nurse’s kneecap
It’s not the food that’ll give a heart attack, and it’s not the cowl or the diet that’ll make the monk.
oops. posted pic twice
let me try that again
article
http://outhouserag.typepad.com.....ck-gr.html
Do you wonder how those animals were killed to bring such power the the one eating it?
kill for food with economics(slave and master) 
my sharp incisor teeth sorta explained it to me already and rippingly i may add
Them, now there’s a thought. So TA and TA-ta’s can post too. Didn’t know / see that. Maybe a small text at the top behind number of comments?
To you it seems nice, to me after seeing it a lot it becomes annoying. But if its a them….. I am curious what the them is. Can you tell what it is?
You did see your doctor, didn’t. Don’t tell what he said! A simple yes or no will do.
Yes, correct Marina.
I looked at my dashboard and I can submit posts for approval.
I like the Author designation and photo at the bottom. It gives the page that certain flair.
Your tweaks are coming along great. I love seeing the metamorphosis of the site, just like becoming the most
beautiful Butterfly ever.
No you can’t, but I can. nanananana
Get well soon Marina!!!!
My Dearest Teacher Marina Orlova
B.B. 
sorry to hear you are not feeling well
BUT i love the new site it is better than ever
keep up the excellent work rest up & enjoy life a little
In the past few days, I have been at the Adobe and Apple sites comparing Adobe Master Collection and Apple Final Cut Studio + Logic Studio; and google is showing me ads from Adobe!
Yes.. Google now shows relevant ads to people.
Sorry to hear your sick Marina!Hope you get better soon!I pray that you figure out what you need to make your site better!See you later,best of luck!
How nice!
Humanistic psychology includes several approaches to counseling and therapy. Among the earliest approaches we find the developmental theory of Abraham Maslow, emphazising a hierarchy of needs and motivations; the existential psychology of Rollo May acknowledging human choice and the tragic aspects of human existence; and the person-centered or client-centered therapy of Carl Rogers, which is centered on the clients’ capacity for self-direction and understanding of his/her own development (Clay, 2002).
OBITUARY
Adventure Marked Life of Humorist
By THE NEW YORK TIMES
Will Rogers had what it takes to tickle the national funny bone. His wry
…He razzed Congress unmercifully, twitted Presidents and Kings, kidded the American public for falling for the blandishments of European borrowers, and he echoed the generally held impression that politicians should do more and talk less. He could be serious, too–putting into words the national pride that was stirred by the Paris flight of Colonel Charles A. Lindbergh and the public indignation that was felt over the murder of the aviator’s infant son. …[airplane]
I’m sure that Leonard didn’t intend to imply, by including today’s quote at the end of his comment, that you are stupid.
It’s just an unfortunate juxtaposition.
What I have done so far:
Cleaned the comments area up.
Cleaned up posts.
Widened the site by 20 pixels. (They say you can’t go too wide for people with antiquated machines)
Lost unnecessary words on homepage at bottom of boxes.
Removed items from navigation.
Navigation now shows what page you are on.
Moved search to right of navigation and made it prettier.
Cleaned up the number of page templates to make the site have conformity.
Got rid of gaps between items on the homepage and sidebar.
But I am upset as this stuff took me two whole days of working yet I feel that it doesn’t look like I did much! Arrggh!
What I still need to do:
Put some kind of subscribe item in the black box on the right side of navigation… or something else.
Still clean up the homepage more.
Perhaps move recent comments/forum posts to wider format in sidebar.
Bring back some of the features you guys like (numbered comments?) without cluttering things.
Go through the suggestions you guys made and see what I can implement.
Why was blog removed? That was the one single way to find everything you ever posted (including maxim radio show)! In the current version, what is the way to get a text-based list of everything you ever posted? The text version of blog-list was my favorite landing site!
Marina, thank you for your update.
You’ve worked hard on this project
and I appreciate it. Being so close
to the project, it is easy to lose
perspective. Take a breather and
step back to get fresh perspective.
I’m behind you all the way.
How are you feeling today? Better I hope. Look after yourself, get enough rest and don’t burn the candle at both ends.
I like the colour change on the “All Words” toolbar; makes it very easy to see that the item is click-able and much better than the letters turning blue. Perhaps you could do the same for the other click-able headings on the boxes below and make the contrast on the “Home” toolbar greater so it is easier to see; remember that some of your readers may have less than perfect eyesight.
Oke that’s clear any idea will do.
After your changes the site looks really beautiful . (CJ don’t explain what I mean by that)
Here is one:
Lose the ad next to the recent comments, make the width twice as wide an scrollable than it can post the last say 24 hours of post an put in a blue line what is new since your last visit. Also have them include the first line of text. (something like the twtterbox)
After this there is no excuse not to reply, than you are just lazy!
Maybe your back is because of the editing session of the site? Don’t forget to mention it
Leave the site for what is today and take Gorby out for a long walk. You’ll both feel better.
AND_!!_!!quit drinking soul-much of that ‘gasim-pop…no I am not a doctor, I am an architect. That’s why I kept hammering on the concept in the design.
Oh and while we are at it, a really hot bath for at least half an hour also helps : )
how did you get your text grey
This is really looking good, Marina!
Sure hope you’re feeling better soon. Please take care of yourself.
Always.
I like the idea of color coding the recent posts. Perhaps any post less than 24 hrs old would be red; any less than 12 hours would be purple. The way it is, it works fine for me, since I know where to look. I still think most people should be able to navigate fine in here.
One thing that I have thought would help: On the home page we can find a list of words that are available. I would also like to see a similar list of all the posts, in chronological order. If I am away for a week or so, some of the other cats will be in the middle of a running dialogue. It would be cool if I could step back in time and follow the whole conversation.
Cool, new posts are at the top again! I know I prefer this. I still don’t know if the main reason I like it is just because I am accustomed to it. If
weMarina decides to flip it again, that would be cool; I’ll just learn to adapt.I have tried this before, one last try and than I give up.
What is the concept (or theme as CJ calls it) of the site. Concept help you make design decisions. Without that your not designing, your just making a new layout and than it doesn’t really matter what you do. Cause there is no bigger thought behind it. To keep it in your words, your missing the quintessential element of the design.
To me it seems you want a new layout.
But without a concept, you haven’t made decisions what to keep and what to ditch. Your just reordering the different elements you already have on your site and than find out you got bits left over.
Take a step back think about a concept, when (I know you can do it) you have one use that as your guide. Get a piece of paper en just draw the different areas.
If you need any help you know where to find us.
(disclaimer: help only applies to the site)
Lots of good ideas below, if you can find a way to implement them.
You still have what I think are unimportant things above the fold – why do adverts have to take up so much space there and what does “Getting Stats” do for you?
My suggestion: You already have click-able elements in your masthead banner, for Neuro and for your book retailers; why not put a prominent (maybe flashing) click-able under the HotF of HotForWords saying something like “HOT NEWS”, “IMPORTANT MESSAGE” or whatever?
Or “CLICK HERE FOR HOT BIKINI PIC OF THE DAY”. That should get people’s attention.
Dear Teacher Hope you are feeling Better as to Site design I’m clueless to html design I still struggle using Word to make my pages and some times they are all misalligned i’d love it if I knew how to post advertisments only tried once with Absinthe that never seemed to pan out. [Nevertheless] seems to look alright though following new forum posts is hard for me your recent comments list seems to adress that?
How about getting rid of that really annyoing ad at the side and replace it with a thumb for a recent post.
Time for bed, it’s 1:51 am here. Night night folks.
Have a good night Captain!
Btw, I like your hat. That’s really cool! Want a trade? hehehe
It is an all leather Sam Huston which has a full face shield. The only difference in the type New York City Fire Fighters have is the face shields. NY uses a Bourke shield which are small little shields http://www.thefirewarehouse.co.....ourkes.jpg The cost of the helmets are 4 to 5 hundred dollars each. I paid $469.00 for mine. I used it five times to break it in on fires then retired it and hung it on my wall with my other fire helmets.
Ok the larger gravatars have to shrink or get rid if nesting of comment. Ok that’s crazy. WIDEN THE PAGE.
Jack if she got rid of nesting of comments, then how would we reply to each other?
That’s why I said “Ok that’s crazy.” and suggested to widen the page. I’ll try to type slower for you if that helps…. teeeehhhhhhe
Remember I know about where you live. Hehehehehe
Or I could find more naked pictures of you and post them on here.
That’s not thing special. I have a public google map of where I live. But Im at a very secure dock and you can’t get to me. hahahahahah
Yeah that last naked picture kind of looked like me but I knew it wasn’t for I have a cuter ass. How do I know this fact. I have have red spots from women pinching it.
Smaller gravatars, Good idea
+1
Sorry to hear of your illness. Hope you get better
I wish I could send you some hot chicken soup. You get your flu shots yet? Doctors report seasonal flu will be just as bad as H1N1 flu if not worse. It kills more people than H1N1 ever did.
“Where can I make it obvious that there are new posts?”
Simple. Make a box and call it “Newest Post” Second box would say “Newest Video Lesson”
“Right now it’s tough to figure out when I have new posts and it makes it difficult for me to communicate with you guys.”
That’s because you make several posts and we are all over the site commenting. Blogs are not designed for two way communication at the traffic level of this site has. When you make a new post then we all have to move off of that post and to the newest one. The old post becomes a historical documents.
“Right now I have a little box on the homepage and one on the sidebar.. but they really don’t stand out. I can’t replace the lesson box on the right as that’s the most important part.”
About the homepage. It scares me! I’m not kidding. I avoid the homepage like the plague. It’s way to busy. Many first time people I suggest your site to, get lost on the home page. It’s just way too cluttered.
Here’s and idea for your latest posts. Make 3 box across the top below your banners. Label the first box “Latest Post” 2nd “Latest Lesson” 3rd “Yesterdays Post/Lesson” Have that show up on every page.
“I even tried going with the blog format for the site over the weekend, but that ended making my site look like a lot less than it was.”
I didn’t see your blog format you did over the weekend.
I wish I did. As for making it look a lot less than what it is, well have you heard that less is better? If you have a good menu system it should not be and issue. As I mentioned before. Dump the Revolution Magazine Theme! It’s what’s causing most of your problems. Find a theme that has mouse over pull down menus. This will help de-clutter your menu bar.
I grow tired of the grays and black of this site. It’s depressing. It reminds me of dark rain clouds hanging over head. Maybe it’s just me? To some people gray may look like a rainbow to them. I don’t know. Yes, I know you said before you like the grays. I guess I’ll just have to live with it somehow.
Widen the page (alot)! This is got to be the skinniest page on the planet. (Joking) Skinny pages are to make little blogs look larger than they are. You on the other hand have lots of content. It needs to be widen.
Increased by 20 pixel? I didn’t notice. I have 2 1/3 inches of gray on both sides of my window. I’m running a 1440 x 900 res. That’s 4 plus inches you could be using. This will also reduce having to scroll down 10 feet of comments. (Kidding about the 10ft.) Even if you expand by 2 or 3 inches you will gain much more screen real estatee to put more on to the page.
Ok one more thing. The font size in the comment box is to bold and small. I’m talking about the creating a new comment box.
But this is something you can fix later once you get the big stuff fixed.
Keep up the great work Marina! I’m excited to see the new site when it’s done
No suggestions! It looks numero uno! No problemo! Clean as a whistle!
I second that emotion
Here are the smileys if you don’t already have them. Just make sure you close in the last colon close to the word as I had to leave it apart or you end up with a yellow smiley. Just copy and paste to your comment or store them in a folder some where. I use notepad. Like have a nice day :smile : and you will have this
:mrgreen :
?? :
ops :
:
:neutral :
:twisted :
:arrow :
:shock :
:smile :
:cool :
:evil :
:grin :
:idea :
:razz :
:roll :
:wink :
:cry :
:eek :
:lol :
:mad :
:sad :
:! :
: ??? :
: oops :
: ? :
Hey Marina,
I’m starting to like the nav menu links at the top.
I see you’ve re-arranged some things. I like it.
I like the top row font being larger and it is airy. Breathe deep.
P.S.
I think if you wanted to get rid of nav link above,
get rid of the RANDOM link. I think most people
don’t use it? Maybe add the Random link to the
All Words page as another sub link?
I just came back from the dentist & buzzed on pain killers, everything is so confusing to me right now.
The room is spinning/
Is this real life? :-/
Dang I got scared for a minute. I opened up HFWs and all I could see was register and not log in. I thought I had been kicked off of the site. I wondered what have I done now!!! Had to make the HFWs site smaller and found the login button, whew. I thought my email to Marina made her mad and it was by by for me.
Since I am still here is there anyway you could make the words bigger for the comments. Us old folks have a hard time reading these small words. “smile”
An
Have you followed Yahoo’s attempt at their new home page design? Lots of people hate it. I think their attempt has some valid motives, but those mouse over pop ups drive me nuts, and I think they fixed most of that by now.
Once you feel better, and if you are so inclined maybe you can play around with a format similar to Yahoo’s new home page. It has a nice clean look to it. Not saying it is better than your site, which I still think is way better. Practice on a different server and test out some ideas.
Karl I can’t stand those mouse overs either. About the time you get into reading and article up pops a mouse over. MSN home is filled with them and so is Wikipedia. Don’t see any smileys so here is my smile to you. SMILE lol
Hey Mike, I’m glad that I wasn’t the only one being annoyed by Yahoo’s weird ideas. I think they got rid of most of them. I only see one pop up that still bothers me on Yahoo.
Smiley, you don’t gots smileys? Hey, I got the smileys.
No again I am not receiving the smileys. I will clean my cache and see if that helps. Plus I just upgraded to FF 3.5.3. be right back and let you know.
Don’t fret Mike,
I’m pulling your leg. There are no smileys.
These are just delusions.
Remember I know ABOUT where you live. razz lol
You wanna do a razz, do this
OK, Moose, I give you secret.
Don’t tell anyone else.
: razz :
I added spaces so you can see. Don’t use spaces.
I forgot I had these stored away in notepad
I knew you had those smileys hidden away.
I have a lot of things stowed away in notepad, just have to remember that I have it.
Nope still no smileys.
I’m not pleased with Yahoo new home page, I resisted to change so they made it a real slow process to get into my account, once I switch over it was a normal speed.
But that live connection is nothing but porn spam.
Why do you need two boxes for the forums? forum and latest forum discussions seem to hold the same info.
on the home page. take out the clutter…
yeah, and then just place a hot bikini pic there.
then there would be room to put an animated gif
something like this
http://i20.tinypic.com/2s9d1xt......jpg
i think it would increase visitor count too
Not for word request though but, you could have it where when your pointer run over the pic a popup that says “lick me here…”
several minutes ago
the gorn
that’s a cool idea. hfw’s already did a scratch n’ sniff vid so maybe a lick n’ taste vid is next. (lightbulb)
delicious
“Silicone Is Sexy???”
Love it!!!! Dates in Recent Posts.
I love the Home page!!!!!
Yeah. There’s still lots more below that and who knows where that will end if evah.
Uh, lots more room below the text and stuff. I guess that’s what the scroll bar function is put in for.
Test from paginated page 1
Easy! Just post a new picture when there are new posts, we’ll find it.
Larry
…[cabbage] is like fermented or peeled and divided [natural selection]
…who said what?
lots of work, like sand sculptures…stage left or stage right
Seems the redesign changed again for Twitter posting. Didn’t neccessarily need an account to contribute to the tweet, but then it was gone, and then back again; sort of a whatevertf with that and the hassle I got last time for contributing to posts was b.s. and I don’t want to set up an account with Twitter because once I start commenting it can be difficult to stop tweeting. remember the green gravatar is not only in support 4 the fallen peeps in iran
P.S. Marina,
One of your objectives in the past has been to build a community and in fact, as you know, I did not subscribe to this web site until I saw that community in action. I am not the only one as many people have told me the same thing which is a big feather in your cap. I believe you have set out a goal and you have achieved it.
So, this begs the question. Do you not see it the way I see it? Perhaps being so close to your own work, you might be more critical? Do you believe you have achieved what you set out to do and do you think there are greater missions to be achieved? Before you answer, study the K-Mart million dollar web site disaster and the Coke Classic story.
I just took a tour of some infamous YouTuber’s sites. You know, names that start with F, i, s, W, etc. Those sites make me puke. No sense of community at all. Those sites to me look thrown together as one event after another. Your site looks like a Million Bucks!!!
Another simple idea.
Right now you have it white on black turning to blue on black.
White on black is boring.
Blue on black lacks sufficient contrast.
How about sparkley gold on blue changing to sparkley silver on red.
SImple solution.
Change wording to “Newest Post” Date (MM/DD/YY) Time (HH:MM) or (HH AM/PM PST)
Change color of font.
Yellow on black worked to video views.
Just as long as it has high contrast.
You could also sparkle gild around the box.
You’ve got a busy homepage which I like. I was thinking sharing featured content with new posts material because featured content takes up a decent amount of space. Just a suggestion.
Hi Marina,
Your tweaks are looking good. I like the look and feel of things, except I liked the old comment text boxes better. The other day you tweaked the old text comment boxes with a font that really looked sharp.
Regarding your question;
“Right now it’s tough to figure out when I have new posts and it makes it difficult for me to communicate with you guys.”
I’m not sure I know what that means and you’ll have to elaborate.
1. Why is it tough for you to figure out when you have a new post?
I’m puzzled. What is so tough about it?
2. How is it difficult to communicate with us? You communicate with us already. How do you envision things to be different?
Can you give us examples by describing what you envision or can you give us other sites to look at? Most sites look meager and scary. This site looks like a million bucks as you alluded to it earlier. I think this is still the best site anywhere in the universe.
Here is my gut reaction.
When I look at the home page, despite it being busy, it looks very well organized and easy to follow. A new person would most likely enjoy exploring all of the different options.
The “New Posts” box in the top center and the “Latest Lessons” stick out very prominently at the top and are easily seen. I don’t see any problems. Maybe add a date/time stamp to the New Posts box if that is possible to indicate newness.
OK, here is the clincher. When is the last time someone besides CK complained about this site? No one that I recall. The only complaints have been from users’ browser issues, but I don’t ever recall seeing anyone complain, which tells me that things should be the way the are. In fact, this site has received more praise than I can recall of any other site and in fact that is why many people come here besides to converse with other users.
The only suggestion I would make at this time is that the two navigation rows at the top could be tightened up a bit (combine the links). I presume that since there are no pull downs, it is more difficult to organize the subject matter. For example, the “Videos” and “All Words” links at the top could combined under one navigation link called “Lessons” and then those two links, “Videos” and “All Words” would be sub-links at the top of the page new page.
Howdy, PK! You know, I’m one of those you mentioned who liked the “busy-ness” of the previous homepage. Kind of like looking at a map, or a music score with all the instruments’ parts. And, I admit it, Marina, there were usually more images of you. Hey, that’s always a good thing!
Hi, Marina!
I’m thinking like Capman. Seems fine as is to me.
Just out of curiosity, what made you decide a big change was needed? Feedback from someone? Comparing your layout of HFW to other sites? A woman’s prerogative? Just wondering. I’ve always been very comfortable moving around here, and you know what a dumbass I am about stuff like this.
Hmmm site re-design eh. Lets see if my ideas can be of any use. First of all, I think it’s too cluttered. You try to fit everything on the front page, and it looks cluttered & complicated (at least to me).
How about a new “Hot For Words” Banner at the top, all shiny and new (hey why not update everything, right?).
Then change the “Featured Content” thing to have slides of the Nerd Word of the day, Twitter/RSS, and your new book (not previous videos). Beside that you can post a banner/link to the previous videos (as some people probably won’t check the links at the top.
When doing the featured content slides, make it general with a picture, example, or something so it doesn’t need to be constantly updated. People can click it and be directed to your twitter, RSS, or Nerd Word of the day page for more information
The “Latests Posts” section might do better aligned to the left, and can be a sort of Twitter-like feed showing the latest things you’ve done, including video thumbnails that link to youtube for video posts, links to nerd word of the day or Articles.
On the right side of the page, there can be a bar with various things like:
Shoutouts: put stuff like Channei’s videos/animations here, or other posts to recognize helpful and creative fans.
Events: Upcoming events
You can make each section a slightly different color, or do something to prevent it from looking like one big thing that blends together.
Just some thoughts.
This is roomier. Where are the emoticons and other descriptions?
And the gravatar no longer links to any added site.
Who is or was George, and does he still exist?
George is alive and well
How about this?: Every time you make a new post, create a clickable image of a list of recent posts — and make the image remain at, say the upper left corner, the way the smiley image remains here: http://www.w3schools.com/css/t.....attachment There are likely to be issues that will come up with the implementation, which would need to be addressed and resolved. For example, some people might keep their browser narrow so that the image will hide portion of the site content in the upper left corner; a solution for this might perhaps be that the image can be transparent expect for the list in some color that contrasts to any other color to be found in the upper left of any page on the site.
It is good thing…Rick Derringer – Still Alive And Well (live)
…this the guy who wrote it…
About my remark earlier about having the list of recent posts be an image that is always at the upper left corner: Firstly, I am not sure if this is such a good idea. Secondly, if it were to be tried out then rather than in the upper left corner, it might be better to have it always be at the top of the middle column of the two-column-post page (and the first two columns of the three-column-home page) like a banner. It can be short with the recent posts listed in multiple columns.
Third take on the idea of an image that always remains at the same spot: the image can just be a message along the lines of “click me to see a list of my recent (or my newest) posts”. Since this will be on all pages, people will have instant access to your newest posts no matter which page they are seeing on the site and no matter where they are on that page. So if you goal is literally “I want people to know about my newest posts no matter what” then I think it will be hard for any other other scheme can beat the scheme mentioned here. For certain sizes of the image used, the scheme mentioned here can be rudely-in-your-facey go-see-my-resent-posts-or-elsey.
With new comments at the top of the column, the reader just needs to look at the date and time to see when it was posted. Thid seems easy enough. Now go enjoy a beer, a neurogasm, or some other nice drink, and get some rest!
Seesixcm6
I know this is a serious question, but I need to think about it. You got to know better than I what options are open.
This is not my field of expertise, do you want to color code the new post from a hot color to a cool color to get a feel for the time they happen?
Marina what is wrong with where you have it now. It looks like there is plenty of room.
http://i32.tinypic.com/317bgb7......jpg
Get back real soon
Wow look at the size of my Gravatar, I think I’ll put my photo back up.