anime - amatsuki - smile - summer

Tinker, tinker

Started playing around with Bloggish layouts today using the Holiday in Vegas layout @ thefullcrum as my starter sheet.

Oddly enough instead of building on it, I'm stripping the code down since I want to do a minimalist layout...

Pros
Bloggish is one of the few S2 layouts also on insane journal - so very good for comms/users who mirror their ljs
It's possible to get the sidebar to go horizontally across the layout
It's pretty easy to change layout width et all - so I should be able to include a customization guide too

Cons
The sidebar modules cannot be rearranged in the Customization area
The Page Summary just vanishes on custom comment pages :(
The links Recent Entries, Friends etc. are inside the sidebar

I wanted to put the sidebar at the bottom of the page, but then navigation links also end up at the bottom too - so, no go.

By 'minimalist' I mean, absolutely no graphics - including all the usericons/avatars - but it makes me wonder:

Poll #1124474 Your Layout and You
Open to: All, detailed results viewable to: All. Participants: 42

If you can have usernames without the usericons/avatars...

View Answers
I need usericons+usernames everywhere - they're like milk and cookies
15(35.7%)
As long as there is a username for identification, I don't need the icons
6(14.3%)
usericons+usernames on friends list is a must
1(2.4%)
usericons+usernames on my main entry page is needed
0(0.0%)
usericons+usernames on my custom comment pages is required
0(0.0%)
I don't use custom comment pages
2(4.8%)

If you need an example of what I mean - entry page, custom comment page and f-list page. (Yes, it's got a long way to go, but, at least y'all can see what I mean by no icons)

ETA: Considering how many peeps think of icons and names as their milk and cookies of LJ - I'll probably keep the disable!icons as a bonus cusomization peeps can include if they want - so everyone's happy XD
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    - (Anonymous)
    gossymer
    A) HAHAHAHA - I prob should have asked about which one to start from - though I think it's the organization of everything (the code in your stylesheets) that makes me go *__*

    B) The reason I need icons on the left for the f-list is because I don't want to have to keep going from left to right (reading the title/entry and looking right to read the usernames) - I love layouts where the usernames can end up on the left but the icons don't get in the way of the text flow (which I completely agree with)

    C) The linkbar drives me insane - that time stamp is probably my biggest issue with the layout...

    D) Oooh, really? Absolute positioning alone didnt seem to work in the case of sidebar @ bottom + navigation links @ top

    E) I'm just doing it 'cause it works on the lj clones - if Mixit were on insane journal, I'd have spent the day on that instead XD

    Edited at 2008-01-20 09:22 pm (UTC)
    - (Anonymous)
    gossymer
    D) That was exactly the problem I kept running into :( I think I'll just be using Expressive/Mixit for the bottom menu then...

    E) Ok, I admit the only peeps I'm thinking of in this case are the fic communities and artists/authors who post smut - several have started mirrors on Insane Journal (or transfered there completely) and having to visit those journals means absolutely horrible layouts (including the default IJ layout IMO). It'd be nice to have a layout that is the same on both IJ and LJ for 'em
    - (Anonymous)
    gossymer
    E) The saddest bit is when they swear never to come back and then a few weeks later, lo and behold they posting again XD It's darn hard to transfer....
    apetslife
    I was stripping my style down, too, so that I could use it on my handheld device without waiting forever for it to load. But I discovered the LK Mobile mode, which works really well.

    I don't NEED icons on my friendspage, but I find that they are really good visual markers for 'this is the start of someone else's post,' more even than I use them for identification.

    But custom comment pages...I've actually got them disabled on my views, because most of them are appallingly hard to read!
    gossymer
    Yeah, most peeps absolutely loathe the custom comment pages and a number of peeps have free accounts here or on insanejournal and so, no customm comments at all. Still, I wanted to get a version up which wouldn't be so much of an eyesore - and make it more streamlined for reading by pulling out all the icons.

    If there aren't icons, would you need separators instead (a line, or a gradient in between entries)? If you look at the example links above, do the lines et all work or does it just seem like a giant blob of text?
    apetslife
    It works okay because you've got space between the entries, and a line, and the username is both large and a different color! Still, my eye keeps looking for an image as a place marker, a separator. I'm sure I'd be able to get used to the way you've got it laid out there, though...of all the no-icon layouts I've seen that one is definitely the easiest for my eyes to handle.
    gossymer
    Yay! The cool thing about the layout is that the disabling of icons occurs at the end of the style sheet - delete the last section of code and the icon appears on the right, seamlessly (usernames stay in the same place though) - so peeps get to choose if they want'em or not :)

    I just really like entries/comments on non-lj blogs - without the icons they just seem more professional or something ^__^
    427
    To each their own - but I hate when I'm forcibly taken to a custom style comment page. It makes me pull my hair out. Comments should always be read in LJ's default IMO.

    :)
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