www.yorkshiregeek.co.uk
Ok, as I have a week off I've finally got round to putting a new site (yorkshiregeek.co.uk) on the web (I got bored with my old one, it just worked which is no fun ).
It's HTML 4.01 Strict and generated by CMSSimple, it's taken me 2 days to find a CMS that just manages content and doesn't get involved in presentation at all but I finally found it.
I'm not sure about the text on the header image (can fix if anyone has a better suggestion) and I'd rather the menu was on the right (don't know how to fix) but apart from that I'm quite happy with it.
The content will go up in the next few days, it's purely a personal site and I have some utilities/projects to transport over from my old site so I'm not looking for comments on the content (will be dull and geeky, currently a lorum ipsum placeholder text) but on the design.
I've said before that I have all the design ability of a concussed sheep as evidenced by the fact that this is the pinnacle of my efforts so far. I tried to keep it simple and hopefully succeeded, now to go cower in the corner awaiting reviews (especially after some of the ones I've given).
kazimmerman posted this at 19:33 — 3rd April 2006.
He has: 698 posts
Joined: Jul 2005
It's not bad, not bad at all. However, it is very boring. The colors are blah, the banner looks like an old painting my grandma would have in her attic (actually, my grandma lives in a trailer and doesn't have an attic, but you get the jist).
The heading for your home page seems to be positioned wrong. You need another break after that menu DIV or something. Also, to position it right, you should be able to add an "align='right'" attribute to the DIV.
Good luck with your little site.
Kurtis
GDVS posted this at 19:44 — 3rd April 2006.
They have: 36 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
That's an improvement over "eye searing" which best describes the high tech green on black design I had on my previous site for a while:D.
If I can find one I'll replace that autumny image of the North York Moors with a nice bright summery image, hopefully that will help.
How do you mean?
As simple as that eh? Will have a go. I was trying to do everything in CSS but needs must and all that,
Thanks. It's not meant to be popular or make money or anything, it's just a place for me to put stuff but I'd still rather it looked as good as my meagre talents can make it. Hopefully I can make it a little better based on your comments.
kazimmerman posted this at 21:27 — 3rd April 2006.
He has: 698 posts
Joined: Jul 2005
The bold "Lorum Ipsum" heading at the top of the first page is next to the navigation, but about half a line down. It could just be my resolution, browser, or something, but it's still worth looking at. I'm at 1024x768 on IE.
Kurtis
GDVS posted this at 21:41 — 3rd April 2006.
They have: 36 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
Doh, I removed a width 100% while fiddling. Thanks for reminding me, Firefox doesn't do that..
sarangan posted this at 01:46 — 4th April 2006.
They have: 11 posts
Joined: Apr 2006
Thanks for these usefull information..
GDVS posted this at 10:34 — 4th April 2006.
They have: 36 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
Well I broke a few things while adding content and now I need to work out how to make the containing div the full height of the viewport for short content. Apparently this is hard with a strict DOCTYPE
locatepeople posted this at 17:09 — 5th April 2006.
He has: 377 posts
Joined: May 2005
Hi, nice simple design. your contact.php page was down when I visited.
GDVS posted this at 18:02 — 5th April 2006.
They have: 36 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
That's because I haven't written it yet, I was busy porting something else over. Contact page should be up there tomorrow along with an old project I still find useful.
Busy posted this at 22:43 — 5th April 2006.
He has: 6,151 posts
Joined: May 2001
On CRT screen the top image is very dark, can tell it's a landcape. (then look at .co.uk and think it probably just fields with stone walls anyways lol)
While the top is very dark (needs to be lightened) the middle is very alive (could be muted a bit more) but the bottom is empty, a set of text links, or link to your hairdresser could just finish it off.
I guess you fixed the height problem, appears the same in IE and FF
GDVS posted this at 09:45 — 6th April 2006.
They have: 36 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
Well that's two who've said it's too dark so I definitely need to find a more summery image.
Hey, not all of England is fields and dry stone walls you know. That's part of what gives the Yorkshire dales and (to a lesser extent) moors their character and makes them special
. I mean, look at Lincolnshire. Flat as a pancake and not a dry stone wall in site, just fields and hedges (apologies to any Lincolnshire residents who feel this is a slur against their county but I lived there for 6 long dull years and you know it's true). And for the record, the image isn't just dry stone walls and fields: There's hills and trees too 
.
I'll fade the Yorkshire rose a little more, I was coming round to the idea it was too bright as well.
I'll put the usual copyright and privacy pages together and link them there. I need a privacy page anyway as one of the things I've been porting takes an email address as input.
Have I chuff, it looks the same in both but still doesn't extend the full height of the page if the content is too short. The only way I've found round this is to use a table to contain the center content and that's killing me with indecision. Currently it's pure in it's simplistic based goodness, sticking a table in there now just seems so wrong.
Busy posted this at 09:49 — 6th April 2006.
He has: 6,151 posts
Joined: May 2001
Whats the height then if this isn't it?
Is your height a set distance past the flower or from the top section?
Shouldn't the height (length) be determind by the content?
Seems a bit like the one armed fisherman telling his story about the one that got away, it was that long
GDVS posted this at 11:38 — 6th April 2006.
They have: 36 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
If you look at it now you'll see that thanks to the Godlike skills of Dave Shea I now have the effect I wanted. I modified his method slightly by nesting a div called content inside the main div and assigning a negative margin to that instead of to the tag otherwise all the paragraphs would have ended up broken. Hopefully you see what I was getting at, with a minimum height of 500px on the main content you always see the "watermark" and it doesn't get cropped off (which I thought looked bloody silly).
If I could guarantee all the content would be long enough to show the watermark then yes, as I can't then I wanted to do somethling like what I've got now. It's only likely to make a difference to a couple of pages (most will be plenty long enough and then some) but those it does make a difference to I think it tidies up a little.
Busy posted this at 22:31 — 6th April 2006.
He has: 6,151 posts
Joined: May 2001
Gotcha. But in doing so the watermark is no longer just a watermark, it is now a feature if you will. If your content doesn't reach the end then you will have big empty space and people will get annoyed at having to scroll down to see nothing but the watermark again (like the frontpage sites have all those tags)
You could always make the watermark smaller
trashage posted this at 16:38 — 17th April 2006.
They have: 8 posts
Joined: Apr 2006
are you going to add a gallery of pics or something? i wanna check out whats geek worthy in yorkshire... i look at your site and i scream 'tell me more'! most certainly on its way tho and with strong blog content you may have something impressive there.
using your own words like 'bloggery' is awesome. makes it unique... just get it out of its sleepy state.
GDVS posted this at 10:03 — 19th April 2006.
They have: 36 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
I thought about that and yes, I probably will. I need a better camera first though, my current one really is dreadful (never trust an Argos bargain).
Not a lot
I made the mistake of buying Oblivion so website work is a little slow at the moment
PCBOY123 posted this at 17:27 — 17th April 2006.
They have: 11 posts
Joined: Jan 2006
really nothing much to say its a personal site not really for the public eye, but if it were colors are to boring.. site doesnt seem to be exsiting hopefuly it dont reflect your personality.. =) j/k
but yeah add a photo gallery something like advanced as coppermine or just a simple flash gallery..
besides that good job and goodluck to you and your site
My NEW Website for my local area =)
http://www.srcservice.com
GDVS posted this at 10:05 — 19th April 2006.
They have: 36 posts
Joined: Mar 2006
That's definitely a recurring theme here, I must liven them up a little.
Nomax5 posted this at 13:19 — 20th April 2006.
They have: 76 posts
Joined: Apr 2006
Hi GDVS I'm from Yorkshire I don't know if I qualify as a geek though. I live south of Selby in Snaith.
I love the idea of yorkshire geeks
Your site needs members or at least some way visitors can communicate with you, leave a message or something.
an "add to favorites" button wouldn't hurt either.
Regional groups are something close to my heart atm with my new website site idea. cut and paste a link to yorkshiregeeks into the chat on your village website. You do have a village website cos I made you one
Roy
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