Webmaster's Lounge Page 281

Started by aRedMoon October 19th, 2004 2:00 PM
  • 280471 views
  • 7065 replies

aRedMoon

Wait for me outside the lines

Age 34
Male
Minnesota
Seen April 23rd, 2018
Posted September 10th, 2013
11,126 posts
19.2 Years
Two probs with that-
1. I won't know if they are a bot until they create a signature to advertise their thing, and
2. I have more than 110 bots now. I would be having to do this every single day.

Fortunately, they don't post, and Akismet would boot in after 2 spam posts. I dunno if that is too little though.
Most spam bots are pretty obvious...~
facebook \\ twitter \\ blog a.k.a life // tumblr // google+

june 10, 2003 = registered at old pc
march 24, 2004 = registered at new pc
june, 2004 = modded ;;; august, 2004 = quit/fired (point of debate)
december, 2004 = banned ;;; december 2, 2005 = unbanned
june 10, 2008 = omg... five years!
june 10, 2012 = countdown to nine years on pc...

Xyrin

WOW REMEMBER THIS??

Age 24
Male
purdue
Seen September 17th, 2022
Posted October 17th, 2013
1,065 posts
15 Years
Hey guys can you give me any advertising tips that would help me get a lot members. Like not just advertise in your sig I want stuff that will help me a whole lot. It's a Minecraft forum with about 10 members that has been open like a week.

Furret


The Creeper Hub ~ x - Icons by Anastasia - My Twitter ~ x

aRedMoon

Wait for me outside the lines

Age 34
Male
Minnesota
Seen April 23rd, 2018
Posted September 10th, 2013
11,126 posts
19.2 Years
Your best bet is to go out to other Minecraft sites and make yourself known. Try and connect with the community.
facebook \\ twitter \\ blog a.k.a life // tumblr // google+

june 10, 2003 = registered at old pc
march 24, 2004 = registered at new pc
june, 2004 = modded ;;; august, 2004 = quit/fired (point of debate)
december, 2004 = banned ;;; december 2, 2005 = unbanned
june 10, 2008 = omg... five years!
june 10, 2012 = countdown to nine years on pc...

aRedMoon

Wait for me outside the lines

Age 34
Male
Minnesota
Seen April 23rd, 2018
Posted September 10th, 2013
11,126 posts
19.2 Years
That's not real hosting if you're just giving them ftp access to a subfolder... D:
facebook \\ twitter \\ blog a.k.a life // tumblr // google+

june 10, 2003 = registered at old pc
march 24, 2004 = registered at new pc
june, 2004 = modded ;;; august, 2004 = quit/fired (point of debate)
december, 2004 = banned ;;; december 2, 2005 = unbanned
june 10, 2008 = omg... five years!
june 10, 2012 = countdown to nine years on pc...

Xyrin

WOW REMEMBER THIS??

Age 24
Male
purdue
Seen September 17th, 2022
Posted October 17th, 2013
1,065 posts
15 Years
How do you guys get your small forums off the ground? I find it's very hard. People don't want to join because it's a small forum. I'm posting on the Minecraft forums with my forum in my sig (Minecraft forum) but I haven't been getting any members.

Furret


The Creeper Hub ~ x - Icons by Anastasia - My Twitter ~ x

Hybrid Trainer

Age 28
Him/Them
«UK»
Seen 4 Weeks Ago
Posted January 27th, 2022
2,096 posts
14.5 Years
Usually with forums its like a snowball effect, you need members to get members. Or at least thats what my experience with forums has taught me.
If your looking for new members why not instead of just advertising on a minecraft forum why not try and advertise on sites similar but not exclusive to it. And if possible try and advertise on sites that are quite high up in search engine results too.
Of course don't break rules when advertising on other forums and sites because that gives off the wrong impression.

aRedMoon

Wait for me outside the lines

Age 34
Male
Minnesota
Seen April 23rd, 2018
Posted September 10th, 2013
11,126 posts
19.2 Years
The best thing I've found really is hope. Like, seriously, it's gonna be hit or miss. I've had some succeed, some fail, and it's just a game of chance sometimes.
facebook \\ twitter \\ blog a.k.a life // tumblr // google+

june 10, 2003 = registered at old pc
march 24, 2004 = registered at new pc
june, 2004 = modded ;;; august, 2004 = quit/fired (point of debate)
december, 2004 = banned ;;; december 2, 2005 = unbanned
june 10, 2008 = omg... five years!
june 10, 2012 = countdown to nine years on pc...
Female
Canada
Seen February 4th, 2012
Posted February 4th, 2012
21 posts
11.3 Years
Hooray for Webmasters!
I'm currently updating my site, and changing over to DRUPAL 7. Anyone else use any CMS systems with their web? I personally don't like wordpress, as it's just a restrictive blog posting CMS with little other use. Drupal at least allows full PHP nodes to be added into any block you create.
-THE HOBO-
Don't worry, I'm packing a chainsaw.

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
Hmm...

So after almost a month of TwigZone being up, I have something to think about right now.

After the last few tampering attempts with the site's CSS, I noticed that the site is now permanently broken in IE older than 8. Then again, I think maybe it's time for me to finally dump support for these legacy browsers, no? Or is there an actual way to attempt to fix it back? I think the mess started after I added in support for CSS3 Media Queries a few days ago.

Also, I wonder whether I should go with a web font linked via @font-face or stick with Trebuchet MS...

aRedMoon

Wait for me outside the lines

Age 34
Male
Minnesota
Seen April 23rd, 2018
Posted September 10th, 2013
11,126 posts
19.2 Years
Eww, you support any form of IE? :P
facebook \\ twitter \\ blog a.k.a life // tumblr // google+

june 10, 2003 = registered at old pc
march 24, 2004 = registered at new pc
june, 2004 = modded ;;; august, 2004 = quit/fired (point of debate)
december, 2004 = banned ;;; december 2, 2005 = unbanned
june 10, 2008 = omg... five years!
june 10, 2012 = countdown to nine years on pc...

Hybrid Trainer

Age 28
Him/Them
«UK»
Seen 4 Weeks Ago
Posted January 27th, 2022
2,096 posts
14.5 Years
I think that you should get some sort or tracker on your website and see how many people use what and change the site accordingly. There is no point risking breaking your site over something only you will ever use.
Also yea I think you should try and go with some web fonts. You sites design is looking incredibly bland right now.

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
1) I wouldn't worry about IE7 and it's older ilk. Only 1% of my visitors use IE7 or lower.

2) Google's web fonts are fun to use and don't weigh too heavily on loading times from what I've read.
I changed the design completely, and from what I have seen, it works even in IE 5.5. :P That's ancient!

I'm taking a look at the Web Fonts.


Eww, you support any form of IE? :P
At least IE8 and above. IE8 is a mostly-CSS2.1-compliant in my testing, and I treat it as the baseline. Things go better from there. :) And IE7 bugs are really easy to fix if you know what you're doing :) CSS3 and on, I let them not display if it's OK to do so.

Basing your design on CSS2.1 first, then pasting on only the graphical components of CSS3 can do a lot towards compatibility :) At the minimum, no broken layouts.

I think that you should get sons sort or tracker on your website and see how many people use what and change the site accordingly. There is no point risking breaking your site over something only you will ever use.
Also yea I think you should try and go with some web fonts. You sites design is looking incredibly bland right now.
Someday I think I'm going to insert some Google Analytics scripts.

That said, I wonder what's a good web font to complement the design?

EDIT: Up and implemented some web fonts. Hmm... How does it look now?

Maybe adding a bit of CSS gradient magic wouldn't hurt at this point.

aRedMoon

Wait for me outside the lines

Age 34
Male
Minnesota
Seen April 23rd, 2018
Posted September 10th, 2013
11,126 posts
19.2 Years
I've come to the point in my webmastering life that I don't care if it works for anyone else, as long as it works for me. Anything I make now is primarily for myself as a reference tool... putting it online and giving other people access is just an extra.

And since I use Chrome and only Chrome, I really have no idea how my sites look in other browsers, or do I really care...

I guess it's based on who you're building your site for.
facebook \\ twitter \\ blog a.k.a life // tumblr // google+

june 10, 2003 = registered at old pc
march 24, 2004 = registered at new pc
june, 2004 = modded ;;; august, 2004 = quit/fired (point of debate)
december, 2004 = banned ;;; december 2, 2005 = unbanned
june 10, 2008 = omg... five years!
june 10, 2012 = countdown to nine years on pc...

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
I think I'm different in that regard. Even though it's a personal site, I do think that it might be if some interest to someone somewhere in the world. So I try to ensure than at the very least the basic layout works and I test it it every major browser that I can test it on.

aRedMoon

Wait for me outside the lines

Age 34
Male
Minnesota
Seen April 23rd, 2018
Posted September 10th, 2013
11,126 posts
19.2 Years
The problem is that browsers view everything so differently that you spend way too much time trying to fix something that - quite likely - very few people will ever look at.

For instance, my blog. For the longest time, it wouldn't load _at all_ in IE, and I didn't care enough to try and fix it. When I changed the theme -to one that does work with IE-, my visitor count didn't change at all. (Still about ~40 people a day... why, I am not sure) So for that, I was like "eh, whatever." If people care enough to look at the site, they'll try another browser. (Or they're an old technilogically-disinclined person, in which case I don't want them seeing my stuff. :P)
facebook \\ twitter \\ blog a.k.a life // tumblr // google+

june 10, 2003 = registered at old pc
march 24, 2004 = registered at new pc
june, 2004 = modded ;;; august, 2004 = quit/fired (point of debate)
december, 2004 = banned ;;; december 2, 2005 = unbanned
june 10, 2008 = omg... five years!
june 10, 2012 = countdown to nine years on pc...

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
The problem is that browsers view everything so differently that you spend way too much time trying to fix something that - quite likely - very few people will ever look at.

For instance, my blog. For the longest time, it wouldn't load _at all_ in IE, and I didn't care enough to try and fix it. When I changed the theme -to one that does work with IE-, my visitor count didn't change at all. (Still about ~40 people a day... why, I am not sure) So for that, I was like "eh, whatever." If people care enough to look at the site, they'll try another browser. (Or they're an old technilogically-disinclined person, in which case I don't want them seeing my stuff. :P)
Good thing is that in 2012, most browsers view stuff similarly, if not the same, huh?

Yeah. When you test things out, sometimes you get unexpected behavior out of browsers. Huh. Sometimes it's a genuine browser bug that comes back to haunt you; sometimes it's actually a coding bug that messes up in certain browsers. One of the things that makes it easy to get sites working is to start with a basic layout, and then improve from that.

I think I believe in having things work for everyone, even if there's probably no one looking at it, just for the very, very small chance that someone will do it anyway. :P

You have a blog, huh? Maybe I'll take a look at it someday.

EDIT: There seems to be a bug with IE8. IE5.5, IE7, IE9, and IE10, though? Works fine in the last three (and works best in the last), and the first one still has it readable. In IE8, lots of stuff are just... covered up. Hmm...

Hybrid Trainer

Age 28
Him/Them
«UK»
Seen 4 Weeks Ago
Posted January 27th, 2022
2,096 posts
14.5 Years
I think I believe in having things work for everyone, even if there's probably no one looking at it, just for the very, very small chance that someone will do it anyway. :P
That sounds ok but you shouldn't let other people with more advance or common browsers suffer for the few people who might not have updated their browser.

Petie

Age 34
Male
Colorado
Seen June 25th, 2022
Posted July 14th, 2020
152 posts
14.5 Years

That sounds ok but you shouldn't let other people with more advance or common browsers suffer for the few people who might not have updated their browser.
The best way to deal with this is to just have things fail gracefully. For instance, if you want to process forms with jQuery and someone comes along without JavaScript enabled, the simple (and logical) thing to do would be to make sure that the form can still be submitted properly via normal browser methods. This type of fix is extremely simple but often overlooked.

As for things displaying correctly across browsers, I've found that a good way to help ensure that happens is to make sure your code validates against one of the standards. I'm using HTML5 now myself (though I've taken advantage of very few of its features so far) but XHTML1.0 or even HTML4 are also good places to start. Check your pages here and if they validate, there's a decent chance they'll work on most browsers.

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
The best way to deal with this is to just have things fail gracefully. For instance, if you want to process forms with jQuery and someone comes along without JavaScript enabled, the simple (and logical) thing to do would be to make sure that the form can still be submitted properly via normal browser methods. This type of fix is extremely simple but often overlooked.

As for things displaying correctly across browsers, I've found that a good way to help ensure that happens is to make sure your code validates against one of the standards. I'm using HTML5 now myself (though I've taken advantage of very few of its features so far) but XHTML1.0 or even HTML4 are also good places to start. Check your pages here and if they validate, there's a decent chance they'll work on most browsers.
Precisely. Using the new and shiny doesn't mean that you have to drop support for older browsers. There can always be fallbacks and polyfills for these browsers that do really need it, or you can just make sure that stuff still shows up right for older browsers.

aRedMoon

Wait for me outside the lines

Age 34
Male
Minnesota
Seen April 23rd, 2018
Posted September 10th, 2013
11,126 posts
19.2 Years
I don't know about current browsers so much, but it used to be that even if it was completely valid with HTML4, it still would load differently in different browsers.

(And really? My site still doesn't work in IE8? Had no idea. Oh well.)
facebook \\ twitter \\ blog a.k.a life // tumblr // google+

june 10, 2003 = registered at old pc
march 24, 2004 = registered at new pc
june, 2004 = modded ;;; august, 2004 = quit/fired (point of debate)
december, 2004 = banned ;;; december 2, 2005 = unbanned
june 10, 2008 = omg... five years!
june 10, 2012 = countdown to nine years on pc...

Legendary Silke

You like dragons?

Seen December 23rd, 2021
Posted April 22nd, 2020
5,925 posts
12.5 Years
I don't know about current browsers so much, but it used to be that even if it was completely valid with HTML4, it still would load differently in different browsers.

(And really? My site still doesn't work in IE8? Had no idea. Oh well.)
Let's see one more time, this time with real browsers (I was using Compat Mode):

IE 6 = Looks cramped but otherwise functional (navigation bar is problematic)
IE 7 = OK!
IE 8 = OK!
IE 9 = Even better OK!
IE 10/Firefox/Chrome/Safari/whatever modern browser = Perfect!