scriptygoddess

I don’t normally use this site for this type of thing - but I’m making an exception… A friend of mine helps run a grief website and the previous webmaster will not be able to help them out anymore. Basically what is needed is someone who can add/update pages and links, add chat rooms as neccessary (there’s documentation from the previous webmaster on how to do everything). They’re not a demanding group - they just need someone to help them out.

If you’re interested in helping them out - please contact Debbi. (remove the “=NOSPAM=” from the email address)

I just got a comment from Coup de Vent congratulating me… I wasn’t quite sure what that was all about so I almost thought it was comment spam. LOL! Then I remembered… they were announcing the bloggies today.

Scriptygoddess won best programming of a weblog AND best web development weblog. Again!

Wow. Thank you so much I’m totally speechless. I really wasn’t expecting that.

One of the domains associated with this site went offline for a few hours today - so if you tried to leave a comment, search, trackback, or even email me - it didn’t work. However, the good news is that everything is back to normal again. If you did try to email me, please resend. Anything sent in the last 24 hours will not have reached me. (Probably got bounced - but I’m not sure). Sorry about that! :-\

I’m going to start implementing the new design, but will have to do so in stages… So, some pages may be updated before others. Unfortunately, I don’t have a ton of continous time to do it - so it will have to happen over the course of several days. Things could get a little ugly around here until then… Hope it doesn’t drive anyone nutty.
update Yeah, I know the page has a few issues… it’s going to take a little while to do all this… all the fun scripts on the page just make a re-design take a LOOONG time to implement :-\

There is a mob of designers praising the power of CSS. And while I think there are some things that CSS can do - I still believe that it can’t do *everything*. I understand and can appreciate the concept of “keeping content seperate from design” - however I still face the fact that I want my webpage to do something, and CSS seems to fall short.

So, I want to redesign this site. I came up with the design already. I know how I want the page to behave. But I simply can’t seem to figure out a way to get a CSS-only layout to do it. What I DID do, is create a half-table/half-CSS layout - and that DOES do what I want. I will grant you “under the hood” it’s not pretty. But for the most part, people are seeing the “presentation” version, and they’re not viewing source to read the web site!

I know there are a number of CSS-experts who happen by here - and I’m interested to know if you think you can do it. Can you create this layout - with CSS. But before you jump up and say “of course I can” - let me tell you some of the ground rules. Aside from the basic “look” of the site - I want it to be flexible in that if you shrink your browser down really thin - I do NOT want elements on the page to start breaking apart. I want the width of the main content to stay a minimum width (the minimum width of all the elements before they would start to break apart). ALSO, I want the main content and sidebar to EXPAND as the user expands their browser so that if they have a large screen - they could technically view a wider column of text.

If you can figure out how to do that - then I’ll create the site with the code - and you’ll get credit on the site (in a “credit” box - like I have now) for coming up with the CSS on the site. (If there’s something else you’d want, that’s not unreasonable then I’ll see what I can do).

Update: I guess one additional question I should ask is those with larger browsers - how many of you always view your sites with the page *MAXIMIZED* - or do you scale your browser manually to what feels comfortable for each site. The last is what I do - which is why I only noticed later that my new design - with those particular restrictions - if you maximize your browser - the width of the main content is a bit too wide (*IF* you have a large monitor) The reason why this is important is because if those with larger monitors DO maximize their browsers - then I”ll have to change my thinking to focus on a FIXED WIDTH as opposed to a FLEXIBLE width. In either case - I still would not want something as simple as a long URL posted in the comments to break the look (ie - sudently the comment box in the sidebar stretches further than the header above it….) Clear as mud, right?
update 2: I think we have a winnah!! Nice job Raena!!! (Now it’s time to start getting the templates in order!)

I’m sure this will quickly be making the rounds…
After a long time of no news about an MT upgrade - they say the beta of MT 3.0 is due in early Q1 2004… (and it will be a free download and upgrade)

There have been a number of problems cropping up with the subscribe to comments script. My first thought had been that I would completely revamp it - make it use mySQL, etc. - however some problems can not be overcome unless it becomes an integral part of MT. Especially now with mt-blacklist and other comment spam blocking plugins.

I have two questions for you - feel free to email me or leave a comment with your thoughts:

1) Is there a doctor in the house? (or rather a PERL programmer?)
Basically is there someone out there that can either write this as a plugin or some other method directly into the MT code? The way it works now is that the comment subscribe script happens BEFORE MT gets the comment and can either deny it based on it’s content or the commenter’s IP address. (So you can probably guess what’s happening) As well, with all the SPAM legislation out there, there are some serious flaws to the script which would need to be addressed in an update. If there is someone out there, I would love to help out however I can (maybe I’d actually learn a little PERL in the process?!) - but in the very least - I can tell you what the script needs to do/how it needs to work.

2) Let it die?
Without the proper update to the code, I’m considering taking the feature down off this site altogether. Basically people who subscribe to comments run the risk of being spammed. I’ve done my best to prevent that - but I’m beginning to throw my hands up in the air… and with the traffic (and comment spam) this site gets, it’s getting out of hand.

So, any thoughts?

Just a few “site news” bits. Although I posted Kevin’s “anti-comment-spam” post - I still have yet to implement one of them on this site. Depending on Jay Allen’s plugin setup - I am leaning towards that one. (Although the bayesian (sp?) filter method mentioned in the comments also looks really good… decisions decisions). In either case - as you can probably tell - this site gets hit quite frequently with comment spam. (kind of ironic - considering that post) so hopefully this weekend I’ll have some time to install something and that will change.
Update: Jay Allen’s MT-Blacklist plugin is now installed. If you notice anything funky - please email me and let me know. (Just an FYI - I did have to do a little modification to it to work with my “RSS Feed” display. If you need to know this - I’ll post it. But I’m under the impression that it’s not a widely used mod. Some good news - it works seamlessly with subscribe to comments - so if you have that running, install without fear. As Robyn noted in the comments here, however, it does not work with the Comment-Queue hack. If this is something you really need - let me know - and I will try to get it working.

Also - I will probably be doing a “product review” of Apple’s iTunes for windows (”Hell froze over” yesterday). I downloaded it the SECOND I heard about it. So far - I give it a “A-”. Not perfect, but who is. So far I am loving it. I think my only complaint will be that it might be “too easy” to buy an album - making things very dangerous for music-addicts like myself. Just to give you a quick summary - downloaded an album. copied the files to another computer. burned a cd. All with NO PROBLEMS!!!! Some minor UI complaints - but other than that a very good experience. Good job, Apple!

I’ll post how I did this, but I added a new feature to the hotlist. Some people have complained that when they clear their cookies out, they lose all their hotlist links - or if they come here from two different machines, they end up with two different hotlists (because the script is cookie based - and the cookie that’s on one machine will not be the same as on another)

Well, thanks to a little nudge from Promoguy, I created a page which let you save your hotlist and use the same list on another machine. Changes you make to the list on one machine, will be seen on another once you’ve set the same cookie id (using the script on the page).

So without further ado - here’s the “save my cookie!” page.

Another note to let you know Comment Queue Script/MT hack has been updated to v.03. (Just a small bug fix). See original post for details and download.