New BA Blog design

[The Bad Astronomer]

Folks-

I'm posting here to get more eyeballs on this: I redesigned the BA Blog. It's based on a template that has been out a while, and someone redesigned it. I redesigned that to match my needs better.

There have already been some good comments there, and I've implemented some of the suggestions. I'll work on others as time allows. I'm asking for comments from you folks here as well. What do you like, what do you dislike?

I like the way it looks, but I also think there needs to be something else, something more, but I can't decide what. Ideas?

Eventually, I will changethe main site layout to match this new template, so the whole site+blog have the same feel. It won't be an exact match, but I want to tie them together better.

Anyway, if you have comments, feel free to post them here or on the blog. Thanks!

[Maksutov]

I second the first response in the blog: the ability to preview comments. Switching back and forth from BBCode to HTML can sometimes result in things that don't show up until it's too late, i.e., the comment is posted.

Other than that, things look fine. Did the picture regress to one pixel?

[The Supreme Canuck]

Oh, also, I think that all of the "the"s should be capitalized in the motto. It isn't a sentence, and it looks kind of funny with lowercase letters.

[Melusine]

Oh, also, I think that all of the "the"s should be capitalized in the motto. It isn't a sentence, and it looks kind of funny with lowercase letters.

That's a good point--most book titles capitalize all the the's, a's, and's and of's, though I have a few that don't: "The Book of Laughter and Forgetting," is one that comes to mind. It's sort of a byline there...

It's interesting that you find that inaesthetic. Fonts and such are no laughing matter!

[Fram]

If you find that funny, then look at the top of this page: "Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum"...

The capitalizing of all first letters in titles (whether books, songs, newspaper headlines, ...) seems to me to be an English (language) thing, we don't seem to do that in Dutch. I have never understood the rationale of all that capitalizing.

[Moose]

[Moose's staticy disembodied voice] Help! I'm trapped in a nexus of teleporters leading everywhere in the galaxy. (Or maybe its the janitor's closet, I don't really know.) I fell into the recursive image and ended up here! I need someone to construct a makeshift temporal beacon out of "high end" speaker wire, flypaper, a duck, and six cans of Dr. Pepper, and then hit Alt-F4 five times really fast. [/M'ssdv]

*[ ]

[Swift]

[Moose's staticy disembodied voice] Help! I'm trapped in a nexus of teleporters leading everywhere in the galaxy. (Or maybe its the janitor's closet, I don't really know.) I fell into the recursive image and ended up here! I need someone to construct a makeshift temporal beacon out of "high end" speaker wire, flypaper, a duck, and six cans of Dr. Pepper, and then hit Alt-F4 five times really fast. [/M'ssdv]

*[ ]

It could be worse - you could be trapped in a maze of twisty passages, all alike. :surprised

[peter eldergill]

There's a blog?

Ha!

Kidding. I don't read them all, but maybe once a week or so. Haven't checked checked out the new one yet

Pete

[farmerjumperdon]

If you find that funny, then look at the top of this page: "Bad Astronomy and Universe Today Forum"...

The capitalizing of all first letters in titles (whether books, songs, newspaper headlines, ...) seems to me to be an English (language) thing, we don't seem to do that in Dutch. I have never understood the rationale of all that capitalizing.

I grew up with articles only capitalized in titles if they were the first word. Only within the last few weeks did I notice titles that now break this rule.

I also was reccently told to no longer double space between sentences. One space after a period! Aaaaach! Don't know how much more of this I can take.

[Donnie B.]

I'll give up my double spaces after periods when you pry them from my cold, dead fingers.

Or when you write your BB software to automatically remove them, as on the BAUT Forum.



I, too, was taught that articles should not be capitalized in titles (except as the first word of a title). This rule may have changed meantime. As Fram says, though, many other languages do not capitalize words in titles (French is another example. It does make English titles look a bit like a ZaphodBeeblebrox post -- or maybe it's the other way around.

[Moose]

It's what I like so much about French grammar. You (finally) learn the rules once, you know they'll be exactly the same twenty years from now.

Actually, that's not quite true. There are ebbs and tides of phrasing (within unchangingly obscure grammar), as I re-encounter every year when the "grandes poches" all want to "modernize" our correspondence.

[The Supreme Canuck]

The problem with an officially controlled langauge is that it ends up dead. It stops evolving. That's what finally killed Latin: the Humanists decided that they had had enough of medieval Latin, and rolled it back to Augustus. Mistake.

[Sticks]

sorry but I had to give up reading the Blog in FireFox and use IE

In FireFox I had black text against dark blue, and it indicated it was still "Transfering data" but never finished.

In IE it was back to the black ink against white background

So basically I can not view the Blogs using firefox and have to use IE.

[pumpkinpie]

I, too, was taught that articles should not be capitalized in titles (except as the first word of a title). This rule may have changed meantime. As Fram says, though, many other languages do not capitalize words in titles (French is another example. It does make English titles look a bit like a ZaphodBeeblebrox post -- or maybe it's the other way around.

I, three, was taught that. Additional words not to be capatalized: conjuctions (and, but,), prepositions 4 letters or shorter (with, of; but through and above, do get capatalized.) This is from memory, not doing any research. Corrections appreciated!

eta: Oh yeah, this was about the blog! I vote for keeping the 2nd and 3rd "the"s in lower case. It allows for the preferred emphasis when reading: the Good, the Bad, the Astronomy.

[sidmel]

My two 1/2 cents (price went up)

I'd probably make 'The Good, the Bad, the Astronomy' as part of the background Bad Astronomy image. That way you can add an effect or two to get some seperation on the 'The'. Maybe also add css classes to the input boxes and search buttons. Also, possibly a sub menu with to quickly take you down the page to the Catagories, Archives, Blog Roll and stuff.

[Sticks]

The issue with firefox seems to have cleared up

[Geccoman]

Hi!

sorry but I had to give up reading the Blog in FireFox and use IE
In FireFox I had black text against dark blue, and it indicated it was still "Transfering data" but never finished.

Gosh! Thanks! For a second I thought I was the only one...
My FFox at least shows the white background after... er.. lets say... 2-3 minutes...
Works fine with IE, too

Ansgar
(oops.. my first post here!... hi to all! )

[Gillianren]

I, three, was taught that. Additional words not to be capatalized: conjuctions (and, but,), prepositions 4 letters or shorter (with, of; but through and above, do get capatalized.) This is from memory, not doing any research. Corrections appreciated!

Prepositions of two syllables get capitalized. At least, that's what I learned. And, frankly, just because some things choose to break the rule doesn't mean the rule has changed. The not-capitalization of articles is such an example. It always, always jars my eyes when I see it.

Oh, and Donnie B., I'm with you on the double spaces.

[George]

It is very clean. It is, however, maybe too clean. I don't feel as astronomically attracted toward your posts as I think I ought to be. Unless the white background represents the solar photosphere, just more heliochromological humor (sorry), then, perhaps, something with more astronomical feel would be possible.

Also, you are the BA - Bad Astronomer, not the Bad Astronaut. The shuttle background in your personal photo is cool, but would a HST background magnify your viewpoint. Perhaps a slide show (is that what they are called?) of your most interesting personal images would be appropriate. You could let us pick which ones.

Hopefully, others will comment on these two ideas - background and personal image.

Can we use emotional icons in the comments, yet?

[Edit: The red boxing glove astronaut still works fine, contrary to any above comment.]

[Maksutov]

The issue with firefox seems to have cleared up

You must have had a temporarily slow connection. For me with Firefox, there's the blue background for about 2 seconds, then the final background appears.

Everything is looking better, except the changeover to sans serif is, to me, something that makes things harder to read. I like the way serif fonts allow one to differentiate similar but different characters.

Still pushing for the preview page for comments. For example, such a thing might have prevented some of those links and HTML examples from running outside the right margin.

One thing for sure, once the blog layout is finalized, Phil will be able to add a subtitle that reads:

Approved by the world's leading web page designers and grammarians.

[Van Rijn]

I also was reccently told to no longer double space between sentences. One space after a period! Aaaaach! Don't know how much more of this I can take.

I think you can blame computers and word processors for that. Double spacing makes for tricky automatic formatting. I usually put in two spaces after a period, but I'm starting to lose the habit, especially since a lot of software edits it out. (I double spaced here, for all the diference it makes.)

[The Bad Astronomer]

Some things:

1) Let's just say the preview comments thing will be taken care of, no worries. That's on my list for next week.

2) The title and image might be added into one image; it turns out do to coding issues in the software that that is harder to do than you'd think.

3) The background color thing (staying blue for a while, then finally going to white) is something that happens to me, and several people have complained on the blog too. It has to do with the way the style sheet is set up, and I'm looking into it, but I think it's subtle. Right now, a new metric (stat collecting) javascript in my sidebar is what's delaying things, so I may just dump it. I will not abide people saying their metric software is great, and then forcing me to wait for it to load!

[NoXion]

It's a shame that the little picture only has 5 iterations.

I personally like the new layout. It looks more personalised than the rather template-like setup of the old one.

[Paracelsus]

I like it. The font is bigger, and it is easier to read.

Question: For some of your posts about astronomy, I've posted questions about the topic in the 'Comments' section for the post. Is this the correct place to post these types of questions, or should I post them in the 'Bad Astronomy Stories' section or elsewhere on BAUT?

[Kelfazin]

I like it. The font is bigger, and it is easier to read.

Question: For some of your posts about astronomy, I've posted questions about the topic in the 'Comments' section for the post. Is this the correct place to post these types of questions, or should I post them in the 'Bad Astronomy Stories' section or elsewhere on BAUT?

(psst, this thread is more than year old, bumped by a spam bot)

[Paracelsus]

Ah.

HOW??

I thought BAUT was spam-proofed?

[Kelfazin]

The spam protection looks for links stuck inside 1st posts and stuff. This one (which has been removed by the mods already) had HTML tags instead of forum tags. I guess it slipped through

[Paracelsus]

Ooops!

Well, thanks for the warning! I'd have been waiting a very long time for a reply.