Quote Rowboffin:

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Dunno if you care but the menus don't work well at 800x600 since the floated

elements that should be on the far right get shoved down on to a new line as the menu bar is too wide. Maybe 9em width would work better.

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It does seem like that text block should wrap.

...Nice site though.

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www.RTaylor-Design.Com

Quote Rowboffin:

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Kudos for going for a standards compliant design. Just a few comments...

You need to set the z-index of the ul element to ensure that your dropdowns appear over the top of other elements like the imageside div. z-index:3; will be fine.

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Ah very cunning! I've implemented that! Learn somthing new everyday!

Quote Rowboffin:

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In the imageside div tag you need to put quotes around the id value (i.e.

) cos without them IE6 isn't displaying the background-image.

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Tried it, and it still doesn't work. I think its the way IE is reading the layers, however I'm not sure. Need to reasearch this issue.

Quote Rowboffin:

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Dunno if you care but the menus don't work well at 800x600 since the floated

elements that should be on the far right get shoved down on to a new line as the menu bar is too wide. Maybe 9em width would work better.

---

Totally agree! done!

Quote Rowboffin:

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There's no link back to the home page from any of the other pages. I don't know if this is generally the case but our clients ALWAYS moan if we forget to provide a link back to the home page (unless its just a splash screen or similar).

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Top logo is now a link. (thank god! the menu is driven from a single file! (menu.php)

Quote Rowboffin:

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I think you need to have more colour on the menu, logo and page header bar, perhaps just use borders to add a hint of extra colour. For example the menu bar

elements could have left and right borders which would also make them appear more evenly spaced (if you know what I mean). The fact that the dropdown menus are the same colour as the title bar that they overlap makes them look a bit odd, too. If they're going to be the same colour then I think the dropdowns need a border of some kind.

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I agree mainly, but the company wanted a slick grey look.
I experimented with borders, but they didn't achieve the desired effect.

Quote Rowboffin:

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One last comment on the layout: I think the imagebar would look better if its right edge was aligned with the right edge of the menu bar and footer. There's a couple of ways that you could arrange that but my approach would be to shove the content div away from the left edge of the browser window so that its left edge is inline with the right side of the "S" in the ETS logo and expand its width so that it pushed the imagebar into line.

I usually use the STRICT DTD to force IE6 into standards mode when doing CSS layouts as it can help to get things looking consistent and keep box-model hacks to a minimum.

I hope you glean something useful from that. As ever YMMV...

---

Thank you for all your comments! they are very much appericated!

Rick I went for the justification you suggested, improves the layout loads!

www.msweb.co.uk/ets

Laurence

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P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Edited by Giant with Laser Eyes (25/03/05 06:33 PM)

Rowboffin Quote:

---

Quote Rowboffin:

---

In the imageside div tag you need to put quotes around the id value (i.e. <div id="imageside"> </div>) cos without them IE6 isn't displaying the background-image.

---

Tried it, and it still doesn't work. I think its the way IE is reading the layers, however I'm not sure. Need to reasearch this issue.

---

Yeah, after having a proper look at the markup and css I realise that the problem is the way that IE handles floats differently to other browsers. Rather than using relative positioning for the imagebar you should give it a large enough left-margin to push it past the main-body element (652px or thereabouts).

Ah cunning! and then I take it you would need to set the position to "static"

The only other thing I'm having difficulties with, is the drop down menus dont postion correctly in IE.

Thanks for all your help!
You are a star!

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P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Glad to help, Laurence.

You don't need to set the position to static explicitly since that's the default for any element which doesn't have a positioning specified, but in the strict sense you're right- the positioning scheme for the imagebar should be "static" since you want it to stay within the normal flow.

A quick fix for your menus- change the li ul selector thus:

li ul
{
display: none;
position: absolute;
width: 9em;
top: 2em;
}

And add z-index:3; to both the li and ul selector blocks.

Voila! Dropdown menus that work in IE!

For some reason due to the way IE read DIV layers, its positining it reative to the last layer. So it works with a small margin, however the same can't be said for firefox which doesnt...

www.msweb.co.uk/ets

Any ideas?

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P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

this thread has turned into a stink-ass webmaster circlejerk....

the thread is titled "show us your sites". Not "looking for help getting your unrelated site centered?" or "sites: shown and critiqued". I think you guys should be making new threads for alot of the crap you post here.

btw I love that name: "show us your sites"

to be fair this forum gets very little postage, and some of the posts we've had over the last week have been very valuabe for anyone designing...

i'm sorry//lg goes off and dies...

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P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Edited by Giant with Laser Eyes (27/03/05 09:05 PM)

Quote:

---

i'm sorry//lg goes off and dies...

---

LOL!!! hey dude don't die. I think it's GREAT that you hang around! dont be a bum! .... Jesus!

but you have to admit that this thread is a bit far gone from the very cool way that it was started... Ha! "show us your sites". I still feel my balls hit my skull when I laugh at that one!

Anyway whatever. I just always checked up on this thread to see what the forum dudes made on the web for their music. And it was always full of cool stuff. But even Ian (the king of rightiousness) started telling people what was wrong with their sites. I was bummed. And at this point its like full of comments and empty of sites. So I'm bummed about that. And I hope that people start posting their problems in regards to internet publishing in a thread that is not called "show us your sites". That's all.

Anyway.... Mr. giant dude, dont be bummed.

oops. I've just noticed people getting annoyed at slightly OT posts...

ah well I'll post my question elsewhere

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Edited by *gregster* (29/03/05 11:09 AM)

I've just done a quick update to my site which hints at the graphical layout that the full site will have in the next few months. I'd appreciate everyone's comments on
A) the appearance/navigation of the site
B) the quality of the musical samples (be brutal)

g

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Roll Your Own Productions

Still a bit light on content (rather like my head) but I'll work on that and the 'look' of the site as and when I can. To that end, any comments or suggestions are welcome.

--------------------
One Love, Spy!
Blog | Podcasts | Tunes

Hey Spy. The text is quite spaced out, and could probably fit in a much smaller space, so that it scans better. The dice are nice-looking but the graphics are inconsistent stylistically throughout the site. It's pretty difficult to do that well, so I'd recommend either copying someone else's site closely or getting a graphically aware friend to give you a colour and styling scheme.
You should probably aim to use the images to visually say what the text is already saying: people might think it's a gambling site, otherwise...

The tone of the text is good and friendly though: if I was browsing, looking for someone to collaborate with I wouldn't feel intimidated into not phoning you.

g

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Spy,

Write out 100 times: I am not an "aspiring producer". That's between you and your learning curve. You are a PRODUCER. How many producers are there in the UK? Did they pass some kind of test?

"Born and raised..." Don't start with that. Start with what you think people will want to see in your first sentence. Do they want to know where you were born? Or that you are brewing some audio shock and awe with your collective? You are passionate about what you do... I know that, don't tell them where you were born (unless there's some genealogy vibe happening here that I don't know about).

Visuals obviously need pepping up. Where it's at now, you could get that onto one page and make it more immediate while you work on Mark 2.

Are the dice edgy enough for your site name? They made me smile, but perhaps the other theme will ring more bells with your target demographic?

That's just one view... a lot of people (and I think I've heard from each and every one) find my style too direct. So it's not the law.

But I want to see a smoking version two. Happy to do you some words if it helps. Good start (way better than my Mark One).

Greetings gregster & Rob,

Thanks for taking a look and finding the time to comment.

Quote *gregster*:

---

Hey Spy. The text is quite spaced out, and could probably fit in a much smaller space, so that it scans better. The dice are nice-looking but the graphics are inconsistent stylistically throughout the site. It's pretty difficult to do that well, so I'd recommend either copying someone else's site closely or getting a graphically aware friend to give you a colour and styling scheme.
You should probably aim to use the images to visually say what the text is already saying: people might think it's a gambling site, otherwise...

The tone of the text is good and friendly though: if I was browsing, looking for someone to collaborate with I wouldn't feel intimidated into not phoning you.

---

Thanks g, I've made a few alterations to the 'look' of the site, but not much to the content as yet. It is definitely something I need to work on

Quote Rob C.:

---

Spy,

Write out 100 times: I am not an "aspiring producer". That's between you and your learning curve. You are a PRODUCER. How many producers are there in the UK? Did they pass some kind of test?

"Born and raised..." Don't start with that. Start with what you think people will want to see in your first sentence. Do they want to know where you were born? Or that you are brewing some audio shock and awe with your collective? You are passionate about what you do... I know that, don't tell them where you were born (unless there's some genealogy vibe happening here that I don't know about).

Visuals obviously need pepping up. Where it's at now, you could get that onto one page and make it more immediate while you work on Mark 2.

Are the dice edgy enough for your site name? They made me smile, but perhaps the other theme will ring more bells with your target demographic?

That's just one view... a lot of people (and I think I've heard from each and every one) find my style too direct. So it's not the law.

But I want to see a smoking version two. Happy to do you some words if it helps. Good start (way better than my Mark One).

---

Cheers Rob, as far as the dice are concerned, I thought that the 'other' connotation was a little too obvious so I thought I'd try something different, but I see what you're saying

Quote:

---

Happy to do you some words if it helps.

---

That's a very generous offer, don't be surprised if I take you up on that

--------------------
One Love, Spy!
Blog | Podcasts | Tunes

Please do. You've got nothing to lose... I'm not worried if you throw them in the bin.

please be having a look at www.slatepipe.co.uk.
theres a 15 minute krautrock kind of thing to download in the popup window on the enter page which we made from scratch and performed live in a week. then if you look in the downloads section theres plenty of stuff to listen to which has been done either with an old tascam 4 track, a roland vs840 and a regular pc.
have a look and a listen and let me know what you think
x

wwooooo! out there, but a nice site nonetheless. A real touch of the being slightly odd being about it.
I think it's affecting me...

I couldn't dig the music, but then I'm quite a mainstream kind of guy, and this stuff is so far from the mainstream the drinking water probably costs about £50 a bottle.

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Dude, your link has a stray full stop (period) at the end. But I like the site, very good.

Quote slatepipe:

---

please be having a look at www.slatepipe.co.uk.
theres a 15 minute krautrock kind of thing to download in the popup window on the enter page which we made from scratch and performed live in a week. then if you look in the downloads section theres plenty of stuff to listen to which has been done either with an old tascam 4 track, a roland vs840 and a regular pc.
have a look and a listen and let me know what you think
x

---

Didn't listen, at work, but the site looks good. Nice balance of cleverness of design, without losing the obvious, ie links to information which is what a site exists for. Good job.

--------------------

Been working on this for the last few months...

 

 

thanks for the nice comments fellers. i'll get a bit of updating done soonish

is that one from "temp" a spam?

Didn't like that thing in the signature, so I've adblocked it.
Not the best place to first-post I would have said. But I will stand humbly corrected if I see the person's post count go up.

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

Perhaps I misunderstood the thread's purpose, but I understood it to be a place where you showcased music communities/artist websites that you're working on:

"I know a lot of forum regulars have got music sites... here's your opportunity to whack them up and tell us what you're doing... don't be shy..."

I just wanted to embed a little Flash in my post seeing that the feature was there - being Active X, this may have prompted your browser agent to throw an alert up (Gregster). I'm no stranger to spam, and being a webworker I have to face that crap every day. Thumbs up for your vigilance though.

Anyway, visit addasong.com if you get a chance and sign up if you're in need of yet another platform for your original music - I've worked my proverbial a** off on this site and I'm trying to get more artists on there. I guess its virtual base is in Medway, Kent - where I am - but we have artists from all over the place. It's been lovingly hand-coded by yours truly and has NO commercial links or ads whatsoever.

I'm also in the habit of upping people's space, features and bandwidth if they simply log-in from time to time and upload their music - a gift for simply participating. The site does have inbuilt IRSC coding and Paypal option for those that wish to sell their musical wares. When DRM and the UK Internet music infrastructure has settled I'll think about doing a proper launch with serious features such as integration with the official download charts, licensing protocols and other emergent music-based web technologies.

And when I get some more capital of course.

Cheers.

Yes, music production came to a stop for a few weeks whilst I got to grips with putting this together...anyway, there's free mp3s and video clips as well as info on our maximum ear-wiggle technology for your entertainment on the site below.

Strangefates.com

Yep, that's what it's about. Greg's just being cautious... we do get the usual spam here, but's there's a world of difference between your stuff and say CokeMusic.

I like the site. You've done a good job with what is a rather over-done genre. The world probably doesn't need another CokeMusic but more artist-driven download sites can't be a bad thing.

I'd suggest the trick is getting a coherent vibe going with your artists and visitors... people don't want the 'record shop' experience, they want the club or small label experience. But good luck with the whole thing...

ISRCs and all that tend to come up in the music biz forum. You might get some interest for that facility there.

I was very impressed with the design, my personally opionion would be its a little cluttered, but its a nice piece of design...

Good luck with it all!

--------------------
P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Quote *gregster*:

---

is that one from "temp" a spam?

Didn't like that thing in the signature, so I've adblocked it.
Not the best place to first-post I would have said. But I will stand humbly corrected if I see the person's post count go up.

---

/retracted. welcome temp!
g

--------------------
Ceilidh Band Scotland
Wedding Music Scotland

started redesigning my site (how often do I do this!?)

the idea is that the rooms will have objects, and as you move the mouse u get infomation for the object below the room, so if you want to access your files you click on the filing cabinet....

still designing it at the moment... its either gonna work or suck...
its taking time to do it all in piant tho!

www.msweb.co.uk

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P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Well, I just redesigned my site - it's from a template, but to be fair I've made quite a few changes...

o

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www.facebook.com/owenduffmusic / http://soundcloud.com/owenduff / www.owenduff.co.uk / http://www.youtube.com/clothmotherrecords

Hey how are things going Owen...

I remeber listening to some of your tracks last year, really liked them.
Site looks ok, but the adverts kinda make it a bit disjointed...

Good luck with it all....

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P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Thanks Laurence,

Yeah those Lycos ads are a pain - could you p.m me about your hosting service?

Thanks,

O

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www.facebook.com/owenduffmusic / http://soundcloud.com/owenduff / www.owenduff.co.uk / http://www.youtube.com/clothmotherrecords

The Tripod pages are a bit weird all round. The site looks OK on a PC (I had probs last time with Safari, I'll have a look tonight) but you can't use the back button. That's Tripod rather than your site though.

Biog's a bit thin... and perhaps too personal?

Hi All,

I just joined this magnificent magazine and the forum...

In my web page you can find a bit of World-Jazz and a fusion of Rhythms, here it is...

www.franciscom.bizmail.com.au

Enjoy,
Frank

Owen - I'd also gladly host your music.

It's outstanding. Nice groove on 'London...'.

Your website, however, doesn't really do you any justice, but that's ok as you should be concentrating on your music and not web-design. I'll design you a little site if you want. At the very least, get some stuff up on Addasong.com - it's free and gives you loads of tools to present yourself and your work. No ads or pop-ups.

Give us a shout. The more the merrier.

You got P.M.

Just in case anyone else is interested,

Free 50mg Hosting, No Adds, FTP, PHP, 1 MySQL Database
£2 a year deal - 250mg, 2x FTP Acccounts, PHP, 5 MySQL DB's,

We are pretty flexible and relaxed. If you ever need any help we general respond within 6 hours. Just talk to our customers they are all happy! and thats the way its got ta be!

--------------------
P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?

Hi all, thanks for the response. I've had not had internet at work for 3 weeks (outrageous!) so haven't been able to post, will catch up on the PMs asap...

O

--------------------
www.facebook.com/owenduffmusic / http://soundcloud.com/owenduff / www.owenduff.co.uk / http://www.youtube.com/clothmotherrecords

Tripod still doesn't work great on Safari... but it's OK on IE.

http://www.theopenwater.com/ just in case anyone is surfing

I like the openwater site, I think you could improve it loads just by changing the font? It looks a bit out of place the font?

Nice music tho.

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P.I.G.L.E.T - where is polly?