Ch-ch-changes

[alchemy]

Hi guys! I'm Anita, and I'm your new maintainer here at dreamwidthlayouts. I inherited this responsibility from the ever-fabulous grrliz, who wasn't able to keep up with the community anymore.

I'm going to be making some minor changes to the community just to ensure it's more functional for both layout makers and layout users. On the agenda:

1. Establish a list of standard tags to make browsing easier. I'm thinking tags for style (Tabula Rasa, etc) as well as type (Simple, etc.), feature (# of columns, custom header, etc) and color. Are there any other kind of tags you would find useful? (I see that Liz took a survey about tags last year, but I'd like to ask again since it's been so long.)


2. Establish a standard format for posting layouts to the community so that users can see at a glance what sort of layout it is. What information would you guys like included on the form?


3. A custom layout for the community. If I were to have a contest, would any of you actually submit designs?

Your feedback on the above and the community is GREATLY appreciated. While we do have several folks posting fairly frequently (And we LOVE them ♥), I think it's fair to say that if we're members of this community, we agree that it's past time for us to get a lot more custom layouts available for DW. I want to encourage that in any way I can.

Thanks!

Comments

[matgb]

For one, pale on dark vs dark on pale. I can't look at a layout that has a pale background for too long, and pretty much have to style=mine a bright white background, so a generic dark bacground or pale background tag would help me.

2) no idea.

3) Possibly, it might prompt me to actually finish my custom layout in a way that I can then theme it for different colour schemes

[gorgeousnerd]

I second the pale on dark vs dark on pale tag idea.

[stepps]

1. Are there any other kind of tags you would find useful?
Along with colour I'd like to see tags for design features, like "simple" or "light on dark" and "dark on light", "custom images", and "header" or "no header" (or "customisable header". This could be trickier to tag for of cause, but I'm an advocate for abundant tagging.

2. What information would you guys like included on the form?
I like to know what browsers a layout has been tested in, and what res it works best for.

[foxfirefey]

I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW LAYOUT OVERLORDS. (Even though I also love grrliz.)

I'm wondering what the position is on CSS that is just tweaking an existing layout, as opposed to making a new one? I've been tempted to make a place for that, but I also know that one-stop-shopping might be easier for people. We don't have to do that here, but if it's appropriate, we could.

I also think we should start setting up a link list of resources for this community--and I should do that on other style communities I have my grubby paws on.

[foxfirefey]

Tagging I can think of considering:

CSS-only (if so, base layout)? Layers involved? Includes images? Core1 and core2, I guess, even though I really really hope people making new layouts go for core2.

Dark-on-light and light-on-dark as mentioned above, but maybe also colors? Not sure the best way to go about it but, maybe just the main colors? Or stuff like pastel, or bright, or bold, or muted, or I dunno.

[alchemy]

Unless something has changed, aren't layers available to paid users only? When the community was set up, Liz established that anything posted should be usable by all account levels, and I had planned on sticking with that. So that would mean sticking to CSS.

When you say just tweaking an existing layout, what precisely do you mean by that?

[foxfirefey]

I think Liz set it up before a Dreamwidth communication fubar. At the time, our styles were REALLY paltry. Just desolate. So most people had imported core1 styles. And when open beta came, we cut off the ability for free accounts to manipulate layers, and, er, misstep. They couldn't edit the layers they had and there weren't many styles to choose from.

So yes, even free users can have one set of layers to play around with!

What I mean by just tweaking is, let's say there's a style and I like it for the most part but just tweak one part of it. Like, let's say I used CSS to make the comments of a post's author stand out (totally possible using the CSS classes available)--sharing that snippet of CSS, but it's not really a new layout so much as a tweak that could be combined with other tweaks.

[alchemy]

Oh, okay! I didn't know free users got a set of layers, awesome. The more you know~

And I think offering snippets of code would be GREAT. Personally, I love the idea of people sharing their knowledge. I would love to see tutorials, too.

[foxfirefey]

Sweet! In that case, we'd want tags for snippets and full layouts. Suggestions for links:

http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/S2_Guide
http://wiki.dwscoalition.org/notes/S2_CSS
style_system
dw_styles
dreamscapes

[musyc]

I love the code snippet idea. Often I'll see a layout that has only one part I'll want to use - I was pleased as punch to see someone put in drop shadows, frex, because I thought that was awesome, but I didn't want the rest of the layout. Snippets would be faboo.

[auroraprimavera]

Ditto to this.

[baggyeyes]

Code snippet idea is great--that would be fantastic for dreamscapes and dw_styles as well. Maybe a library of code?

[foxfirefey]

Here seems like the best place for it---dreamscapes is for styles that are moving to be included in the style system, and dw_styles is more for announcements/development.

[timeasmymeasure]

Oh tags, thank GOD. I've been begging for those. I think the styles tag and feature type would be enough. The type and color may be too subjective. The most important tag would be the styles one though.

Standard format sounds like a great idea.
Some thoughts.

Style:
Width: fixed or fluid, if fixed give dimension
Header: y/n
Fonts: fixed or fluid, accessibility's a big thing on DW
Layer or CSS based:
Other info: (eg, rounded corners not available in IE, etc)

[auroraprimavera]

Hey there! I don't post much, but - I do keep an eye on the community.

Okay, let's see here:

1. Yes, please - I think this would make things much better in regards to finding things. Don't forget the standard mod/community tags as well.

2. Something similar to what they use over at dreamscapes would be good, I think.

3. I'd totally take part :D


I agree with you, I'd definitely love to see more custom layouts here at DW :D

[mmeg]

What information would you guys like included on the form?

Perhaps a way that people can describe where the usernames are in relation to the icons on the layout's reading page? The biggest problem I have with most DW layouts is that the usernames are either next to or opposite the icon, rather than underneath. But most layout makers don't post a screenshot of the reading page, which is the only way for me to find out this one crucial piece of information.

If there could be a comm rule, or at least a strong encouragement to post a screenshot of the reading page, it would make this comm 1000% more useful to me personally.

[foxfirefey]

I'll note that usernames here can be 10 characters longer than on LJ, which can make underneath strategies a bit more difficult to accomplish gracefully.

[mmeg]

That is a good point which had not occurred to me. Nevertheless, I would still like to put in a vote for screenshots of the Reading Page. Some of the layouts put the username in places I find much more problematic than others, and I will generally skip a layout entirely rather than going to the trouble of setting it up to see which kind it will be.

[foxfirefey]

Oh yes, that's totally fair. I was just bringing up a point that just occurred to me, re: under the icon.

[baggyeyes]

Oddly enough, that's exactly what Tabula Rasa Plain gives.

[timeasmymeasure]

This was one of the problems I ran into while trying to force this with CSS. Things like feed-usernames are quite challenging to wrangle.

[theresa]

Speaking of layouts, what is the current layout for this community? It's nice, clean, and simple. I like it.

[alchemy]

It's a Mixit layout Liz brought over from LJ.

[baggyeyes]

Quoth foxfirefey: I FOR ONE WELCOME OUR NEW LAYOUT OVERLORDS. (Even though I also love grrliz.)

Sayeth I: Ditto!