Saturday, February 14, 2009

Fabulouslorraine.com and the Best Birthday Ever!

Hello My Fiends!

First of all, last night had to have been the best Birthday EVER! Thank you for all being there with me, and making it so very special!

And BIG thanks to Dr Wicked for making it happen and for my new website, and huge thanks to Lojo , Dylan and Paul for making some of the best music ever!!!!!!

I am posting here for the moment, as I know we can all be here. Dr Wicked and are talking about the new site, and we've been getting a lot of input, but we need more. What do you like? Not like? The vote seems to be no white on black, and the font needs tweaking.

Also, Word Press isn't working for a lot of people, myself included, and we are exploring the going back to Blogger.

Minor tweaks, little bumps. I love the site overall, and can't wait for everything to be up and running, our Night Garden, more Fiend things, Lots more pictures. All coming.

So let us know your thoughts. Not interested in pats on the back, honest thoughts, please.

After all, it's your home too!

Love and new site,
Lorraine

30 Comments:

At 9:31 AM , Blogger Siri said...

Overall we are pleased with the new site, other than the black and no ticky box. I'd like to see a little more help with some of the sections. I have to go open that site so I can be more specific. BRB.

 
At 9:36 AM , Blogger Siri said...

Ok, Marjorie explained the most fiendish place - it is the number of visits, and it involves refreshing. That's good. Love the skull map - that's a help. All in all, there's not much that is wrong with it - other than the commenting stuff. The content is exciting.

(OK, I didn't know who that FL was who was making aside comments on the Bio page. I pondered and pondered. Then, I realized. I can be so dense.)

 
At 9:36 AM , Blogger Siri said...

And, once again, I'm talking to myself. It's hare to be in both places at once

 
At 9:39 AM , Blogger spacedlaw said...

I like the new site (and the intro by Martin Millar). What I miss most is the comment updates in my email box (don't like RSS - it's ugly).

 
At 9:41 AM , Blogger louisa said...

I'm here! But I'm working, no really I am, twenty minutes to go.....

 
At 9:43 AM , Blogger Jess said...

Pat pat pat. Well done you. ;)

I'm sticking this suggestion here again, as the new post went up just as I posted my comment and we're suggesting things here: I thought it might be nice if there was a "next" button somewhere on each Night Garden poem/story/whatever page (and actually on Lorraine's writing, too)-- it's kind of hard to navigate from the sidebar. The sidebar randomizes the order with each pageload, so if you're not paying attention to titles, it's hard to figure out what comes next. I suppose you might argue that there is no "order"-- but it would be helpful for keeping people keep track of what they've read and what they haven't.

Yup. Like Blogger better. I had the same complaint that you did about the comments format, Q, with names coming after comments. Hard to see who everyone is.

I actually like the font scheme you picked for the site-- especially the main title font. :) It's just the white-on-black's a little tough on the eyeballs.

 
At 9:45 AM , Blogger Fluffy said...

I enjoyed the heck out of your party, Lorraine, and hope it wasn't too much work for you. I could NOT get the unicorn song out of my head, however, and went to sleep mentally singing about humpy-backed camels and... aaarrgh.

On the new site, I really like the look of the black, but maybe it can be put on the sides of the page, and the text can be the usual black on white. The graphics are beautiful, and it's got style. Things I like in a message board/blog comment include all links opening in new tabs, and when you refresh the page to catch new posts, it refreshes at the location you were so you don't have to guesstimate where you were and find your place. Does anyone think refreshing in a new tab would be good?

For some reason, I feel so fresh!

 
At 9:46 AM , Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Main title font is staying. I love it and Boss commented on it too.

Pretty darn cool intro by Martin Millar I have to say! Beyond flattered he would write for little me!

I miss the comments in e-mail too, I went to my phone in the night, to read them, and they were not there.

Jess, good points.

 
At 9:50 AM , Blogger Jess said...

And while I'm at it: not sure I really like the "Most Fiendish" count. Mainly because I'm currently at the top of the list, which makes me look like a major slacker. Not to mention a butt-kisser. :D

Heh. But in seriousness: maybe it's just me, bt I'm not crazy about the site keeping a tally of everyone's "activity". It's not a race, for one thing. But numbers have a psychological effect: a publicly available post-count could just as easily make people feel shy about commenting "too much" as it could make them want to compete to be "top Fiend." And I think it's safe to say this group isn't about either.

But that could be me-- am I reading too much into this? Not sure. Something to consider, anyhoo.

 
At 9:52 AM , Blogger Phiala said...

My 2 cents, as having done a lot of web page design and blog design.

Don't go back to Blogger. WP is more configurable, and can easily be made to do whatever you want, including look just like Blogger, and altered later.

Ticky box, comments listed at top or bottom or in the middle, for that matter, whatever. It's all possible. Using your own WP install on your own site also makes it easier to keep complete backups of everything including comments and photos, and we all know how important that is, right?

As far as I've been able to figure out, Blogger gives you less flexibility overall.

At the very least, give Dr W some time to tweak it before you decide to bail on WP, okay?

 
At 9:54 AM , Blogger Siri said...

I considered that, too, Jess - competition isn't always good.

Also, I tried logging out of FabulosLorraine.com, from my profile page, and it won't let me. It says You are attempting to log out of FabulousLorraine.com
Please try again.

Are we trapped there forever? (Not that that's a bad thing....)

 
At 9:56 AM , Blogger Phiala said...

And I would just like to say,

I am SO running late! Yikes!

 
At 9:57 AM , Blogger Ticia said...

quicky ticky back later.

 
At 9:59 AM , Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Thanks Mistress, I trust both you and Dr Wicked, the problem is , you guys know way more than I do, and sometimes the extra features just make thing more difficult for those of us who are completely Non Tech.

I am willing to be convinced tho...

I asked for that Siri, once you have entered my sight, you are mine and cannot EVER leave me...

Mmmhwhwhahahhaha!

 
At 9:59 AM , Blogger Jess said...

There's a "log out" link above the comment box on each blog post page, Siri.

Just found out I'm not allowed to leave a comment on the Fiend Wall if I'm logged in with my Google account. Boo. :(

 
At 10:02 AM , Blogger Jess said...

There's a lot to be said for going with whatever's most convenient and comfortable for you, Quiche, as you'll be the one writing the blog posts, putting up pictures, and whatnot. Not that it's my argument to make either way! I'll swim with the fishies regardless. :)

 
At 10:05 AM , Blogger Marjorie said...

Ticky Box

Like the new site - It seems like most of the things people don't like are fairly minor - hopefully something Dr W can tweak (the placment ofthe names etc)

I do have some reservations about the most fiendish count for pageloads or comments - maybe have something that shows which of us are logged in t any given time instead??

Also, could someone explain to me how to get my photo to show up?

 
At 10:08 AM , Blogger AletaMay said...

Mostly commenting for the ticky.

I think everyone has said everything I would say. I don't really "get" the wall yet, but I have not spent enough time with it yet. It seems to have the potential to be very cool.

I don't have an icon photo on the map (which is extremely cool btw) and I don't know if there is some way I can add one or if someone else has to do that.

There is sunshine coming through my window! Yay!

 
At 10:21 AM , Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

E-mails are going back and forth between Dr Wicked and myself. All is being fixed, he already has a nicer looking blog up in a test site, and we can fix the minor problems.

I'm glad you like it!

We'll see about the photos. We have to have photos.

Nathilie seems to have done it, but she is , you know, CLEVER.

 
At 10:36 AM , Blogger spacedlaw said...

Not clever. Just had a WP account so I could comment on Litpark.
Aleta has a picture as well.

 
At 10:54 AM , Anonymous Anonymous said...

I sorta like the thought that I can never leave Fablo's domaine...:-)

 
At 11:19 AM , Blogger Dr. Wicked said...

Dr Wicked's State of the Blog Address:
I am presently working on integrating Blogger with Wordpress. This is a little like herding bengals but so is most of web design so I can handle it.

White on black is in, as are "Ticky boxes" although now it's a link that you click. Also the comment box will be at the end of the comments so you don't have to scroll all the way up. I've also made the viewing area wider so you can more easily read longer comments.

As for the Most Fiendish, that will go away by necessity because that's for Wordpress comments and we'll be going back to blogger comments.

@Phiala I like WP better too, and it's definitely staying for the rest of the site but I can see the point of going back to Blogger for the blog (at least for the time being). I'd rather have something simple and usable for everyone than lose people's patience by forcing them to go to a new system all at once. Perhaps we'll transition to WP when I am confident that I can exactly replicate all the functionality with plugins, etc

What do you all think about white on black with the better font (I've already changed it) for the rest of the site? The blog will look like the rest of the site except the blog content will be in a white div (box, if you don't know what div is) with black text.

I appreciate all your comments and suggestions, I couldn't ask for a better pool of beta testers!

 
At 11:38 AM , Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Spoke to Dr Wicked, and things are moving soon, I'll post as soon as they do, bu they will be moving in a FAR less traumatic manner...

We are sticking with blogger for now, but it will be Fabulouslorraine and not Lorraineamalena.

Small steps. I told him "I am just a simple peasant, and have not great skills...."

 
At 12:19 PM , Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

We are really close to something exciting..........

 
At 12:33 PM , Blogger Fluffy said...

Day 2: The torment continues. Still have the unicorn song in my head.

 
At 12:40 PM , Blogger Jess said...

Help! The new blog won't give me the Word Verification image! I cannot comment! :(

 
At 12:43 PM , Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Hang on Jess, we will get rid of that.

 
At 12:46 PM , Blogger Jess said...

Oh, what a relief. I was going into withdrawal convulsions. :D

 
At 12:50 PM , Blogger FabulousLorraine said...

Got rid of it. I hope.

A New Post is up here.

The Last post here.

Who will read and be first thru the door into our new home?

 
At 5:33 PM , Blogger Dan Guy said...

I've always been prone to lingering around too long.

 

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