thefourthvine | Poll: Form and Function

Entry tags:

[poll]

Poll: Form and Function

So, I've finished tagging all my entries. Notice my index posts that allow all of you, including anonymous users, access to all my tags.

Notice that they look fucking awful. And the print is tiny, so I'm not even sure anyone will use them. Plus, I seriously do not want these to be the top entries in my journal for however long it takes LJ to put a "Tags" link on the info page; looking at them depresses me, and I'm probably the only person who actually looks at my journal regularly outside of a friends list.

But, on the other hand, I did tag all those posts. I have no idea what the point was if I can't find a way to let everyone use them to search by fandom and theme. So this poll is asking, basically, for you to identify the lesser of the evils, because they all look fairly evil to me at this point.

And while you're here, could you weigh in on other appearance aspects of this journal? I mean, if I'm going to pitch a major wobbler over the hideousness of my index posts, surely I could also spare some time to worry about the fact that my journal is, well, pretty darned hideous? And that it may also make other people's friends lists hideous?

I mean, OK, I'm going to spare that time anyway, so I guess what I really want is for you to spare enough time to form an opinion. I would greatly appreciate it.

But mostly, please god someone tell me what to do about this whole tags issue, because - the horror. The horror. My dogs are averting their eyes from the screen, here. Dust mites are scoffing at my primitive grasp of website design. It's all very very bad and wrong. Help meeeeeee.

[Poll #518389]

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I wish your comments page was the default LJ comments page instead of your LJ style. Mostly I use ?style=mine, which gets me there, so it doesn't matter much, but like right now? I've got your style (which is by no means awful - at least the comment box is white and the text I'm typing is black).

But you did ask.

Also, you should rec more Ocean's 11 fic. *g*

Tag? What? Where?
::oblivious::

Have you considered changing your layout and adding your tags links to the sidebar? If you changed your styles to s2 Component or Flexible Square, there are codes to add additional sidebars if you go over the 30 links limit - which you will considering all the theme lists and fandoms. And I could help you with adding those codes, if you like.

I'd totally help you do a new layout, I'm very layout jazzed at the moment.

My comment about your layout is pretty much, "Eh. Whatever makes you happy."

I tend to look at your posts on my FList (which is the most basic of basic black-text-on-white-background-layout) but when I do look at your LJ, I like the soothing colour scheme.

As for the tags, they don't appear too ugly to me (but my screen's on 600x800 resolution, so that might be part of it). And I've just skimmed through your old SN recs, which has proved that the fandom-based tags are a godsend.

(I get in the mood for a certain fandom, and the only minor complaint I used to have about your recs was that despite the great summaries and the funny, I couldn't just pick a fandom and find a bunch of recs for it. But now I can!)

If it really drives you nuts, maybe you could just put one short entry at the top of your LJ, and link to the lists of tags. That'd work well.

Er... I totally had a brilliant solution to your problem if you didn't have approximately two hundred million bazillion different tags, which I did not realize was the case until after filling out the poll. So ignore my brilliant solution answer -- I say just wait until they have a better tag listing function.

What I'm also hoping is that they'll have a combined-tag function in the future, so you can look for stuff that is tagged, say, both food-fetish and Ocean's-11 -- so you only get Rusty Eating Candy fic, or whatever. Know what I mean?

And, just to give you an idea of how much of a dork I am... I have already figured out how to accomplish this programming-wise in my head.

Not sure my answer to #1 is relevant. I couldn't figure out what you meant by "tag index." I do see that tags on the top of posts are kind of messy. Eh. I actually haven't figured out the point of tags yet at all, to be honest. I haven't been paying attention. But your LJ is grand. Also, memories work fine for finding things, yes? I'm all confused and probably confusing. Ignore me!

About the layout and all else I say, Whatever makes you happy, dear. :)

If it makes you feel any better, I just used your tags to find and read a ton of Master & Commander fic.

...Okay, that really only made me feel better. Still, the tags are not completely evil, just ugly. But, to echo the above comment, do what makes you happy.

I am pointedly ignoring the existence of tags. But really, that isn't half as hideous as some of the customized journal layouts I see. I say, do what you like.

But, you know, simple and soothing colors are better.

Yeah, yeah, lot of help that is. You can wallpaper it with dayglo neon sunflowers and I'll still read your recs.

(wandering in from friendsfriends, avoiding housework)

You can make URL shortcuts for each tag, and put them as Links over on the sidebar:

http:\\www.livejournal.com\users\chrismm\tag\graphics

is the real URL. Prettier link like so:

Graphics Posts (http://www.livejournal.com/users/chrismm/tag/graphics)

It's still a little unwieldy, and you'd have to add Links as you add tags, but it's prettier and easier to understand.

the more links I click at work, the more will show up on history, which I can't delete.

Therefore, no cut-tags. Makes it easier for me to skim thru at work & then seek out the places I want to go later.

Obey me. I have a brilliant solution to this problem, which I will relate to you in the comments so that you may worship me as I deserve.

Put links to the Tag entries on your User Info page. You could combine this with one entry of links at the top of your LJ. Or you could just create a sidebar/header with links (see the FAQ on overrides, there's a tutorial too (http://www.livejournal.com/users/howto/4516.html)). That way the info will be easy to find, but not take up huge gobbits of space at the top of your LJ.

I have no problem with the length of your posts, but then I don't usually read you on my flist, I come and actually look at your LJ. Cutting polls or other oddities would probably be polite, as they aren't your primary thing, and people may or may not be interested. I quite like having the rant at the top and then a cut, so I can decide if I'm interested or not. But, really, you're entertaining and I don't mind one way or the other.

As for layout. A change is always nice, and I can understand why you want one, but really? It's all good. I don't come to your journal for eye candy. I come for the text :)

Psst, you forgot to reset the date on this post, so your tags aren't on top in your lj. You're still living in the future. ;)

why not link the different tags in the link list that's built into s2, or in your userinfo?

LINKS LIST. i'm just sayin'.

as for cut-tagging and changing your layout, do what makes you happy, you know? i merely suggest the links list above because it's so clear you're not happy with the tag situation as it is now.

Obey me. I have a brilliant solution to this problem, which I will relate to you in the comments so that you may worship me as I deserve.
Well, I don't know about brilliant, but if you don't want the tags entries at the top of your post you could combine them all in one post/put together links to all your tags entries in one post, and then just put a link to that post as your personal website (labelled as something like 'Search recs by tags' or something). It would therefore always show on your journal front page and wouldn't clutter up the top of your journal, if it's bugging you. I don't really mind it, but I don't look at your journal as much as you must.
(Don't know if you know how to do this - if you don't:
To put a link in your journal as your personal website, go here (http://www.livejournal.com/editinfo.bml) and enter the post url where it says 'webpage url' and then whatever you want to call it where it says 'webpage name'. It will then automatically show up in your journal.)

I actually quite like the new layout, and I appreciate the tags off to the side. So I'm cool with everything here. Though I noticed there was no poll button for that. :)

You're probably tired of getting suggestions by now. I do like how you're setting it up with the tags as links on the sidebar. Much cleaner than the index posts. (I gather you gave up and went to bed mid-way through "H". *g*)

Another thought, though... I don't know about anyone else, but one of the things that's been driving me nuts about how tags are displayed is that the tag is smack up against the end of the entry on most styles (i.e., there's no line break between the tag and the last line of the entry). Forcing a line break is a very simple thing to change in the code that I could show you if you want.

In the end, it's your journal, so whatever looks good to you is good.

1st question: I picked option 2, but I don't care that much. Yes, ugly, but I almost never go to your Recent Entries page; that's why I have your journal friended. And "In time, LJ will provide", yes I certainly hope so.

2nd question: I don't care. I always read your entries all the way through, and then usually I open them in a new window and start opening the rec'd story links in new tabs (Firefox, yay). If you cut away, I'll just open the new window *before* reading your post.

3rd question: Your font is too small. I use a laptop, and I'm, like, blind. So I have Firefox tricked out with a minimum font size of 14pt, and I still use Ctrl+ a lot to increase the font. Unfortunately, I suspect this is a basic problem with how most of the styles have been designed. IMO they ought to leave font size alone so that the user's settings won't be overridden.

For #2, I'd've chosen option [n] ("No. Why bother? Everyone who keeps you on their filter knows you're wordy. And they know how to defriend if they get sick of it."), except that somehow "wordy" struck me as an insult and so generally inapplicable to you/your writing.

As to #3: I am not a graphic designer by any stretch of the imagination, but I have some rudimentary coding skills and if I can help, I'll help - not because I think you need a new layout, but because I think you think so, which means a new layout you liked would make you happier, and that's a good thing.

/runon

OMG you have such personal anger!

I have not responded to any of your little radio buttons from hell because I don't like any of your possible answers, so I will respond here.

WRT tags index post: I don't like it, but I'm not sure you have any options at this point. Perhaps you could cut-tag just the index post?

WRT cut tags: I like being able to read the whole thing without clicking, plus, it's funny. And I don't mentally skip "okay, short post" right over the funny, and move on to the next fangirl!squee thing. Pls to leave it long thx.

WRT layout: I like the new powder blue thing, but I know how you feel about dark text/light background and the contrast required therefor. The old one was fine, esp. for people who are insistent about dark text/light background (I refer to NO ONE in particular), but I always felt as though it was a little jarring. Meanwhile, the lighter blue one is ... pretty. And happy-making. But it's your journal (I mean, really, can I talk? Mine is BROWN AND PURPLE. And I like it.)

I keep a multi-fandom journal that does nothing but track WiPs. I like the idea of tags, and I intend to abuse them utterly. I want my tags to be grouped, and I want them to display in the sidebar as links. To that end I've started coding a layout based on Flexible Squares that includes a Tags sidebar box. This box displays a tiered list of tags. To see what I mean, go to my testing journal: http://www.livejournal.com/users/murklinstest/

To group tags, you use a delimiter (currently hard coded to a colon) when naming your tags. Examples:

fandom:smallville
fandom:sports night
fandom:ocean's 11
category:time travel
category:body-swap

Then all the fandom tags are grouped together, and all the category tags are grouped together. Any time you add a new tag, the Tags box is updated automatically. You can have more than just 2 levels of tags (i.e.: category:time travel:backwards, category:time travel:forwards).

This is all super preliminary, and the code is nowhere near ready for prime-time. But if you're interested I can keep you posted on my progress.

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Probably Too Late