![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
![[info]](http://p-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif){kind=small}
Need some eyes ...
We're working on it ...
which means that tomorrow we may end up with a day without Saltation .. .but if so, we'll try to make up at least some of the slack later.
Meanwhile, for those still needing something to do ... if you could visit
http://www.korval.com/fledgling/index.p
which means that tomorrow we may end up with a day without Saltation .. .but if so, we'll try to make up at least some of the slack later.
Meanwhile, for those still needing something to do ... if you could visit
http://www.korval.com/fledgling/index.p
Did notice that the Saltation page (http://www.korval.com/fledgling/story.p
A day without Saltation is like a week without reading? :-)
(Anonymous)
Eta.
Couple of little things I noticed - on the Fledgling subpage, the "Fledgling Home" link in the sidebar opens in a new tab; is that intentional? (It's not as annoying to me as links that open in a new window, but...I figure if I want a new tab open, I'll do it myself.) Second, shouldn't there be a link back to the main Fledgling/Saltation index page? I don't see one. (I noticed because I couldn't get back there via the back button when I was on that new tab opened from the "Fledgling Home" link.)
A korval.com link should open in a new tab - a back link doesn't have to IMO.
I'm using Windows XP and Firefox 2.0.0.14
That would make more sense to me. :) I wouldn't mind having Korval open in a new tab, but I'd definitely prefer to have all the Fledgling/Saltation links open in my current tab.
(Anonymous)
However I have since noticed a lot of "own site" pop-ups (surveys, mostly) also are used in addition to other folk's banners and spam advertising on a lot of sites. Not to mention automatically generated cookies that may have nothing whatsoever to do with the actual site visited.
If, however, it's merely a picture on another site (to which you DO have permission to link with!) no special action (tab, pop-up, etc) is needed.
Seems to me this may be a fluid area and under the circumstances you could go either way with equal impunity, Zola.
Besides, the bulk of the folks here seem to be like pilots: intelligent, reasonable, and above all, flexible!
I usually advocate WordPress for this sort of project, but this is clearly something else. If you don't mind my asking... what is it?
*adds to bug list*
(Anonymous)
New interface for Fledgling
Tried the "Edit" and "Discuss" button - didn't work. I am using
Windows NT home browser: Firefox Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.14) Gecko/20080404 Firefox/2.0.0.14
"Print" button did bring up a window that could be printed, but no button on the window saying "print" (not that you really need one).
As for discussion: You need a period after
tiny, severely squared receiving parlor
Re: New interface for Fledgling
Hmm... what's the consensus on the Print button? I myself was thinking more of it from the standpoint of the font and that it's in black and white without graphics... but we could put a button on there simply enough, you'd just have to scroooolll for it. :D
Re: New interface for Fledgling
(Anonymous)
Platform & access info: Microsoft WindowsXP, Windows Internet Explorer ver 6.0 over a dedicated high-speed internet link.
Index page for Fledgling & Saltation page looks very nice, good color choices & contrast, no font problems. Clean, classic and to the point. Lacks a "Home to Korval.com" link, but I note this is just Phase 1 testing, so time enough to add that, right?
Donate button on Saltation page takes you to PayPal but the one on the Fledgling page does not.
Saltation page does not yet have any chapters on it.
On Fledgling page: The Print arrow always got me Chapter 1, regardless of what Chapter I had actually pulled up and was looking at.
Edit & Discuss arrows apparently did nothing at all, and Recent reminded me of a really old caution in ancient IBM software manuals: "the results may be unpredictable".
A number of the chapters have missing spaces between words giving run-together ones. Examples from the beginning of Chapter 5: "ita", "thedisposal", "herface", "whenshe". General typo stuff, easily correctable.
Fledgling page shows 10 Chapters. Arrows at bottom of each Chapter are... interesting, but generally predictable. First button and Last button operate as anticipated from every chapter, jumping to Chapter 1 and 10 as expected.
Home button likewise jumps from each chapter to Chapter 1. Suggestion: is it not redundant to have Home and First if they both do exactly the same? Anyway, so far so good.
Logically, the Next arrow should move you from Chapter X to Chapter X +1 and the Previous arrow should move you from Chapter X to Chapter X-1.
The Next arrow of each chapter from 1 to 4 advances but then it refuses to advance beyond 4; pickup Chapter 5 from left-hand sub-menu and then the next arrow advances the rest of the way to chapter 10.
The Previous arrow on every chapter appears to do absolutely in single chapter advance-retreat mode; chapter selection from the left-hand sub menu advised instead.
Suggestion: scrap that arrow if can't be made to operate as it logically should.
Last arrow always jumps to Chapter 10 but then you have to use a different method to return to any prior chapter, even the one you came from.
Seems that these arrows could be simplified: forget about the redundant Home and the non-working Previous, present just First, Last & Next.
It could be that getting the Previous arrow operating properly without defining an html page for each chapter may not be possible, depending on how the pages are constructed (ie, framed, css, hand-coded or via a commercial html coding program).
Just FYI: I am a webmaster and retired software programmer & systems analyst but have never used any commercial html coding applications to create my pages; all are hand-coded but I have my reasons and believe they are good ones.
And in the time it took me to analyze the above and describe 'em, a couple of other folks found one or two.
(Anonymous)
oops
Sorry. I thought I did a better proof-read than that.
This is actually correct. Subscriptions to _Fledgling_ are now closed.
(Anonymous)
Eta
(Anonymous)
Thank you for the careful detail, it is very helpful. :)
(Anonymous)
Eta
Little bit of general info
My official job title is Developer, my specialty is UI (User Interface) and Front End. This is a custom-coded database solution. Heh. I feel like I ought to be getting the word "leveraged" in here somehow...
I can't give a lot of detail about my current job due to confidentiality agreements, but the work I do is at the level of big sites like LiveJournal, or Yahoo Mail, or even WordPress. I am capable, in theory, at least, of working on something like Google Maps.
I happened to stumble upon the Liaden Universe some years ago due to a review I read. I bought all the books I could lay my hands on, devoured them, and every now and again I checked on Korval.
Needless to say, I was delighted to see Fledgling and then Saltation.
I also saw that Steve and Sharon were terribly busy and keeping the site updated was taking a large chunk of time that perhaps they could better devote elsewhere, so I offered to set things up to make life easier on them.
I did a demo, and now we are in the Beta stage. I'm tracking down some of the messed up links now--some things seemed to get chewed up by the database import, so we'll be fixing them as we catch them.
One thing that would be helpful is to separate out questions of editing as opposed to the actual site. A mistake in the story text is simple and quick to correct, much like you can come here and edit a post.
Bugs in the framework that displays the stories, on the other hand, are solely within my purview, so that's what I'm concentrating on for the moment.
I hope this information is useful :)
(Anonymous)
Re: Little bit of general info
Eta
Eyes
If somebody mentioned the news archive link I missed it. Doesn't seem to do anything yet.
Thanks for your efforts.
Re: Eyes
Forgot the details.
Latest Firefox 2.0.0.14
on Windows XP SP2 with all updates.
Windows XP SP2
Internet Explorer 6 SP 2.
http://www.korval.com/fledgling/story.p
1. PayPal buttons images are coming up red-exed out.
2. Chapters header on the left is floating by itself. There are no chapters underneath it, nor does the word "Chapters" link to anywhere else.
Edited at 2008-05-05 12:54 pm (UTC)
There's no data in Saltation yet, so the header will be by itself.
(Anonymous)
Minor nit
If you click on one of the expandable links in the left menu bar, then click on another one (instead of the close), the first section closes correctly, but the close link still appears on the closed section.
(Anonymous)
More comments
re: the print command - perhaps relabel it to make printer friendly? that way there is no assumption of a print button on the resulting page.
I only saw a few things that haven't already been mentioned (i think) that I'd classify as a bug:
Accessibility concerns - I ran the first page of the site through cynthiasays. com for section 508 compliance and WCAG Priority 1 and the only thing it really complained about was that the line_divider.gif needs an alt tag. Also, you may want to consider adding a skip links link at the top for screen readers to bypass all the nav stuff.
In the About the Authors section, most of the text is in a larger font then the other floating text areas (is that what they're called?) and is in the "clickable link" color, except for the last three words, and none of it is actually a link.
This may have been mentioned, if I opened the About $story link and then opened the rules link, the close next to the About link was still there even though the text went away when I clicked the rules link.
The rest of my comments I consider more stylistic preferences...
When you click on something in a left nav, I expect the text to show up in the main "frame" for lack of a better word then to stay in the left nav section. Nav area should be for navigation, only.
Once you've visited a link in the text, say the link in "5.Discuss the work in the Fledgling Live Journal community" you have no visual clue that there is a link there because it turns black (a.info_text:link, a.info_text:visited{color: #000000;) I'd suggest an alternate visited link color.
Chapter 1 does not need a first and a previous link. The last chapter does not need a next and a last link
Right now, both fledgling and saltation are using korval.com/fledgling/.... Will the final version have them separated into their appropriate directories? If not you may want an apache (assumption on my part) Alias or Redirect setup so either work.
I expect a Logo in the top left corner of a site to be a link to some sort of home page, whether that is the current story home, the stories home or korval.com matters less than that it is a link.
(Anonymous)
I don't mean to demean zola's work here, but I wonder if there isn't some benefit to putting all of the Korval.com site into a content management system like Drupal. I'd be happy to lend assistance there, it's kind of what I do.
(Anonymous)
(Anonymous)
Typo Alert Chapter 3 - Roni is a he?
Looking great though - it's good to re-read it.
Lauretta