Nov 21, ‘04

Freya

Lying somewhere around the apartment, in the living room I think, I have a stack of sketches with design explorations that I made in the first few weeks of the redesign that has led to what you’re looking at right now. A flurry of attempts at coming up with a new form. Something to break the backbone of the blogosphere; the monotony of header, content, sidebar, footer.

Having played around for a few weeks with the elements that combined constitute Binary Bonsai, I eventually landed on the inevitable conclusion that the revolutionary layout I was looking for was a wild goose-chase, and the inevitable conclusion was to restart the redesign.

Having run this site for a couple of years, I have if nothing else, learned a lot about how I personally utilize it, and the new design needn’t necessarily invent a new form, but rather further the previous one through the experiences I’ve gained.

I hereby present, header, content, sidebar and footer…

First, a Word on Colors

I’m good at many things that have to do with graphics. I can draw (though I won’t be making a living off of that any time soon), I can model in 3D, I know all sorts of stuff about rendering and usability.

But I can’t do colors to save my life. Yes, it suddenly now makes sense why the previous designs have been somewhat monochromatic in their presentation, doesn’t it?

I love colors though, and I am envious of people like Dave Shea who seem almost oblivious to how virtuosic mezzoblue’s new look really is.

So one of the highest priority items on my todo list for this design was to get some color into it. I played around with a variety of setups, only to continually ram my thick skull into the wall of “Hmm, if I just lower the saturation on this a little then…”. In short, I’ve had enough of desaturated, monochromatic color schemes.

So I tried a variety of approaches before I finally settled down on the current blue / pink combination. I liked the overstated boldness of the pink links, in that its connotations are so feminine. But then again, I did warn you. On the other hand, I was also a bit dubious about using something so different from what I would expect of myself.

In the end, it works for me. If nothing else, then because its so different from what I’ve tried before, a I think we all do well with some change now and then.

My work would’ve been considerably more grueling if it hadn’t been for Color Schemer Studio, which is just a damn near perfect application for assisting in web design.

No Validation, No Testing

Yes, it needs an entire headline all for its very self. I haven’t validated this site, nor have I tested it on anything other than Safari and Firefox for OS X. It has errors, there is no doubt about that, but it is


86 Responses to ‘Freya Dissection’

  1. Chris Boulton

    Michael, you’re a very amazing designer – you’ve earnt respect from me in so many different regards. Keep it up, keep working on it, it’s looking very awesome and making me (and i’m sure others) jealous..

    Chris

  2. Ed

    Gotta love Freya, looks very clean, good job.

  3. Eric Cotton

    I love the new design. Very clean and fun to look at. I particularly like the fonts and the contrast between the sky blue background and the hot pink links.

    If you ask me, I say people should just design for Firefox and Safari, and tell IE users to download Firefox or live with crappily-rendered web pages.

  4. Del

    Wow, that’s some striking new colour scheme you have here. All looks good to me though, several things may ‘influence’ me on a redesign soon as well.

  5. matthew

    I dont mind the pink, it is good for the links and you could maybe tone it down a rad on the sidebar just so it visually steps back a bit from the content on the left.

    The blue and pink do workwell together and give it an almost minty fresh feeling imho – plus its fully unisex ;-)

    Im intrigued by the sidebar coming back on single post pages but if it works then why not?

    I dont think you should remove any posts in your audit, maybe combine some but certainly not delete anything, thats sort of Big Brother history revisionist stuff – very scary!

    The word style is nice, but yes worn looks are over done and Bauhaus (which that typeface is similar to) is one of my personal pet typeface hates .. shudders. ;-)

    Makes me want to have more colours on my site but they always end of as a dogs dinner, hence I just have the one… two if you count grey but I suppose technically its an absence of a degree of colour .. i should stop now.

  6. matthew

    Damn, after all that I forgot to mention – I really like the comment count after the post title.

  7. Bj

    Yah, don’t pull a Lucas just because you aren’t happy with what you did in the past. Acceptance, young Heilemann :) Acceptance

  8. seriocomic

    Actually, I am just as impressed with the dissection as I am with the new design. When I finally got around to finishing v7 I was ‘computered-out’ and have never got around to dissecting my methodology as you have.

    I like the pink/blue/grey colors, even though they do remind me somewhat of Dave Shea’s Mezzoblue.

    I think you did a great job with the font treatment on the post title and love the welcome message on the comment form (I am definately gonna steal that).

    Now you will just have to put up with endless requests for a Freya template for WP ala Kubrick :)

  9. Ben Hiller

    Hi, Great design, it looks nice. I was just wondering, if you had any links to tutorials on how to make the “torn” effect. Thanks, -Ben Hiller. (Also, the auto-preview when posting comments is awesome.)

  10. Seth Dimbert

    I can’t believe that nobody has said this yet… she’s a real hottie. Thanks for that. :)

    On top of that, I love the readability – 

    Hold on… am I seeing a real-time preview of my comment? Whoa!

    - of the design and the clean lines of the text, even at small point-sizes.

    Nicely done!

  11. Nik

    The first thing that’s just plain excellent is the use of color, feminine or otherwise. Wish I could something like this :| But the design in itself is not the radically different thing I was expecting; its only a really, really fresh face to the previous one (and yes, looks much better!) Given your obvious talents, I thought you’d burden a crisp site with beautiful but utterly useless graphics; and now that I see something that’s cleaner and simpler than its previous design, bravo!

    :)

  12. Kyle

    FYI, your colophon redirects to the main page as well… probably got some major re-write issues there. You should at least fix the link for now so people can get there. Also, the Boring link in this post goes to a php error, and your list of those are spaced weird.

    The design is… okay. I won’t express my opinions, because it’ll only stir up unneeded hatred towards me :)

  13. Donnie Jeter

    I like the re-design, but it’s nothing all that new. I mean, you have a new color scheme and couple new features (not all that big) and a new header. Don’t get me wrong, I love the look of the site, but this is nothing to “break the back of the blogosphere.”

  14. Brendan

    It’s different.

    I like different. The colours work well, and, well freya? She has to be the hottest image to adorn a website IMHO. The artwork and graphic stlye of the 1940’s and 1950’s was racy then, and to some it still is, but it has a grace and style we lost somewhere along the way.. It somehow suits the whole layout.

    I note as I type this, there is some for of active content below the post form, that displays what is typed in near real time. For a truely shocking speller as myself, it’s great to see what the final post will look like, formatting and all.

    As Kyle has said, some things are borked, but that is to be expected when you perform what is effectivly a code triple bypass, and are yet to clean up some of the more borked sections.

    Simple, clean (I like minimilistic) and easy on the eye. Spacing is pretty good. Spacing is important, it allows the readers eye to move comfortably. To little, and one feel’s as though ones head will explode, to much, and one finds discomfort in having to shift focus over each element.

    I now covert your new layout. With a passion.

    While I hope, at some point, Freya may adorn more than one web log, I would not blame you for keeping this one for yourself :)

  15. Rori

    I admire the way your mind works.

    I recently switched to WP and your Kubrick design is the most perfect thing. I adore it.

    I am of the mind that the blog must be good to the owner and to the reader.

    I look forward to your further developments.

    Oooh, I just saw the live comment preview! I need that.

    runs

  16. Gary

    Nice to see the Gil Elvgren work back up – it’s what initially caught my eye at the Bonsai as I’m a bit of a fan of the classic genre (Rolf Armstrong and the like).

    Certainly seems like you’ve struggled enough with it.

  17. Sam

    Your design is awesome. When will I be able to download Kubrick again? (link is broken) By the way, a search for ‘freya’ returns 1,205 results and your error page for the Kubrick link is unstyled. Great job, and good luck with the template requests!

  18. Indranil

    One word. Bravo.

  19. Michael

    Yah, don’t pull a Lucas just because you aren’t happy with what you did in the past. Acceptance, young Heilemann :) Acceptance”

    Not that I feel Binary Bonsai compares, but Tolkien did go back to edit The Hobbit after finishing The Lord of the Rings… I don’t see anyone pointing fingers at him :)

    Serio: “Now you will just have to put up with endless requests for a Freya template for WP ala Kubrick :)”

    Heh, well I might take some of the elements and port them to Kubrick, but for now Freya remains mine, my own. My precious :)

    Sam, I know, there are a lot of errors just now. The new Kubrick page is up and running however.

  20. Brendan
    Heh, well I might take some of the elements and port them to Kubrick, but for now Freya remains mine, my own. My precious :)

    There is much wisdom in this. A slightly more basic version of Freya, would fit the way Kubrick works, it is like the previous binary bonsai layout, but not the same as. If something like Freya, but not the same as, was offered, that would please many people.

    I’ve recently moved to a Wordpress CVS nightly as well, and I do find the modular way it works, particularily the templating system great, to wit, perhaps a public form of “the precious” might be available by the time WP hits 1.3 release. :)

    Just as a side note, I lived in Wellington for quite a while, where vast portions of LOTR was filmed, at one point about a kilometre away from where WETA Studios is located (now living in Australia, damn but I miss NZ’s scenery) :\

  21. Michael

    Well ‘they’ already have Kubrick :)

  22. Mathias Bynens

    I’m loving it. Freya rocks.

  23. Henrik Str

    Really nice. But here’s two comments: I LOVE the red links…these are very easy to see. It’s really annoying to miss a links just because of the color. The other thing is: is it my browser that’s crazy or have you removed the “closed thread” marker?

  24. Michael

    Henrik, what ‘closed thread’ marker specifically?

  25. kartooner

    This design rocks Michael.

    You’ve managed to outdo yourself and I’m sure alot of your ideas will inspire other sites. So far my favorite feature is the use of cookies to remember the comment author details, etc.

    I need to look into how you did that. :)

  26. Michael

    That part is also in Kubrick 1.2.6 :)

  27. Seth

    Nice site. I am truly amazed.

    Henrik is most likely referring to the “comments off” feature of the last binary bonsai.

    I prefer the new version, because its stylistic… but it is a little confusing… I guess… (I figured it out pretty quickly though)

    Thanks for the eye-candy. I love the blue and pink. I also just noticed the live preview.

  28. Seth Brammer

    I didn’t realize there was another “Seth”, so heres my full name to circumvent confusion.

  29. Michael

    Ah, now I think I get it. When an entry has comments off, it doesn’t show anything. Yeah, that is a purely stylistic decision. A little present for myself :)

  30. Michele

    Love Freya. I always wanted to have a gorgeous pinup in my header, but never managed to find one that fit.

    Just one nitpick. I think you shouldn’t justify the headings: justified text and large fonts don’t work well if you don’t have hypenation, just look at “Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed“ over here.

  31. Michael

    Michele, good catch. Consider it fixed.

  32. Josue Salazar

    Magnifico!

    I believe the choice of refreshing rather than redoing the whole format of the site, is excellent.
    None of that pretentious getting to know it crap, we’d be dealing with if you would’ve gone for a design that would “break the backbone of the blogosphere”.

    As usual, flawless.

  33. Henrik Str

    Yep… It was the “comments off” I was thinking off… Dammit’ I must be getting forgetful in my older days – Let’s put it this way: Last tuesday it became legal to douse me with cinnamon (Well the Danes out there know the custom at least)

  34. Anonymous

    This time you really got it. Typography is very good and the pink works.

  35. Brad

    I only wish that I can have the thought processes and supportive ideas that you possess within your design procedure. It’s truly amazing and I appreciate you giving us the ability see first hand how that procedure takes place.

  36. Ivan Raszl

    great job! congratulation. gotta love the new layout. the color scheme is great! my favourite feature is still the spotlightesque search engine.

    one thing i don’t fancy so much is the separation of the comments with the little light cyan boxes. i would’ve made them strech across the whole width of the blog, like the very first band. now it almost feels like every other comment is highlighted and more important than the others.

    also, i don’t like that blog and archives are two different menupoints with the same weight as kubrick and photos. i feel that archives is part of blog. maybe if it was called blog archives?

    the last thing is the comments. i like the numbers, it’s innovative and cool, but from usabilty point of view i feel it’s wrong. why next to the headline? seems like it’s part of the headline, but it’s not. how can you tell where to comment? first i thought there is no comment available at all. i don’t think it’s fair to expect the reader to hover over all the links around a post to find the comment link. i understand that you tried to clean up the layout as much as possible, but i think it’s gone a bit overboard. of course once you learn it, there is no problem, but if we go with this thinking, it would be enough to put a one pixel link instead of a bloated number. readers can learn that too. :) of course it all depends if your objective is to cater the geek community or to develop new design concepts with a more generic audience in mind.

    i realize that this is work in progress and this blog is a testing ground. pls. don’t be offended by my comments, i’m just expressing my views. besides just look who’s talking. :)

  37. Michael

    Ivan, I definitely think you have a good point about the comment number being next to the headline, and it was one of the things that I was slightly reluctant in implementing. As I mentioned earlier, I did this for purely aesthetic reasons. I might move them down unde the entries, though it annoys me, having to waste an entire line for a single number…

    As for the colors, I tend to agree with you, and I think I’ll need to come up with a new alternating color…

    As for the menu points, it works because if you press the archives link, you’ll be taken to the top of the archive hierarchy, which wouldn’t work if there was only a single blog button… And I’d rather not rename it, as ‘blog achive’ is an awfully long title :)

  38. Rene Grassegger

    Hi,

    your name sounds so german, so you have to read that in german! ;-)

    mir gef

  39. matthew

    Keep the comment count after the title its brilliant in its simplicity because its obvious what it is.

    If you move it im afraid Ill be forced to move mine after my post titles ;-)

  40. Michael

    Rene, mein Deutch is sehr schlecht… Which I’m sure my spelling and grammar attests to, but I understood what you wrote though ;)

    matthew, I shall keep it for now then :)

  41. Chris

    Well, I just took a look at the site from my brother’s machine. He’s got an LCD screen and it makes everything look much nicer, with the smooth fonts and all. I’m not sure if it’s because he turned cleartype on, or if it’s on by default in Linux, but Century Gothic definately fits in nicely when it’s not jaggied.

  42. Elliott Back

    Hmm… right now in IE, no style, and an error in the archives:

    Fatal error: Cannot redeclare archive_header() (previously declared in /home/binarybo/public_html/masterarchives.php:124) in /home/binarybo/public_html/wp-content/plugins/nicer_archives.php on line 166

    Like the ideas, though!

  43. matthew
    matthew, I shall keep it for now then :)

    yea LOL, I dont want have to change mine ;-)

  44. Peter

    Congratulations on the new design. I have decided that I like it.

    Thanks for sharing with us the thoughts behind it. It’s quite interesting and inspiring.

    Finally, although I am not sure you care, the site looks sweet in Opera too ;)

  45. matthew

    Sorry, this is probably a really cheeky questions but ive done rather confused googlings and searches in wordpress but no doubt im looking for the wrong words.

    How have you done the pages such as about (or colophon) and kubrick with 1.3?

    Ive tried putting similar style pages (ie theme style header/footer and different content in between) in both my theme directory and the main wp directory.

    Obviously id like them in my theme directory for consistency but if i try to access the page direct (ie mysite.com/wp-content/themes/mytheme/mypage.php) aside from a nasty url it doesnt work.

    And i havent gone too far down the road of in the main wp directory but it means i have to put some urls in manually and it doesnt seem entirely well.

    Any ideas? Anybody?

    Cheers.

  46. Michael

    The previously broken links should now be up and running. The search is also working, though the main archives page still needs some work.

  47. Joen

    Having been able to explore the site for a day or two now, I’d like to offer my comments and friendly criticism.

    First of all, wow, what a great redesign. Clearly a lot of thought has gone into this, and it shows. This is much more than a re-*design*, it’s more of a re-*thinking* of the information structure. This is great, and I hope it’ll set an example to up and coming bloggers as well as veterans. Additionally, I’d like to congratulate you on having a clearly focused purpose of this redesign. It’s quite clearly a labor of love, designed to withstand some time and heavy blogging. Very nice.

    What I like

    The colors & design
    Fresh, and clear, with great contrast. Still, quite neutral, being able to carry a wide range of content. Love the header and the pinup girl.

    The attention to detail
    “Welcome back Joen (Change)”. I saw this in a version of Kubrick, and I’ve wanted to steal it ever since-would you kill me for that?
    -The clearly distinguishable barrier between article and commentary. It’s just fast and easy to scan the page.
    -“Entry meta, next post, previous post, related”. Very nice, adds value to the content already there.
    -Live preview. Oh yes.

    Navigation
    Easy to use, fast, simple, and a permanent search box. Just how I like it.

    What could stand improvement

    Search button
    I do miss a “go” button next to the search box. LiveSearch is all fine and dandy, and people will press “enter” anyway. I just think some sort of search button would remove all doubt as to the behavior

    Headers?
    You’ve had some great headers during the course I’ve known this site. Where are they now? Will we ever see them again? I can understand why you’d want to move away from the recipe which does feel a little worn, but still?

    Link underlines
    Some will hate me for this, but I’ll say it anyway. I think that links in the main content area (posts, not sidebar), should have some sort of underline — be it a dotted underline, or a different color underline – but still, some sort of underline. And this is not a usability comment — after all, usability only states that links should be “clearly distinguishable from text”, which I think you succeed in with the pink color. This is mainly a personal preference, and as such, ultimately up to you. My thoughts on this is, if I squint, and scan the page, links are harder to make out.
     — You could pull a Jon Hicks and simply make the links bold? Other, subtle solutions, would be to use the Daring Fireball method of having the links be a shade of the link color — that looks great.

    All in all
    Very nice, I’ll look forward to seeing it carry some weight once it settles.

    Finally, a few questions or three. About that live preview, it’s great — but it seems to flicker sometimes? Does it not use “onKeyUp” ? Nice with the textile preview though.

    And about Wordpress 1.3a4 — how is that working for you? I’ve tried a few nightlies, but with too many bugs to trust it. Are you using the new “Pages” feature?

  48. Michael

    Thanks for you thorough walkthrough, very cool :D

    Welcome back Joen (Change)”. I saw this in a version of Kubrick, and I’ve wanted to steal it ever since — would you kill me for that?

    Already in v1.2.6, which came out a few weeks ago :)

    I do miss a “go” button next to the search box. LiveSearch is all fine and dandy, and people will press “enter” anyway. I just think some sort of search button would remove all doubt as to the behavior

    I agree, and I might add it. If I do, it’ll probably be the same size as the input field, aligned underneath it.

    You’ve had some great headers during the course I’ve known this site. Where are they now? Will we ever see them again? I can understand why you’d want to move away from the recipe which does feel a little worn, but still?

    I still have most of the headers in my archive, and I’ll probably, for nostalgia’s sake, do an archive at some point. Currently I haven’t decided on whether I’ll do the same thing with this header as I did with the last one. But given the size and shape of it, it’s an obvious choice :)

    Some will hate me for this, but I’ll say it anyway. I think that links in the main content area (posts, not sidebar), should have some sort of underline.

    I’ll try it out. I don’t necessarily have a preference either way. Whichever is easiest to read.

    use the Daring Fireball method of having the links be a shade of the link color

    … What? :)

    Finally, a few questions or three. About that live preview, it’s great — but it seems to flicker sometimes? Does it not use “onKeyUp” ? Nice with the textile preview though.

    It flickers I think, because it makes a roundtrip to the server :) — It was the only Textile livepreview I could find.

    And about Wordpress 1.3a4 — how is that working for you? I’ve tried a few nightlies, but with too many bugs to trust it.

    It seems to be working fine overall. I’ve got a few plugins that need adjusting, which is of course annoying. But other than that it seems fine.

    Are you using the new “Pages” feature?

    Nope :) Old-school static pages :)

  49. matthew
    Nope :) Old-school static pages :)

    Please! How are you doing these?

    Unless im being stupid im sure ive tried various methods of placing the static pages.

  50. Joen

    I agree, and I might add it. If I do, it’ll probably be the same size as the input field, aligned underneath it.

    Try it out, though I think a mini button would do better. Maybe a graphic? Just a thought.

    I still have most of the headers in my archive, and I’ll probably, for nostalgia’s sake, do an archive at some point. Currently I haven’t decided on whether I’ll do the same thing with this header as I did with the last one. But given the size and shape of it, it’s an obvious choice :)

    Do an archive, of course. What I really meant was, have you given any thought as to how you’d do a new graphic header in the current setup? The logo would remain, as would the tabs I guess – what about the pinup girl? Or to put it otherwise, it seems somewhat harder to make a new header in the current setup (tho it could definitely work).

    … What? :)

    Argh, I knew I should’ve linked up. I hope you don’t have your comment moderation set to instakill. What I was referring to with the different color link underlines was, of course, John Gruber’s Daring Fireball website, and the way he does it there – a light link color and a dark underline color.

    It flickers I think, because it makes a roundtrip to the server :) — It was the only Textile livepreview I could find.

    cough Jon Hicks has one cough

    It seems to be working fine overall. I’ve got a few plugins that need adjusting, which is of course annoying. But other than that it seems fine.

    Okay. Hmm. Still undecided as to how to go about this. They probably haven’t fixed the bug that keeps chopping off the “www.” part of the Blog URI

    matthew

    Please! How are you doing these?

    Unless im being stupid im sure ive tried various methods of placing the static pages.


    If I’m not entirely mistaken, a static page is just that — a regular webpage with no Wordpress, just like the good ol’ days — and then link to that.

  51. Michael

    I’ll post the code I’m using as soon as I can get around to it. It’s actually some code that I got off of Joen :)

  52. matthew
    .If I’m not entirely mistaken, a static page is just that — a regular webpage with no Wordpress, just like the good ol’ days — and then link to that.

    Yes, Ive done that with my live site which uses an earlyish version of 1.3. But with 1.3 and themes it doesnt seem to work properly (atleast not on my local powerbook test site).

    I have however managed to convert my current site, which uses 1 index file for all the archives, single page etc, to 1.3 using the is_single() command, but as ive gone very far down the 1.3 route of single.php and archive.php etc Id rather stick with that.

    Maybe ive not experimented enough but whatever I do doesnt seem to work. Id have thought you could access pages in your themes folder with mysite.com/index.php/mystatic.php or similar but it doesnt seem to work.

    Which brings me to another question. How have you done your htaccess file Michael? 1.2 helpfully creates it so you can copy and paste but 1.3 (again unless ive overlooked something) doesnt. Have you used your 1.2 htaccess? in know you can do index.php/day/month/etc but id like to keep my urls as they are.

    I’ll post the code I’m using as soon as I can get around to it. It’s actually some code that I got off of Joen :)

    Is that for me and my static pages? please say yes ;-)

    I hope im not hassling too much with these questions but i am trying other sources such as google and wordpress site only there doesnt seem to be too much info out there.

    cheers

  53. matthew

    OK, I think i managed it using instructions here, which is basically using blank wordpress pages (as in the new wordpress pages feature) and templates but it seems a bit of a strange way of doing it.

  54. Michael

    1.3 did the primary parts of my .htaccess file for me…

    Either way, as I said, I’ll post some of my code soon.

  55. Andreas Holstenson

    I really nice the new look of the site. I’ve actually got the same placement of the comment count on my own blog, but you posted your redesign a few hours before I could post mine. I just noticed a bug, it’s in your sidebar on the frontpage. Under the header which says Clippings there is a link to del.icio.us but it points to http://binarybonsai13.test/about/ instead of the real URL.

    Well further I’m a taker on your “Digging archive” if I can find the time, I did a write up about it last night se Digging down the archives at my blog. It’s not a finished plugin, it’s actually quite far from it. I’ll try to hack something up tonight just to see if it could work in the real world.

  56. Michael

    Andreas, I’ve fixed the del.icio.us link, thanks for the heads up. As for the ‘digging archive’, keep me updated! :D

  57. Seth Dimbert

    Michael,

    I was going to post this to the item about the Comment form, but commenting is disabled there. I believe you’ve spelled a word wrong in the Attention paragraph. You’ve spelled it “benefitial” when I think it’s “beneficial.”

    Either that, or you’re using some Danish spelling with which I’m unfamiliar. I hope you see this soon since you’re obviously working on that code now.

  58. Michael

    Thanks for the heads up. I’ve corrected it now. That’s what happens when I go to work without a spell checker :)

  59. Mathias Bynens

    While we’re at it: the title attribute for the links to the comments on a post are currently saying “Write or Read Respones to this Entry”. You might want to correct that, too. :)

  60. Mathias Bynens

    Oh but where have the comment permalinks gone?

  61. Oskar Mosumgaard

    Way, this site is to awesome. I just loove the colors ;-) And after a little browsing, I figured that you are a Dane like me.

    I’m gonna watch your site now. Great stuff!

  62. Jeremy

    This design is absolutely amazing. I am so impressed, I think you’ve just made me scrap my new design, and start a new one. I love how you arrange your content, thats what makes this design especially sexy. :D

  63. Mark J

    Hm, maybe comment permalinks should be a pound sign (#) next to the “Time ago” for each comment.

  64. Michael

    Comment permalinks are in there, I’ve just commented them out for now, until I reach an agreement with myself on how they should look :)

  65. Joen

    Mathias Bynens,

    Until Michael desides whether he should have comment permalinks, or where they should be, you can always use the “Show Named Anchors” bookmarklet.

    http://www.squarefree.com/bookmarklets/webdevel.html#named_anchors

    It works great for me, when I’m trying to dig up permalinks to link to.

  66. Michael

    Comment permalinks are now working. Notice that bright blue number i the left hand corner of every comment? That’s a link. I don’t know if it’s the optimal way of doing it, but it’ll do for now.

  67. matthew

    Is that the white number in the top right? ;-) Should the post title on the permalink page also show the amount of comments with a link to the comments?

    Ive now got WP1.3 running on my proper web server as a test so I can develop my site more ‘real-world’. I didnt realise WP1.3 writes its own htaccess file – very clever.

    I seem to have manage pseudo static pages by using blank templates but Id like to do proper static pages so when youve got that code ready Id be very interested :-D. Oh and will you be releasing code for your live comment preview at some point?

    Im basing my new site (well its more of a tweak really) on Ryans port for 1.3 (Link and credit in my footer). Ive done this primarily to get my head around 1.3s system but it also allows me to grab bits from Kubrick I like (for instance the welcome back on comments) and integrate it with stuff I already have (subscribe to posts – which was fun getting working in 1.3 ;-) for instance and colouring my comments or my new idea – noteworthy authors comments). However the predominant design and code is mine or from the original WP code but I figure – why try and reinvent the wheel?

    Im hoping this should allow upgrading WP in future easier as most of the files are in the theme folder, though I had to move the livesearch stuff to the root.

    I suspect I could move my site to 1.3 now but id like to tweak it a bit more and get all the pages working on my test site first so as to make the move quick as possible plus im having major problems finding a banner Im truly happy with.

    If youre interested in the URL (cant imagine why but wtf) im happy to send it to you.

  68. k.

    Michael, how did you manage your clippings with del.icio.us? I’m testing the plugin from linuxbrit at the moment, but it seems to slow loading times a lot..

    Do you use another plugin/hack, or made your own code?

  69. Dylan
    The archives all tell you what you need to know about where you are. If you’re reading the Binary Bonsai category archive, you’ll for instance be told, on the sidebar, as well as in the title, where you are and what this category is all about.

    I wonder if you or anyone could give a “Dissection” of how you accomplished this, or point to a source that might teach me to do something similar. Kubrick seems to contain the barebones of something like this in its sideabr; I’m just wondering how to work with it.

    Nice work with Freya, by the way. very nice work, indeed.

  70. Michael

    I’ll throw up a batch of my code as soon as I can get around to it.

  71. Faruk Ates

    Looking very nice here, but I want to note I just can’t read the text below “About” and “Related” until I increase textsize twice… that’s my only gripe though, tiny text :-)

  72. Michael

    What browser and OS?

  73. Mathias Bynens

    Joen,

    Thanks for the link to that bookmarklet. However, at the time when I posted the comment, there weren’t even anchors specified. (I checked using Chris Pederick’s Web Developer Toolbar for Mozilla Firefox.)

    It’s nice to see the anchors are back. Maybe you’re right, Michael, maybe there is no need for displayed comment permalinks.

  74. Michael

    Well they’re there though, and since I like having the comment number as well, the combined two make a nice pair.

  75. Brad

    Michael,

    I don’t know if you’ve noticed this yet, but the background image is about a pixel off to the left at the beginning of the comments.

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