Moopad.com (beta)

I'm in the process of creating a variety of "skins" for the site and am interested in feedback on different color combinations.  This is not a popularity contest where the majority rules.  It's about listing the combos that you yourself like.  I'll create as many different skins as I can to satisfy everyone out there.  Eventually, you'll get a drop down list in your Account preferences that allows you to select your "Theme of Choice".  Unfortunately, I could do a lot more with the site than just colors, but you all would hate me if I started using graphics. 

...And you all sounded so pleased with the fact that this site, which is all but devoid of any graphics, loaded in under 10 seconds... What follows is my emotional reaction to that comment...

Although it may not look it, with the exception of folder images under photos, and the smileys, this site is comprised entirely of text.  That's it. Don't believe me? Go into your Account settings, disable "Site Styles", click update and then browse the site.  That's how the site looks underneath it's "style sheet" jacket.  Just text.  Cool, huh?  But reallllly ugly.  The idea is to load as quickly as possible but still look decent.  Enter style sheets.

Long story short... due to bandwidth constraints, color schemes and layout are about as good as you're going to get when it comes to customizing the look and feel of the site.

So submit your favorites.  There's no limit submissions so if you have more than one preference.  So feel free.

G'Night All...

Okay, so I have a new idea that may work better than simply suggesting color combos.  I have yet to actually try this out and see if it works, but I believe the concept will indeed succeed.  Instead of trying to get you guys to send or describe colors I have decided to simply let you choose.  And by "choose" I don't mean just a few colors, I mean choosing how the entire site looks and feels. 

The plan (right now) is to create a page (possibly as part of your account settings or maybe completely separate), where you can select or enter specific colors, styles, and sizes for backgrounds, tables, dividers, borders, forms, etc. The color selections will be similar to the color selector for fonts in the editor [], or if you new the hexidecimal code for a specific shade (I know, I know), you could enter it directly into the field.  Sizes will be simple drop menus with numeric values, as well as optional styles for various items. Anyway, once you make all your selections, there will be an option to save your selections as a "custom style sheet" which will load and be available just for your account.  Multiple style sheets will be allowed so you can create as many as you want and switch back and forth using a selection menu. Again, this is all just a concept until I get a chance to test it out, so wait and see.  The whole thing will probably make more sense once I get a demo page put together and you'll better understand what I'm talking about.  Just wanted to give you all a heads up, that's all.

I'm sitting in class right now (we're on lunch break).  Class is very good so far.  I'm learning lots of cool new stuff which will help make this site, and others in the future, a lot more efficient.  Most of it is back-end stuff which you guys won't see much of, but it all helps to improve the site performance so hooray for that.  And it should help to make it easier for me to maintain the code and add in lots of new options.

I haven't gotten around to creating a full fledged search engine yet for the blogs.  But I still plan to add something additional for those who don't find what they're looking for using the "View Blogs by..." tag clouds.  That's a project for a slightly later date, however.

So how has everyone's day been so far?  Good, I hope. 

The new tracking system is now officially in effect.  You'll notice it's working because on your first visit back with the new system, you'll see that EVERYTHING is now flagged as new.  That's right, congratulations!  Thanks to your disappointment with the first system, you now get to "deflag" all previous blogs and comments in a psuedo-blog-review exercise.  Consider it practice for the blog-viewing olympics.  

Actually, the new system uses a separate table to keep track of all records viewed and by whom.  So since it's a new table, it currently has no records.  So you guys need to click on each blog entry to effectively create these records.  After you click on it once, the new flag will be cleared until such time as a new comment is posted.  Same goes for the overall blog. Once viewed, the blog will no longer show up as "new". Newly added comments under that same blog, will show as new, however.  There's no hurry.  You guys can take as long as you want.  You can even leave them flagged as new and sort out the old ones using the tag cloud filters.  It's completely up to you.  Just know that the system now in place is accurate to a "T" based on when the item was viewed by each individual member.

Anonymous users, since I don't know who they are, will still have to "suffer through" the old, only semi-accurate system.   So I guess it's good to be a member. 

If G-ma Todnem wants an account, or anyone else for that matter, I need an email address first.  Without an accurate email address, you are basically an anonymous user.  The easiest way for her to send it to me is either via email directly or through the contact form on this site.  The same goes for anyone else who wants in.  Just have them send me their email addresses. 

Also, keep in mind that for the time being, membership is not required to post a Comment or view posts.  So you can basically Read and Respond without being a member.  Unless anonymous people start abusing this privilege, I will leave it in place.  Don't get me wrong, membership does have its advantages.  You gain the ability to post your own Blogs, upload and manage your own Photos, and post Links and Calendar items (coming soon!).  And now, it would appear, that membership also buys you a much more accurate tracking system for new messages. 

I'm in class for the next three days from 8-5 so I'm not sure how much time I'll have for this, but hopefully soon you'll see...

• Option to keep messages private (viewable by members only)
• Skins - Easily change the overall color scheme of the site
• Links - Ability to post interesting links with descriptions
• Calendar - Post upcoming events that affect you or your area
• Photo Editor?? - Details are unknown att, but hopefully soon...

Keep the suggestions coming despite my grumping!