first, I guess, we would have to decide if we didn't like the current design enough for us to change it, and second, I guess to a point it doesn't matter as I can change my topics to look however I want... So, does everyone want a re-design?

this is a hypothetical. but, from comments i've had from people "in the know" i.e. in the web trade (http://www.ntd.co.uk), i think it could do with a bit of work. the interface can be a little clumsy at times, i find. also, it can be difficult to navigate through the topics that i read in particular conferences, without manually going through my conference list page every time. a catchup function would be nice, so that i can just catchup all the old responses in a topic at will.

It's fine with me, I just have limited time so if folks want more system wide design power, it can be arranged. Myretta and Nan have system wide design change power and there are directions for making system wide changes at http://www.armidalesoftware.com

I do, to, especially if I ask permission first...*wink*

apparently I have typo power, as well...

power is good... i personally like power-steering and powerpushing lawnmowers

power is good . . . I personally like power and . . . . power . . ., and then there's power of course.

oh, of course...

See? I knew you'd understand!

hheeee cool thing. i've created my own startup page for the spring, which lives here locally on my machine. it's got the main spring page in one frame, and my conference hotlist in a small top frame. that way, i can go to any conference i like without having to go through the main page every time. it works quite well, although it has the disadvantages associated with all frame sites (no bookmarking, url not filled in etc.). but, i'm trying it out. if anyone else would like to try it out, then please let me know.

If you like, you can email me the html and I can post it in a publicly accessible area that you can reference. Or you could put it in http://www.spring.net/~mikeg/startpage or something like that.

well. it has to be set up for each individual person at the moment; you need to cut and paste your own conf. list, until can find a way to access the one the spring produces. is that a cgi script that i can just call, or haven't you any idea?

Pose this question to kaylene@armidalesoftware.com

if I wasn't at home, I'd go look...and I will find it on here by tomorrow, Sunday at the latest...oops, I have it...printed out the template for Main Menu the other day, so the code is <pre>%'check'</pre> that's what makes your conf list...

done. awaiting response.

slippage

oh yeah, what does the <pre> tag do?

it's for preformatted...like ascii art or the concrete poetry topic... it's how they get all the rows to line up all nice and neat...tomorrow I'll look and see if 'check' is a template also, and will report back in again...I think it probably is the more I think about it, and if so, it'll have the info you're looking for...

where are these templates stored?

Holy $hit!

Wholly $hit? ha-ha!

how about a little text input box on the main conference page, so that one can jump instantly to any conference?

I like that idea.

that sounds cool...

shouldn't be that hard to do, it's just a case of getting hold of the code which produces the main conference page, something which is beyond my knowledge. any ideas, wer?

by the way, who likes the standard backgroud, "chalk.jpg" ?

pick me, pick me......(i hate it, really)

:)

PPPLLLEEEUUUUGGGGHHH!!! YUKSIES! �sticking tongue out�

just one more "no", and i'll feel confident of being multilateral enough to suggest that we change it.

How about just plain white?

well, i tried it in Babes, and to be honest, it doesn't look as good as i expected it to. it looks lovely in Engaged apps, but for some reason not here. i don't think the <hr> tag goes particularly well with plain white. how about something plain, but with a distant "spring.net" in it? that's what i've tried out here, and the first results are OK. dunno if that's the best solution, though. try the white. see what it looks like. i'll try it here, too.

two things. firstly, the white looks nasty, imho. how about a light blue? i've dialed up #22ccdd here, and it looks quite nice - restrained, and compliments the darker blue links to confs etc. secondly, can anyone supply me with a decent fixedwidth font? the standard one i have is courier, and it's bloody horrible. i'm now using typewriter something or other, which is better, but a bit spaceage and weird looking.

i've found the code which produces the main page. or rather, the template. however, it's a bit CGI-ey and scarey, so adding the "shortcut" box may be a little difficult. or at least tricky.

i think it's time i learnt perl...

the place up in Michigan uses the dialog box for conferences, went and got their code today, just haven't had time to do any experiments with it yet...let me find the cool font site, and get the url to you Mike so you can picka one for yourself... the light blue is fine by me...

You guys are beginning to frighten me! Sounds like you speak some secret language all the time.

hehe :))

wer, wouldja post that cool font site? puhleeeeeeze!

this is a link page to tons o' font sites... http://members.tripod.com/~service97/sf-font.html happy hunting!

Just thought I'd put in a couple of comments about colors and fonts on the web. Both of these are browser dependent so there are some real limititations to what you can do with them. The only fonts that will appear on a web page are the ones that are supported by your browser when you look at the options selection for fonts. And what is supported by your browser may not be supported by the rest of the people looking at the page. If you want to be sure everyone is seeing the same thing, it is best to l ok for something that is universal (Times New Roman - boring but everyone has it - for example). The way to get around this is to put the font you want to use into a graphic (a .gif or .jpg) and then put the graphic on your page. Colors, too, vary from browser to browser. The colors which are consistent across all platforms can be found on the web. One such site is: http://www2.jens.com/~selkirk/courses/toolbox/style/colors2.html Hope you don't mind my butting in, but I thought a couple of tips might be helpful if you are just starting off.

no butting done here, thanks for the info!

the comment was made about non-proportional fonts, to be used locally, to replace my rather boring Courier used for the <PRE> info

well, seems no matter what i do to the font front command, it stays the same (at my website)

let me know if I can help. the way to change the non-prop font globally is to use the Options in your browser (e.g. Netscape. Options menu/General Preferences/Fonts). i can't remember how to change the non-prop font with an HTML tag, although I do remember it's possible. might be worth looking that one up (time I got myself a list of all the HTML tags and options, I think)

well, while i've got you here *heehee* can you tell me what the code is to change background color? i've tried the standard html code but it doesn't work here. am i supposed to go into the rc file or what?

as a conference host? if you're a conference host, you need to edit the rc file - i think the additions needed are in "Creating a host help-pack", so look in there. if you mean in general, then you can't - it's fixed in the software until we can convince terry to change it for us :)

hmmm...a thought. some people seem to have worked out the rather intricate URLs needed to link to another conference/topic/posting, while others haven't. how about something in the HTML interpreter commandy thing which allows easy linking to another conf/topic/posting? something like : Well, if you look in [topic::23] you'll find the info, with [topic::23] being turned into an HTML link to that topic? that one's probably better passed onto the YAPP people themselves, i guess.

yeah, as a conference host. ok, i'll have to go look in there!

We need a conference manager! Anyone want to nominate someone or volunteer. Does require some basic knowledge of Yapp and UNIX.

ummm me? :-)))

Okay, okay, no need to go through the embarassing asking business. Sure I'll DO it, Terry.

sign me up, also, I guess...

We can have more than one. There will be a discussion of how this works in email, at least, the technical details.

before i answer, what is a conference manager?

Hey, hey, I wasn't serious!!!! I know bugger-all about Yapp and that sort of crap. Mike and Wer and Wolf coud be conference managers - I'll just bust your screens.

Wouldn't mind being conference manager though if I could be the one to tell people to stop swearing . . .

*lol*

That's MY job... *grin*

I thought your job was... *hopeful grin*

Actually that's her game . . .

Got it! anyway, got your blue suggestion working in news, Mike, so very body go by and see what you think...of course, come back here and share those thoughts, por favor...

nice one :) i'll drop by.

well, yeah, it's ok. what does everyone else think?

purty...

any chance of us getting the code over for both the frames and the "goto conference" shortcut box, wer? anyone else?

not sure...gotta ask Terry as I don't have write permission...

Email jeff@spring.net. He's our system admin type guy. He was just here earlier this evening. He can fix you up. By the way, Jeff is building a Kick Butt new spring machine. Pentium, 64mb ram, 8 gb hard drive, etc. We're gonna test it for a spell before we put it on line. But it could be our new conferencing, website box.

Jeff must be a very, very clever man.

I have no response to that...

a dollar says you do...

Let the man be modest if he wants to be modest, Wer. Suppose your argument would now be that it is hard to be honest AND modest at the same time . . . !

Jeff says the machine is up now and lookin' good so far. We're gonna test it for a spell before we put anything critical on it.

sounds brill :)) I built my own p166 system here, so I know what "fun" that can be =)

First reports are that it's a stable machine, even running in a room w/o a/c.

Oh, no! w/o a/c ???? Could you translate that into English please?

without air conditioning. Something people around here can't seem to live without. Except maybe Jeff and his machines.

oh Will you grant me permission to ask one stupid question, please.

Permission granted, mademoiselle.

Is the spring like an organization? Or a co�peration kind of thing with lots of people working there, where you are the big boss? And if so, does that make YOU the person who tells us to go away if we swear too much? Stacey said there was someone like that. Are you that person?

We're a loosely knit co-op and I pretty much supply everyting and keep it running, I'm not very dictatorial though.

how is it all paid for, may i ask...?

i've always wanted to ask terry that myself. i keep thinking that he'll go into a Brando/Godfather impersonation and say, "Listen, don't ask me about my bizness."

I pay for it all, but hopefully we'll figure out a better model than that! Suggestions??? Should we have a pledge drive? I could clearly explain what it costs to run this place and we could try and raise some funds that way. Or we could expand our web business with volunteer help form our users.

i think we should have a pledge drive. if the spring were to offer mikeg@thespring.com as an e-mail address, i'd cancel my WELL account and pay $15 a month here.

Or we could sell pizzas, candy bars and overpriced wrapping paper!

We already have hundreds of folks with email addresses here.

yeah...if you've got a telnet account you have an e-mail address here, Mike...

yeah, but mikeg@www.spring.net is not quite as cool as mikeg@well.com. know that spring.com has been sold, I guess the closest might be mikeg@thespring.com, which I'd pay $15 a month for :)

I've got an idea how we can have fun and raise a bit of money for the spring as the spring people. There's going to be that big spring party next year, right? What if we all came a day or so in advance, have a huge cake baking, popcorn popping get together the first day. Sell these at a huge stall with lots of music and colourful ribbons and baloons, and at a 100% profit the next day and have the party on the third day! You know, like in school, but alot bigger! Popcorn put me through four years of s udy at a conservatorium when I was in school, so it's the only practical idea I can come up with - sorry if it sounds childish. And the rest of the time, why don't you just ask us for donations, Terry? I'd be willing to, because the spring is important.

Mike, you can use either mikeg@thespring.com or mikeg@spring.net, they both work. For that matter, you're also mikeg@childrenstory.com and mikeg@tvpc.com, and mikeg@babeoftheweek.com. Got it any other cool names we can register. Hey, idea! Let's all brainstorm up some great names that we can either develope into websites or sell to make some money to keep the Spring going. I'll open a topic!

No, this is confusing! Remember, Autumn and me don't do the computer thing so well.

but, you do it over the computer just fine...

This part is pretty straight forward. It is when those secret CIA intelligence codes start popping up that our peas start popping around frantically.

oooh...I hate it when my peas pop frantically... so, Terry, if I wanted to "fix" the templates around here, I would just send the "corrected" ones to Jeff and he'd put them in? oh, and have you gotten any farther with the conference mangager thingy?

Call me tonight and I'll set you up and explain to you how it works.

Got it...when is too late?

It's too early now, in a coupla' hours when I get back from dinner. You see, Stacey made me hungry.

understand that! just got back from Hyde Park Bar & Grill...

Missed you last night, try again tonight.