I agree, if the BA knows CSS. I had a rather hard time learning it after spending so much time using plain HTML. Once you know CSS it is awesome and easy to use. It helps do things that are either impossible with HTML or very difficult.

__________________
http://boincwapstats.sourceforge.net.../style:2/p.png

I would suggest pictures of girls in bikinis.

__________________
"Most editorials are written by people that love to argue but got kicked off debate team for not making any sense." -Seanbaby

Blog really needs a link back to you main site....

I dunno if this is possible with worldpress though...

__________________
If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

Ah, no, let's not. Unless Mr. Plait (Or is it Dr?) wants to compete with the WooWoo crowd, I say not flash, no bells and wistles. Content rules, flashy stuff drools.

Look at Google. How much plainer can you get? And they are extremely successful. There's nothing I hate more then trying to get information, and having to wait for some stupid flashy crap to finish.

__________________
"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients: matter, energy, and enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

yes, I've seen some very flashy woowoo sites. It's a dead giveaway.

edit- But I don't think that the software to make shooting stars would take long to load.

__________________

Ok, maybe alittle splash wouldn't hurt.

Of course, having a black hole sucking up the web page would be fun.

No, no, just kidding.

__________________
"The universe is driven by the complex interaction between three ingredients: matter, energy, and enlightened self-interest." - G'Kar

Some of us still have to use a dial-up connection, you know.

I really think that it would only need a few lines of software plus 2pictures(one of the foreground and one of the background).
I don't think that it would add much to the load time even with dialup.

__________________

Any kind of animation takes a while to load on dialup, be it flash or .gif. Besides, the BAW (Bad Astronomy Website) really doesn't need to be at all flashy, the best looking websites are clean, simple, but with a good layout/colour scheme.

__________________

Is the redesgn still going ahead?

Or was it drop because of a result of the REALLY BIG NEWS

__________________
If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

I haven't had time to work on it since about a zillion other things have come up.

However, with the new board getting set up, this frees up a VAST amount of diskspace and bandwidth for me, so I'll be keeping that in mind. I wouldn't mind setting up a streaming server so I can have audio and video interviews someplace, for example.

That would be way Cool 8) 8)

You could have neil armstrong welcome ppl to the site :wink:

and you could create bad broardcasting

__________________
If this writing is blue you're going too fast!

Now that BAUT is here, maybe this thread should be moved to one of the BA specific fora.

I quite agree with the 750px fixed-width CSS concept- lots of people still have small screens, or like to not have to maximise their windows while browsing to avoid horizontal scrolling. A nice, centred, fixed width design is also quite easy to acheive with CSS, as well as being easy on the eye- some call the margins wasted space but whitespace is essential to stop a site from looking crowded. The more whitespace the better!
CSS layout is also infinitely better that tables in how easy it is to make changes, and means smaller pages (less markup, and the stylesheet is usualy cached).

__________________
Astronomy for Beginners.com
Gavin Vincent Web Design

(now i did)

But, I'm sure you have Phil.

Your site has been around a loooong time as it is.
I would try to keep as much of the format and color as possible, but a better more sleek version. As the same for the BBS.
(I never saw Universe Today BBS before the transition, or unless this is it before/during/after the transition?)

Some things on web sites become outdated, and change is good. Just remember that, Star Trek wouldn't be as fun without Space ships and explosions making noise in space.

What will I do with out Planet X looming over the horizon five years past due?

BTW...People still design websites for 800x600 standard, so they transferr easier to smaller devices. There are scripts that autosize screen resolution. I think you make a few different front pages for resoution size, then the links would be 800x600. Your web designer should know how.

I use 1280x1024 so I have more space on my screen.

__________________
Jami Cat
Astronomy is looking up... :)

__________________
All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

Sign up to sue the Sun

one thing do not have a dark background with white of blue writing.
the dark background opens the pupils of your eye and exposes more of the lense to the light.
this causes people with glasses or poor eyesight to find it very hard to read the fine print.

the white or even pale pastel colored background with black or dark blue writing reduces the size of the eyes aperture and results in a clearer viewing for those with astigmatisim or spectacles
check out my forum it has neat side bars for navigating so that you have less clutter when you arte doing serious reading
btw no quote facility here ??

ah found it but not where i expected it

__________________
inventing and writing forum
You dont know how little you know.
till you know enought
to know that you still know nothing

I can create a custom build website for you where you can just keep yourself busy with the main task of adding good content. Over the last couple of years I've been a programmer as a full-time profession, designing included. I can build anything you'd want in a website which should be clean and navigatable and efficient

I've build custom (webbased) chat, forums, knowledge systems, pm, voting systems, photoalbums, agendas and other nice utils...

If you are interested in the work I can do for you leave a PM, and I could show you my most complete community project...

Cya

Hey Phil, I don't know what your comfort level w/HTML and CSS is, but if you need a hand, please lemme know. I be a web geek

Phil, there are a few good tools made by a company called Flaming Pear (this isn't an ad, so no link) for doing astronomical images (star fields, planets). I have a license and would be happy to make you some banners, etc.

__________________
All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

Sign up to sue the Sun

sorry to disappoint you [champion_munch] ive recently had new glasses as i was having trrouble reading black background web sites.

when i whent to your site the sentence--This web site (Nova Celestia) is dedicated to displaying --was almost invisible and despite readjusting my monitor it had to be highlited to make it readable.

so what may be readable on a 17 inch monitor is unreadable on a smaller one.
this will mean any surfer coming across your page will just surf on as the information is unreadable if they have a small monitor

check out this web page for readability

web page

__________________
inventing and writing forum
You dont know how little you know.
till you know enought
to know that you still know nothing

__________________
All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

Sign up to sue the Sun

takes all sorts
i guess we cant please every one have to look out for a bigger monitor i guess

__________________
inventing and writing forum
You dont know how little you know.
till you know enought
to know that you still know nothing

We can read black on white better than we can read white on black. So for easy readability (even for people with perfect eyesight) I'd recommend white (or light) background. I hate sites with a black background.

Champion_munch: I meant that comment for the majority of people in this world.

__________________
MacTalk - The Australian Apple Community - iPod, iPhone and Mac.

__________________
All words, phrases, definitions and theories provided in the above post are, unless otherwise stated, the property of Champion Munch © 2005.

Sign up to sue the Sun

Whoa!!! The Supreme Canuck has a big monitor, you should really play some ggod games on that computer with that kind of a screen

__________________
Alcohol... the creator and solution to all problems - Homer Simpson

Ah, but alas, it's sitting at home while I'm here at university. I do have a 17" widescreen laptop that's good for movies, though.

__________________
Quaeso quousque humi defixa tua mens erit? Nonne aspicis, quae in templa veneris?

ONe thing that would be good for the front page would be a moon in the correct phase ie what the moon would look like at the time, if you could see it.

I don't think that this would be that difficult or take up too much memmory.