Can you look my ChronoJournal/weblog software?



  • Can you look my ChronoJournal/weblog software? http://zzo38computer.cjb.net/chrono/zzo38 And please make comments, suggestions, complains, questions, etc about the software. (Especially complaints and metacomplaints, because this is the Daily WTF, isn't it? But make good comments as well)



  • it looks like it was made in 1984.

    buy a real domain. 

    Why have a button for permenant links? why not just let links be permenant and do away with the button.

    I don't want to read one post at a time, i want to at least read a month worths of posts at a time or a years or whatever you get the idea.

    The search has a reset button, the reset button should be buried next to the blink tag. 

    If i need to login to edit pages, why not show me just the login link.

    If i'm not logedin why show me the logout.

    I shouldn't have been able to go to a post that doesn't exist via the interface.

    "This file doesn't exist." Isn't a good, just redirect to the home page or even better redirect to the search.

     

    bug:

    You can easily get to page=0. If you are on page=0, next and previous are broken.

     

    And more subjectivly, i just don't link it.

     



  • @stratos said:

    it looks like it was made in 1984.

     

    Oh yeah those blogs back in 1984 ... man those were the days!

    I saved mine to those brand new 3.5" "floppies"  .... mostly I just wrote about George Orwell and Van Halen though.



  • OK, thanks for replying, now I will reply to you:

    • it looks like it was made in 1984. -- Actually, I wasn't even alive in 1984 (I think). I like the design of the page without too much formating, without using tables to lay out the page, etc. I think modern web-pages are too much formatted, but I think web-pages should be designed for content, not for looks.
    • buy a real domain. -- I don't want to pay for a domain name. Of course if (and/or when) I have a real domain name I would use that.
    • Why have a button for permenant links? why not just let links be permenant and do away with the button. -- It is there for permanent link to first/last, but I will change it to auto-permanent for prev/next links.
    • I don't want to read one post at a time, i want to at least read a month worths of posts at a time or a years or whatever you get the idea. -- OK, where should I put that function? And how would you suggest it should display them?
    • The search has a reset button, the reset button should be buried next to the blink tag. -- OK!
    • If i need to login to edit pages, why not show me just the login link. -- OK I will make it so non-possible actions are crossed out and cannot be selected, and then you at least know that function exists, even though you cannot select it at this time. (Sort of like grayed menu items on a menu)
    • If i'm not logedin why show me the logout. -- So you can clear the cookies. For security purposes it does not allow you to view one user directory while logged in to another, so you have to log out first, and this helps you to log out more easily. If enough people preferred, I could instead cross it out when it isn't applicable.
    • I shouldn't have been able to go to a post that doesn't exist via the interface. -- OK I will make those links crossed out.
    • "This file doesn't exist." Isn't a good, just redirect to the home page or even better redirect to the search. -- Then you would be confused if you just entered the number in the URL, why that number links to this one? I don't know why!
    • You can easily get to page=0. If you are on page=0, next and previous are broken. -- How can you go next or previous of a page that doesn't exist? OK I will make those links crossed out.


  • OK, I fixed it now.



  • @stratos said:

    the reset button should be buried next to the blink tag.

    Why?



  •  

    Especially complaints and metacomplaints, because this is the Daily WTF, isn't it? But make good comments as well)

    I find your sense of reality refreshing.

     

    Where are the names of commenters? 



  • @dhromed said:

     

    Especially complaints and metacomplaints, because this is the Daily WTF, isn't it? But make good comments as well)

    I find your sense of reality refreshing.

     

    Where are the names of commenters? 


    Normally commenters are identified by date and IP address, but if you want to be identified by name, just add it to the end of your comment text.



  • it looks like it was made in 1984.

    Actually, I wasn't even alive in 1984 (I think). I like the design of the page without too much formating, without using tables to lay out the page, etc. I think modern web-pages are too much formatted, but I think web-pages should be designed for content, not for looks.

    Yes i agree. web-pages should be designed for content. but your webpage simply isn't designed (IM-not so-HO).

    People are more inclined to read/visit your web-page when its pretty, so having a design that is pretty is just as important as having that design complement your content. 

     

    buy a real domain.

    I don't want to pay for a domain name. Of course if (and/or when) I have a real domain name I would use that.

    domain names are dirt cheap, and while it is not directly a feature of a blog i generally do take blogs that have a real domain name more seriously then random free domain hoster x.

     

    I don't want to read one post at a time, i want to at least read a month worths of posts at a time or a years or whatever you get the idea.

    OK, where should I put that function? And how would you suggest it should display them?

    I don't know. Its your blog.  but seeing your current "way" of showing options i guess a dropdown list or something, with "day","month","year" or something. And a nice added feature would be to append to those hom many posts would show up, as in "day (1 post)","month (20 posts)" etc.. 

     

    OK I will make it so non-possible actions are crossed out and cannot be selected, and then you at least know that function exists, even though you cannot select it at this time. (Sort of like grayed menu items on a menu)

    Well its your software so you can do what you want, but why show them when they can't be selected. Also web sites aren't desktop applications so i wouldn't really look at how desktop applications work to make a web site. People have different expectations for both of them. 

     

    So you can clear the cookies. For security purposes it does not allow you to view one user directory while logged in to another, so you have to log out first, and this helps you to log out more easily. If enough people preferred, I could instead cross it out when it isn't applicable.

    If i'm not logged in the logout button serves no legitement purpose. 

     

    Then you would be confused if you just entered the number in the URL, why that number links to this one? I don't know why!

    Why would i enter a number into the url, i'm going to assume they're timestamps or something but i highly doubt anyone is ever going to remember one. 

     

     

    @Spectre said:

    @stratos said:
    the reset button should be buried next to the blink tag.

    Why?

     

    Because the only time people click on that button is by accident. If people want to clear the search terms they will simply undo their input.



  • @stratos said:

    If people want to clear the search terms they will simply undo their input.

    But there are 5 fields, not one. Surely reversing them all would be a tedious process, no?

    (Paraphrasing our friend, I don't know HorseShit about web design, so forgive me if I'm asking dumb questions.)



  • If a person fills out all the fields and then decides they want to change their input, they can change their input just by typing over what they want to change. If they decide they want to not submit their input, then they can simply navigate to another page.

    There really is no reason for the Reset button's existence. Think about it this way: is there a spreadsheet button out there which has a button that, when clicked, immediately and possibly not-undoably deletes the contents of all the cells on the sheet? Google Mail, Yahoo! Mail, Blogspot, LiveJournal… Hell, even this shitty forum software doesn't have a Reset button, regardless of how many fields are on the page. The button should never be used; no exceptions.



  • OK I corrected all sorts of bugs in the program now (one of them was infinite redirects, but now I fixed it and it doesn't infinite redirect anymore), and added some features, including keyboard navigation (ALT+2 for first, ALT+3 prev, ALT+4 next, ALT+5 to go to last one), and XML. Another good thing about the design I have is good for printing. See About page for a list of features, instruction how to install, and you can download the source-code and view so that you can see it better how it works, or even to modify if you want to!



  • @Spectre said:

    @stratos said:
    the reset button should be buried next to the blink tag.

    Why?

     

    Because under normal circumstances 'reset' isn't "empty all text fields, clear all checkboxes, deselect all options, etc...", it's quite literally "reset the form to state it was in when the page was first loaded."

    Think of a page that has server-side error handling. You miss a required field and the form gets spit back out to you to correct the error. Previous values are embedded into the various form elements as value="" or checked="checked" or selected="selected". You realize you want to start from scratch, and hit reset. But oops. That doesn't clear the form. It just puts back all the original stuff you'd filled in and the server spit out at you.

    Of course you can fake a proper "clear this form" button with some javascript to iterate through the form and wipe everything, But that's what 'reset' was supposed to be originally. So now we're back to square one: Using a button+javascript to fix what the button was supposed to do in the first place.



  • Your visual design and interface caused me so much trauma I sought solace in your page source/output code.

    There was none to be found.

    • Your page has no doctype.
    • <title> is not valid unless inside a <head>
    • Your code appears to contain very few linebreaks, and no tabs at all. Whilst this isn't that bad for auto-generated content, it would be way easier to debug your output if you laid it out right.
    • <form action="commentform" method=get><input name="page" type=hidden value="1193007628"><input type=submit value="Add Comment"></form>
        could be replaced with
      <a href="commentform?page="1193007628">Add Comment</a>
    • you haven't divided your output. even if you don't apply any styling to them, <div class="menu"> and <div class="content"> etc would make your output more friendly to those using accessible browsers.
    • you appear to be attempting hotkeyed links. They aren't working here. (Firefox 3 beta 3, new enough to support hotkeys?)
    • if the user is not logged in, don't show invalid links, even with strikethroughs. you're missing the point of dynamically generated pages.
    • no file extensions. people expect them, why try and be clever modrewriting them away?
    • you have comments in your html which don't seem to be useful at all. if you need comments, leave them in the code.
    • you're abusing the blockquote tag, and your <b> tags on Date etc aren't really best practice either

    Tips:

    1. go learn (x)html properly
    2. learn css
    3. study existing systems more at the design phase (if you have a design phase in your dev process).


  • i agree with emyr, but i also decided to be nice.

    Its a fast hack job but this is what minimalistic reasenable html/css blog would look like. Please note that i haven't tinkered with your "choice" of including unselectable actions, but whatever. And to be honest i would have quite some stuff to nitpick about this too, but like i said it was a hack job.

    http://www.underdevelopment.eu/crono.html 

     



  • @stratos said:

    i agree with emyr, but i also decided to be nice.

    Its a fast hack job but this is what minimalistic reasenable html/css blog would look like. Please note that i haven't tinkered with your "choice" of including unselectable actions, but whatever. And to be honest i would have quite some stuff to nitpick about this too, but like i said it was a hack job.

    http://www.underdevelopment.eu/crono.html 

     

    Why don't you like full-width?

    (Also, I made some more changes to the software, and to the about-page)



  • human eyes don't like to read paragraphs that span that long. 



  • @stratos said:

    human eyes don't like to read paragraphs that span that long.
    The font is a fixed size. Human eyes don't like reading tiny text. Your site really isn't any better than the original, which was at least slightly more accessible. Consider using max-width, too.



  • @stratos said:

    i agree with emyr, but i also decided to be nice.
     

    by default isn't tdwtfforums.honestylevel == brutal? :)

     @stratos said:

    http://www.underdevelopment.eu/crono.html 
     

    that's better

     

     

    http://zzo38computer.cjb.net/chrono/_show_source

    No modularity? eek! 


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