The Trying Times

Nice template! - but just a couple of things:
*You need a link to the homepage from the individual posts - otherwise how do we get back after looking at a post? I recommend putting a link in the title.
*Firefox isn't autodetecting your RSS feed. I dunno how to fix that tho.
*Pop-up comments are an abomination!

reporter -  Anonymous, at 9:01 pm, June 21, 2005 

I'm in favour of popup comments.

Not sure if I can define why tho :-) I'll try.

I tend to load everything in one firefox window manually (faster than rss :p) and those I comment on are nice to pop up individually outside the many tabbed pages. I guess.

reporter -  Anonymous, at 9:53 pm, June 21, 2005 

Thanks Guys....
i'll look into your first couple of points nato... but i think i'll leave the 3rd point... unless you have any moral or ethical issues regarding popup windows to convince me... quoted scripture will help... i'm sure you can come up with something wildly out of context :)

reporter -  Jonathan, at 9:13 am, June 22, 2005 

Why yes, actually I do have issues with pop-up windows...
Its about consistency. Either all links should be opened in the same window, or all links should be opened in the same window. It is indeed an abomination to have differing links. I click on comments on your blog and it pops up, comments on another blog and it opens in the same window. Which is messy, and inconsistent. The user should know what they are going to open - I would be happy if there was a universally adopted link style that indicated a new window. Is it too much to ask that something that looks exactly the same should do the same thing? It makes the web a messy place, and produces a bad experience for users.
Check out the Top-10 new mistakes of web design. Pop-up mean you've broken the first two: "Opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer's carpet. Don't pollute my screen with any more windows, thanks (particularly since current operating systems have miserable window management). If I want a new window, I will open it myself!
Designers open new browser windows on the theory that it keeps users on their site. But even disregarding the user-hostile message implied in taking over the user's machine..."

In case you were wondering, there is a biblical basis for this. Firstly, because you've made one of the 10 mistakes of web design, you've effectively broken them all (James 2). Secondly, check out Deuteronomy 25:13-16, where it says quite clearly that you are not to have two things that should be the same in one place. The examples used there include two weights in one bag - people expect that the same weights in a bag will be the same, so to have them different is an abomination! Therefore, I believe pop-up comments are an abomination.

Can you tell I've not a lot to do?

reporter -  Anonymous, at 12:44 pm, June 22, 2005 

Haha.. nice work Nato...
To be honest I agree with you.
I understand the principle of not having links opening up in other windows. As you may've noticed all my blog and other links no longer do that.

my main issue is with formatting. I like the format of the compact comments window...

I may do some R&D work on this issue in an atempt to appease you.

Told you scripture would probably work! haha

reporter -  Jonathan, at 2:46 pm, June 22, 2005 

oh.. ad thanks Lou it's cool that, while miles away, you can keep track of what we're thinking. shot

reporter -  Jonathan, at 2:47 pm, June 22, 2005 

ah Nato...
Any particular reason you're quoting a 6 year old web document considering the changes that have occured since then? Xhtml? Firefox? Faster computers and more widely used broadband (just not in NZ)?

;-)

If that principle were to apply to other things, like the apple in that page's text, then you'd assume that picking up a 6 year old apple and dropping it on Newton's head that it would crack his skull but in reality it will simply splat into his hair as a pile of decaying mush because it's so dated. hehe

reporter -  Anonymous, at 4:23 pm, June 22, 2005 

Ah Allan,

As a web developer, I would propose that Nielsen's "The Top Ten New Mistakes of Web Design" are every bit as relevant and valid today as they were in 1999; as are his "Original Top Ten Mistakes in Web Design" from 1996.

reporter -  Dan, at 8:55 am, June 23, 2005 

Yeah...
Xhtml, Firefox, Faster computers and internet make no difference: an inconsistent user experience is still inconsistent. Firefox gives you an option of opening it in a new tab instead of a new window, but only if you know what's coming. So its still inconsistent.

reporter -  Anonymous, at 11:43 am, June 23, 2005 

Solution, Could two links be provided?

Something like
aComments/a a(In new window)/a

The a tags would then resemble something like this:
"a href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4100533&postID=111897649155117046&isPopup=true""
"a href="http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4100533&postID=111897649155117046&isPopup=true" onclick="window.open('http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=4100533&postID=111897649155117046&isPopup=true', 'bloggerPopup', 'toolbar=0,scrollbars=1,location=0,statusbar=1,menubar=0,resizable=1,width=400,height=450');return false;"

The reason I would have comments as a new window as the second link is because opening the page in the same window is how things are usually done.

reporter -  Anonymous, at 2:57 pm, June 24, 2005 

If that made sense...

reporter -  Anonymous, at 2:59 pm, June 24, 2005