Finally got around to checking out the new journal options and formatting, and I'm pretty impressed whee Journals have been a bit neglected since they were brought out, so it's nice to see some updates!
Journal Homepage
Far more aesthetic and user-friendly than what was there previously. It does seem a bit small squashed up on the side of the screen at my res though (1280x1024) - could the left column possibly be made fluid so that journal titles fit on one line and it looks less squashed?
I like the idea of 'Recent Journal Entries', but at the moment it changes far too fast to read, decide if it's interesting and click on it. There's also a bit of a flicker as it takes the avi a bit longer to load than the text - is there any way the avi's could be preloaded while the previous item is being shown?
Comment Notification
YES! This is a feature that's been asked for for ages, so it's really nice to see someone is listening. Also great that you thought to add all the options, especially for people who get tons of comments every day but still want to be notified of them.
Entry Privacy
Another option that's been asked for a lot. Not one that I'm likely to use, but it is a good idea to be able to change the privacy on a per-entry basis rather than all-or-nothing. Good change!
Template Customization
Yes! Very handy. I was kind of hoping for CSS options ala DeviantART and the profiles, but this is still pretty good. Just a few gripes:
- Any reason why the 'Colourized Curvage' templates doesn't have the options (or why it might not be working for me?) T-T
- I'm having some problems with the colour picker - when hovering over some colours it just displays the one I had previously, and can't be clicked. (using Firefox 2, Windows XP)
- Speaking of the colour picker, it'd be cool to allow more colours or allow us to type in a hex value biggrin
- Can you take Times New Roman out of the font face list? Please? That font is just evil T-T Glad to see you don't have Comic Sans in there though.
New Age Comments
Sorry, but at the moment I'm feeling this one is a bit useless sad At first glance it doesn't look that great - small avi face, comment spaced way over next to it so it all looks like its floating, thick ugly border at the bottom. It took me a little while to realise that hovering over the face brought up the whole avatar, but that still seems a bit pointless to me. It also has a bit of a delay while it loads and shifts everything downwards in one uncomfortable jump. It doesn't feel like a designer looked at it at all sweatdrop Again this could use the avatars being loaded beforehand or some kind of loading symbol to show that something is actually happening and perhaps some kind of Ajax~y smooth transition as it shifts everything down. It seems like a lot of work for something that doesn't have much of a point though.
Still, overall it's a thumbs up from me biggrin
EDIT: I'd also really like to see something similar (in terms of the customisation options) with posting styles. With some kind of character limit.
View User's Journal
Chisa
Community Member |
User Comments: [1] [add]
User Comments: [1] [add]
Community Member
I agree with the color picker. For some reason, Firefox is having issues with picking the right color. They should have a drop down menu. Either that or have an input box for hexadecimal colors as you said in your post.
It would be nice to see customizing for the journals (both old school and version 2 abilities).