Ditto's Docks' new ad thread

[Diz]

​

Ditto's Docks v.3 A Ditto themed website. What could be better than that?

It still looks the same as v.2, but the layout is DIV based, instead of the old tables. I've re-arranged the navigation so the menu's are about the same length. There aren't a whole bunch of new pages, but I do have some (as of now) out of date information about HG and SS. One perk to go with this is that I've included some speculation.

I have some fan theories about the workings of things, you can see a gallery of my sprites, read a few tutorials, play some of the games available, enter a funny caption contest, view visitor submitted art and possibly submit your own.

We have a good looking forum that is hosted on our own server, powered by PHP BB3, and I now have about 500 smilies, and 4 styles. I have my own, possibly humorous (I couldn't tell you) blog, with a description of the more interesting things that happen in my life.

Currently, I only have one style up for the style switcher, but ideally there will be 7, and gaining more. On a related note (but obscurely) if you can guess from what Pokemon the chatbox got it's colors, you will be granted with a cookie. =)

I hope you visit DD (as it is abbreviated) and enjoy it. Or if you don't, tell me why, here.

[url=http://ditto.ifastnet.com/phpBB3][/url]​

 

[Departure Song]

You will also need SSI and Javascript for optimal viewing of the site.

I giggled. You do know what SSI stands for, don't you?

 

[Diz]

Yeah, server side includes, and some browsers don't support it.

 

[Departure Song]

Oh, really? Like which? ;)

 

[Diz]

Umm, really old ones that I don't think anyone uses anymore, but you never know.

 

[Butterfree]

It is not theoretically possible for a browser not to support SSI. They are server-side includes; the server pastes the include files into the .shtml file before the page is sent to the browser. No browser will ever know that your menus aren't actually in the file it thinks it's fetching.

Since the server does the work, it is the server (i.e. your web host) that needs to support it, not the client (i.e. the browser).

 

[Diz]

Oh, ok. I'll take that off! I think I might have heard about that when somebody was talking about on their own system.

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

I don't have a lot of time to look at the content, but I do have a few tips I can give you about the layout. First of all, the diagonal stripes in the menus make the text really hard to read. If you really want those there, they should be made much fainter so they don't detract from the text. Actually, all of the diagonal stripes are a little harsh; in my opinion they could all be toned down a little bit. =) I might have more to say later, but right now I'm out of time. =(

 

[Diz]

Would a larger text size work too? The stripes are pretty much set in stone. =(

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

A larger text size and/or bolded font might help, too. But I'm not saying get rid of the stripes; just toning them down a little would make things better. Try using an image like this; it's the same one that you're using, but I added a white layer over the stripes so they would be lighter. (If you like it you can use it; I don't care.)

Edit: And, taking a quick look at your content, it would be nice if you put the tutorials right on the menu for easy access, instead of having a page with submenus. Not only would they be easier to access, but it lets visitors quickly see about how much content your site has. =) The same goes for the Submissions page, and any other page with submenus. And it's also kind of a pet peeve of mine when there's pages for things like fanfics and fanart, but all the page says is, "No one has submitted yet, click here to submit!" Just my opinion. xD;

 

[Diz]

Sound advice. I think I will steal your image too! =]

 

[Ivy Newton]

Erm... McAfee SiteAdvisor yelled at me when I tried to go there 'cause tests had shown browser security breaches or something like that.


That's probably not a good thing.

 

[Diz]

One of my friends had said the same thing, that the page wouldn't load, a virus report showed up or something and so on.

I have contacted Ifastnet about this problem. Here, take a look.

On of my friends in real-life went to check out the new features on my site, since I just recently moved from Freewebs to ifastnet as a host. However, he said that his browser wouldn't even load my website. He also mentioned something about viruses. Could you please provide some information about this? Also, is there anyway that I could remove the ads that you placed on my pages? If not, is there a way to make them smaller/move them to a different location? Thanks

They replied:

Please confirm / or try ;

1)clear your browser cookies/and cache, and clear your local DNS:

REF : ads

If you want the forced advertisements removed, you can design a banner into your website in a position that suits you.
Please can you use the following url to obtain the banner code:

http://byet.org/adformats.php

Once you add the banner into your design, please reply to this support ticket.

Alternatively, please consider a premium hosting account which is completely advert free and has no banners or popups. Each of the premium hosting accounts include a free domain and many extra features / much larger disk space and bandwidth.

To find out more please look at:

http://byethost.com/paidplans.php

regards

That's really all I can add.

 

[Ivy Newton]

It's not that it wouldn't let me go, I was just scared to go after it told me that 'cause I'm a worrywart.

 

[Diz]

Well, as far as I know, there aren't any viruses on my site.

Does McAfee SiteAdvisor have a 'report evil site of doom' feature on it? Because it may have been that somebody did add a virus to their website hosted by iFastnet, and then a person with McAfee might have reported it, and now the thing freaks out at sites hosted by them.

 

[Sandstone-Shadow]

I got something similar; I can't remember exactly what the report said, but I closed down the internet and ran a scan on my whole computer; AVG didn't find anything, so...

 

[Diz]

Your internet browser?

*cowers* It's not my fault, I swear!

 

[surskitty]

Why exactly is this layout fixed-width? That's always a terrible plan. At least you centered it, though.

Please get rid of the stripes on the sidebars: they're really, really distracting. I zoomed out of the page to get the text size to legible instead of huge and they're less of an issue, but now the fixed-width layout takes up about a third of the screen at most. Complete waste of space. Really thick borders are ugly, too: why do you have them?

Remove some of the space between the headings on the sidebars and what the headings refer to.

Your Cbox has quite possibly the ugliest colour scheme ever known.

You spelled Zapdos "Zapdose" on your Pokemon of the Month page and everything there could be found on Psypoke or frequently Veekun. Why have it?

I am really bothered by things where people go on and on and on about NOT STEALING THEIR IMAGES but don't even have the decency to say that they're editing things drawn by other people. They're not your sprites or icons. They're sprites and icons that you edited from other people's art and the edits are yours. The sprites themselves? Not really.


Why do you have an Other People's Sprites section? Why not just have a place where you link to other people's galleries if you have to go with that at all?


Your marquee page is very boring. Also, congratulations: it's exceedingly easy to skip by hitting "view source" and scrolling. ... it's still boring and I don't see why anyone would WANT to, but it's easily doable.

Your "Catch a Ditto!" thing still has ears.


Why does your GIMP animation tutorial assume that one is using Windows?

Why are you crossing out links instead of commenting out lines?


To be honest, you seem to have exactly no original content that anyone would want to read.

 

[Diz]

The chatbox is supposed to look like Ho-oh

Why do you have an Other People's Sprites section? Why not just have a place where you link to other people's galleries if you have to go with that at all?

Some people still sprite even though they don't have websites to put them on.

Your marquee page is very boring. Also, congratulations: it's exceedingly easy to skip by hitting "view source" and scrolling. ... it's still boring and I don't see why anyone would WANT to, but it's easily doable.

And viewing the source would kinda ruin the fun of waiting to get an award and seeing what I have provided to make you wait.

You spelled Zapdos "Zapdose" on your Pokemon of the Month page and everything there could be found on Psypoke or frequently Veekun. Why have it?

Typo. Thanks for pointing it out. If you notice, at the bottom of the page I have mentioned that every thing is from Psypoke and the PoTM is meant as a way for my visitors to interact with me and learn a bit about their favorite of the four pokemon I listed.

Why are you crossing out links instead of commenting out lines?

I want people to know that the page is still there but I have to re-do it.

Your "Catch a Ditto!" thing still has ears.

Do you want to go through all that Javasript and remove the ears? that nobody except it seems you care about?

Why does your GIMP animation tutorial assume that one is using Windows?

I didn't know that the procedure is different for a different OS. I also wouldn't have a clue about how to do it in any other OS.

I zoomed out of the page to get the text size to legible instead of huge and they're less of an issue, but now the fixed-width layout takes up about a third of the screen at most. Complete waste of space. Really thick borders are ugly, too: why do you have them?

Remove some of the space between the headings on the sidebars and what the headings refer to.

DD v 3.0 is still partially in the trial stage, so things like the size of the text on my left and right menus are subject to change.

Why exactly is this layout fixed-width? That's always a terrible plan. At least you centered it, though.

Could you please tell me how to make it non-fixed width with the current page setup?

I am really bothered by things where people go on and on and on about NOT STEALING THEIR IMAGES but don't even have the decency to say that they're editing things drawn by other people. They're not your sprites or icons. They're sprites and icons that you edited from other people's art and the edits are yours. The sprites themselves? Not really.

I assume that you mean my sprites page, since you didn't say. However, I did spend quite a lot of time on all of those, and somebody taking credit for my time and work is not something any artist would look forward too.

Leonardo Da Vinci didn't create humans, he just painted one, and yet we aren't annoyed by the Mona Lisa.

 

[Departure Song]

surskitty is on her DS at the moment, but she would like to remind you that Da Vinci painted well.