Another day, another site notes posting..

• New fixed width theme named '911bloggerCSS_1024fixed' ¹
• Fixed annoying bug where the main textbox for story/blog entries would go behind the side panels in Internet Explorer
• Added Shoutbox ²
• Updated '911blogger3col' theme ³
• Fixed issue where upcoming events with same start and end date (but different times) would be listed in a from/to span instead of a single date

Detials:

1. The first thing I got done tonight was a fixed width theme for our low resolution users. The new theme is named '911bloggerCSS_1024fixed' and as the name implies forces the site to a fixed width of 1024 (1000px actually). This theme also has a reduced comment font size as well. This theme should help out our low resolution users a bunch as they will now have a center column that is forced to be a reasonable size, and their comments text will be smaller so that they can see more comments and have less risk of the responses getting too thin to read.
2. After seeing another comment today about missing the old haloscan comment I thought a bit about why some are not liking the new system. There are a couple reasons. First, people with low resolutions are getting small center columns which causes the comments to be squished, and responses even more so (this issue has been taken care of with the new fixed width theme mentioned above¹). The other complaint is that when posting comments users now have to respond to a specific comment (or the initial post), and then have to scour the comments again later to find other responses to their post, in turn slowing down how quickly they can carry on a conversation via the comments sections. The thing I noted is that the comments section is intended to be comments about the initial post or blog entry, not for carrying on real time chat - the way it was used on haloscan. So, I figured that adding a Shoutbox window would allow users to have this semi-instant conversation, and keep the comments sections from becoming what they were on the old site. You should find the new Shoutbox on the right hand panel, give it a try.
3. The '911blogger3col' theme is a table based theme (instead of CSS floating panels). This helps out a good bit for browsers which have issues with CSS, but is mostly available so I can access the site better from my mobile phone

Got a good ways to go, but with the addition of the new fixed width theme there should be a viable solution for all users at the moment - except perhaps Safari users. If you are still having formatting issues (more than just opinions on the color scheme) please get me some details!

Don't forget to stay on top of the todo lists here:

• bugs
• suggestions
• todo