bumfluff

You guys have GOT to stop taking me so seriously...

#divname { background-blur: 0.6; } you can use any number from 0.0 to 1.0

The "will be seen worldwide" thing really doesn't work. It may be seen worldwide, but not in a context where much notice will be taken of the designer. Have you thought about offering something like a percentage of earnings for a set time?

If they're in the UK, how about Trading Standards?

I think for each of those people who need to make 50 posts to apply for a job, you'd then get 50 posts of "good", "i agree","qwertyuiop","ljhfkgjhsdkfgh" etc

Sorry for the late reply.. what I'm getting at is that 'rock' is a pretty wide genre. You need to have some idea of their sound in order to portray it visually.

Fair enough - IN MY OPINION they're still generally intrusive. Seeing as it's all opinion, you might want to change where you've said "now they aren't intrusive".. I know information is collected by a lot of people. I'm not sure what the point of that was, unless you're trying to say that's fine because lots of other people do it. Which doesn't make a lot of sense as arguments go.

But they are still intrusive. Maybe not on your site (I don't know how you've implemented them), but in general terms they're still annoying and they still track users. Because of that, people are going to use ad blockers.. and because they're using them, they're not going to know if you have ads or not so they won't be making a choice about whether your site's ads are worth whitelisting. I don't know if the advertisers who sell information are a 'small portion', but the number of ads that use tracking definitely isn't. The companies who supply the majority of ads use tracking. If a donation button isn't working for you, what about limiting what content can be accessed for free? You can have visitors pay for certain content. The free stuff can act as an example so people can see if it's likely to be worth paying for wider access. I agree with you there. Visitors are more likely to pay something they feel attached to. You give people something, they're more likely to give something back. In this case, you wouldn't just be giving content in the traditional sense, you'd also be giving them a community and the feeling of belonging to something. If people feel they belong to something, there's also an element of loyalty there - they'll probably want to contribute in some way.

Blocking ads is immoral? What a load of ******. Ad blockers weren't invented to deprive you of income, they were invented because a) ads were becoming too intrusive, and b ) because there are privacy issues around advertisers tracking net users and then selling on information to marketers. If your content is really as good as you believe, why not just use a donate button?

Yeah.. in the way that a dustman is a sanitation artist.

*bump* Any mod insights?

That might be 'cos it's missing It wasn't anything major, just a jokey reply to the guy who asked why we couldn't get along. It's happened before though so I figured this time I would ask about it.

I could say how to do this on Photoshop, but it's been ages since I've used The GIMP and I don't think you can do it the same way. I'll say how though, just in case. On Photoshop, you could use paths to make an image mask for the picture, or use paths to cut the letters out of a grey layer above the image. Photoshop automatically does the anti-aliasing round the edges, but I don't think The GIMP does. Worth a try, though. If not, you might have to just paint the grey layer manually using a brush with a smooth edge. It might be worth downloading Inkscape (free), which would let you draw out the letter shapes with vectors (they'd be anti-aliased too), and then colour in the rest of the background with The GIMP.

I noticed one of my posts in that thread about designing on mac vs on a pc disappeared. Not the most on-topic of posts, admittedly, but nothing offensive. It's happened a few times before as well in other threads (although I couldn't say which ones). Were they removed by mods or is it a forum bug or something?

A massive consensus, despite no pc users accepting osx is better? How's that work, then?

Server-side or client-side doesn't really have anything to do with it. What's important is if/how you can get to it.

Can you post the rough-looking version you managed?

Charge by the hour and it won't matter. I don't think you'll be able to see the PHP stuff, 'cos it's server-side. Depending on how the server is set up, you may be able to try downloading index.php, and there may even be clues in there as to what the other PHP files are.

I think that's more a Windows vs MacOS argument rather than Mac vs PC, but it's a fair point. There are definitely more security issues with Windows. Will come back to that one in a bit. Thing is with the PC, there seems to be a lot more in the way of customisability. There are billions of shareware and freeware programs that add or change the basic functionality of Windows. A lot were written to emulate programs that come with the Mac. There's probably some that don't have a Windows equivalent, but that probably goes the other way too. You could argue that these things should be part of the OS and available as default, but that's maybe missing my point, which is that there are a lot more options available here for PC users. Btw, for anyone who likes UI customising/tweakage, this is a great site. Totally agree. But there are similar ones, except for maybe Silverback (I couldn't name an equivalent on the PC). I would have thought that sooner or later, either someone will make an equivalent, or it'll get ported. The main thing is that (apart from Silverback), I can do the equivalent job with PC apps, even though the app itself may be different. I use Notepad++ for coding, or if I wanted to test with the same program, there's Kompozer etc. Another important point is that industry standard software for design is available for both (Linux doesn't really have that yet, or I probably wouldn't still be using XP). These seems to be more about personal preference than an actual fact. Yes, there are stability and optimising benefits, but it comes with the downside of limited options. Personally, I'm a tinkerer. I like to tinker around with my PC setup. Over time, you pick things up about hardware interoperability etc and don't need that safety net so much. I totally understand why most users may prefer having a limited number of options that are almost (not totally) guaranteed to work well together, but I prefer the freedom of choice. Regarding the keyboard thing, that's pretty easy to get around. You buy a new keyboard. There are plenty of options (that word again), including Mac ones. Going back to the first point about virii and malware, I haven't caught any nasties in something like 8 years. I do think that most infections are down to 'user errors' (clicking on random email attachments and so on), but there are definite OS flaws as well (XP and earlier running as admin by default etc), but having a bit of knowledge about computer security will get around that. An OS shouldn't rely on the user to apply various programs and settings to secure it, but unfortunately Windows does. It's a minus point for Windows, but luckily it doesn't affect me so much. In general terms, I do see why the experience of using a Mac would be preferable for most people. I've used them myself, and quite like them. It's unfortunate that most PCs are running an OS that requires users to be proactive about security and know about hardware and software to get the most out of it. The upside in my view though is that you have a much wider range of (cheaper) options and more flexibility. Personal preference, though.

I meant it more in the sense of how you would describe their sound

Wait, I just thought of one advantage - Macs are better at rendering Helvetica. um, not sure that I'd pay the extra for that, though.

Why yes. You can pay someone who has learnt them Another option would be to use a content management system (CMS). That's kinda like a prebuilt system that does all the things you wanted. You'd still need to learn some level of coding (XHTML, CSS, PHP) in order to customise it, even if you just want to change the layout. If it's just for personal use, you could even get around that (by using a premade template), but if it's for any kind of business, it'd make a lot more sense to have a custom layout.

First you'd need a database to store the user details, including permissions, and then you'd use a server-side language, usually ASP or PHP (PHP is my preference) to code all the bits where people log in and interact with their pages.

Someone I know did this site recently, and I think it's bloody brilliant. It's simple, but it's also individual and looks pretty darn good.

How long has it been since the old domain was bought? If it's close to expiry, you may be able to snap it up as long as the people who have it now don't renew it. Far as I know, they usually become available about a month after the official expiry date (eg, if you registered it for the standard 2 years and didn't renew, it could be bought by someone else after 2 years and a month). If I were in the client's shoes, I'd probably write to them (recorded delivery) and say that I was unhappy with the service and that I didn't feel they were fulfilling their end of the deal (basically, the updates). As it was a large amount of money, I can't afford to just say goodbye to it. As an alternative to legal action, I would be willing to call it quits for say £2,000 back and return of the domain. If that wasn't aceptable, I'd see 'em in court. If I were you though, I wouldn't get involved beyond advising your friend. Don't put yourself in a position where it's down to you to get the details..