06/14/2009: Birthday Approaching
So, as you may or may not know, The Quest for the Legends' seventh birthday is coming up next Friday. I meant to make chapter 48 the big birthday update, but now I think I may finish it before the nineteenth, and keeping it back just to put it up the right day would be kind of annoying, both for you and for me. So I was considering my options for stuff to do for the fic's birthday if I put up chapter 48 sometime before that.EDIT: Chapter 48 is done and will be up tomorrow.
Idea #1: Redo Chalenor Style
I don't really like the Chalenor style here at the minipage much. I could use this opportunity to remake it entirely; probably just about the same colors, but a different layout and general design. In which case it would be nice to hear from you about what kinds of changes you would like to see. I could also tweak Chaletwo style somewhat while I'm at it.
Idea #2: Add New Style
I could also add a new style - probably based on Mew, since Mew, Chalenor and Chaletwo are pretty much the main legendaries of the fic (let's just say Molzapart doesn't count because he's not a Creator or Preserver). This would allow me to make a medium-colored style to go with the light Chaletwo style and dark Chalenor style.
Idea #3: New Styles Altogether
By which I mean redoing the minipage layout completely and creating completely new styles. For instance, I am toying with the idea of Thunderyu, Volcaryu and Polaryu styles - Volcaryu's would be black and red and thus the dark layout, Thunderyu's mostly yellow with some blue and on the light side but still intermediate, and Polaryu's white and blue as the light layout. I'm starting to lean towards this. Any objections, suggestions, etc.?
Idea #4: ILCOE Character Bios
The character bios currently on the minipage are… well, the only section on the site that applies to the IALCOTN rather than the ILCOE. That's pretty much because at the time I couldn't be bothered to make bios for everybody somewhat important who has been introduced in the ILCOE, and the IALCOTN was really being written. Now that I'm obsessively writing the ILCOE and the IALCOTN is pretty much on an acknowledged hiatus until I get serious writer's block on the ILCOE, maybe it's time I finally made the ILCOE bios. (I am thinking about including a section called "Character Rambles" in each bio where I would, well, ramble about the character, which I'm sure I would have a lot of fun with, but I don't know about anybody else.)
Note that nothing says I can't do many of these things except the time constraints - it's only a few days, after all, and I don't think I'd have the time to do all of this for the birthday (though I might just do much of the rest later).
Any thoughts about these ideas, which you'd most like to see, other ideas, etc.? I'm particularly interested in whether you think I should keep the Chalenor/Chaletwo(/Mew) layouts or switch to Thunderyu/Volcaryu/Polaryu - I'd rather not have both at the same time since I don't really want to bog this minipage down with random gimmicks like styles and it's neater when the styles are more nicely parallel - and whether you would have any interest in reading character rambles about everybody important in the ILCOE.
COMMENTARY DONE
Comments
Mumei (06/15/2009 00:31:28)
Hmm… I really like the idea of Thunderyu/Volcaryu/Polaryu styles. It'd be a nice change.
And ILCOE character bios = MUST HAVE. Not necessarily for the birthday, but soon. Very soon.
And character rambles would be quite fun =)
Pure Umbreon (06/15/2009 01:22:43)
I really like the idea of character bios. The detail you used in explaining your world, fake pokemon, and characters (though there are only a couple =/) is what drew me into the fic when I first came here. I really hate just jumping into an OT fic without some background. =)
I would find it cool to have the Ouen Dragons grace the minipages, but I am too attached to the Chaletwo style to want you to scratch the style completely. (Chalenor REALLY needs to be tweaked though)
elyvorg (06/15/2009 09:23:06)
I would LOVE to hear those character rambles. Your rambles are always interesting no matter the subject, but on this particular subject they'd be doubly so.
Style-wise, I'm going to go for the dragons option. Right now I use Chaletwo because light-on-dark hurts my eyes after too long, but I find it really plain - a lot plainer than the Chalenor style, actually, since it's just that Chaletwo banner at the top with a pile of links underneath it, whereas Chalenor at least has a somewhat neat-looking layout and those nice blue swirls.
So yeah, dragon-themed styles sounds like fun and would offer people whose eyes hurt with light-on-dark text more than one choice.
Shpewn (06/15/2009 10:02:49)
Thunderyu/Volcaryu/Polaryu styles! Totally! Those would be awesome! And DEFINITELY ILCOE character bios. Many times, I have looked at the Bios with time to kill and found only Mark and Charmander.
ShadowDusk (06/15/2009 15:40:38)
I like idea #2
Chalenorfan (06/15/2009 15:41:42)
You really need ILCOE character bios, and I think that Polaryu/Thunderyu/Volcaryu would also be good.
That being said, I have to say I find the Chalenor style superior to the Chaletwo style, and the blue swirls are great.
SilverLatios47 (06/15/2009 18:12:27)
Dragon styles sound really good, I'd keep mine on Volcaryu because I can only read online with dark background and lighter text. And I agree with Shpewn about the bios. but what if you redid, but not completley changed the current layouts, and added a single layout with all the dragons in it for a medium style. just a random thought.
Rambles are definitely a must. I like reading your rambles. Would you be able to keep the current styles? I don't see why Chalenor style is in need of 'tweaking', though. I find it perfectly functional. so yeah, dragons are for sure a brilliant idea.
Something random I thought of right now would be polls specifically for tQftL. I don't know if you're taking page requests like that, but I suddenly thought it wouldn't be such a bad idea. O_O
Butterfree (06/15/2009 18:18:41)
What, just like "Who is your favorite character?" and stuff like that? Hmm, maybe.
Icepool (06/15/2009 19:07:31)
I like ideas 2 and 4 best.
I'm too attaches to the Chalenor style to see it scrapped.
Butterfree (06/16/2009 01:26:17)
I've made a rough draft of a possible Thunderyu style. Any thoughts? Everything is subject to change.
Chucho (06/16/2009 01:53:34)
I think you should swap the links from the top bar to the side bar and vice versa. The top one is where my eyes are dragged to first, and I think of the fanfic as more important than the forums. However, that might make the bar too big for smaller resolutions. I don't know, really.
Crazy Linoone (06/16/2009 03:42:40)
The dragon styles will be awesome and much appreciated. The character blahs are going to be fun to read, too.
The Thunderyu style's pretty cool, but the placement of the side-bar is sort of weird. I'm used to the three column formatting style, since that's what most websites use, so it's going to take a little while getting used to it. Love the Thunderyu picture on the banner though. The shading's quite lovely, although it sorta blends into the background a bit.
The only thing bothering me is how the links are blue. Since blue is the opposite color of yellow, it stands out sorta harshly… I suppose they could resemble the blue gems on Thunderyu, but still. I don't really like them…
Holy magicarp the new chapter is out kthanksbyegottagoreeeaaaddddd….
Butterfree (06/16/2009 15:13:19)
I think you should swap the links from the top bar to the side bar and vice versa. The top one is where my eyes are dragged to first, and I think of the fanfic as more important than the forums. However, that might make the bar too big for smaller resolutions. I don't know, really.I was both thinking of the size of the menu (it would split into two lines even on my pretty big widescreen monitor) and a sort of general page navigation logic - even though one's eyes travel first to the top and one could therefore say it ought to be the more important menu, a lot of sites have a small top navigation menu for different areas of the site (e.g. site, forums, oekaki, topsites) similar to how there I have the links to the forums, comments, Quest Blog and The Cave of Dragonflies. Thus I figured that people would be more likely to expect that sort of menu at the top than on the side.
On the other hand, you do have a point about the eye taking relatively long to find the site menu when it's there on the right. Do you think it would be better to just flip it around, so that the style switcher and site menu are on the left instead of the right? One is also more accustomed to looking for navigation menus on the left, so it should make the menu easier to find. (You too, Crazy Linoone; would that solve the weirdness problem?)Love the Thunderyu picture on the banner though. The shading's quite lovely, although it sorta blends into the background a bit.Heh, it originally had outlines, but then I made that layer invisible in the hope that it might slightly mask my anatomyfail and thought it looked sort of stylish that way anyway. :P I put the outlined version on there now; you can see it if you want (like it more or less than the lineless?)
Yeah, the blue links were starting to bother me as well. I think I'll maybe switch the normal and hover colors, so they're normally golden and become blue on hover. Or something.
EDIT: Made all the changes I proposed here, in addition to finishing the forum styling. Opinions?
Crazy Linoone (06/16/2009 22:21:21)
:D Much better, now that the links are no longer blue.
The side bars are more normal now. I suppose it's just that I'm not used to it, since I spend most of my time on a site with the main navigation bar on the left (coughTCoDcough). Or at least, the style I'm using has the navigation bars on the left.
OH! I just had a random idea. How about, for each dragon style, you can place the side bars at different areas? For example, Thunderyu's can be on the right, Volcaryu's can be on the top, and Polaryu's can be on the left. Or something.
The outlined Thunderyu looks pretty awesome, but I can't tell which one looks better… >.<;
The one without the outline has more, as you put it, style, but the outlined one stands out more and gave me the feel of "rawr, I eat you", if you know what I mean… And since I don't see any anatomyfail, it's alright~
The forums look pretty good.
Now I will sink back into stalking.
opaltiger (06/17/2009 12:15:28)
that is very… yellow.
Butterfree (06/17/2009 13:02:23)
Well, it's a bit hard for a Thunderyu style not to be yellow, isn't it? :P
Obviously, the Volcaryu and Polaryu styles won't be yellow, so if you're blinded by yellow in general, that shouldn't be a problem. I also at least tried to make it reasonably easy on the eyes for a yellow style; I don't know how well that succeeded for anybody else.
piplup165 (06/19/2009 01:33:23)
I agree that you should put up Thunderyu/Volcaryu/Polaryu styles. It's a great idea. I also would LOVE new character bios. Often, when I'm just exploring TQftL stuff, I go there, and find only Mark and Charmander. I also agree with the poll thing mentioned earlier. I've always wanted to see who is the majority of people's favorite character. Not to mention battle, chapter, etc. All of those are great ideas.
opaltiger (06/23/2009 14:30:41)
for what it's worth, I really like the chalenor style and will be sad to have to use a red/black one instead :(