I like the banner of your site just the colors are a little bland. It seems like it is a very boring blog, but it isn't by content. It is very interesting. I would recommend changing the colors a bit to make it more lively.

You have a lot of validation errors, so you might want to clean them up or pull the bits that claim valid xhtml and css. Other than that, I too think the green background color is just a shade or 2 too much. Sorta blahs out the page somehow.

EdB wrote:

You have a lot of validation errors, so you might want to clean them up or pull the bits that claim valid xhtml and css.

I really dont know what that means because I'm a noob at all of this. All I did was change colors of the skin in the .CSS file, and I used my very minimal knowledge of php to change some things in the _main.php file.

Happen to have a good link that will point out the validation errors or explain how to code it correctly?

Also I have that annoying problem with the referrers box overlapping out of the "box" I have for it. I'll have to play with margin settings when I get home from work.

I'll work on the colors and make it more lively. Maybe I chose the drab ones because it's been raining for like 14 straight days in L.A.

Validation just means the xhtml and/or css are written according to the W3C standards for how web pages and style sheets are supposed to be written.

On the bottom of the right sidebar you have two 'validation' links that are part of the skin: one for the xhtml and the other for the css. Unfortunately most of the older skins are not valid code even though they claim to be. Anyway if you click the one for xhtml it'll tell you how many errors you have. You can then check a little box that'll show you the exact lines of the errors, which you can use to go back to your _main.php file and try to work out the issues. Here's a simple one that came up a lot:

<h2 class=bPostinfo>January 10, 2005</h2>

fails because the bPostInfo is supposed to be in quotation marks.

Big deal, right? Nope! "Invalid" code works most of the time, and "valid" code sometimes doesn't so it's only a geeky bragging point.

You can snag a validatable version of Ality from http://wonderwinds.com/weblog.php/2004/11/13/upgraded_skins_for_b2evolution if you're into it, though you would have to redo the customization you've already done, but in the end it's much easier to look at your _main.php and remove the bits that make the buttons.

thanks! This will be fun to figure out.

edit: Holy shit!! there are a lot of things to fix.

Thanks again Edb. It seems that the only validation errors I get now are from the content.

My site is a bit cleaner. I can now only see 2 problems. Hopefully someone can help.

First: http://www.jamesdemastus.com/index.php/soc/2005/01/08/carlos_ruiz_is_going_to_stay_with_the_ga#comments
Any time I look at my comment page, the trackback address is too long. In IE, the border around stretches and overlaps the border of the right column.
In Firefox, the text of the trackback link only overlaps the border. Both are wrong. How can I fix that?

Second:
a problem with my calendar border in Firefox
http://www.jamesdemastus.com
With Firefox, when I load the page the first time, the calendar displays correctly. If I navigate between the different blogs (mus and mov, soccer, tech...) or refresh, sometimes only half of the calendar is displayed. Sometimes just the top "Recently cashed" link appears. It seems as if Firefox loads calendar border too quickly and decides on the size before all the data inside it has been determined. The calendar's border renders correctly everytime on IE.

I would get the validated buttons in the same format. You can use this page to help:
http://www.gtmcknight.com/buttons/validated.php

interesting colors, not sure I like them. I would also steer clear of using images with white backgrounds.. start using some transparent gifs. I agree about the validation buttons also -- way too big and again, way too white for your color "scheme"

FLamesOP2 wrote:

I would get the validated buttons in the same format. You can use this page to help:
http://www.gtmcknight.com/buttons/validated.php

thanks for the link. I replaced my "valid" buttons.

As for the colors, I'm stumped. I'm gonna have to work on that this weekend

http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html might be neato.

EdB wrote:

http://wellstyled.com/tools/colorscheme2/index-en.html might be neato.

again, thanks all for the help. that color scheme generator is sweet

I've updated http://www.jamesdemastus.com to make the colors more "happy" and there is now a random pic (which creates some new xhtml errors, but I'm working on that)

jamesey, your moderations are exactly what I have been struggling to do on my site for weeks! is there any chance you'll share them with me, or create a skin (I don't care about the validation, LOL, I just want the skin!!)? I am desperate for a 3 colum, clean looking blog, and I cannot get ality to work right for me.

littleturtlemama wrote:

jamesey, your moderations are exactly what I have been struggling to do on my site for weeks! is there any chance you'll share them with me, or create a skin (I don't care about the validation, LOL, I just want the skin!!)? I am desperate for a 3 colum, clean looking blog, and I cannot get ality to work right for me.

i'll gladly send my skin. PM me your email addy, or send me an instant message.