macbasement.com: unified site running WordPress and punBB

i like it, but it is extremely plain. is that what you are going for?

^ Yes… sort of… But I’m open to suggestions…

I dont care for it at all.

1. the digg/comments links on the far right look like theyve been left hanging.

2. your images within posts appear to be hanging as well.

Maybe thats because you have so many posts on the front page.

3. Its text heavy, makes me not want to read any of it.

You need less posts, and more deliniation between where 1 post stops and another starts. Perhaps that will be solved by moving the digg/comments thing OFF the right hand side of the browser window.

4. I dont care for the breadcrumb thing on the blog. It doesnt change when I click a permalink, so whats the point? I know where I am.

5. The lists in your sidebar arent all aligned. Your archives list is hugging the left side of the browser window while the other lists do not. I dont like the dotted bullets. Theyre plain. Boring,

6. Theres too much whitespace.

7. It doesnt validate.
https://validator.w3.org/check?uri=https://macbasement.com/

and since many of those errors are structural, i cant really be sure that its going to look the same in all my browsers. If i really wanted to read your site, that would make a difference to me. And I probably wouldnt bother. There are nicer sites out there.

Over-all:
It looks “tossed up” like you were in a hurry, missed the details, went back later and thought, I dont care, and just left it.

Thanks for the feedback…

Oh, and boy does it validate now:
https://validator.w3.org/check?uri=https://macbasement.com/

thats much better. ??

You took care of atleast 1/2 of what I said above :))

I think the text looks a bit of a mess. On the front page you have serif, sans, bold, italic, caps, lowercase, white, grey… I’d simplify the presentation a bit.

whooami, I’m thinking about how to fix the other half… ??

onocrotalus, Don’t you think that helps to differentiate between the different elements? Since the page is low on images and load time, I thought I’d put some creativity into the text. Does anyone else think there are too many different styles of text?

I’m thinking about putting a PNG in the background to give the background a gradient instead of a flat color. (PNG so that the gradient will stay regardless of the background color). Would that make it any better, or should I stay with the flat color?

Fonts…. I like the use of the serif font for the titling. But I think your posts would be more readable in a sans-serif font. And I’d use the same sans-serif font for the “Dugg Stories” section (the quoted stuff). Light text on dark background is hard enough to read without the extra “fluff”.

Also, I think your post area needs compacting some. It makes for very long lines to read and winds up with words squashed over on the right with no “room to breathe”.

Otherwise, it’s a pretty cool look! Don’t do the gradient – that’s a way-overdone thing any more.

^ OK… I’ll do some messing around with the CSS and see how sans-serif looks… And no gradient then.

I’ve added a border around images in the posts… Not sure if it’s exactly the way to go… But I assume it helps the “hanging” issue.

The breadcrumb now more accurately tells you where you are on the WordPress pages (not yet on the punBB pages)

I’ve removed the dotted bullets… But what do you suggest I have instead?

Well, I never want bullets of any sort. Bullets belong in 12th grade outlines in English or History…. I like the graphics borders.

its looking better… the borders around the images help alot.

Bullets belong in 12th grade outlines in English or History

well said!

vkaryl, sans-serif text is now live… have a look. Is that what you had in mind? And thanks for reading/commenting on the blog.

whooami, serif or sans-serif?

i like the style of test you have for your content, right now, (sans-serif) but then I’m an ariel kinda gal. ??

Ah yes…. much more readable. Actually, I very much like your site. It’s striking, simple, and now readable. Let it simmer for a week before you tweak anything else, see how it “sits” at that point…. (though I still think the content div could be about 10% smaller….)

Sans-serif it is then.

Thanks vkaryl! I’ve done a lot of tweaking in the past few days… I suppose I’ll give it a rest a while and see how people respond.