plainsman

works in Firefox … wild colours! nice!

very attactive site! great work!

uh, by the way – the above comes from the
Lynch Guide to Grammar and Style at Rutgers University
https://andromeda.rutgers.edu/~jlynch/Writing/a.html

A or An.
Use “an” in place of “a” when it precedes a vowel ‘sound’, not just a vowel.
That means it’s “an honor” (the h is silent), but “a UFO” (because it’s pronounced yoo eff oh).
This confuses people most often with acronyms and other abbreviations: some people think it’s wrong to use “an” in front of an abbreviation (like “MRI”) because “an” can only go before vowels.
Poppycock: the sound is what matters. It’s “an MRI,” assuming you pronounce it “em ar eye.”
Does this help?

*grin* and I appreciate your response, Root.
the server thing is because they are on the university servers – we just went through a hurricane here and they are still having a ‘lot’ of problems. in retrospect, i’ve been thinking that i posted the request here too early anyway. so, my apologies
… once the IT folks get those server issues dealt with, the speed will come back. as for my server (provider)? hmm? they, too, have had ‘server’ issue lately.
i wish you would have told me ‘which layout’ has a potential problem. that would help.
and, yes, they should be coming out on their own. i’m seeing them ‘slowly’ creep out and post elsewhere … we’ll see how it goes.
thank you for your feedback.

Thank you, Dylan.
I agree about seeking comment by going out and commenting / trackbacks, et.al. elsewhere. I have already been encouraging them to do that. This post was just a small ‘plea’ ;o)
I realize that blogging in education (although I’ve found many examples) is still a new endeavor. Any new resources and feedback, are – of course – always appreciated.
I sent an e-mail to you re: the “compendium for Eastgate Systems”. Yes, we would like to be included in your listings.
Thank you for the feedback and best wishes.
Robert

Well, I’m sure others will comment, but I’ll give your question a try.
I believe that in most cases the ‘time’ is located in
<?php the_author() ?> @ <?php the_time() ?>
you can move that around with ease – provided you keep in the same ‘context’ – as in, inside a ‘div class’ argument … or class=”storytitle”, etc.
I had to play with it at the beginning to find ways that worked.
One tip … SAVE A BACK UP COPY of your index.php before starting. *grin* :o) Put it in notepad, for instance, to paste back in when it doesn’t work.
Good luck.

I realize, now, that this section is really for discussing the design/look of the sites … although there are comments about content here, too.
Any tips as to what forum topic sections might draw constructive comments to my student’s blogs? They really want/need some feedback (from someone besides me) about what they are doing (although we realize that they are new at this and really have only blogged a little bit).
Thanks.

I like the gray and ‘green’ (sort of) color for background. Pretty site and loads ok (except for the banner) on broadband.
It is a clean design. The text, for me, is too small. The navigation is too light of a gray – even on rollover. But, that’s just me.
The banner (at 72.52 KB) is way too large. Dial-up people will be looking for you. ;o)
Still, I like the site. With a optimized banner and larger font, I’d be proud to use it on a site. Nice, clean and simple – yet attractive!
Good job.

I guess most folks would like a standarized site to just upload and use.
However, I’d take either one. I’m just guessing that most of the people in these forums would be thankful and able to adapt what you offer. (Some of the more seasoned members would have to make that judgement. Anyone?) I imagine that it just depends upon level of comfort in editing the files – CSS/index.php, etc.
Maybe, to make it easier for you at first (since you’re working on other things – and, you’re kindly sharing) just take out anything you’d not want others to see/use and zip up the index.php, wp-layout/style.css and any images (if you want to include yours – great, or offer some generic ones) – then share that alone.
I bet there would be lot of people that would be more than happy to get the style. :o) For casual/beginning users, I’m sure they’d like something usable right away without any changing/hacking.
It is very nice of you to share, too. Thanks!

I agree with the “‘normal’ font-size” comment. I like the site. Clean, easy to navigate and certainly one of the easiest to read. Great job!

Very nice. The areas that are particularly impressive:
– colors work very well together
– navigation is easy to follow / use
– content boxes, etc. are very clean and add to ease of use/reading
– blockquotes/quotes are really cool … like that a lot
– the front page vine going through the “Reflection | Comments” navigation is very cool, too
– shadow edges/slight bevel, also a nice touch and – it loads fast, actually … how neat!
One of my favs, so far … and I usually don’t like those that render in a narrow static column way … but this one is pretty! and easy to read! (narrow, of course, being a personal concept of what ‘width’ is actually narrrow)
Thanks for sharing it.

Thank you, Ben. I appreciate your willingness to share it.
I have students that are always looking for ‘new styles’ and they are not CSS ‘savvy’ … so contributions like yours to the WordPress community will just make them smile a mile wide! Plus, by looking at your CSS they’ll learn!
Oh, the blockquotes in serif and larger size are great – I can read them now. :o)
Thanks and take care.

by the way, I’ll ask what I always ask … will you zip up the old theme/style (and even the new) and share with the community?
no biggie, just asking :o) all the best and take care!

Hey, I really like the old site (except for the lack of contrast between backgrounds and text). Other than that tweak, I’d give a thumbs up to the existing theme/style.
That being said, the new style “non-front-blue-color-scheme.jpg” and “front.jpg” are equally attractive. Your new style ‘is’ easier to read … and I think the navigation improvements are terrific. You do have solid text/background contrast now, so I’m a lover of the site(s)/pages.
Adding the actionscript is a cool move, too. BenSaunders.com loads very fast on broadband (since you’re not getting the whole thing) … tailoring the images to the content per page/post keeps the flash aspect from being simple eye candy – and, that’s impressive … don’t know if actionscript has an effect on dialup (probably does?) but I have no idea of the kb size of the images being called/loaded. That’s the only worry I’d have – but, you already know ’bout that, don’t you. ;o)
Nice designs. Very clean, attractive and enjoyable for your visitors.