Please consider registering
Guest
sp_LogInOut Log Insp_Registration Register
Register | Lost password?
Advanced Search
Forum Scope


Match



Forum Options



Minimum search word length is 3 characters - maximum search word length is 84 characters
sp_Feed sp_TopicIcon
Site changes
11 October 2011
6.49pm
Avatar
Zig
The Toppermost of the Poppermost
Apple rooftop
Members

Reviewers
Forum Posts: 9827
Member Since:
14 April 2010
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Image Enlarger

 

I like the fact that the banner will rotate silhouettes. It’s really gonna make the site pop when new visitors stop by. Good luck Joe!

It's been quite some time since I mentioned this and we have a lot of new members, so I'll bring it up again here. If you guys plan on ordering anything through Amazon (George Harrison doc, books, music, Holiday gifts, whatever…), do so by linking from this site. When you do, The Beatles Bible recieves a small stipend. That money goes toward server fees, costs to upgrade the site, etc… 

I always link to Amazon from this site. It's just a way to say thanks to Joe and give back some of the enjoyment I get from this site.

Thanks.

mal-evans 

To the fountain of perpetual mirth, let it roll for all its worth. And all the children boogie.

11 October 2011
7.26pm
mr. Sun king coming together
Nowhere Land
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 6394
Member Since:
19 September 2010
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
422sp_Permalink sp_Print

Joe, a version more accessible to mobile devices sounds heavenly. I’m not going to give any suggestions at this point, seeing as how a) I’d be talking out my ass, and b) because you seem to have hit my one irritation with a mobile version (or whatever you want to call it). I can see this is huge – and much appreciated. My only piece of advice would be not to stress to much. It’ll be fantastic, and this friend clearly knows what would work for here. And finally, I have one tiny suggestion. How about a thread on the forum where people can post videos of some of the old concerts/events (ie Paul’s speech indicting John into the Rock and Roll Hall Of Fame), and other things which can be added to the main part of the site. Good luck, Mate!

As if it matters how a man falls down.'

'When the fall's all that's left, it matters a great deal.

11 October 2011
11.22pm
Avatar
Joe
Pepperland
Admin
Forum Posts: 5713
Member Since:
31 March 2008
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
423sp_Permalink sp_Print

Mith – it’s just the forum that uses tables. The rest of the site (which I built) is php and css.
Zig – thanks mate, that’s much appreciated.
Mr Sun King – not stressing at all. That’s because I’m paying someone to redo it for me! Good idea about events etc. If anyone has videos for anything that’s in the history section let me know the link and I’ll add it if I can. One day I’ll do all the key dates from 1970-2000, but that’ll take a while longer…

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

12 October 2011
3.31am
Avatar
mithveaen
Sitarday's room
Rishikesh
Members
Forum Posts: 4605
Member Since:
1 May 2010
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
424sp_Permalink sp_Print

a-hard-days-night-ringo-8 Still it's a pain to use table in HTML design. Good luck with the redesign!

 

And Zig, I'm ordering some stuff soon so I'm using this site thanks for reminding us!

Here comes the sun….. Scoobie-doobie……

Something in the way she moves…..attracts me like a cauliflower…

Bop. Bop, cat bop. Go, Johnny, Go.

Beware of Darkness… 

12 October 2011
8.30am
Avatar
Joe
Pepperland
Admin
Forum Posts: 5713
Member Since:
31 March 2008
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
425sp_Permalink sp_Print

About the Amazon thing, you don't necessarily have to order one of the products listed on this site, but if you click on one of the ads and buy any subsequent product from Amazon (even if it's nothing to do with what you clicked on), I'll get a cut. And it's all gratefully received!

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

12 October 2011
11.14am
Avatar
kelicopter
Sitting in an English Garden
Candlestick Park
Members
Forum Posts: 1316
Member Since:
7 November 2010
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
426sp_Permalink sp_Print

Wow, these updates sound so good, I cant wait! And I was never aware of the Amazon link thing, I'll definitely be going via here from now on. 

I think it's great you're going through a phase,

and I'm awfully glad it'll all be over in a couple

of days

 

funniestpost-3.png 2020

22 November 2012
10.21pm
Avatar
Joe
Pepperland
Admin
Forum Posts: 5713
Member Since:
31 March 2008
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

OK, this has been a *long* time coming, but the redesign is finally live (unless you’re seeing a locally cached version).

The site now should work better on mobiles and tablets, with a slightly different banner and adverts depending on your screen size. That’s the main change – the rest is largely cosmetic.

The relaunch has been… challenging. The friend I commissioned to do it last year did some work on it, then decided it was taking him too long and he needed to find a job. So he gave me the work-in-progress files to finish off. Anyone’s who’s ever tried to unpick someone else’s computer code will know how troublesome it can be, and I didn’t have time to really get it going for some time.

Anyway, I’ve been chipping away at it for a while, and this is the result. You may hate it. Please give it a chance, live with it for a bit. I’ve done enough site relaunches in my day job to know how attached some people get to old designs, and the normal reaction to change is a wish to revert back to the old one. It normally passes in a day or two.

You may notice that there’s no changing banner – it’s always the same four portraits. I haven’t had time to redo them all. I may do at some point, or I might just stick with what I’ve got.

OK, over to you. If you don’t like it, please suggest how I can make things better. I didn’t change things just for fun – there’s some reason for most things, but if you really hate something let me know.
a-hard-days-night-paul-7

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

22 November 2012
11.37pm
Avatar
SatanHimself
Hades-on-Leith
Hollywood Bowl
Members
Forum Posts: 666
Member Since:
16 August 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
428sp_Permalink sp_Print

Hey Joe,

 

It looks great!  I have to admit that the old design was getting pretty dated.

 

I like how you added sub-categories in the main menu as well.

E is for 'Ergent'.

23 November 2012
1.38am
Avatar
Little Piggy Dragonguy
Nowhere Land
Rishikesh
Members
Forum Posts: 4141
Member Since:
5 November 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
429sp_Permalink sp_Print

It looks a little funny on my iPod; people’s posts are not next to their avatars, they’re down more. Looks good on the computer, though.

All living things must abide by the laws of the shape they inhabit 

23 November 2012
10.03am
Avatar
Joe
Pepperland
Admin
Forum Posts: 5713
Member Since:
31 March 2008
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
430sp_Permalink sp_Print

OK, thanks Unknown. I haven’t got an iPod or iPhone, so relied on an Android phone and iPad to do mobile testing. Will try to borrow an iOS device to see what the issue is.

I know the Simple Press people (who made the forum software) are working on a responsive theme, but I don’t know when it’ll be available. For those who don’t know, responsive web design is where, instead of creating multiple versions of a site for desktop, tablet, phone, you make one which scales depending on which screen size the user has. That’s what this redesign was all about.

If you’re on a desktop machine you can see this in action. Scroll up to the top of the page, then resize your browser window so it becomes narrower. You’ll see the banner changing when you get to tablet size, and again when you get to phone width. If you’re on a page with a sidebar this will drop down below the rest of the content if the page becomes too narrow. There are three banner styles in all.

Part of the delay was because I couldn’t get the thing working on Internet Explorer, which doesn’t like media queries (the technical name for how a browser changes its style depending on the device). I had to do some head-scratching to find a workaround – I didn’t want to relaunch with IE broken, as a lot of people still use that terrible browser (not necessarily through choice – plenty of workplaces are scared of Chrome, Opera, Safari or Firefox). Glad it worked out in the end, although there’ll probably be a few snags here and there.

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

23 November 2012
1.07pm
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 25171
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
431sp_Permalink sp_Print

I think it looks far far far better than the old version, much more appealing to the eye especially when first opening the site. I also like how everything looks more square, neat and clean. One thing is that the ‘make a new post in this topic’ and ‘start a new topic’ buttons look exactly the same, its difficult to know which is which without hovering over each one and seeing what the caption says when it appears.

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

23 November 2012
3.05pm
Avatar
vonbontee
Northern Ontario, and in Von Bontee's mind
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 5608
Member Since:
1 December 2009
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
432sp_Permalink sp_Print

Yeah, that’s annoying. (Same deal with the “log in” and “register to log in” buttons.)

Also, sorry Joe, but I really don’t like the new typeface. I hate serifs! Always have. Maybe everybody else feels different or doesn’t care at all, I dunno…

No offense, just giving my $0.02. I’ll never like it, but I’ll learn to live with it and won’t complain anymore.

I do really like the main page’s yellow submarine in the sea of green

GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

         offtopic-1.png

https://rateyourmusic.com/~Myo.....Von_Bontee

23 November 2012
4.31pm
Avatar
Joe
Pepperland
Admin
Forum Posts: 5713
Member Since:
31 March 2008
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
433sp_Permalink sp_Print

I switched between sans and serif typefaces, and eventually went with the latter. I might change it at some other time. I got bored of Verdana TBH.

I noticed the buttons aren’t always displaying text. It seems to depend which browser you’re using (looks fine to me right now on PC/Chrome, but not on IE). I have no idea why it happens but when I get a bit of time I’ll delve in and take a look.

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

24 November 2012
2.42pm
Ben Ramon
Carnegie Hall
Members
Forum Posts: 613
Member Since:
26 March 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
434sp_Permalink sp_Print

Will the framed pictures of the band at the top of the site rotate through different eras as they used to? I always loved that feature.

SHUT UP - Paulie's talkin'

24 November 2012
7.55pm
Avatar
Joe
Pepperland
Admin
Forum Posts: 5713
Member Since:
31 March 2008
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Possibly not. It’s complicated, but due to the way they’re made the banner size is larger than it used to be (a transparent .png file with quite a lot of detail). It’s fine if there’s just one image, as it should get cached by people’s browsers, but if there are loads of them they each have to be reloaded, and it’d make the site a bit slower. I’ll see if I can work something out.

They used to be compressed jpegs, but now have to be transparent so they can move around in the banner area depending on people’s browser sizes. So the file sizes are larger. If this means nothing to you don’t worry.

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

25 November 2012
11.39pm
Avatar
...ontherun
Massachusetts
London Palladium
Members
Forum Posts: 187
Member Since:
3 March 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
436sp_Permalink sp_Print

Love this mobile version!

A square is not a square when the sides are less than four...

26 November 2012
3.10pm
Avatar
meanmistermustard
Thankfully not where I am.
Moderator
Members

Reviewers


Moderators
Forum Posts: 25171
Member Since:
1 May 2011
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Have moved to Firefox for this site as its so much better having all the functions and buttons operating properly. Sadly IE has a few features FF hasn’t so i fluctuate being the two. Its truly wonderful having this place in its full glory.

 

And have to agree with ontherun that the mobile version is far superior now, it was such a pain trying to hit the right button and being taken to the wrong place.

"I told you everything I could about me, Told you everything I could" ('Before Believing' - Emmylou Harris)

26 November 2012
5.05pm
Avatar
Joe
Pepperland
Admin
Forum Posts: 5713
Member Since:
31 March 2008
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Good to hear. I’m sorry that the buttons don’t work in IE – there must be a reason, because they looked OK in the old design. I’m trying to work out what’s changed to make the text disappear on the forum buttons (it’s likely that IE is detecting that it’s on a mobile device and serving up those styles, but I’m not sure why).

Although IE is a pretty awful browser I don’t want to abandon it altogether. Plenty of people still use it, and there’s no point in making life difficult for them. They’d be doing themselves a favour if they switched to Chrome, FF or Safari though.

Having things working less well in IE is better than not having a mobile site at all. I think we can all agree on that.

Can buy me love! Please consider supporting the Beatles Bible on Amazon
Or buy my paperback/ebook! Riding So High – The Beatles and Drugs

Don't miss The Bowie Bible – now live!

27 November 2012
6.53am
Avatar
Funny Paper
America
Candlestick Park
Members
Forum Posts: 2080
Member Since:
1 November 2012
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline
439sp_Permalink sp_Print

I did an Advanced search for “tabs”, and it led me to this last page of “Getting Better ” — but there is no “tabs” here.  There is  “tables” and “tablets” — but no “tabs”.

 

The reason I searched for “tabs” (and “chords”) was to make sure it hadn’t been mentioned before (I also searched the Songs forum).

 

It would be neat if the Beatles Bible could provide a section for the chords/tabs to each song.  I realize that may be a gargantuan project, but it would still be neat to have one place for that.

Faded flowers, wait in a jar, till the evening is complete... complete... complete... complete...

27 November 2012
6.58pm
Avatar
vonbontee
Northern Ontario, and in Von Bontee's mind
Apple rooftop
Members
Forum Posts: 5608
Member Since:
1 December 2009
sp_UserOfflineSmall Offline

Hey Joe, I just realized that thanks to your changes, the toolbar is back and functioning for me (and presumably meanmm and others) again!

This is a great plus, one that more than makes up for that unsightly serif font. Thanks, Joe!

(Funny Paper, I suspect that including chords/tabs would violate copyrights.)

GEORGE: In fact, The Detroit Sound. JOHN: In fact, yes. GEORGE: In fact, yeah. Tamla-Motown artists are our favorites. The Miracles. JOHN: We like Marvin Gaye. GEORGE: The Impressions PAUL & GEORGE: Mary Wells. GEORGE: The Exciters. RINGO: Chuck Jackson. JOHN: To name but eighty. 

         offtopic-1.png

https://rateyourmusic.com/~Myo.....Von_Bontee

Forum Timezone: Europe/London
Most Users Ever Online: 2057
Currently Online:
Guest(s) 206
Currently Browsing this Page:
1 Guest(s)
Top Posters:
Starr Shine?: 16105
Ron Nasty: 12534
Zig: 9827
50yearslate: 8759
Necko: 8050
AppleScruffJunior: 7585
parlance: 7111
mr. Sun king coming together: 6394
Mr. Kite: 6147
trcanberra: 6064
Member Stats:
Guest Posters: 88
Members: 2927
Moderators: 5
Admins: 1
Forum Stats:
Groups: 3
Forums: 44
Topics: 5557
Posts: 384125
Newest Members:
YellowRain, gh0str1der_, pauls_wife_real, Paul_Mc, jprg13
Moderators: Joe: 5713, meanmistermustard: 25171, Ahhh Girl: 22684, Beatlebug: 18229, The Hole Got Fixed: 8410
Administrators: Joe: 5713