I have a Dream...

[theweaselking]

...width account. I've had one since January 2009.

But I don't use it for two reasons.

#1: S2 is hideous and unwieldy and completely craptacular. I do not know how to make a working non-shitty Style in S2.
#2: Other people's esthetic decisions are HIDEOUS. And lacking an acceptable Style of my own, converting my current "append ?style=mine to all livejournal pages" script to affect Dreamwidth is pointless.

Hook me up, lazyweb.

I need an S2 style that:
1) has "next 50/last 50" links at top AND BOTTOM of the page. Next/Last 100, 250, or 5000, or, best yet, CHOOSABLE BY ME links are preferred.
2) has NO SIDEBARS EVER. Posts, both mine and Friends, should be the full width of the page.
3) provides a "link" that is a permalink to the post beside every post.
4) In fact, Reading List/My Journal should look like this. Top links, big "date" bar when days swap, reasonably big date/poster/icon/permalink block per post, post contents to the right of that at a fixed width,, "comment on this post" link to the bottom (or top!) left of the content. Continue in the colours of my choice, overriding the journal choices of other people, distinguishable for public/friendslocked by colour.
5) Individual posts should look something like my individual posts. I don't REALLY care for my current single-LJ-post style, but it gives me My Post, then comments, in order, threaded by response, using editable-by-me colours.

From there, I will edit my Firefox scripts such that I NEVER HAVE TO LOOK AT YOUR INCOMPETENT UNREADABLE SHIT STYLES EVER AGAIN. Because, fundamentally, other people's esthetic decisions are hideous.

Should I stick a bounty on this? I will pay real-world real-life money for these features. Not MUCH money, because this is a toy, but certainly at least a month's paid account, LJ or DW.

(For the record, your solution should either work on both, or DW-only, to earn the prize. Alternately, it should work for Wordpress or a similar blogging platform and parse the LJ-friends list, so I can install THAT, keep my LJ-friends as RSS reader, and post to there without dealing with OTHER PEOPLE'S UNBELIEVABLY BAD AND UNREADABLE FONT/COLOUR/LAYOUT CHOICES. Sheesh!)

Comments

[foxfirefey]

Hi--I'm from the Dreamwidth styles team, and I'm willing to do this for you. A lot of other people have been requesting a style like the one you've been asking for, so it's obviously a gap that needs to be filled--hopefully I can do okay!

I am also happy to report that this weekend I'm finishing up a DW feature I've been working on for a while that will make your Greasemonkey unneeded (persistent style=mine) and will go into the next code push; until then, if you want, I can hook you up with mine that I use.

[foxfirefey]

Hrm, but do I want to call it Handlebars or Barfly...

[torrain.livejournal.com]

I vote Handlebars. :D

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Hi,

I'd appreciate that. Fundamentally, I don't LOVE my current Livejournal style, but I don't hate it, and that's something I have yet to say about any S2 Style I've ever seen.

I can totally handle the scripting and automation of styles, along with the options of not-using-my-style for some reason. What I want is a "my style" that doesn't make me stab my eyes out with a spork, and the only ones I've ever managed on Livejournal have been S1.

[ashbet]

I'm seconding the request for posts that go the width of the page, or preferably are width-adjustable by the user (i.e., my S1 layout on my journal.) I've never gone with S2 because *all* of them want to give me a narrow strip of text down the middle of the page, or a huge hideous sidebar. Gah!

For people who have custom S1 LJ layouts, is there a potential way to just import that into Dreamwidth via cut-and-paste of the custom CSS?

(I'm not in any way a web designer, and I customized my journal years ago and have forgotten half of what I did to get it looking the way it does -- but I like it, and I'd hate to give up the width option in particular.)

Thanks much,

-- Andi (who just created a DW account earlier tonight!)

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

aaand this is exactly why everyone I know is moving to DW. Thank you. Sincerely.

[matgb]

See, it never occured to me that peopel would like that sort of style. I know John's weird (even for a Canadian), but still.

Having said that, pretty much everything should be doable in CSS in Tabula Rasa I'd have thought. Or one of the other styles.

[maelorin]

i get the feeling you don't like other people's styles. just a vibe i'm getting.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Ya think?

[opaqueplanet.livejournal.com]

creation codes for you:
here" (http://dw-codesharing.dreamwidth.org/)

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Code: HASRYJS2MH277AAABYMK

Other code: YP7BYK5HGSAC9AAABYML

Create away.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Also: I'm absolutely certain there's a greasemonkey script for that waiting to be made.

[matgb]

Go here:
http://www.dreamwidth.org/openid/

Type http://therayven.livejournal.com/ into the big obvious box. You now habve a Dreamwidth reading account.

[lafinjack.livejournal.com]

If the codes upthread are used up, reportedly the code "VOX" will work for everybody until they decide to disable it.

18+ and other "mature material" warnings

[frith]

Anyone on my reading list who pulls a such a stunt gets dropped like a hot rock. But there is another way around it, at least on DW. Case in point: Ursula Vernon's blog is censored with a 18+ warning. The feed to DW is not censored. Ergo, I read the feed.

Why age related censorship pisses me off: youngsters that can't handle tales about plumbing function and malfunction will just go read something else. Those that can are probably lying about their age so they can go in and gawk.

King Weasel here uses "do not click" links and that suits me just fine. I click anyway and wonder just what those two women are drinking out of that cup. Looks like soft serve ice cream.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Not sure why you can't create an account, but if it's due to lack of code this might help.

[kowh.livejournal.com]

I just setup a Dreamwidth account last week, and I can't believe how universally ugly the provided styles are. Every single one of them has something ugly or wrong in it. I don't really care to spend the time to create or modify one either, from past experience down that way lies madness.

I ended up settling on Night Sea, but even that has CSS overlap issues.

[kierthos.livejournal.com]

I want a Dreamwidth style that looks exactly like my LJ style. EXACTLY.

What I have on Dreamwidth right now is sort of close, though.

[publius1.livejournal.com]

For what it's worth, your design styles are bad and your mom dresses you ugly.

So there.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I'm entirely aware that my journal is ugly. But, and this is important, it's USABLE and READABLE and doesn't waste my time or screen space.

[foxfirefey]

A question: "distinguishable for public/friendslocked by colour." -- where would this color go?

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Ah! On my current list, the background of the left column (icon, date/time, permalink) changes colours based on whether or not the post is locked. I used to have it changing colour based on which groups the poster was in, but I lost that the last time Livejournal destroyed my style and I never bothered to put it back.

[foxfirefey]

Getting closer, I think....

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

Indeed it is.

There needs to be a larger demarkation between entries - even a single line - and the entire useless profiles/calendar/tags/summary part needs to NOT be at the bottom of the page.

Also, really, " * Add Memory
* Share This Entry
* Track This
" should NOT be in the posting-info box. They should be unobtrusive links on the post itself, since they're wastes of screen real estate on a Reading page.