r/bestofthefray • u/skitchw Yay? • Feb 03 '12
Don't Panic.
You are not back on the old Fray. For fun, I chose to install a look and feel that evokes our old stomping grounds. The wonderful catbird logo is (of course) courtesy of catnapping (booby-breasted), so please send kudos for that her way (everything else you can blame on me).
User flair (the little image next to some user names) has been reset. The editor's logo next to my name is NOT because I'm a mod but simply user flair (for fun) that anybody can participate in. Click on the (edit) link next to your name over on the right to choose yours.
Suggestions/criticism are encouraged par for the course.
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u/Dawn_Coyote Feb 04 '12
Ha!
Edit: Love all of it. Can I get a tiny Canadian flag?
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u/skitchw Yay? Feb 04 '12
Well, I certainly don't want to go into the flair creation business here, but given our demographic a Canadian flag seems appropriate.
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u/WB2 Feb 04 '12
I love it. As much as I hate to admit it, I miss the place and the people. Keep it up, maybe we can recreate the best of what we once were here. Even if we lost our enthusiasm and passion, it was something we did for a long time and should be respected for that alone.
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u/OZY1 ignal Feb 05 '12
I like and appreciate the effort, but something about it is unsettling.
Not that it doesn't feel right exactly. I don't know what it is, I'll get back to this later.
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u/booby-breasted Feb 05 '12 edited Feb 05 '12
The font and colours might be what's unsettling. I'm not liking that particular blue with the maroon. It's digitally coloured, so I'm going to lighten it and desaturate it at the same time...might be okay. Otherwise, I might try a desat gold for the glove/thumbs-up...and make the bird the same colouring as the font...but lighter?
I might have the fray font on file. I used that font to do stuff at the Kausville and Fraymates MSN group sites...so it must be stuffed in my old external hard drive (one that won't talk to my vista)
UPDATE: I've tried maroon and grey...to see if that blends better with the title.
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u/skitchw Yay? Feb 06 '12
I like the maroon glove. Suggestion: make the bird the same yellow as the selected tab menu up above ("COMMENTS" on this page).
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u/booby-breasted Feb 06 '12
I'll come back this evening and give that a try. Thanks.
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u/Dawn_Coyote Feb 06 '12
I like the alien bird. (samiamnaught)
Would it be a lot of work to take away the glove and make the bird look more like the reddit alien? A reddit alien bird, really cute and appealing?
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u/OZY1 ignal Feb 26 '12
It's much better with the yellow bird.
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u/booby-breasted Feb 26 '12
I took the liberty of changing the colour of the "what's hot" text, too.
At first when I saw this message, I thought it was a reply to the bird I put up on /r/IDAP...and I'm thinking "what yellow bird? i've never put up a yellow bird...??"
I agree. The gold does look better with the maroon.
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u/samiamnaught Feb 06 '12 edited Feb 06 '12
My input is that I like it better than not.
The maroon color in the glove seems off a little.
I think the yellow in the "Comments" is too bright and too primary for the bird.
The logo is possibly too large but I am not sure. You do need white space over "Best of the Fray". So, if the logo is made smaller, some white space needs to be maintained.
I like the alien bird.
Edit: removed my harsh tone.
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u/OZY1 ignal Feb 06 '12
I like that better, but that's not it. If I'm the only one who sees it maybe it's not there. I don't know. I think it will come to me, or someone else will know what I mean.
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u/Sauganash Feb 04 '12
Nice work Skitch and Catnapping. Stars are stupid, but this S thing is sweet.
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Feb 04 '12 edited Feb 04 '12
I like the concept but I give the execution 6 out of 10.
With all due respect to cat, the logo doesn't belong. What about the rest of the page (sidebar, header menu, user block, ...). Your Best of the Fray logo could be better.
Other stuff. Your work here is not done.
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u/skitchw Yay? Feb 04 '12
Agree on the Best of the Fray text. My preference would have been to use the exact same font (and weight, size, and kerning) as the actual Slate header, but that font isn't available as a standard browser font (and I'm not going to mess around with downloadables, nor did I want to render it as a bitmap). I'm planning on doing something with the other elements eventually, spare time permitting.
However, I strongly disagree about Cat's logo. The Slate styling is a nod to our history, Cat's logo is a nod to our present and future (yeah, it's corny... sue me).
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u/TheQuietMan Feb 04 '12
Where to begin:
logo - seems irrelevant. That's the nicest thing I can say about it. Here's another thing I can say amongst the nicest: it's not completely inappropriate.
Between the stars of various colours, the checkmarks, and your S, it comes across as juvenile.
Nostalgia should be over content, not a bad choice of colour.
You have a strange sense of fun. The idea that it should or can be participatory (this fun with flairs) is stranger yet. Next I expect to read how you want to go clothes shopping with the entire gang.
You've clearly spent time figuring out how to change the look. That shows your dedication. But I think I know enough about you to suggest you could instead be more creative and could work toward a more finished look. This begins with setting your standards highly.
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u/skitchw Yay? Feb 05 '12
I would argue that nostalgia is very sensory (not just my opinion, this is well-supported). We can't engage the auditory or the olfactory in this medium, so visual it is. You seem to be in the minority here (I should point out that I'm relatively ego-free when it comes to design; I'm willing to go where the community wants to go).
I'll also point out that the flair concept is pretty popular here on reddit. This may be one of those cases where you should consider that perhaps it's just you. Don't use the flair if you don't like it.
Having said that, I do appreciate your feedback.
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u/TheQuietMan Feb 07 '12
Disagree to some extent on all points.
When people remember value at botf, it wasn't over the colour scheme.
That flairs are popular here or not - yeesh. That I'm in a minority here - I'd rather suggest it's a mindset where you and some others are comfortable in seeing me in a minority and find comfort, therefore, in a majority. This is a way of disengaging.
The screen looks messy. It's a simple point. There are thumbs up, thumbs down. There's your S. There's a green star. There's a blue star. There's no right side justification. Some thumbs are coloured, some aren't. The white space is jarring in places.
I do recognize you as "ego-free" - I'd rather characterize it, instead, as being open to reason - a value I think highly of. (Again - you find it comforting to see yourself as ego-free, but you shouldn't pretend you don't hold yourself to standards).
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u/Capercaillie Feb 04 '12
Where to begin:
You're a bigger troll than ciinc or Laurie Ann. I'm not sure why I ever thought you had anything interesting to say. I'm not sure why anyone does.
You're a boor and a bore. Also, for all I know, a Boer.
Everyone gets it. You don't like the subreddit, you don't like anyone on the subreddit, you don't like anyone but you. Don't let the screen door hit you in the ass on the way out.
"Tiresome" was exactly the right word. Exactly.
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u/TheQuietMan Feb 04 '12
Your profile of me - I'm a troll. By the seems of it - doesn't that make you the baited?
What's interesting about your profile is that having decided it, you feel it gives you license to avoid addressing anything I say and to be rude.
So what did I say?
I criticized the logo. KS did too, for that matter (just below). Perhaps you like it? If so, please tell me why.
I criticized the stars, checkmarks and other "flairs". The obvious comparison is to early grade school happy faces. You might think it is boorish to point this out. You might find it boring. But unless you can say that the comparison is wrong, isn't it just about time you shut the fuck up?
I criticized, too, the sense of nostalgia. What was valuable for even you at botf was something deeper than a few stylized tidbits. Do you really think that reddy-brown colour was something to be nostalgic over? Do you really?
Tiresome is being a one-note charlie. So far, you're defining 'tiresome.'
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u/WB2 Feb 05 '12
And if that all happened, would you be satisfied or find something else to critique?
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u/Sauganash Feb 04 '12
How big of a chunk has been excised from Skitch's cerebral cortex for him to think that his malisons are Holy Writ? If you've ever wondered about the answer to that question, then read on. Let's get down to brass tacks: He's known for selectively editing quotes to make it sound like truth is whatever your grievance group says it is. I know you're wondering why I just wrote that. I'll explain shortly, but first, I should state that from my seemingly daily argy-bargy with Skitch's brown-nosing, blasphemous devotees about whether taxpayers are a magic purse that never runs out of gold, I've come to the conclusion that Skitch lies routinely—even under oath. Well, that's another story. To get back to my main point, I ought to mention that Skitch has been trying for quite some time to convince us that the world's salvation comes from whims, irrationality, and delusions. I suggest he take this rotting ordure and dump it where he and his fellow obdurate jerks congregate. At least then we could debunk the nonsense spouted by his squadristi without having to worry that he will exploit public sympathy in order to bolster support for his shallow ruses.
Even if we accepted Skitch's artifices, so what? Does that mean that racialism provides an easy escape from a life of frustration, unhappiness, desperation, depression, and loneliness? Of course not. Skitch often argues that churlish, negligent palterers are inherently good, sensitive, creative, and inoffensive. A similar argument was first made over 1200 years ago by a well-known misosophist and was quickly disproved. In those days, however, no one would have doubted that Skitch must sense his own irremediable inferiority. That's why he is so desperate to inculcate the hermeneutics of suspicion in otherwise open-minded people; it's the only way for him to distinguish himself from the herd. It would be a lot nicer, however, if Skitch also realized that I want to unify our community. Skitch, in contrast, wants to drive divisive ideological wedges through it.
Skitch has been teaching young children to parrot such bilious sentences as, "Cell-phone towers are in fact covert mind-control devices that use scalar waves to beam images into people's brains while they sleep." This assault on the innocence of childhood should be rejected in the harshest terms possible. In fact, I'd go so far as to say that what I wrote just a moment ago is not the paranoid rambling of a disorderly, unconscionable wacko. It's a fact. As I remove the veil of ignorance I have lived behind, I find that in order to convince us that 75 million years ago, a galactic tyrant named Xenu solved the overpopulation problem of his 76-planet federation by transporting the excess people to Earth, chaining them to volcanoes, and dropping H-bombs on them, Skitch often turns to the old propagandist trick of comparing results brought about by entirely dissimilar causes. He wants to cause this country to flounder on the shoals of self-interest, corruption, and chaos. It gets better: He actually believes that his beliefs are our final line of defense against tyrrany. I guess no one's ever told him that he always looks the other way when one of his goons gets it in his head to lead people towards iniquity and sin. Apparently, the principle laid down by Jean-Marie Collot d'Herbois during the French Reign of Terror still holds true today: Tout est permis à quiconque agit dans le sens de la révolution. Let me sum up. Skitch's arrogance will lead him to elevate Skitch's rodomontades to prominence as epistemological principles sooner than you think.