New test website

[lighans]

Well, after all the cheers...... I had to be honest you said

Peronally (and it is the question if there are others who agree) it has been confusing to see a combination of wiki, cms and forum. As the forum is not a part which can easily be ported, I would consider of combining the wiki and the CMS.
Why?
- Now you have to maintain three systems, that could be two.
- combining CMS and wiki means that the content is merged a bit.
- I don't know about dokuwiki, but there are wiki-systems (like pmwiki, or phpwiki) which combine wiki and blog and administration-fucntions with passwords for certain regions.
- It makes the whole look coherent. One theme, one way of working, etc.
- My experience is that a wiki-system is a quicker way of making a site grow. Changing things is faster. And you don't have to be admin all the time. A wiki is more content centered. And I think that is more in the way vectorlinux is thinking.
- In your menu there will be direct acces to HOWTO's (instead of first going to wiki and than Howto)

The theme is a bit dark for people with bad eyes or colourblindness (if I can remember well, dark background with dark text is horrible for these people).

my two cents. I hope it didn't disappoint you.

[diamondsandrain]

I know this isn't going to make some people happy, but it has to be said. I couldn't believe that a lot of people were saying they liked this. It looks like I was working on a mainframe and I chose the completely wrong colour scheme that makes my eyes want to scream. Honestly, it looks ugly and amateurish. I recommend a change in colour scheme. The black and purple just does not work well together and it is way too dark. The words are barely readable. Granted I have a bit of a glare problem with my screen set up, but I don't think it would be much better without that.

I'm not trying to be cruel. Just honest. I would hate for this to be the first impression people get of Vector when they browse the web.

Daniel

[diamondsandrain]

Ok, I just went back to a refreshed version of the page and it is looking better. I think I said amateurish because of the VectorLinux.com written out in plain white text in the upper left hand corner. It looked like one of those flaky sites you get to when you spell your bank name wrong. Things are definitely improving.

[nubcnubdo]

From the "Introduction" text:

The power user will be pleased because all the tools are there to compile their own programs, use the system as a server or perhaps the gateway for their home or office computer network.

This sentence has a number agreement issue. The easiest way to resolve this is to change "The power user" to "Power users", that is, to make "user" plural. Then there is agreement in number between the plural subject "users" and the plural pronoun "their". If you keep "power user" as singular, then the pronoun will run into the "his/her" gender thing in order to agree in number. Therefore, the sentence should correctly read:

Power users will be pleased because all the tools are there to compile their own programs, use the system as a server or perhaps the gateway for their home or office computer network.

If you think about it, "power users" should be plural because that's what we want, lots of power users.

I repeat, "lightning" has no 'e' in it.

[caitlyn]

The layout isn't too bad but the dark blue text on a medium dark blue background is difficult to read.  There simply isn't enough contrast.  My choice would be a somewhat lighter blue background, perhaps a bit closer to the old site in that respect.

The downloads page only has 5.9 Standard.  The public betas (VL Light, VL64) should be offered there as well.  I'd like to see the Multimedia Bonus DIsc there too, even if it's just a brief description and a link to Dweeberkitty's website.

[nubcnubdo]

If background is lightened, then white text's legibility may suffer. A lighter background reduces contrast for white text. The mouse-over color for dark blue text is yellow which has excellent contrast, if that's any consolation.

I guess the links could be yellow with another color for mouse-over (eg. the very light blue of VectorLInux logo). Or vice versa. Yellow links might detract from text, however, so try very light blue as links color first. In other words, change dark blue links to very light blue. If more contrast needed, then try yellow for the links color, with light blue as mouse-over color. Just see what looks best.

[overthere]

It's looking good...I think the yellow mouse over link has to go...but a light color is good...maby cool blueish like the lighter in the banner vector for consistancy .

edit: has anyone opened the page in the Opera browser? on mine the paypal icon is replaced by text-Make payments with paypal-it's fast,free and secure! looks fine in seamonkey and firefox

[nubcnubdo]

It isn't the yellow mouse-over color that is objectionable, rather, the dark blue color of links is the problem. Against a gray blue background, the dark blue links are hard to see, by many accounts. So I am suggesting two alternatives, in order of being tried:

1. Change dark blue links to light blue, retain yellow mouse-over.

2. Change dark blue links to yellow, change mouse-over color to light blue.

[overthere]

Well yellow goes with nothing..and looks drab..it is naturally a matter of perspective. we are not designing the page we are simply offering suggestion and that is mine.

[newt]

What page are you all looking at?  I don't see any yellow rollover effects at http://vectorlinux.com/website2/.  The only thing that's kind of yellow is the paypal donation button (okay, the penguin's feet too), but even that's a bit more orange than yellow (BTW, I do see the paypal button in Opera)

[kc1di]

What page are you all looking at?  I don't see any yellow rollover effects at http://vectorlinux.com/website2/.  The only thing that's kind of yellow is the paypal donation button (okay, the penguin's feet too), but even that's a bit more orange than yellow (BTW, I do see the paypal button in Opera)

As newtor said I don't get a yellow mouse over either.. it's white here.  everything looking ok here but the CD Store Icon could be a little better. it's fuzzy looking on my machine.  Perhaps tabs or radio buttons would be better for the links to the left..

Keep up the good work.

[overthere]

Yes I see the fuzzy cd also...but on my windows opera the page does load fine. The mouse over link and tooltips are not exactly yellow but cream..it may appear white to some but I am not a fibber and it really does not matter so I will just go do something else.
Cheers

[JohnB316]

I'm looking at the VL web site with Opera 9.50 beta 1 as I post this from Firefox 2.0.0.12. For the person who didn't see the PayPal button but the alternate text, try clearing out your browser cache and hold the Shift key as you click on the Refresh button. Doing this will force the entire page to load afresh from the server rather than from cache.

The mouseover appears to be an off-white/cream color, which I don't have a problem living with. I would rather have the mouseover color stick out to me.

Just for the fun of it, I tried to open the page with Dillo. The site loaded, but it's very ugly with Dillo.

FWIW,
John

[overthere]

Well.. something else was boot a bunch of computers....
opera8 at 640 and 800 /95/98 did load,
opera9 at 800,1024 on win98/xp and linux not..
.I always delete private data but perhaps that does not include cache...
will try as you say..
ya cream white what ever..just an observation.

The cd is fuzzy though as someone else pointed out.
cheers

edit: well the delete private data includes entire cache and the browser is set to also empty on exit. I looked in the folders but did not see anything.
 I cleared cache and rebooted and cleared cache via tools and opened via link with shift and via google after clear cache.and clear cache after loaded and shift refresh....
so if it does not matter to you it does not matter to me.. but ..the page is not loading correctly in opera..
.I realize the work involved in creating a page and getting it up..I was just wanting to be helpful..I usually use seamonkey for the page as it has a default link...will give it up.
cheers

[GrannyGeek]

I see the PayPal logo in Opera 9.26 for Linux.

I hate to be negative, but I don't like the darkish blue with white text *at all*. And the black text is very bad--doesn't have enough contrast with the blue. I HATE dark backgrounds on Web pages. I found the Wolvix site ugly and crowded and hard to read, lacking contrast all over the place. Forget about that one! And please--no centered paragraphs such as at http://xs.to/xs.php?h=xs225&d=08112&f=concept_art417.jpg. Blocks of centered text like that are a design no-no.

The text there and on the website2 site is too small and too crowded (not enough space between lines). Many Web sites have text that is too small. I've complained about this before. We're not all young and many people have less-than-perfect vision. It is very annoying to have to enlarge text again and again.

To me the new design borders on repulsive.
--GrannyGeek