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Hi all,
please see former discussion here:
http://news.lugnet.com/announce/?n=3369
Thanks to all who were contributing ideas and suggestions.
So here is -without much fuss- the 6th draft of a new homepage:
http://www.lugnet.com/index-test-6.php
Known bugs: Upper header section isn’t displayed correctly in some browsers (but
should be correct at least in IE and Firefox). I’m working on this.
Please post again comments, ideas, suggestions; I’d like to read your opinions.
Leg Godt!
Rene
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In lugnet.announce, Rene Hoffmeister wrote:
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Hi all,
please see former discussion here:
http://news.lugnet.com/announce/?n=3369
Thanks to all who were contributing ideas and suggestions.
So here is -without much fuss- the 6th draft of a new homepage:
http://www.lugnet.com/index-test-6.php
Known bugs: Upper header section isn’t displayed correctly in some browsers
(but should be correct at least in IE and Firefox). I’m working on this.
Please post again comments, ideas, suggestions; I’d like to read your
opinions.
Leg Godt!
Rene
|
Rene, this is really coming together nicely. My few personal nits...
- The alternating background colours on the top stories links seems to just add clutter and detract from actualy reading the links. Is it really necessary?
- The text for the titles in the center section seems a little big.
- Having pre-existing text in search boxes. Uh, I hate that. :)
Keep up the great work!
J
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Jason Allemann wrote:
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- The alternating background colours on the top stories links seems to just add clutter and detract from actualy reading the links. Is it really necessary?
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I quickly snapped a version with the line backgrounds matching the box:
I agree with Jason, I think with the gap between lines, this looks more
pleasing, although there might need to be a line above the “More top stories”,
or something to separate it better.
ROSCO
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In lugnet.announce, Rene Hoffmeister wrote:
| |
Hi all,
please see former discussion here:
http://news.lugnet.com/announce/?n=3369
Thanks to all who were contributing ideas and suggestions.
So here is -without much fuss- the 6th draft of a new homepage:
http://www.lugnet.com/index-test-6.php
Known bugs: Upper header section isn’t displayed correctly in some browsers
(but should be correct at least in IE and Firefox). I’m working on this.
Please post again comments, ideas, suggestions; I’d like to read your
opinions.
Leg Godt!
Rene
|
no complaints. looks fine to me.
ondrew
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In lugnet.announce, Rene Hoffmeister wrote:
| |
Hi all,
please see former discussion here:
http://news.lugnet.com/announce/?n=3369
Thanks to all who were contributing ideas and suggestions.
So here is -without much fuss- the 6th draft of a new homepage:
http://www.lugnet.com/index-test-6.php
Known bugs: Upper header section isn’t displayed correctly in some browsers
(but should be correct at least in IE and Firefox). I’m working on this.
Please post again comments, ideas, suggestions; I’d like to read your
opinions.
Leg Godt!
Rene
|
Looking nice! I agree that the alternating background colors in the top stories
section is not needed, and that the boxes on the left and right should all have
the same background color. I also think the vertical spacing in the center
column (editorial stories section) is too much and could be compressed a little.
Somewhat unrelated: I also noticed that the LUG map at
http://www.lugnet.com/map/ shows very few LUGs. It gives the impression that
there are only 6 LUGs.
The new navigation icons looks nice and the Helpful Links section is handy.
Roy
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In lugnet.announce, Rene Hoffmeister wrote:
| |
Hi all,
please see former discussion here:
http://news.lugnet.com/announce/?n=3369
Thanks to all who were contributing ideas and suggestions.
So here is -without much fuss- the 6th draft of a new homepage:
http://www.lugnet.com/index-test-6.php
Known bugs: Upper header section isn’t displayed correctly in some browsers
(but should be correct at least in IE and Firefox). I’m working on this.
Please post again comments, ideas, suggestions; I’d like to read your
opinions.
|
The popup preview get cut of by the bottom of the screen when you mouse over the
stories at the bottom of the top stories box.
-Orion
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I haven’t yet commented on the new design, but now I must say I that I like the
most recent revision (#6?). I miss the quick links to deeper levels of the
newsgroups, however -- they’re on the current site in the lower left corner.
I hadn’t commented because most of what I wasn’t liking was already mentioned by
others, particularly the amount of empty space at the top that is now being used
again.
Some minor comments:
- Because the highlighted news items on the left are all bold, they become harder to read.
- The helpful links box in the right column has the same issue. You might also want to play around with indentation in that box. I do like the little icons, though.
- The headers for the center column seem a bit too large in the context of the rest of the page.
- The popup preview of highlighted news stories is a nice addition (a positive comment!)
- You’re probably going to have to put the legalese boilerplate back into the footer. All that stuff is covered in the terms of use page, but it’s good to be safe.
- The search select box should retain the word “reference” for sets and parts to make it more clear to newcomers what it means to search under those two categories. The little ‘?’ icon on the current site for the search help page should also be used.
- The colors in the new version of the logo seem a bit off. It’s like Maersk blue got in there and washed everything out.
I know you can’t please everyone, so of course you’re free to ignore me. :)
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Jason Allemann wrote:
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- The alternating background colours on the top stories links seems to just add clutter and detract from actualy reading the links. Is it really necessary?
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You know, in theory, it is supposed to let the eye find and locate the
individual stories better, but I have to agree with you Jason-- for some
reason, it seems to confuse my eye rather than help it. I find it easier to
read the stories in a monochrome format. In this particular instance, perhaps
the spacing is simply good enough to do the job.
JOHN
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Rene-
In my version of Firefox (the most current one, I believe), the SCLTC story
still photo drops through the divider bar into the story below and forces the
next story headline to the right.
-Ted
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Here’s a big ‘me too’ post (I know how annoying those can be, but I think it
seems relevant here), but this last post summed things up for me well :)
In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Jordan Bradford wrote:
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I haven’t yet commented on the new design, but now I must say I that I like
the most recent revision (#6?). • Me too!
I miss the quick links to deeper levels of the newsgroups, however -- they’re
on the current site in the lower left corner.
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Me too. The 2 things I currently use the most are ‘Top Stories’ and the
newsgroup links.
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- The helpful links box in the right column has the same issue. You might also want to play around with indentation in that box. I do like the little icons, though.
- The headers for the center column seem a bit too large in the context of the rest of the page.
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I agree with the above comments.
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- The popup preview of highlighted news stories is a nice addition (a positive comment!)
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Yea, that’s nifty! I like it!
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- The colors in the new version of the logo seem a bit off. It’s like Maersk blue got in there and washed everything out.
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Gee thanks, I hadn’t noticed that, but since you said it, it really stands out!
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so of course you’re free to ignore me. :)
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Me too!
-plucky
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Ted Michon wrote:
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Rene-
In my version of Firefox (the most current one, I believe), the SCLTC story
still photo drops through the divider bar into the story below and forces the
next story headline to the right.
-Ted
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Hi Ted,
I’m just curious: Do you use a very wide screen solution (more than 1280px wide
or no sidebars in your browser) or an individually set font size (less than
default font size as defined by hitting STRG+0 in Firefox)? In each of these
cases, it would be correct behaviour, because the picture is positioned as a
“left floating” element. Nevertheless, it should not overlap any text, but from
what you wrote, this isn’t the case, this is one more indicator for correct
behaviour (despite of proper look, of course).
I wonder whether it would be enough to have those thumbnails only 80px high.
Leg Godt!
Rene
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Hi Brett, Jordan,
thanks for your comments on this!
First:
In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Brett Kingery wrote:
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Jordan Bradford wrote:
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so of course you’re free to ignore me. :)
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Me too!
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I’m not working on LUGNET to ignore people, but to listen to them :-)
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I miss the quick links to deeper levels of the newsgroups, however --
they’re on the current site in the lower left corner.
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I haven’t considered them as important as they seem to be. Well, I guess I have
to place them to the front page again, will do in the next draft.
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- The colors in the new version of the logo seem a bit off. It’s like Maersk blue got in there and washed everything out.
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The blue part is actually the one that has changed to match the other colors
(“Triadic Color Scheme”). I also noticed the blue like “aqua” on another monitor
here (but the old blue as light purple), so in general it depends on adjustment
of color and contrast on each output device (monitor).
However, before making a final version final, I will contact Todd and Suz anyway
to arrange terms for logo and color, so this might change again.
Leg Godt!
Rene
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Hi Jason,
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- The alternating background colours on the top stories links seems to just add clutter and detract from actualy reading the links. Is it really necessary?
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I will try without them in #7.
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- Having pre-existing text in search boxes. Uh, I hate that. :)
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Normally, me too. And though it is against WCAG, I also will try without it in
#7.
Thank you very much!
-Rene
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Rene Hoffmeister wrote:
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Hi Jason,
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- The alternating background colours on the top stories links seems to just add clutter and detract from actualy reading the links. Is it really necessary?
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I will try without them in #7.
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This could be something that is easily configurable by the user - so I would
still keep the 2 different styles, but give them the same colour in the default
page style.
ROSCO
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Please post again comments, ideas, suggestions; I’d like to read your
opinions.
Leg Godt!
Rene
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Rene, great work so far. I am ‘REALLY’ gonna miss the old homepage of LUGNET.
Honestly, I don’t know why or how much change needs to be done? I know the new
look will not please everybody.
So far, I have compared each draft and the current homepage. I am looking at
this base on the point of view if I was a ‘NEWBIE’ or seeing the LUGNET homepage
for the first time.
Here are some points:
1)For example, what does LUGNET stand for or mean? As a regular user and a fan
of LEGO. I know that LUGNET stands for ‘LEGO Users Group Network’. However, I
am assuming if a newibe come accross, and wonders what LUGNET stands for. I
think it would be a good idea to keep the statement, “Welcome to the
International LEGO® Users Group Network.”
2)I notice the LUGNET ‘logo’ shade of BLUE is different. I don’t think the
shade of blue should be change. When I first notice it, I was thinking...LEGO
color change. Nooooooooooooooo! New LUGNET Blue? Color change!!! ;-)
3) The new draft is missing the disclaimer at the ‘bottom’ of the homepage or
needs to be updated.
(from the current LUGNET homepage)
“All content is provided as is, with no warranty stated or implied regarding the
quality or accuracy of any content on or off this site. All trademarks, service
marks, and copyrights are property of their respective owners. LEGO® and
LEGOLAND® are registered trademarks of the LEGO Company, which does not own or
operate this site. STAR WARS® is a registered trademark of Lucasfilm Ltd.
LUGNET™ and Brickwise™ are trademarks of Todd S. Lehman and Suzanne D. Rich.”
(LEGO Company, should be LEGO Group)
4) I do like the addition of ‘Helpful links’, section. I like little icon links
of the other websites. I also like the look and placement of the icons of
‘Forums, Spotlight, Guide, events Links, and FAQ’ at the top of the homepage.
Is there reason why the background color ‘pale blue’ behind the icons stops at a
certain point. It looks like if the top page is incomplete. I think it would
be better to finish pale blue all the way to the right.
I do have a question: The FAQ icon, What does the ‘i’ mean?
5) On the current homepage if you click on the LUGNET logo. It leads to the
history or story behind the LUGNET logo. Is there way to keep that feature on
the new homepage?
6) I wish there was more ‘color’ on the new draft/homepage. I am get the
feeling the new page is somewhat....pale and dull. Maybe it needs a little more
yellow, red, green, orange. (sigh) I don’t know..it must the winter blues.
7) Can you apply or add the new icons (forums, Spotlight etc.) on the the other
pages?
Base on the new draft. If I click on ‘Events’ and I am on Events section, I
don’t see ‘forums, spotlight, guide, link, and FAQ’ icons along the top. So, I
don’t have to back page to find other icons. I am assuming you are going to do
this?
Thank you,
-Abner
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Abner Finley wrote:
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I do have a question: The FAQ icon, What does the ‘i’ mean?
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“Information”.
JOHN
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, John Neal wrote:
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Abner Finley wrote:
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I do have a question: The FAQ icon, What does the ‘i’ mean?
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“Information”.
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Yes, operator, I would like to place a call.
Sorry, couldn’t resist that lame joke.
Janey “Lets have some more eggnog! Red Brick”
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, C. L. GunningCook wrote:
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, John Neal wrote:
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Abner Finley wrote:
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I do have a question: The FAQ icon, What does the ‘i’ mean?
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“Information”.
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Yes, operator, I would like to place a call.
Sorry, couldn’t resist that lame joke.
Janey “Lets have some more eggnog! Red Brick”
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Uh, yes, is this the party to whom I’m speaking?
JOHN “Make mine a Lebatt’s”
:-d
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Rene Hoffmeister wrote:
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- Having pre-existing text in search boxes. Uh, I hate that. :)
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Normally, me too. And though it is against WCAG, I also will try without it
in #7.
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Change
<label for="query">Search for: </label></span>
<input type="text" name="query" value="Search LUGNET" size="16" maxlength="200" id="query" />
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to
<label for="query" accesskey="s">Search for: </label></span>
<input type="text" name="query" value="Search LUGNET" size="16" maxlength="200" id="query" onfocus="this.value = '';" onclick="this.value = '';" />
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The onclick/onfocus erase the text. The accesskey attribute lets people type ‘s’
to give the search box focus if they have accessibility issues. You might have
to move the accesskey to the field itself; I don’t remember if putting it on a
label still gives the field focus.
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In lugnet.announce, Rene Hoffmeister wrote:
| |
Hi all,
please see former discussion here:
http://news.lugnet.com/announce/?n=3369
Thanks to all who were contributing ideas and suggestions.
So here is -without much fuss- the 6th draft of a new homepage:
http://www.lugnet.com/index-test-6.php
Known bugs: Upper header section isn’t displayed correctly in some browsers
(but should be correct at least in IE and Firefox). I’m working on this.
Please post again comments, ideas, suggestions; I’d like to read your
opinions.
Leg Godt!
Rene
|
Rene,
I like the direction you are going with this as well as the openness of the
process.
The one thing I think is missing the the set reference popup in the search.
I find it a handy tool when looking for a set. I have always preferred it to
going to the guide unless my search criteria is extremely vague.
Jude
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Jason Allemann wrote:
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- The alternating background colours on the top stories links seems to just add clutter and detract from actualy reading the links. Is it really necessary?
|
I think what bothers me (and maybe this is the case for others) is that these
alternating colors are too disimilar--the contast between them is too much. I
would suggest replacing the white color with the same light blue as the
background of the Top Stories box.
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- The text for the titles in the center section seems a little big.
|
I agree that those headlines could be reduced in size a little bit.
Something about the text in that middle column doesn’t sit quite right with me.
At first I thought maybe it was that the text is justified, leaving non-uniform
spaces between words, but now I think it’s that there’s too much space between
the lines of text. Is there any way to adjust that without simply using a
smaller font size? I’d also be OK with using a smaller font size for the items
in the middle column.
There also seems to be too much space bewteen the lines of the “More Top Stories
as highlighted by LUGNET Members” link at the bottom of the Top Stories box.
Compare that to what seems like the “correct” amount of space between the lines
of the actual links to the Top Stories stories.
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- Having pre-existing text in search boxes. Uh, I hate that. :)
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I don’t mind the text being there as long as it vanishes when I click inside the
box. Having it stay there is pretty annoying.
Yes, it’s coming along quite nicely!
Best,
-Brendan
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Brendan Powell Smith wrote:
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I don’t mind the text being there as long as it vanishes when I click inside
the box. Having it stay there is pretty annoying.
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Oh, hey! I just realized that you managed to squeeze in the Search feature by
putting the label “Search LUGNET” inside the search box. I think that’s a great
solution. I guess it seemed so natural I didn’t even notice at first.
I still think the text should clear away when the user clicks oin the box, but I
just wanted to compliment you on that design idea.
Another thought: in my mock-up, I
had added the a “Join/Log In” link centered over the right column. But if
there’s room (as there is in the current draft), this could also just be added
to the set of icons across the top of the page. Or is there a reason you think
there should not be such an icon/link on the front page?
-Brendan
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In lugnet.admin.suggestions, Orion Pobursky wrote:
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In lugnet.announce, Rene Hoffmeister wrote:
| |
Hi all,
please see former discussion here:
http://news.lugnet.com/announce/?n=3369
Thanks to all who were contributing ideas and suggestions.
So here is -without much fuss- the 6th draft of a new homepage:
http://www.lugnet.com/index-test-6.php
Known bugs: Upper header section isn’t displayed correctly in some browsers
(but should be correct at least in IE and Firefox). I’m working on this.
Please post again comments, ideas, suggestions; I’d like to read your
opinions.
|
The popup preview get cut of by the bottom of the screen when you mouse over
the stories at the bottom of the top stories box.
-Orion
|
Hi Orion,
I thought over the title-attribute in the top stories links which were hiding
parts of the popup preview in earlier versions. Since they were only duplicating
the actual link text, I removed the attribute and now the popup is at least more
than 150px higher than before (in draft #7).
If you have a top story link at the very bottom of your viewport, it will
disappear at the bottom of the screen nevertheless.
Leg Godt!
Rene
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My thoughts: Define what the LUGNET acronym stands for (Lego Users Group
NETwork) somewhere on the homepage. It’s a familiar word for us veterans - but
for newer visitors, a definition would very helpful to add context/completeness.
Either make it part of the summary sentence like on the current homepage, or
have a link on the right hand side with a “What is LUGNET” hyperlink that can go
to a landing page with LUGNET’s meaning, history, etc.
My apologies if this subject has come up before. I haven’t been to LUGNET much
recently and just caught this thread.
Otherwise, I think it looks awesome! Great work!
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