Now, I realize some of you may be disoriented. The nausea will pass, I promise. Welcome to the new and (hopefully) improved Real Life Comics website!
First off, it’s kind of ridiculous that I’d had the same site design since July 2, 2004. Six years on one site design… FOR A WEB DESIGNER… is ridiculous. And the old site was frought with issues – the menus at the top got hidden behind the banner ad, updating certain bits and pieces of it was difficult because I wasn’t the one who originally wrote the CSS, and it was kinda looking a little more jumbled than I’d originally intended. Also, average monitor sizes have been increasing over the years, and I thought it might be nice to make use of that.
So, sometime last year, I started redesigning the site. Tinkering. And somehow, I hit on the concept of a whiteboard/corkboard combo. It was perfect – it’s the one place where stuff can get pasted on/tacked on/scrawled on, and it’s SUPPOSED to be that way! I think I’ve managed to make it a little more organized than a random collection of stuff, but the idea is the same – if I need to post a note, I LITERALLY post a note. Also, I integrated a calendar onto the front page, so navigation around the month is easier for those of you who only read occasionally. I had planned on integrating an embedded Ustream window, but the goddamn thing kept autoplaying when the page was left open long enough, and I’m not happy with that. I’ll keep thinking on that one. But there IS a fully-filled characters page for once!
Now, I realize a number of the links at the top don’t work yet, and there’s a very good reason for it… I haven’t made those pages yet. See, I’ve been kinda dragging my heels on this change for a long time now, and it’s mostly due to the fact that I’ve been kinda scared of pulling the trigger. I kept telling myself “well, these pages aren’t done yet, so I can’t go live.” The truth is, I think I was just using it as an excuse for NOT going live. Well, now that excuse is gone, and I have a vested interest in getting them finished… and I will be doing so, in case there was any concern. I may prune a few things here and there, but rest assured – they will get finished.
So there you have it, Lifers! The official FOURTH web design of Real Life Comics! Now, it’s possible (probable) that there are bugs here and there, so if you can, send ’em my way so I can squash ’em… remember to include the browser you’re using. (And if it’s an old browser… come on. Get with the times, people. :D ) Also, remember to do a shift-refresh before jumping to any conclusions.. that’ll do a full reload of the page, including CSS files and everything. And since the contact page isn’t up yet, send it over to gregdean@gmail.com and I’ll get on it. :) Thanks again, folks!