redbullmarky

it maybe easy to install, but i think you'd get much more feedback if you could provide a link to a demo/test account so we can try it out...

i'm gonna partially skip over the "too many colours bit" as it's more of a personal preference i'm happy with, but i would personally admit that there needs to be a better balance/consistency across the board in terms of the way they're used. not sure what "plahdoh" is? the idea is extremely informal, as the content of the articles shows you, so using colours in a childish (did you mean play dough?) way (hence the Duplo/Lego bricks in the banner) is kinda the point - just to make it less "stuffy". agreed with the tags. there's a few bits i need to introduce onto the homepage that need the tags to be halved anyway to make some room, so good shout there. Cheers John

i seem to recall that the "heart" of the search is written in python (or at least used to be).

ok - regarding the 'jump' when hovering the 'more articles' - that is just bloody annoying and i'm totally at a loss in terms of how to sort that one. hmmm yeah the forgotten password not yet implemented. thanks steve

*sigh* found no less than about 20 issues to sort out with IE. luckily for ease of correction, most were due to positioning - relative/absolute, etc. hopefully now, maybe with one or two i haven't spotted, IE looks as it does on all the others

hmm that's odd. i had a similar problem that was affecting IE7 i think it was, and it was a case of using a float inside a div - it didnt like it until i changed the div positioning to relative, or somthing like that. (as you can guess, CSS is one of my weaker areas ) problem for me though is i dont have access to IE6 and not sure (with all the updates, etc) if winding back my IE7 install will break anything (it presented me with a huge list of updates, some which looked pretty important). any ideas? edit not to worry, i rolled back to IE6 without (so far) any issues, so should be able to play. there's actually quite a bit to sort out to get IE6 to conform - if you're able to see it in FF or Opera, you'll see how it's supposed to look. ahh well.

thanks! the framework itself (without any site specifics) has been under development for quite a while and it's also in use on another live site. The application specifics for this site in particular have taken about 3 weeks on and off and includes stuff that isn't yet live but hopefully will be soon. The bulk of it was taken up by the custom forums as it also deals smoothly with the personal messages, comments on articles, etc so needed to be flexible. The place for the last one is in the "Working from Home" forums I guess once the search facility is finished it'll make that sort of stuff easier. Cheers for the comments!

.... i HATE it when one of these puzzles gets me. i got an orange kangaroo in denmark. grrr.

yeah i'm trying to sort out getting IE6 back on my PC to run with IE7, as i was a bit concerned about that. I managed to fix many of the issues in Opera/FF (Mac+PC), Safari, IE7, but just the main one eludes me... If yourself or someone can pop a snap of the problem(s) then that'd be grand. Cheers Steve

you're right. they've gone now you're more than welcome to your opinion about other stuff. however, i strongly believe there IS a place for a site targetting dads. Many things can affect a family setup, in terms of why a father would become more involved in a site to chat to others in a similar boat (eg, by choice, mother working, armed forces, etc). Not all situations are the same and neither are dads. Some have it easy, some don't - so to let off some steam or help/get help from others in the same boat just has to be worth a bash.

i agreed with a few points straight off, so made some minor tweaks (usernames, colour of the tags panel, etc) but will have a good think about suggestion for top banner, as i agree with you and jcombs anyway that something will need to be done with the white area. the login/register buttons WERE originally just under the logo and not in that panel at all, so it's no biggie to change that if it looks better. i'll have a play and i'll change it on the main site if it works out. cheers! Mark

yeah the big white gap is def something i'll be addressing, but i didnt wanna fill it with any old stuff just for the hell of it. As for the purpose, i guess it depends. There are lots of things like i say that still need to be done over time, much of it over the next week or so - which will make things like tags a bit more useful (ie, when there's some form of search facility and much more content). The whole point of the site is a place for dads to kick back. There are THOUSANDS of places for mums, just not dads - and as any new/expecting dad will tell you, the support out there is seriously rubbish. It's all about the mums. So a place for dads of all circumstances to kinda breath a sigh of relief and not feeling like they're the only one having trouble - that's the point. Thanks for looking. I may have gone over the top with the colours so i'll have a bit of a play around to see how it'd look toned down a bit. Cheers for the thoughts!

haha yeah i liked that one too when it popped up on there. I love stuff that makes me think "Ahh, so it's not just me then?" especially with a subject like parenting. Thanks for looking, much appreciated!

Hi all I've been at this for a good several weeks now and have finally got to the point where it's pretty much formed. There's still a long way to go, but ultimately it's ready to start accepting new members with enough to get involved with and benefit from. Apart from TinyMCE and a bit of CSS for rating, everything (the core framework, blogs, forums, etc) is completely custom. http://www.holdingthebaby.com Let me know what you think! (Dads, feel free to get involved too!) Cheers Mark

personally i'd go with the adding of a new field - i.e, parent_id - and keep all the forums and subforums in the same table. This way, if you decided (for example) to add a 'forum description', or perform a restructure, then you're only handling a single table and not two. Also when it comes to dealing with stuff like posts/topics/forum permissions, etc, having a single, consistent table will be much easier to code for. id active (ENUM, y or n) parent_id title description ...etc...

i logged in without a username/password. just clicked the login button.

hmm - 7 years of blogging. 2 days in php. 30 mins to get a little arrogant and cocky. this is free help, paul - accept it like that, or figure out why you messed things up yourself. there's a freelance forum if you feel your situation is more important than others. topic locked.

i'm backing Daniel here. It's not like Vista hasn't been on the cards releasing developer info left, right and center for yonks, yet these third party developers seem to be a bit slow off the mark, ultimately leaving MS looking like crap though not the 3rd parties - love em or hate em, that's just a tad wrong. I'm giving MS the benefit of the doubt; with the likes of OSX and Linux desktops out and about, Windows can't be expected to remain on XP for its lifetime. XP is ok, but it needs to move on, which it's doing. Microsoft are RIDICULOUSLY rich as a company, but consider this, AV1611 - do you not think it would be better to aim the blame at your software companies for not keeping on the ball or profiteering? Microsoft stand the gain the LEAST here (considering the timing of the upgrade and missing Xmas sales) - it's your third party software provider that are standing tough thinking "Hey, if we just sit tight, people will have to buy upgrades or new versions of our software for Vista! Great! More money for us! And we'll just blame M$ for fking us up!!! Great!" I'm all for Linux/OSX/alternative OS's, but jump on the Linux bandwagon for the right reasons, not just on the back of the fact that Microsoft are more forward thinking that it's 3rd party software and hardware developers that are slacking trying to shaft your ass. For all the MS haters who will jump into this argument, consider this first. MS released XP back in 2001. It's now 2007. At its cost, and the fact that most got it free with their PC, that's pretty cheap considering it'll still be useful a year or so from now. I'm still on Word/Excel 2000, here and see no reason to upgrade yet. Again, a winner in the wallet. My only potential costs when I upgrade my PC? yep - upgrading all my 3rd party stuff. i can see it turning into a MS hate thread, but please - personally i've had enough of them to last a lifetime. I don't like MS a load, but i don't hate them either. Let's talk about the 3rd party con merchants, then maybe we'll stop paying through the teeth for upgrades and new software.

all seems to work fine for me.....

log all requests to the site, particularly $_SERVER['HTTP_REFERER'] which shows the full URL of where someone came from. then you just parse out the keyword

back when my old site was busy and when i was maintaining it, it used to really get some properly bizarre search terms - and some of them ranked very highly in google or MSN's results, with no cost or outlay. as i love stuff like this, i made a little script quite a while back so i could keep tabs on things like this. take a look for yourself: http://thedinnertimes.co.uk/sewatch.php many of the links no longer show any placement any longer, mainly because they were all under another domain.

right - i'm gonna put my blunt hat on for now, and drift of topic, but this is important and could save you from more "egg on face" ppassistant.com has a tiny credits link right in the lower corner. when you click it, you get taken to a page with simply: with not even a link or anything. so someone that comes along that thinks "hmm this is a nice template. i wonder who did this?" will then have to go elsewhere, google it, just to find out who did your work for you. if there's a credit given on freelancebusinessman.com, then it's so well hidden under (still) tonnes and tonnes and tonnes of waffle. dude - it's a 30 second job that could potentially save you tonnes of hassle, legal action and costs - not to mention making you look less of a thief. hell, doing the whole template considering it's not groundbreaking shouldn't take longer than a few hours. if you produced a design for other people to use freely, would YOU be happy about them not giving sufficient, visible acknowledgement? Don't worry - from previous posts, I already know the answer to this. I've downloaded your ppassistant, BTW, and decided to launch it as my own. I may pop a credit in the promotional site somewhere but it depends how i feel or if i get time to do it. Just kidding. But I'm sure you see my point. Based on how long you tried to get the site looking good, over several months, the guy has saved you LOADS - at least give him a frigging link, not a half-hearted mention in a gloomy, tucked away corner. The fact that phpfreaks, one of the largest PHP developer communities around, choose SMF and don't tuck the acknowledgements and credits away into a murky corner speaks volumes. Nothing to hide = nothing to be ashamed about. After all is said and done, I don't know what's worse - not PROPERLY crediting someone for their work, or being told about it and still not doing anything claiming there isn't enough time - yet there's enough time to keep cracking on with other stuff that's less important than crediting someones hard work. It doesnt matter if you're going to replace it - the fact is about NOW, not tomorrow or next week. And then, which is just taking the piss a bit: which implies you HAVENT spoken to the guy, you HAVENT yet got permission so until then - either stick a visible link giving the dude proper credit, or just continue to ignore all advice given (seemingly) as per usual. It all makes no difference to me but if you're too proud to recognise a kick up the arse and some good advice, then your ppassistant will last as long as a virgin bedding Angelina Jolie. Sorry to bite dude, but your ethics and understanding are far from what you seem to want to preach, which is a shame - cos someone with your persistence and tenacity should be flying high not scraping barrels for get-arounds and free work.

personally, i dont think it's that important, but only because i'm on a 1024x768 and consider it small these days. in some ways, i consider it like trying to support stuff like Netscape 4 - ok, you SHOULD do it, but they should also be thinking that it's about time they should upgrade... having said that - on at least one site i've done (the admin part of it), i've taken into consideration browsing on a PDA or mobile phone, but that in itself is a different kettle of fish anyway. it's not like your average layout will work as expected - you literally need to detect and optimise based on the device. still....

hmm unless i'm looking in a different way, i cant see where/why the dispatcher gets run again, unless it's for stuff like scaffolding or error pages. can you share the details?

as i'm a little strapped for time, i didnt get to look in detail but it's immediately apparent that it's quite hard to read. the problem with strolling too far off the beaten track and being unconventional is that it can cause these types of problems where you EXPECT things to work/look a particular way, yet you find your eyes wandering all over the place to make heads or tails of things. maybe worth at least putting the poster/date/etc information down the SIDE of a post, rather than across the top. also, more of a CSS problem, but the colour is all very grey and doesnt help the cause - it's all very grey. also, your links are the same colour as your text, which means i find myself in one of those situations where i'm hovering around with the mouse for ages until i get lucky and find a link (ie, a persons username to take them to their profile, etc). also things like having the 'add comment' submit button stretch the full width of the screen, doesnt look immediately like a button but more of another input box. so it's not bad - at all - it just needs more work on the styling to make things more clear and natural.