CHOOSE RANT

Title:    Web Aesthetics Day:    July 20th, 1997 Author:  Ruiner Definition:   Aesthetics - Of or concerning the appreciation of beauty or good taste.				A simpler topic, but one that I want to rattle off about. Web Aesthetics could be a good title, when this is later archived. With this web medium we have the growing capabilities to control exactly what you, the 'surfer' sees when you check out our pages. Unfortunately, not all of us are graphic designers with that feel of what looks the best. Obviously, some of us are very colorblind and lacking of any forethought when designing these pages. It makes it particularly difficult that we have these awesome graphic artists sites like Infinite Fish, Ace of Space, and Dr. Ozone, to name a few of the best. They come up with these great tiling backgrounds that give a surrealistic feel. If you look deeper into their pages, most provide something to show how they'll look on your page and what colors of text will appear like. A great feature that many people seem to know nothing about. I have run across sites, even by people I know, that have a totally wrong mixture of elements on the page. Here we have this somewhat dark background, with black letters written in an odd font that kills your eyes. I wonder if these authors ever go back and view their pages. I do frequently, because I want everything to be legible. It just kills me to go to a site and be reading this interesting material, and then the background loads and it's crap. Set your own preferences, you say? That's like telling me to read the Modern New Yorkers version of Shakespeare. You get the info, but you lose something intangible. And it's a hassle. I've done it, I still do it on a site or two that I frequent. I just don't have the heart to write the author and go, hey I can't read that. Of course, on the same token, my faithful readers have BETTER write me and say something if that's the case. I hate being a hypocrite, and I don't a background ruling my page. That could be why you see a good amount of pages with black or white backgrounds. I just haven't found the right combo yet (although it's coming...) Frames. Another touchy subject. To Frame or Not To Frame? Admittedly, I got that book on HTML and frames really aren't that difficult to do. I'm hoping to achieve the medium of functionality and a great look for the frames so they'll complement my site. I think it'll be much easier to tag a button on your left and go to my Recent News page rather than going back to the front, delving into Mind's Eye and then hitting Recent. Same goes for the Sign-In Book and Email. If it's at the bottom along with those references to my easygoing landlords, maybe it'll help the viewer. Maybe. I'll be the first to say that I've seen some horrible usage of frames. Not trying to point fingers (wanting to, but not trying), but even if you check out our Planescape Web Ring, you may find some terrible frame setups. In particular are the sites that use the Target code when making outside links that irk me (sorry if this is over anyone's head). You click on the link to get OUT of the site, and only part of the window changes. You're still left with this reminder of the last page until you reload. (Hey I wonder if you get Hits for other people's pages... Hmmm, now that's a thought). Is this another case where I should be the public consciousness for the surfing world? Write the author and go, please change this? I know there are those of you who hit a site with frames up as standard and go, Sorry, I'm out of here. I can't abide by that, having visitors miss my wonderful material just because of my new layout. So, fairly soon, you should be seeing some nice Frames /No Frames page at the start of all this, giving you the option. I'm out here to please, so I might as well be PC on all this action. Actually, if you've made it this far in the rant, do me a favor and Mail Me something simple saying if you prefer frames or not. I need some public opinion on this and I'd really appreciate it. NOTE: I decided to reread some of these and guess what? No frames! Not gonna happen. I just don't like them as much honestly. I could do them, and you can be sure that I'll do them properly, but here in the Y2K, I don't feel that I need them. Heh. B.Mooney