Building Buildlog.Net

[bdring]

Logo & Hackaday

1. I came up with a logo. It will do until something better comes along. I use these engineering "log" books all the time at work so I associate it with logging in general.
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2. When I first started engraving with my image to G-Code program, I needed a simple image. I found a simple skull on Google image search. I engraved that on dozens of tests. Every time I saw it, I thought of the Hackaday.Com logo. I saw a while back they posted a DXF of the logo, so I used that as a test image. When I got some good results. I decided to send them a link. They did a nice write up it.. My site had about 6,000 visitors referred from them alone.
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Interestingly, though, the first thing they asked about was the forum based build log system. Once I have some code to share, they want to do a write up on that as well.

[bdring]

Fixed Attachements

LaserSafe1's buildlog is looking great. He is giving me a lot of data to work with to refine the system. He was adding pictures both inline and as attachments. The buildlog web page was only inserting the inline ones. I fixed this so now all pictures appear.

[lasersafe1]

I've notice something that you may wish to fix, or perhaps it was your intent. I notice that when a URL is included in a log entry, then clicking on the URL takes you away from the buildlog. I like to be able to click links and have them open in a new window or new tab. This should be something you can set by default. Perhaps it is also just me being lazy, because I know the option is always present for me to right click and tell it to open in a new window.

[bdring]

Comment From Buildlog Author

I am not sure I understand. Are you saying that if you click on a link, the page changes over to that link rather than opening a new window or tab?

That usually falls under personal preference. I think most modern design guidelines suggest changing to the new page is generally preferred. I gives more control to the users.

Most sites work that way, like Wikipedia. Wikipedia includes an icon whenever the link will take you off site, but every click changes the page.

It is easy to change. It can pop to a named tab so all links go to one tab, or each link generates its own tab.

[lasersafe1]

Comment From Buildlog Author

I am not sure I understand. Are you saying that if you click on a link, the page changes over to that link rather than opening a new window or tab?

That usually falls under personal preference. I think most modern design guidelines suggest changing to the new page is generally preferred. I gives more control to the users.

Most sites work that way, like Wikipedia. Wikipedia includes an icon whenever the link will take you off site, but every click changes the page.

It is easy to change. It can pop to a named tab so all links go to one tab, or each link generates its own tab.

If you have a web page for your own business, you would not want a click on an element to take the visitor away from your site. You would write the html in a manner to have the link open in a new window. I think this is still the common modern design guideline. I simply noticed that all clicks within buildlog.net that are linked outside buildlog.net seem to completely take me away from your site.

[bdring]

Comment From Buildlog Author

There are probably "guidelines" for both sides of the issue. My philosophy is give users the what they prefer and the "business" will take care of itself. But....I guess I assumed wrong on what the user wants

I'll try some other methods. What do you prefer on offsite links...a new window for each link so you start building a bunch of tabs/windows or one window that is the target of the links and changes with each off page link click.

[lasersafe1]

I personally prefer new tabs. Perhaps other will weigh in on this. Don't change anything on my account alone. I just observed the link behavior and now I understand why Buildlog.net kept disappearing from my browser.

[bdring]

I made a few bug fixes and did some clean-up.

The author comment bbcode was not putting the right HTML tags so it was causing some alignment problems with IE.

I made the comments look better. They now go full page width and have a little icon associated with them.

The "add comments in forum" link after each entry now takes you right to a posting form, rather than just to the topic in the forum.

[pixpop]

I'm noticing that the googlebot sometimes shows up as a registered user in the "who's online" list. Is it really registered? Did it register itself, or did you register it?

Neil

[bdring]

Comment From Buildlog Author

phpBB has about 40-60 pre-registered "bots". They come in a swoop up all the latest stuff on a regular basis. Google seems to come in once about every other hour.