Site Changes

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tabbox.pngAs we have over 1,400(!) posts on this website, I’ve been looking for ways to make readers (especially new readers) more aware of the wealth of information that we offer. After some tinkering we now have two new functions: first, a tabbed box on the homepage that presents the latest posts in our most popular categories. Second, the ‘related posts’ now also shows a thumbnail for each post.

I find that especially the ‘related posts’ now keeps drawing me back to old posts – pretty cool.

For those of you who are interested in some technical details: to keep the page loading times low, the tabbed box on the homepage uses lazy image loading – the images for a tab will only be loaded if the tab is displayed. I’ve tested the CSS and Javascript in Firefox, IE6, Safari and Opera. I’m confident it’ll work pretty much everywhere.

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    • http://www.marketiers.org/ shul

      Cool! on firefox 2.0.0.12 I had to refresh twice before everything loaded.

      Bart, Thank you for continuing your effort with the site and the community :-)

    • http://www.renderplace.com AntonG

      works perfectly on safari here, and the new functions are really cool!

      -AntonG

    • http://www.inventati.org/cherudek/ cretox

      it works on konqueror too! very cool!
      :)

    • http://www.feeblemind.org olivs

      Worked fine with Firefox (had to reload, too) and Konqueror. Tabs can be messed when browser is not fullscreen, though. Down to which resolution the CSS has been tested? Not my case, but I know a few people are going back to laptops with pretty small screens, this could hinder them.

    • ccherrett

      very nice addition. I will for sure use it a lot

    • Sanne

      Bart, I seldom have my browser window full screen, so I also found the tab bar a bit messed up. The content of the last tab, “Add-ons”, wraps around and you can see the top of it’s characters just a bit under “Tutorials”, see here:
      http://img410.imageshack.us/img410/5740/tabbarwrapgg6.png

      A part solution is: in mini.css, put “white-space: nowrap;” to “ul.tabs”, that way wrapping of the tab content is prevented, at least on supporting browsers as Firefox. The content is still cut off a bit, but at least it’s accessible. See here:
      http://img405.imageshack.us/img405/6260/tabbarnowrapds3.png

      Aside from that, I like the additions very much, thank you. :)

    • Sanne

      Hmmm, another idea: a (maybe even better) way to prevent tab wrapping would be to use icons instead of text in the tabs, with the text in the title attribute of the tag, so you would get the text as tooltip in most browsers when hovering over the icons.

    • Sanne

      Grrr, sorry, I meant the “a” tag above.

    • Barbie

      Cool!
      But I think all the images for related news take a too much space … how about just showing one image in a fixed place while hoverig over one of the links?

    • Trawler

      I think it’s great. You’ve done a great job!! Thanks so much!

    • James

      The tabs mess up with Java script disabled, shouldn’t the tabs be removed in this case?

    • http://www.johanzhe.tk johan_zhe

      hmm, perhaps its just a coincidence, but my rss-feed stopped working,, does anyone else have the same problem? (i’m using firefox)

      otherwise, great job bart ;-)

    • http://www.paraisoenterprises.com Byron Kindig

      Thanks Bart, This is such a great resource. Your work is appreciated.
      Byron

    • http://blendimation.ning.com Rolandixor

      Hi! Great stuff…
      It’s me, Rolandixor… the guy from blendimation.
      I’m still waiting for feedback on integration!

    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      @olivs, sanne: thanks! I now see it as well – I’ll take care of it tomorrow and try your suggestions.

      @barbie: I see what you mean, but I think the best part of showing all the thumbnails is that it triggers either your memory or curiosity. Having to hover over a link before you see an image would kill that effect..

      @James: I’ll look into that. Would you prefer not to see the tabs at all in that case?

      @johan_zhe: it’s not a coincidence ;-) It should be working again now.

      @Rolandixor: I mailed you back two weeks ago!

    • Ben

      Firefox (windows) everthing seems fine. At a guess I’d say many fellow Blender users are visual people, so the image tabs make sense. :)

    • http://darsam.spaces.live.com DramaKing

      Those are some awesome changes! I support you all the way.

    • http://sandra.gilbert.googlepages.com/ Sandra Gilbert

      That is one very slick setup and a great way to showcase news and items of interest.

    • Paul

      Hey Bart,
      The changes are great! I really love the Related Post thumbnails.. They’re a nice addition to the site.
      Just the same though, you don’t know how much time I’ve taken away from all my other tasks because of following all these different Related post links.. I like them though! I just need to have more self control and stop myself from reading all these great articles from the past…

    • Sanne

      The tab bar is much better now, thanks Bart.

    • http://3d-synthesis.com ROUBAL

      Thanks for your efforts Bart. Great work !

    • http://spotmeon.blogspot.com gauravanim

      Nice efforts…

      :)

    • http://www.creaturefeature.info Ataru

      Latest version of Firefox, Windows XP, everything looks great! I LOVE the changes. BlenderNation is better than ever, and that says a lot! :-D

    • Jon

      Hi Bart

      I’ve made a set of icons for the new category tabs. Let me know if you want to use them and I will send them as gifs…

      http://i208.photobucket.com/albums/bb108/jongreenslade/BlenderNationIcons01a.jpg

      Great work on the site as usual. It’s much appreciated. BN is my daily paper.

    • http://www.mbproductions.biz Mike

      Its a nice touch to the site. Good job BN.

    • http://inkweaver-review.blogspot.com NathanKP

      I think that the new features are great. They really open up the site and make it more accessible. I’m already finding information that I didn’t know existed or that I had forgotten about.

      NathanKP – The Ink Weaver Collection – Book Review Blog

    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      @Jon: great initiative! However, I feel that these icons don’t really fit in the current design. We’re slowly working our way towards a new site design though so I’ll take the idea along.

    • http://blendimation.ning.com Rolandixor

      Hey Bart. Mail me again, sorry for the confusion.
      I didn’t see your email, so I’ll have to see if this one comes through.

    • http://www.blendernation.com Bart

      @Rolandixor: I’m not sure what you mean. Please contact me directly by mail for personal issues.

      Cheers,

      Bart