Shiny?

[jadesfire]

Inspired by sunshine, boredom and Nightdog, I've been playing with my journal styles, here and at Dreamwidth. I'm not sure about them yet, but it's nice to have a change :)

Whaddya think?

Comments

[theninth.livejournal.com]

YES! I do like this. It's very clean and easy on the eye.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

That's definitely what I wanted. The black on brown was starting to strain my eyes a little :)

thanks!

[naye]

It really is shiny! :D

[naye]

It really is easy to read. :D But it remains to be seen how easy it is to read comment threads like this - and I'm confused by "Link", "Parent" and "Thread" all coming before "Reply"!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hee! I like it muchly :D

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hmmmm... Given I've got access to the CSS I might actually be able to do something about that.

Time to get playing *cracks knuckles*

ETA: Defeated :( Looks like I'm just going to have to get used to the new order!

[caersmane.livejournal.com]

Shinnnnnyyyyyyy :D Very soothing. I quite like the softness of it.

[greyias.livejournal.com]

Oooh, I like it! Shiny indeed.

[naye]

Oh, well - we can learn! And, you know, read. *g*

[perspi.livejournal.com]

YES, SHINY! It is one I had considered, too.

(Incidentally, I changed my layout, too! Except I turned off the custom comment pages because they didn't have the option to show my Sheppard-hair mood theme pictures. And I'm rather attached to my Sheppard-hair mood theme pictures...)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*nods* It's easier to read than the old one, too. I'm a bit worried the wallpaper might get a bit busy after a while, but I'll give it a go :)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*grin* thanks! It feels very odd right now (I'd had the old colour scheme since I arrive on LJ!) but I'm sure I'll get used to it.

Of course, if I could get rid of the humungous tag list, that'd mean I was *really* happy with it... *pokes CSS*

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

Hee! I looked at that one! But green does odd things to my eyes after a while, so for my own reading page, I needed something more neutral. Yours is very shiny, though :)

(I...don't actually know what custom comments pages are. Do I have them? I didn't try using my moodtheme...)

[greyias.livejournal.com]

I wish you the best of luck! *snort* And I never realized how long your tag list was. I've tried tangling with CSS in the past, but sadly, it es no mi amigo.

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Pretty! But... this style of comment lines always confuses me.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

It is shiny, isn't it? But you're right, and it confuses me too. I still haven't decided 100% if I'll stick with it. I like it, but I also like my content column to be wider. Also, I really don't like all those tags down the right-hand side, because my tagging is so messy! I'm going to keep poking around sites for layouts I like, but will stick with this in the meantime.

Hmmm...I wonder if I could pull my Dreamwidth one over...

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

Go you for actually making changes though. I changed mine once, when I got a paid LJ (vs the free one I had) and that's it. Change is scary!

Your DW one is pretty

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*smiles* When I was a student, my friends always knew when I was stressed, because they'd come round to find I'd moved all my furniture. I know most people hate change, but my problem is always stopping myself from changing things 8 times a day - I'm less good at that when my mental health is poor *rolls eyes*

But it's fun trying out new things and seeing what I like and don't like. My conclusion for this seems to be that I like the general feel and colours, but don't like the narrow text column and the fact that I can't change stuff *myself* like I can using a default layout.

Fortunately, I have a cunning plan as to what to do about that :D

[donutsweeper.livejournal.com]

oooh, I like cunning plans

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

Input from a weirdo... I must have strongly identified your old color and banner photo with you, because now while I'm looking at this page, it doesn't feel like I'm in your journal. But I tend to get stuck in my ways like that. In my head, color and light and shape are part of a place/person's identity. (I haven't changed my journal layout in probably six years because I'm afraid it wouldn't feel like "me" anymore.) I think with this style, the relatively monochrome aspect also feels really different.

But it is clean and elegant, and I could get used to it. :) (You might need a new default icon to go with it! The warm yellow of your daisy feels like it's from another world.)

ETA the old one was warm, and this one is cool and wintry.

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

You don't sound weird! I know exactly what you mean, although in my case, I think of people as their icons, as I mostly read off my flist (in my style) or in ?format=light. I'm not too worried about the flower against it - as you say, I'd get used to it - but the lack of width for the main entries is starting to get frustrating on my friends-page.

All in all, not a bad experiment, but not 100% what I want. Time for Plan B, I think, or at least it will be tomorrow!

Ooh, and because I know you like to know these things, my default flower is a gerbera. Mum and I saw them for the first time about 10 years ago, and instantly started calling them 'gerbils' :) I had them in my wedding bouquet, and for my bridesmaids, so I was careful not to ask the florist for a bunch of gerbils! But they're wonderful flowers, cheap and cheerful and very me :D

ETA to your ETA: I think you're right. The brown was starting to be hard on my eyes, but I definitely need some warmer colours in here.

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

::nods:: We've talked about your flower before. I love your story. :) We call them "gerber daisies" here, which is why I said "daisy" but I think I'll just call it a "gerbil daisy" from now on. *g*

Experimenting is fun. :) I kind of like when I start a new journal for something, because then I get to decide "who" that journal is and experiment with what colors and styles are right.

I read mostly off my flist, too, but some people's comment pages show up with their journal style, so when I comment on those journals often, I start to associate that style with the person. For a lot of people, their journal style is more consistent than their icons (or there are just so many icons). Though you're right, when someone has had a particular icon and used it for a long time, sometimes I associate it with them, too. But some people's default or most commonly used icons use images that are things they *like* but I can't associate aesthetically with the person herself. Like my women friends who use an icon featuring a picture of a man. Something more general like color and light gives me a more applicable sense of the person.

[crystalshard.livejournal.com]

*nod* Very shiny. Me approve.

[miss-zedem.livejournal.com]

Shiny! It is very cool and peaceful, although I'd agree that you need to change the gerbil icon to something more fitting with the scheme :)

I can't quite decide if it suits YOU though - like Rusty, I kind of feel like I'm in someone else's journal. That may well change with time - I'm not the quickest at adapting to new things ;)

Oh and the tags list - isn't there an option to view them as a cloud rather than a list? In 'customize', the 'sidebars' option should give you a drop down box for viewing tags as cloud or list...

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*nods* I'm not sure 'cool and peaceful' is very me, really. And I'd rather build the layout round my icon than the other way round, so I definitely need to do something about that. I may have a cunning plan.

I...don't know about the tags in this layout. I'm used to Flexible squares and my own edits. This CSS thing is interesting but baffling!

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

What about this one? It's similar but I think I prefer the colours :)

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

*nods* I know exactly what you mean. I've shifted it back so I've got browns again, and this style seems to keep the feel of the previous layout while giving me more of what I want. Apparently I need the higher contrast to read things properly! Also, because it's a 'default' style rather than based on CSS, I can shift and change it more easily. And it's still swirly!

More like me?

[rustydog.livejournal.com]

::hugs it:: Lovely. It does feel more like you. :)

Wider text column too! And I do like the swirls.