[thesite] alternate color schemes

jeff jeff at members.evolt.org
Sun Jan 21 20:06:31 CST 2001


jacob,

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: From: Jacob Stetser
:
: I don't know where this concept of THEFT
: came in.
:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

it came from an interpretation of what others saw as functionality.  taking
another's work, even if you alter it to some degree, is still taking
another's work.  i'd rather not be one to facilitate that.

besides, making just the ones a user owns editable is infinitely easier than
allowing them to edit someone else's that they happen to be using to view
the site and then know that it needs to be saved as a new one if they go to
save it.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: It's a simple stylesheet for viewing evolt.
:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

sorta.  i see it more as intellectual property.  it's the same as articles
really.  you wouldn't want me to build a tool that would give another user
the ability to change a couple of words in an article you'd written and save
it as if they'd written it would you?  nothing different here at all.

think of the stylesheets as skins for evolt like you can get skins for
winamp, icq, etc.  there are people that put alot of hours into these
creations.  we shouldn't make it so easy for others to steal their work.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: If they want to steal it and use it on
: somebody else's site, they can do it
: easily.
:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

that's not what i'm talking about at all.  i'm simply referring to user x
coming up with a great scheme and user y coming along, editing a couple of
small things and saving a copy of it as their own.  not likely that user x
will get credit for the original work.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: I guess you want credit for good color
: schemes, is that what this is driving at?
:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

correct - credit where credit is due.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: Me, for example, I might like one of yours,
: but want to change the font face and size
: to my liking and add a darker red here and a
: lighter one there. If I have to REPRODUCE
: that because you want to control every
: instance of my stylesheet, I probably won't
: bother or will look somewhere else.
:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

look elsewhere for what?  all we're talking about here is the ability to
style thesite.

if you want to use the bulk of my scheme, with some modifications, then
you're going to have to reverse engineer it.  i would prefer it if you
didn't, cause it's my work, but i can't stop you.  again, think of schemes
as property of their author.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: On the other hand, if I can edit it, I'll
: probably use your theme and make my changes
: and be happy. Perhaps my style could not be
: 'exportable' to others so they have to get
: yours and do their own tweaking. HOWEVER, I
: think the best, if credit is the problem, is
: if the theme gets the names added of all the
: people who worked on it (say jeff.howden,
: creator; jake stetser, tweaker, mork mindy,
: tweaker, .... etc)
:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

so, using my article analogy, would you mind if i copied your article and
saved that copy as my own creation so long as it identifies you as the
original author and me as the "tweaker"?  personally, i'd rather that wasn't
possible.  it dilutes the pool of good data (articles, schemes, whatever).

if it's just some minor changes you want to make and you don't want to be
troubled with reverse engineering it, then how about contacting the author
and requesting a version with your modifications?  that would be very easy
for the author of the scheme (pick the base scheme, change a couple of
properties, save it with a new name) and they'd be getting the credit for
it.  if they're smart, they'll even name their schemes to include something
unique to each version.

hell - 10px
hell - 12px
hell - 14px

isaac and myself would probably use hell - 10px cause we prefer our fonts
that size, whereas rudy prefers larger font sizes and would probably pick
hell - 14px.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: if this is not about credit... I guess I
: don't understand.  Why worry about sharing
: themes on a site based on designers and
: developers sharing information?
:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

this has nothing to do with sharing.  you share your scheme by making it's
priv level low enough that everyone can see it and/or use it.  whether or
not people choose to surf the site using that scheme is what constitutes
sharing.  however, making it easy for others to edit the author's original
work goes way beyond sharing.

:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
: I think it would be cool if everyone's public
: stylesheets were exported with their username,
: for example:
:
: http://evolt.org/styles/jstetser.hell.css
: = my version of hell.
:
: Or for simplicity, their current stylesheet
: only, at:
:
: http://evolt.org/styles/jstetser.css
:
: That might make showing somebody's page in
: their own current stylesheet easier.
:~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

excellent idea.  due to people having some wonky characters in their
username's though, i think i'd prefer to export them with their userid as
the filename.

another idea this brings up is using these static .css files on the rest of
thesite as well.  that would make for a much faster response from the
server.  when you log in and select a new scheme, it'd simply load up the
scheme and dump it in your css file.  then, the <link> tag to the external
stylesheet would point at this file.  now, there's only one query to the
database for your scheme, and then, it's only when you change something.

user pages would override the behavior of including the viewer's stylesheet
and would instead include the stylesheet of the user they're viewing.

awesome solution.

thanks,

.jeff

name://jeff.howden
game://web.development
http://www.evolt.org/
mailto:jeff at members.evolt.org





More information about the thesite mailing list