Revamp Yays and Nays

From August to the end of October 2016, revamp your existing shrines to bring them up to your current standards! Add new content, refine existing content and sweep your shrines for any errors.
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Lethe
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Revamp Yays and Nays

Post by Lethe »

I couldn't think of a better topic title. <_<

No matter what kind of revamp you're working on and how many aspects of your shrine you're getting up-to-date, there are probably some things you like fixing up or adding more so than others. Some of these things overlap with things you enjoy or have trouble with when making shrines in general, but returning to an old shrine brings additional challenges and tasks with it.

What are some things you
  • enjoy the most
  • enjoy the least
about revamping old shrines or doing some routine maintance? :O

---

An example of something I enjoy doing after a shrine has already gone up and received feedback is implementing visitor suggestions. :D Adding something to the shrine that someone has explicitly requested makes me happy because it means there's someone who's definitely looking forward to it, and also because it's a result of interaction between creator and visitor: something that I usually couldn't have come up with on my own.

What I dislike the most about routine maintenance is how pedantic I am about making all the code, phrasing and styling uniform across all shrines for repeating elements such as first few sentences on the index, series introduction with its stats, etc. If I've put certain things as bold or italic on one shrine (for example a series name), it needs to be the same on all other shrines, and if I decided to change it from <b> to <strong>, I need to change it on all sites, even if it doesn't make much of a difference. Same with title tag stylization, meta descriptions, how CSS is ordered or written... =___= I need to stop doing this; it eats a lot of time and is ultimately not of consequence.
Both despair and ecstasy are part of the elements that compose a person.
high seraph
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Re: Revamp Yays and Nays

Post by high seraph »

I actually loved the entire process of remaking the layout for my Edea shrine, because I decided to let go of my nearly obsessive need to make everything I code responsive for mobile, which ended up making this one of the most relaxing and fun projects I've worked on in a while. Maybe the fact that I've been visualizing this new layout for a few years had something to do with how smoothly building it went, but tbh even the bits I didn't have planned from the get-go were fun enough to play around with.

There are two parts about building this shrine that I dislike though. The first one is that my memory is not very reliable tbh, and the last time I finished Final Fantasy VIII must have been some seven years ago, at least. The second one is that finding in-game screenshots os moments concerning Edea herself is pretty difficult lmao. :bleh: These two problems are kind of blessings in disguise though, because they are also the perfect excuse for replaying Final Fantasy VIII, which is one of my favorite games in the series hahahaah


Also, Lethe, I totally know how you feel about keeping your code consistent throughout all of your sites, as I have the same problem lmao. :swt2:
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Lethe
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Re: Revamp Yays and Nays

Post by Lethe »

OMG I'M SO HYPED FOR THAT EDEA SHRINE NOW AAAAAAAAHHH /shakes you

I hope you're having fun replaying FFVIII! One thing I like about making video game shrines these days is how there are more tools available: HD let's plays, remasters with possible additional functionality such as speed-ups (specifically remasters that hit Steam; perfect for shrining), games that may have a "breeze-through" difficulty setting, etc. So in case a replay is not desirable or doesn't work out, or you miss something, there's that.

And I'm glad someone understands the struggle with this asdkljadjl uniformity obsession. T^T
Both despair and ecstasy are part of the elements that compose a person.
Robin
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Re: Revamp Yays and Nays

Post by Robin »

Things I Love About Revamping

- getting the chance to improve on a project

- rewriting old stuff that doesn't fit my standards anymore

- adding more content where it fits

- making things more navigable

Things I Hate About Revamping

- omg this layout is so bad but I have no idea how to make it better

- good GOD what was I thinking with this old bad code guuuuuh I want to avoid it all

- oh sorry I got distracted playing online games again

- WHY DID I MAKE THIS TABLE AND THEN NOT MAKE A CSS CLASS FOR IT

- i want to revamp this but i have no ideas hello darkness my old friend

- waaaaaaaaah i have to add images so people will actually read this rambling P.O.S.

- img align=left! Left!! LEFT DAMN YOU LEFT!!! NO GOD DONT BUMP THE TEXT DOWN

- FINE BE THAT WAY klsadjflakjsdf TEXT ALIGN CENTER IT IS

- *lies down and kicks heels on floor*

- whoops I just scrolled through facebook for 3 hours instead of working on my website oh well time to go to bed

- ughhh whatever this layout is fine this content is fine everything is fine

- but mommy i dont WANNA format this with <p> tags anymore I WANNA NAP

- I SWEAR THIS WRITING WAS GOOD LIKE A YEAR AGO WHO VOMITED THIS GARBAGE ON IT

- hey netflix has a new show
~ a dream is a wish your heart makes ~
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Lethe
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Re: Revamp Yays and Nays

Post by Lethe »

omg Robin. /o\ I can't help with the focus problems, but for the other half of the list, try poking people around Amassment (unless you're already doing that), whether on the forums or in the chat? Everyone could pitch in with suggestions as to how to improve a layout, the coding, or what else could be added! Don't struggle alone. :D

For the left-aligned images, try "float: left" along with margins. Bumping text down can still happen depending on image size, the letters, etc. but you can sometimes cheat a bit by toying around with margin-top/bottom.

If you type up your text without HTML, throw it into something like this and it will automatically add all the <p> tags to your paragraphs for you!
Both despair and ecstasy are part of the elements that compose a person.
Robin
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Re: Revamp Yays and Nays

Post by Robin »

@Lethe: LOL no I was attempting to make "jokes of accuracy" with all of those points--I've felt them at some point while revamping things over the years, but it's not all what I'm going through right now, if that makes any sense? (I laughed the whole time I wrote that post because HOMG THE ACCURACY, and I figured others could identify with it--that's just my sense of humor, laughing because truth xD)
~ a dream is a wish your heart makes ~
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Lethe
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Re: Revamp Yays and Nays

Post by Lethe »

One thing I've realized is that it's very difficult to change fonts (be it family, size or colour) on a layout when you've been working on a project for a while, even when someone points out that they have difficulty reading it in some parts, and even if you're not entirely satisfied.

Getting back to some sites waaaay after you've finished them is a different matter though, since a good amount of time has passed by then (during which you didn't stare at the thing almost on a daily basis lol). Seeing others like Robin and Crystal have so much fun going back to their old shrines to replace basic fonts with Google fonts makes me want to follow suit! I used font-face on some earlier shrines, but don't remember having experimented with fonts all that much (since it was a drag), and I don't like their looks lol.
Both despair and ecstasy are part of the elements that compose a person.
Robin
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Re: Revamp Yays and Nays

Post by Robin »

@Lethe: YES so much! I also find myself trapped into the layout style of the previous design (like, if I had a two column floated div layout last time for a particular site, I have a VERY hard time breaking out of that mindset).
~ a dream is a wish your heart makes ~
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FandomSavant
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Re: Revamp Yays and Nays

Post by FandomSavant »

Robin wrote:
Things I Hate About Revamping

- omg this layout is so bad but I have no idea how to make it better

- good GOD what was I thinking with this old bad code guuuuuh I want to avoid it all

- oh sorry I got distracted playing online games again

- WHY DID I MAKE THIS TABLE AND THEN NOT MAKE A CSS CLASS FOR IT

- i want to revamp this but i have no ideas hello darkness my old friend

- waaaaaaaaah i have to add images so people will actually read this rambling P.O.S.

- img align=left! Left!! LEFT DAMN YOU LEFT!!! NO GOD DONT BUMP THE TEXT DOWN

- FINE BE THAT WAY klsadjflakjsdf TEXT ALIGN CENTER IT IS

- *lies down and kicks heels on floor*

- whoops I just scrolled through facebook for 3 hours instead of working on my website oh well time to go to bed

- ughhh whatever this layout is fine this content is fine everything is fine

- but mommy i dont WANNA format this with <p> tags anymore I WANNA NAP

- I SWEAR THIS WRITING WAS GOOD LIKE A YEAR AGO WHO VOMITED THIS GARBAGE ON IT

- hey netflix has a new show
Oh my goodness, this is so accurate. :-D

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