The State of the Aerie

Over the last week or so, I’ve received a couple e-mails from readers advising me that while the Aerie looks great in Firefox, there are some "issues" when viewed in IE7 (if you’re still using IE6 or lower, may I respectfully suggest you either upgrade to IE7 or get Firefox? Internet security, especially YOURS, is no joke, people!).

One of the issues was a recurring stack overflow error. I’m fairly certain that was caused by enabling the cache in WP-Gravatar (the add-on that enables avatars in comments). (It was also causing horrible, horrible slowdowns in Firefox.) I disabled the cache, and I’m no longer seeing the stack overflow. Bah…it’s still there. I think it must be something in the style.css file.

Another problem IE-viewers have is that normal text is rather…bold. And ALL CAPS. I’m not sure why this is, other than to blame Microsoft’s refusal to adhere to web standards. (Well obviously, something else in the stylesheet is causing this, but I didn’t think I changed THAT much in there!)

For you Firefox readers, it looks something like this (only worse!). Imagine the whole article, and every article, displaying this way.

Not good; not good at all. And I’m not sure there’s an easy fix. My current theme is one I’ve modified from the orginal (you can see a demo of the original Munch theme here), including moving the left sidebar to the right side. One thing I’ve learned is that "fluid-width" themes are difficult to create (compared to fixed-width) and modifying them is even trickier. Here’s a thumbnail shot of the original:

It never occurred to me to comment my changes to the theme, so I could go back and figure out what I changed, how, and why. I’m reluctant to do further changes to the current theme, for fear of screwing things up even more. 

Therefore, I’m in the process of implementing a new theme. However, I really would prefer to wait until it’s completely done before displaying it here. Once again, I’m going to modify a theme to be more consistent with my view of the Aerie; but this time, I have some books to help me figure out what, exactly, I’m doing with HTML, CSS and php. 

"Why not just go back to the original theme?" I love the original theme, except for a few issues:

• I prefer both sidebars to be on the right. I want the content—what you’re reading now—to be the focus. It may just be me, but I read a page from left to right, not from center-to left-to right.

• The original font styles made the page harder to read (at least in my opinion). The differences between normal text and links, for example, were too subtle for my taste. If you were looking for a link, it was very difficult to find: Something like this.

I’m also growing a bit tired of the very dark (well, black) background. Maybe it’s because I’m getting older, but the contrast issues are beginning to bother me more as time goes by. Or maybe I’m just looking for a lighter outlook.

One thing I intend to retain, come hell or high water, is the banner. It’s part of the Munch theme, but I think for me (and many of you) it defines the Aerie. The challenge will be to integrate it effectively with the new theme. However, I now have Adobe Photoshop, so at least I can make the title sexier.

Of course, if you only read me through a feed reader, site esthetics don’t matter a lot. But for those of you who do visit here, whether occasionally or more often, I’m very interested in your feedback and suggestions. What works for you (esthetically)? What doesn’t? Any features you’d like to see added?

Feel free to comment here, or use my contact form. I’m eager to hear what you have to say!