Late last night, the new [new] design for Localism went live. This is like the new Coke, only delicious, and with less rioting (we hope!)
The display of your ActiveRain posts in this new design has been an issue of contention for some. I'm here to explain the rules:
- The left column is 493 pixels wide. This is where your blog posts are displayed.
- The right column is 379 pixels wide. This is where your profile is displayed.
- Believe it (or not) — we employ some pretty fancy algorithms in an attempt to make everything fit and look "nice":
- Images and embedded videos wider than 493 or 379 pixels (as the case may be) are automatically resized to fit
- All images are displayed on their own "line" and left-aligned. We tried to allow for inline and floating images, but the resulting mess was too much to bear!
- Tables are shrunk to fit in the columns, but this doesn't always work :)
- Text size and font selection is regulated
- JavaScript and excessive embedded CSS is verboten
Although we do our best to ensure your content looks great on Localism, we walk a very fine line. If your (admittedly lovely) custom HTML blog post is spilling outside the confines of its column, it'll be truncated. We apologize in advance!
What can I do? I'm scared/angry/depressed and I just want my content on Localism to look good! If you stick with the WYSIWYG editor, you'll be fine. If you decide to create a custom HTML post, avoid large tables with fixed widths.
I hope this brief explanation helps. If you spot a post on Localism that's been mangled, let me know in the comments.
Jorgen...
Thanks for this ... I need to know the pixel dimentions for photos etc... this is great information!
I will have to check this out with my posts. I wonder how localism looks today
I really like the new look! It's neater and more organized and displays evenly.....unless people put copied newletters and listings.
Thanks for all the hard work!
I like the new look MUCH better. Thyank you all for making the change.
Is the index of recent post gone for good and is it really only going to show 5 post at a time? i really hope not! I much preferred 10.
Update: Are the city and community clouds going tostay gone also? I'm crying over here guys!
I like the new look !
I would LOVE to be a part of this wonderful thing out there called LOCALISM......why do I get a message that there are no more accounts being opened in my area? Virginia Beach???? Can I still post my bog there? I checked the post to Localism on my latest (and first and only so far!) blog. Help me understand how this works!
Anna
Thanks so much for the info!
Thanks for the info. Great look and feel. AJ
Jorgen - Localism looks simply delightful - and I usually only use those words when describing chocolate.
Thanks for all the work you all have done to showcase our efforts - mah-velous, dahling!
Jorgen, Looks great, I am very happy with the new Localism. There are a few things that need to be worked on in my areas as far as duplicate areas and maps need to be put on. Who and where do I go for those things?
Thanks so much.
Jorgen,
I think the look will be great, however my sponsored page is a mess at the moment
Jorgen thanks for the update on the new Localism.
Hi Jorgen,
Very nice to meet you...
the new look is awesome but my posts don't look so hot they are very longgggggg. Not your fault..I love using the mybloglog signature on my posts. I have a myblog signature on almost every post I write..I would say half of my localism posts have it as well the upside I don't post to localism much. I am wondering if I have trouble changing the code in the signature..if I sent it to you could you take a look at it to see if you can make it fit?
Now I got to fix those posts. I make daytona beach look bad! :(
Jorgen, it looks good. It is a bummer that the Pano shows I like to embed are best at 500px wide... But, I'll have to adjust...
When will we be able to put pics or embedded media in the profile for commuity sponsors?
Whew! I had seen some issues, but 493 pixels to include images. Sounds like I will have to re-think some of the MLS excerpts I have been using. At this width the type is simply too small to show!
Jorgen, it looks great! I am so excited to see it live! Thanks for the great info!
I used the editor box to post my blogs but they were still not showing up properly in active rain so I go back in an manually edit them. Still at a loss.
Thanks for the numbers & the explanation. Bookmarked cause I won't remember.
Jorgen, All I care about is Right-Aligning my token 1 photo per blog entry inline, top right. Can I CSS just that? Thanks!
We ned to have anacortes, WA as a city!
Trust me, I'll do nothing fancy--I'll follow the easiest rules for posting.
Jorgen - I don't know if this is where you want bugs, but in uploading photos, the tool will not let me fill in a ohot description for the first photo no matter how many I upload. Then, of course it won't let me upload without a description. Can you email me when it is fixed? courtney@cooperjacobs.com
Thanks - i appreciate it!
Thanks for the update and all the hard work.
Picture issues - squashed one way or the other still -
Hawaii, Maui, Haiku
: )
Jason,
My blog and localism post is a mess. BLog runing into the profile column Help!!!
realestateforthesoul blog and I sponosred 12 cities so it is emabrassing mess..
Thanks,
Well, I'm very happy to tell you that mine look just fine...the new design looks great. Thanks for your hard work!
Thanks for the words of encouragement and bug reports! If you do notice a problem, make sure to include the URL. Telepathy isn't my strong point :)
Thanks for sharing the Localism design parameters with us, Jorgen. I'll have to make a lot of revisions to my market reports, but at least I know that they'll display properly. Can you also put something like this together for the outside blogs?
Loving it! I didn't even realized they rolled out the new version last night. Thanks for letting us know that! I do have a couple of graphs and photo's that look horrible on Localism...do I need to resize those? Thanks so much Jorgen...PS: I'm from KCMO! Lots of friends are Jayhawks!!!
: ) Thanks!
Jorgen, I am diggin the newer design...thanks for sharing some details with us all too!
Sounds like good information if we can follow it. I'll go see how it looks.
okay -- it looks like we can check this out and see how it works. So far, things are looking very good to me. I am sure things will get worked out.
JORGEN - One question...if the HTML tab is now being discouraged, why exactly is it on AR?
This is GREAT!!
Jorgen- thank you for the information and sizing on the new look Localism! JB Brookman
Seems like we will all go and look at what we need to change to fit the new format- thanks for working so hard on this. Wow a lot sure is happening in the rain!
Thanks, Jorgen, for the guidelines! Vey helpful to know! The new version of localism is cool (i think) i was just getting used to the old new one! You guys know how to keep us on our toes!
Jorgen,
Usually, to get to Localism I go through AR straight to the state page. However, I wanted to checkout the new look of the home page. While there it occured to me, as a vistor (not a member) it would be easier to navigate to a specific state if there was a linking map of the US and Canada. The way the state links are presented are not very appealing to the eye. I think a linking map would make the home page more user friendly.
PS. Thank you for letting us know the pixel width of pictures. I have been trying to figure it out myself by experimenting with different sizes.
Thanks Jorgen. The info is helpful and will definitely save time in correcting the image size after posting on the new localism.
If you spot a post on Localism that's been mangled, let me know in the comments.
Jorgen- I've spotted two column "overruns." The first is on Localism. for Westport, CT., Mike Tetreau's market report, posted 7/17/08. His statistics spill beyond the left hand column. On my outside blog, WestportMoves.com, the table in my market report, dated 7/15/08, does the same thing.
On a slightly different issue, I'm not sure why Mike's market report remained on Localism, while mine was bumped. I know, going forward, everything will be included. I guess that doesn't include posts that had already been removed.
Marilyn: This issue has been fixed. I'm not part of the editorial staff, so I'm not sure why your post isn't appearing. However, you're right in saying that everything will be included going forward.
Jorge,
Here's one from my wish list .... On the Sponsored Community descriptions, there's a little plus sign (+) in the upper right hand corner to indicate "read more". Most of us aren't clever enough to realize that little symbol is even there, let alone realize it means "more" .... may I suggest adding the words "read more" with the truncation dots .....
There's a conversation about this on one of my posts here: http://activerain.com/blogsview/651792/A-Bit-More-On
(Well, actually, the little + sign is all over -- Top Neighbors, Photos.... I still think the word "More" would be helpful...)
P.S. I really like the new look, Thank You. (And many thanks for changing to a serif font in the post body!!) :-)
Yo Jorgen,
Here's a little buglet for your attention :-)
One of my posts has a YouTube video embedded.
If I am on the page displaying the video,, then I click the little + sign in the neighborhood Photo box to see more photos,, the YouTube video stays superimposed over the photos...
Like this:
Thank you!
Great post Jorgen. We have tried to pass on your message. This will probably be revisited much more in the weeks to come when localism goes live. Btw: thanks for dropping by today. Really appreciate you reading my comments. I'm sure you guys have even better designs but our intention was simply to brainstorm with you guys to come up with some nice ideas for all the different types of ranks/insignias/crests/emblems that the founding members could have, with each pointing to a specific contribution of sorts that they have added to AR. Thanks again for all you do for this network. It makes for a very exciting place to be in. Those of us who appreciate html and digital art designs are impressed with your work so far. You are a great asset to the Active Rain Network!
btw: what are the margins for the left collumn.