Hello everyone. My website, spencerconrad.com (http://spencerconrad.com/), is finally finished. On it, I have a blog (http://spencerconrad.com/?cat=6), free short stories (http://spencerconrad.com/?cat=3), and a free ongoing fantasy serial called called Myriad Souls (http://spencerconrad.com/?page_id=8). Myriad Souls (http://spencerconrad.com/?page_id=8) is an ongoing serial, taking place in a world darker than what you're used to in fantasy. We follow the story of Aveyar: a man condemned to the edge of society because his race is believed to be the spawn of demons. This is a tale of an angel, reborn in the body of a demon.
Please don't judge my writing skills based on this post. A post in a forum is different than a story, so I don't put effort into making it sound good. My stories are up for free not because I cannot publish them, but because I want to provide a good read for everyone. I'd also like to increase my reader base, since I love when people read my work. If you guys are interested in my fantasy writing site, you can follow this link.
http://spencerconrad.com/
glad I could be an inspiration to you.
Very intriguing ... I may have to take a gander see into your site :).
My thoughts (constructive for the most part)
1) Look into Human Interface Guidelines (find some from anywhere, as long as its not some crap-design group like MS or GNOME), and take a look at some of the stuff they emphasize. Design is about a LOT more than being creative -- a properly designed app or website is inherently faster and easier, and therefore better.
2) ACK! MYRIAD IMAGES! Please use CSS more and raster graphics less -- much, much, much faster at low connection speeds. Also, to prepare for the Resolution-Independent future, you might consider SVGs (Scalable Vector Graphics).
BTW, while developing a site, it's best to use Chrome/Safari in conjunction with Fx to get the best results -- Fx because it's spot-on accurate every time, no matter what browser the page was designed for, and Chrome/Safari because they have the best HTML5/CSS3 support of any browser (WebKit FTW!)
@UltaFlame, yup. That episode also got me an A in creative writing, XD I am very thankful.
@Calintz, awesome. I see that you joined. Glad you checked it out.
@WcW, I actually just used a wordpress template. I don't really understand CSS or raster graphics. Could I persuade you into helping me with this? Thanks for the CC, btw, I love getting criticism.
Quote from: legacyblade on June 11, 2009, 10:35:43 pm
@UltaFlame, yup. That episode also got me an A in creative writing, XD I am very thankful.
@Calintz, awesome. I see that you joined. Glad you checked it out.
@WcW, I actually just used a wordpress template. I don't really understand CSS or raster graphics. Could I persuade you into helping me with this? Thanks for the CC, btw, I love getting criticism.
That's what I thought you might be. Raster is the name for pre-rendered graphics like PNG and JPG; basic HTML and all CSS are rather easy, I recommend you check out the W3C's website at http://w3schools.com/
I understand the very VERY basics from using that site, but I'm not sure how I would do this in CSS.
Quote from: legacyblade on June 12, 2009, 02:39:31 am
I understand the very VERY basics from using that site, but I'm not sure how I would do this in CSS.
Just look at some of the tutorials on the CSS section. The best way to practice this sort of ting is create a simple index.html on your harddrive and open it in your browser to test it.
Alright, thanks for the advice.
I checked it out, I meant to post earlier (v-.-)>
But didn't I like the site though, i like the parchment.
@WcW, I found a new theme, and edited it a bit to fit my needs. Is it a better one? I'm pretty sure it relies more on CSS than raster images, since it loads a lot faster.
@MetaKnight, don't like the site, eh? The theme, or the content? I changed the theme, similar feel, but more professional looking. You should check it out.
No, that one is still reeeeaaaaaally heavy on images. It looks good, but a site can still look good with only 5-6 images on the page >_<
The current state of web design is crap. (not insulting you, just making a general statement about how bad the standard is)
Quote from: WcW on June 13, 2009, 11:39:15 am
No, that one is still reeeeaaaaaally heavy on images. It looks good, but a sight
site*
Is it better than the last one though? The images are all a lot smaller, and it reuses the same images a lot on the page. It loads quickly even on my poor inet connection up here.
-edit,
btw, there is another story up. It's better than Myriad Souls episode one, I think. It's called Divine Intervention, you should check it out
http://spencerconrad.com/?p=112
I like the design better, but as my idiot ISP has yet to realize that we are _not_ signed up for 250kbps, I can't really tell if it's much faster. Feels like it, though.
It's a lot faster. It uses much smaller images, and reuses the same ones. The scroll lagged for me, but I thought it was just wordpress or something. and that sucks about your inet.
Quote from: legacyblade on June 14, 2009, 05:19:06 am
It's a lot faster. It uses much smaller images, and reuses the same ones. The scroll lagged for me, but I thought it was just wordpress or something. and that sucks about your inet.
No, 250kbps is five times faster than what we're paying for. When I said that, I meant that it's too fast for me to tell (Safari 4 + 3G (250kbps) level speeds = 1-2 seconds for a page to load)
You have a 400KBits connection? o_o; That's a very unusual number for speed.
Meh, it's closer to 512. Don't take rounded math numbers seriously.
Lol, ok. It would be 4 times then. xD
Oh ok. Well it's much faster even on the slow BYU dorm inet, so I think it's a good theme.
>_> I don't know why I didn't realize 64 x 4 = 256, but w/e. Math and I don't get along during the summer.
new "story" is up. It's kinda odd, you all would probably enjoy it though.
Myriad Souls episode two is finally done. I've had finals, and gotten sick a lot, so there was a big delay. However, all following episodes will be out on time. A new episode every saturday. Anyways, you might want to check it out
http://spencerconrad.com/?p=134
A writer's site, eh? I'll defintely be looking at this because I write myself.
Why hello there fellow writing sword :P I hope you enjoy my site, there is another story on its way, as well as the weekly episode of myriad souls :D
A new episode of Myriad Souls (http://spencerconrad.com/?page_id=8) came out today! Episode 3 (http://spencerconrad.com/?p=183) is here. This is one of the best episodes yet, as it really gets the story going. Don't miss it!
the link it
http://spencerconrad.com/?p=183