Please ignore the irrelevant icon, it's the only one I have uploaded so far!

[fluffyllama]

Not really connected with the LJ issue of the moment, more general time-wasting. I was writing HP fic, got stuck and ended up writing original f/f (don't ask me where it came from, but there's plot so I'm not arguing right now) and now I need a break, so... I'm trying to get this journal usable as I've said I would ages ago, but I have eye-hurty issues. This is the least painful layout I could find but I'm still going to have to change a lot, including the font, to make it pleasant for me to use. I think I've messed up part of it already *g* No, apparently it's intentional that the edit/reply stuff is invisible black on black and I can't change it. Fuck that for a game of soldiers. *changes it*

My main problem right now is the Dreamwidth background red on white parts *fails to come up with a proper name for it*. Is there a way to change the appearance of that I haven't found yet? It only takes a few seconds before the headache starts descending, the red is too much for me really.

ETA: Fixed the site scheme (I looked, but apparently not hard enough!) and it's much less painful now. Phew. Thank you jackandahat.

Comments

[trobadora]

Oh, and I hope you figure out a way to make DW readable for you! For me, what bugs me most about DW is that the site scheme has black text on a grey background, and it hurts my eyes. I have to ?style=mine or ?format=light all posts that display in site scheme style, but of course it doesn't work on actual site pages. *grmbl*

[fluffyllama]

Well I just changed to the Lynx (light) option and that's usable for me - would that not work for you? Instructions are in the comment above yours here - http://fluffyllama.dreamwidth.org/664.html?thread=408#cmt408. The default for me (or maybe I changed it at some point and don't remember) was the red but the black on grey was horrendous when I tried it.

[trobadora]

Lynx doesn't display the site menus, though. Good for reading, but too stripped down to be usable, IMO. *sighs*

[fluffyllama]

It's not ideal, but it will do for what I need most of the time. It would definitely stop me switching to DW as my main journal though. The others are really not usable for me for any length of time.

[trobadora]

Yeah, that makes sense. I can live with it because I don't use it much, but it would become a serious pain on a daily basis. :(

[melannen]

What would it take to make it usable for you (both of you)? DW tries really hard to make the site as broadly usable as possible, and if you put in a suggestion for a site scheme (at dw_suggestions or through support) that would work for you, there's a fairly good chance they would implement something like it with reasonable speed, especially if the discomfort is widespread.

(Also: Hihi! Welcome to DW! I would offer to help with the layout issues, but choosing layouts makes me twitchy so I'm still on the half-broken one I kludged together during early beta.)

[trobadora]

For me, just anything that has a) black text on a white background and b) the full menu at the top (i.e. horizontal, not vertical). :)

[trobadora]

Ugh, sorry, hit "post" too soon. I meant to add, ideally I'd have something like XColibur on LJ, which I will probably be clinging to until LJ finally disables it altogether. *g*

[melannen]

Would a black-and-white or dark-blue-and-white version of Tropospherical (the red-or-purple) scheme, like fluffyllama suggested, work for you? I will shoot it on over to dw_suggestions if you don't mind.)

(I have to admit to finding all of the current DW site scemes awfully bright, too, though I don't mind the default red. And I selfishly want more people to be more active here. :D)

[trobadora]

Honestly, I don't care what colour the menus are (so long as there's a reasonable contrast) - the current Tropospherical ones would be fine with me. It's the actual text on the page I'm having a problem with, due to the light grey background colour.

[fluffyllama]

Hi! The layout I have found now is nice and simple, so I think it will work fine once I have chance to fiddle with it :).

The site scheme is definitely an issue for me. The contrast of the dark red/white is great, but the colour turns out to be really hard on my eyes. The purple is too much as well (but very pretty.) If there was a dark blue/white or black/white option with the same functionality/layout as the red it would make it a lot more usable for me. Using Lynx is okay for reading now and again, but it wouldn't really cut it for everyday use as my main journal.

I don't know how widespread the discomfort is, for me I know it's largely due to a chronic illness giving me almost permanent headaches, so my eyes tend to be over-sensitive to bright colours.

[melannen]

They really want to get accessibility as good as they can (and in fact several of the current site schemes are available because people had accessibility issues with other ones) so it's def. worth asking. I'll put an official site suggestion in for a black-and-white tropospherical type scheme if that's okay with you.

And I know how annoying lynx is; I've been stuck using it on LJ ever since they stopped properly supporting my browser and I had to turn off javascript. I think DW's lynx scheme is slightly more functional than LJ's, but still not great.

[fluffyllama]

I'll put an official site suggestion in for a black-and-white tropospherical type scheme if that's okay with you.

I would be absolutely thrilled if you did! Thank you for jumping in to help, it would have taken me ages to work out where to start asking for such a thing, and even longer to summon up the energy to explain it without your prompting :)

Yeah, with Lynx I can already feel my mouse hand trying to reach menus that aren't there, though I've found most things I need after a bit of a search.

[melannen]

I just put the site scheme problem into the suggestions queue! But for future notice, dw_suggestions and dw_accessibility are both great places to ask about fixes you need, and getting_started is the unofficial community for any 'help, I am lost on DW' type questions that your reading list fails you on.

(How soon they get fixed is, alas, down to the vagaries of an open-source project, but they usually at least get things put in the fixes queue pretty responsively.)

[fluffyllama]

Thank you :-) I'm sure I will be stumped on lots of things so I'll check those out, and I'm more than impressed by everyone's helpfulness so far so I'm sure I can muddle along with the basics now :)

[melannen]

The suggestion just went up on the community for discussion! Variations on Tropospherical Site Scheme, if you want to take part in the discussion. It's not actually the post I submitted because someone else got the same suggestion in first.

Do you mind if I link to your posts in the comments there?

[fluffyllama]

Fabulous, I will take a proper look in the morning since you just caught me before I go to bed :)

It's absolutely fine to link this there. If more input is needed I'll do my best to answer. It would be nice to be able to do more than just the minimum (mostly cross-post our fest) on DW, and it would definitely make that easier on the eyes!

[fluffyllama]

So I got distracted (but may go to bed any moment if I can tear myself away, so sorry if you answer and I've gone!)

Before I go over there and make myself look stupid (*g*), do you know if it's supposed to reset the site scheme when you log out? I keep saving it to the Lynx light but it keeps changing back to red/white next time I log in. That can't be right, right?

[melannen]

That shouldn't be right, no, but I've never messed with Lynx in DW. If you mention it there (or on Support) you will probably get people trying to debug it for you, though! DW people tend to be very, very eager to help new people out. As you may have noticed. :D

(Or you could go to bed. Like I should be doing.)