MetaChat - I've removed the color gradation background image on the site.

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11 November 2006

I've removed the color gradation background image on the site. You will probably have to shift/refresh (or "reload") to see the change. This will help those FF users who have been seeing a "mis-sync" of the background in the middle column when scrolling, and - if it happens to help those pages (usually very image- or text-heavy) where some of you are getting a "stutter" repeat effect, please let me know.

post by: taz at: 03:30 | 24 comments

oh wtf. That was part of the charm of metachat. Bring it back, I can't stand this plain bg.

Btw, i'm a firefox user and I never had any "mis-sync" or "stutter".

posted by court siem 11 November | 03:57

I resisted banishing it, because I really love it myself, but if it is the culprit for the worst of the problems (like this page capture from iconomy), then there's no question that we have to sacrifice it for now. If it's only the middle column problem, which is just more distracting than anything else, then the people who are seeing that can unify for or against the background, and I'll go with that.

posted by taz 11 November | 04:03

Oh, thank God!!

I run an older computer. That background gradient somehow causes my Firefox to lag severely. I'm finding text to be much more readable, and firefox is much snappier.

Yes, it looked nice. I'll agree it's charming.

But as a graphic designer I plead that people avoid using gradients as backgrounds behind or around text-bodies. It drastically effects the reading of text due to the way the brain and eye perceive text.

Yeah, it can be done, but it should be reserved for blurbs and splashes. It's useful behind row/column blocks of text, especially when it helps delineate the rows for ease of use.

posted by loquacious 11 November | 04:30

Well, I'm glad you're glad, loquacious... but, damn - is there anything you're not an expert on?

posted by taz 11 November | 04:39

Oh sure, there's lots of stuff I'm totally ignorant about. Contemporary fiction. Civil war history. Pop music. Modern Jazz. Dance. Opera. Having a life or career. Not being an insufferable know-it-all. I could go on for hours about the shit I don't know.

Hell, I don't even know the rules to American football. "First Down" and "1st and 10" mean absolutely nothing to me. Something to do with moving some ball backward and forward on some damn field or something.

Graphics and anything visual is a specialty, though. It was job and bread and butter, and still is occasionally. I've been fascinated with computers/science/art and where they overlap as long as I can remember, and I love user interface stuff and industrial design - as much as it pains me to see them all cavorting with that loose hussy known as marketing.

posted by loquacious 11 November | 04:52

*points and laughs at loq's ignorance of American football*

oh, wait... Never mind.

posted by taz 11 November | 05:08

Woooooooooooooo!

Now my screen scrolls smoothly. I always wanted to ask for a fix to that, but I felt like I was the only one. (Doesn't happen in Windows, just Linux.)

posted by knave 11 November | 06:20

taz - running FF2 on WinXp, Serv.Pack2+ and that fixed it for me, gracias.

posted by Zack_Replica 11 November | 06:48

Excellent! So, just to be clear, I'm especially hoping to hear that maybe it solved the problem with text and images(?) repeating on some browsers... if that gets cleared up we'll all happydance together. Naked.

posted by taz 11 November | 06:51

Ok, repeating, no. Text, no. Images, no. What I got was a flashing BG when I scrolled through posts. Basically all the text area was different than the background, when causing the text to scroll faster than FF would refresh. So. No group nakedness for me. damn. i always miss out.

posted by Zack_Replica 11 November | 07:15

*SHIFT-reloads, just to be contrary*

Whoa, I'd hoped it would be a little bluer. Oh well. Have I mentioned lately that I adore taz?

posted by Eideteker 11 November | 07:24

damn, I always say "control" reload when I really mean shift. I'ma gonna fix that in the post. d'oh.

I knew it was going to solve that middle column "shiver" problem, though I still don't understand why some versions of FF do that... but I'm just curious if it is also related to that other, worse problem; I hope it is.

posted by taz 11 November | 07:33

Oh... also, if y'all want it, we can get a bit darker blue on the page.

posted by taz 11 November | 07:48

No more mumbly jumbly! It woiks, it woiks! I love you, taz.

*moons court siem*

posted by iconomy 11 November | 08:16

omg! Strip, everyone - and prepare to dance!

posted by taz 11 November | 09:09

I'm among the people who had some Firefox display weirdness (no repeating, though), and this change solved it. Plus I think it's better-looking.

posted by box 11 November | 09:10

Never had any FF-related funkiness here, and I really liked the gradient, but if it much better for others, OK. I would like a slightly darker background, though.

posted by Rock Steady 11 November | 09:29

Only because I really love dreaming up more work for people other than me, maybe, taz and seanyboy, could we implement one of those css thingies where people can pick their own background, if it's something easily done? I don't know if it is or not.

posted by iconomy 11 November | 10:43

I think it would probably be easy enough to do that.

posted by taz 11 November | 11:13

It did not fix the phantom scrollbar issue. I'm not sure if it was supposed to fix the phantom scrollbar issue, but I thought I'd throw that out there in case it was.

Though I also think I may be running an older version of FF, so I might update and see if that helps.

posted by occhiblu 11 November | 12:18

Yes, updating FF seems to have fixed the phantom scrollbar thing. And now I have a built-in spellcheck! Which does not recognize the words "spellcheck" or "yay"! Yay!

posted by occhiblu 11 November | 12:27

whoah - phantom scrollbar? Eep! Oh well, I just did something that might have fixed that... or broken something else. I guess we'll hear. :)

posted by taz 11 November | 12:33

I like a nice slate blue, taz. Maybe like somewhere ¾ down the old gradient page.

I'm happy not to have my screen flickering at me distractingly, though. Thanks again!

posted by Eideteker 12 November | 00:13

/me refuses to reload, although I'm happy if y'all are happy

posted by deborah 12 November | 01:18

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