foxfirefey: Dreamwidth: social content with dimension. (dreamwidth)
foxfirefey ([personal profile] foxfirefey) wrote in [community profile] style_system2011-04-11 07:17 pm
Entry tags:

Style Class, Session #1: Class Intro

Welcome to the DW Styles Class! From the number of people answering the poll, this is going to be a fairly large class, even if a lot of you can't make it. Lurking is, of course, okay! I do want to encourage lurkers to ask questions if they have them, however--you don't have to stay out of sight.

This class is geared around learning by doing. The main project of the class is to create a style of your own! The lessons are tools to help you along the way, so the syllabus is subject to change if I feel we're going over a subject too fast and people need more time to adjust. At the end, I'll have treats for people who share layouts with others at [community profile] dreamwidthlayouts.

Your mentors are, in no particular order: [personal profile] afuna, [personal profile] ninetydegrees, [personal profile] liv, [personal profile] seleneheart, [personal profile] monarchist, [personal profile] exor674, and, well, me. Mentors are here to help me review lesson plans before they go live and help answer student questions--some are CSS only, others know S2. But! If you know the answer to another student's question, please feel free to help them. We all can work together to learn things.

This class is split up into three "tracks" for different experience levels and goals.

Simplified CSS
Designed for people who want an easier introduction in CSS. It involves making style changes to an existing layout with the base CSS included.
CSS only
Designed for people who want to make a layout from scratch based on existing layout HTML--you can do a lot with just CSS. People might need help with an S2 override or two in order to achieve the effect they really want, but overall the goal is to work with CSS.
S2/CSS
Designed for people who want to be experts in changing both the HTML and CSS of their layout, or building in interesting behaviors. S2 is a programming language and once you know it you'll have few limitations (no JS, some CSS cleaning) in making a style exactly the way you want.
Poll #6596 Original Student Desires and Experience Levels
Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 151


My class track will be:

View Answers

Simplified CSS
20 (13.4%)

CSS only
17 (11.4%)

S2/CSS
94 (63.1%)

Observation only
18 (12.1%)

I'm interested in this class because:

View Answers

I want to customize my own style
114 (79.2%)

I want to make styles I can share with others
76 (52.8%)

I want to be able to help others with their styles
56 (38.9%)

It's a good way to learn skills I'm interested in, like HTML/CSS or basic programming concepts.
108 (75.0%)

If you have another interest in this class, what is it?

CSS Experience

View Answers

None or very little
47 (31.1%)

Beginner
51 (33.8%)

Experienced
44 (29.1%)

Advanced
9 (6.0%)

HTML Experience

View Answers

None or very little
13 (8.6%)

Beginner
51 (33.8%)

Experienced
69 (45.7%)

Advanced
18 (11.9%)

S2 experience:

View Answers

None or very little
107 (70.9%)

Beginner
35 (23.2%)

Experienced
7 (4.6%)

Advanced
2 (1.3%)

Browsers I use or have access to:

View Answers

Chrome
91 (60.3%)

Firefox 3.x
90 (59.6%)

Firefox 4.x
80 (53.0%)

IE6
10 (6.6%)

IE7
12 (7.9%)

IE8
40 (26.5%)

IE9
38 (25.2%)

Opera
54 (35.8%)

Safari
62 (41.1%)

Mobile browsers/devices
66 (43.7%)

Other
13 (8.6%)

My main browser is:

View Answers

Chrome
26 (17.2%)

Firefox 3.x
56 (37.1%)

Firefox 4.x
44 (29.1%)

IE6
0 (0.0%)

IE7
0 (0.0%)

IE8
1 (0.7%)

IE9
1 (0.7%)

Opera
9 (6.0%)

Safari
9 (6.0%)

Mobile browsers/devices
2 (1.3%)

Other
3 (2.0%)

If you answered "Other" for any of the browser questions, what browser(s)?

Alright students, as your first exercise I would like you to:

  • Say hi, and greet others! Also ask any questions you would like to know before Friday's class on "S2 Background and the Customization Wizard".
  • Fill out this poll--it will help me know who has what experience level, and the different reasons people are taking the course for.
  • Think about what you want your style to look like, if you'll be making a style for the course!

And now, I'm going through and checking to make sure that all people who answered the original interest poll and don't already subscribe get a reminder to watch this community (unless they have different methods of keeping track)! Hope to hear from you all!


Previous: Syllabus

tyger: Axel and Roxas eating ice cream on the clock tower.  Text: 親友 (Axel/Roxas - 親友)

[personal profile] tyger 2011-04-12 12:13 pm (UTC)(link)
Hi, I'm Tyger. Taught myself some HTML back in the days when 4.0 was slightly old but still relevant, and have picked up some CSS by wanting to mess with layouts, mainly by swearing at it until it works for the first time. (Once I get it the first time it usually works the second time... Usually.)

Don't know any S2 - did some copy/paste work that occasionally involved copy/pasting into specific bits of other copy/pastes, but nothing more complicated than that. It looks like DOOM when you know nothing about it, but if this is a basic tutorial I'll definitely give it a go! >:

I'm almost-certainally going to make a new layout, but probably something very very fannish - probably Kingdom Hearts of some stripe, but maybe pokémon. Would that still be okay to put up in [community profile] dreamwidthlayouts, or should I keep it to fandom-specific circles (assuming I don't get possessive, um. *laughs*)
denise: Image: Me, facing away from camera, on top of the Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome (Default)

[staff profile] denise 2011-04-12 01:37 pm (UTC)(link)
If you're putting it up for conversion to a system style for everyone to use, it can't have any proprietary graphics, screenshots, etc -- any images used in the style have to be either created by you, or freely available under a compatable open source license. But if you're just offering it up for people to use unofficially, you can do anything you want!
tyger: Entei, Suicine, and Raioku sprites (pokémon - legendary beasts)

[personal profile] tyger 2011-04-12 09:47 pm (UTC)(link)
Yeah, I figured it'd be something like that! ^^ Thanks~
tyger: Animated Lea from BbS. (Lea - うれしいねぇ-)

[personal profile] tyger 2011-04-12 09:48 pm (UTC)(link)
:O I thought that was semi-official! .o/ Cool! :D