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

dreamatdrew: An orange leopard gecko half hiding behind the leaf of a 'lucky bamboo' plant, looking directly at you. (Default)

[personal profile] dreamatdrew 2011-04-12 02:29 am (UTC)(link)
HI, I are Drew.
(Fey youze said to....)
(also, on droll, this are how I tracking...)
onyxlynx: Nondescript stack of old hardcover books (Stack of books)

[personal profile] onyxlynx 2011-04-12 02:38 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, fellow students! Hi, faculty!

(I don't have questions, mostly because I don't know what the questions would be.)

[personal profile] ex_pippin880 2011-04-12 02:39 am (UTC)(link)
I'm gonna be AFK in May -- catching up (if I have time) when I get back is cool, yeah?
rhi: a cobweb covered with dew and one drop up at the top (web)

[personal profile] rhi 2011-04-12 02:54 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, there. I'm Rhi or Gryphonrhi to the LJ folks, and man, I hope you don't mind complete CSS newbies. HTML I'm passable in, but I haven't had to use much CSS so I haven't learned it yet. Since I learn best with a project, this seemed perfect. Thanks for offering the tutorials!
sofiaviolet: drawing of three violets and three leaves (Default)

[personal profile] sofiaviolet 2011-04-12 02:56 am (UTC)(link)
Hi, I'm Sofia!

My CSS and HTML skills are pretty decent but I am entirely self-taught through online tutorials and code snippets, and when I do stuff, it's all trial-and-error until I get results that don't suck.

My S2 experience is pretty much pasting other people's code snippets into layers, and modifying them to do other things. Probably the coolest thing I ever did with S2 was modify someone's code snippet for randomized - I think it was backgrounds or headers, and I made it work for whichever of those it wasn't, and also for text. The hard parts were figuring out where in the layer it needed to go, and how to get it to display text properly.
pipisafoat: image of virgin mary with baby jesus & text “abstinence doesn’t work" (Default)

[personal profile] pipisafoat 2011-04-12 03:04 am (UTC)(link)
Hullo, everyone! I do want to make a style for the course, but I don't know what to do yet. I love my dw style too much to give it up unless I make something really fantastic. Thinking ahoy. (Thinking is hard.)
fourzoas: (Default)

[personal profile] fourzoas 2011-04-12 03:06 am (UTC)(link)
Hi! I've been wanting to learn about style customization for a while now, so I'm glad to have this opportunity!
dragonfly: stained glass dragonfly in iridescent colors (Default)

[personal profile] dragonfly 2011-04-12 03:19 am (UTC)(link)
Hi everyone. I'm not too bad (self-taught) in HTML, but a CSS newbie, and know nothing about S2. I don't have any immediate thoughts about a new style, but in the interests of learning some CSS and S2 I'm willing to come up with something.
Edited 2011-04-12 03:26 (UTC)
fulminata: (fandom - tlm / happy triton)

[personal profile] fulminata 2011-04-12 03:21 am (UTC)(link)
'ello! I'm Amber. I'm quite efficient with CSS and HTML.

My S2 experience is quite bare. I'm familiar with Livejournal's S2, but I know changes have been made. I prefer to go into this thinking I don't know anything about S2 so I don't make any assumptions.

I'm hoping to come away from this better able to answer support questions and do more than just make icons for my graphics comm. :D
epershand: "Python: programming the way Guido indented it" (python)

[personal profile] epershand 2011-04-12 03:27 am (UTC)(link)
Hi! My HTML and CSS are quite good--I'm a software engineer who does a fair amount of frontend work, and I've been meaning to teach myself s2 forever without getting around to it.

Really excited for the class!
emeraldsnakes: (Stargate - Telford - Gate)

[personal profile] emeraldsnakes 2011-04-12 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
Hi :D

I've had some basic teaching of CSS and HTML in school last year but as much as I liked puttering around with it I couldn't stand my program. I've always been insanely curious about changing my layout around but I've only been able to manage the basics. This class makes me giddy :D
subtext: A big shiny fabulous rainbow cake, labeled "subtext." (Default)

[personal profile] subtext 2011-04-12 03:47 am (UTC)(link)
Hi folks! I have basic html experience and know enough to tweak complex html, and I've done a little with CSS but forgotten most of it in the years since. I'm interested in refreshing and improving my CSS and learning about S2, which I have no experience with.
sam_gardener: The catbus from My Neighbor Totoro. (Default)

[personal profile] sam_gardener 2011-04-12 03:50 am (UTC)(link)
Hi!
I've been meaning to teach myself S2 but I never get around to it so I want to use this as a motivator. I'm not sure how much time I'll have to put into it but it sounds way more fun than a lot of the stuff I should be doing.
silverflight8: Barcode with silverflight8 on top and userid underneath (Barcode)

[personal profile] silverflight8 2011-04-12 03:54 am (UTC)(link)
Hi! I'm silver, I know some CSS and more HTML, and nearly nothing of S2, so this will definitely be helpful :P I'd like to create a custom style but I don't have a paid account; I'm okay with it existing on a txt file.

[personal profile] matopia 2011-04-12 03:59 am (UTC)(link)
Hello everyone! I am very excited for this *geek*!

I have some experience in editing css and I have used html a lot in the past, but I still wouldn't call myself Advanced in hmtl.

I would love to learn to create my own layout from scratch and to share them with others; why I am here. I also like to answer questions my friends sometimes have on their layouts (:

At the moment, no questions...but I'm sure I'll have some as we move forward :D
six_of_one: (Lurkers)

[personal profile] six_of_one 2011-04-12 04:07 am (UTC)(link)
Hi. I took a class in CSS and modified a style until it was unrecognizable from the original, but that's about it. Without practice, everything I learn gets lost. I hope to re-learn enough CSS to build a style from scratch.

starr_falling: A silhouette of a woman reading a book, in purple and blue galaxy colors instead of black (Default)

[personal profile] starr_falling 2011-04-12 04:40 am (UTC)(link)
Hi! I'm starr, I have some experience with HTML but I know nothing about CSS or S2. I'm really looking forward to this, thanks so much for putting it together!
syntheid: [Alphonse Mucha] Lorenzaccio poster, person chewing their thumbnail (certainty is certainly lacked)

[personal profile] syntheid 2011-04-12 04:41 am (UTC)(link)
Hullo? Um, I have mostly been a tinkerer in HTML and CSS for some time now, but while my HTML skills are generally decent, my CSS (and my minimal knowledge of S2) tends to be sort of "Does this work? No? Maybe this other thing I vaguely know about will work? Fail, fail fail... Success!" and it'd be nice to be more knowledgeable about how exactly to achieve the results I want. I'd also like to finish converting the layout I started, heh (there's a particular snag that's halted my progress that I suspect I could solve if I was more familiar with S2 and CSS concepts), though probably I will start a brand new project specifically for the class.

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