Links won't click.

[Freebie]

I have a problem which is intermittent, but a pain none the less. I built
this website http://www.samanthaseth.com/index.html using very basic html,
as that's all I know. Recently I added the "butterflies" to the pointer (cos
I was asked to), but many people are emailing me to say that they can't
click on the links at the bottom of the page as the butterflies cause the
pointer to be unable to click the links. The little "hand" symbol sometimes
doesn't show when the pointer hovers over the links and the links become
unclickable. This doesn't happen "every" time, but I've seen it happen for
myself and can't figure out what could be casusing it or how to fix it. Can
anyone suggest anything? (I am a total rookie btw, so simple suggestions
please Any help appreciated.

TIA.

G.

 

[Freebie]

I have a problem which is intermittent, but a pain none the less. I built
this website http://www.samanthaseth.com/index.html using very basic html,
as that's all I know. Recently I added the "butterflies" to the pointer
(cos I was asked to), but many people are emailing me to say that they
can't click on the links at the bottom of the page as the butterflies
cause the pointer to be unable to click the links. The little "hand"
symbol sometimes doesn't show when the pointer hovers over the links and
the links become unclickable. This doesn't happen "every" time, but I've
seen it happen for myself and can't figure out what could be casusing it
or how to fix it. Can anyone suggest anything? (I am a total rookie btw,
so simple suggestions please Any help appreciated.

TIA.

G.

The problem seems to show up more often if the link is via a referral, i.e.
via google or myspace or similar. If I go to www.google.co.uk and type in
"samantha seth", and then I click on her "myspace" link which comes up, and
then from her mysapce site take the link near the top right hand side to her
main website "samanthaseth.com" the problem "can" be made to appear in this
way, but I still don't understand 'why' it does this. It seems to be
something to do with previous sites visited. I could be totally wrong
though. Hmm.

G.

 

[mike]

Hi,

I can't see any butterflies near my mouse pointer. Have you taken them
off now, or are my two browsers not displaying them (Macintosh - Safari
and Firefox)?

You could try running your code through a html validator, see:
http://validator.w3.org/

As validators often do help, although running them the first time can
be daunting, don't be put off fixing all the "little" bugs. As some of
those "little" bugs may be "big" bugs (from experience), afterall it's
easy to miss something.

Another thing I would suggest is to ask the users who found the problem
which platform and web browser (including version) they were using, as
this may help you track it down to one or two specific browser or
platforms. You could then look into idiosyncrasies with these
browsers... etc.

 

[Freebie]

Hi,

I can't see any butterflies near my mouse pointer. Have you taken them
off now, or are my two browsers not displaying them (Macintosh - Safari
and Firefox)?

You could try running your code through a html validator, see:
http://validator.w3.org/

As validators often do help, although running them the first time can
be daunting, don't be put off fixing all the "little" bugs. As some of
those "little" bugs may be "big" bugs (from experience), afterall it's
easy to miss something.

Another thing I would suggest is to ask the users who found the problem
which platform and web browser (including version) they were using, as
this may help you track it down to one or two specific browser or
platforms. You could then look into idiosyncrasies with these
browsers... etc.

The butterflies are still there, so I guess javascript maybe doesn't show up
in Firefox? Or does Firefox have a setting to turn it off (by default?).
God, I must be behind the times..."Safari"? I'd never even heard of that one
until today. Thanks for letting me know about it. I'll have a look at that
validator site, but I don't expect to sort it out that way as I am a total
novice to html and have used only the most basic tags in my html.

Thanks!
G.

 

[Jonathan N. Little]

The butterflies are still there, so I guess javascript maybe doesn't show up
in Firefox? Or does Firefox have a setting to turn it off (by default?).
God, I must be behind the times..."Safari"? I'd never even heard of that one
until today. Thanks for letting me know about it. I'll have a look at that
validator site, but I don't expect to sort it out that way as I am a total
novice to html and have used only the most basic tags in my html.

No, ancient script!

<script>
B=document.all; <-- MSIE proprietary
C=document.layers; <-- Old Netscape 4.x proprietary


The DOM function is document.getElementById for modern browsers the
script is 10 years old, an eon with respect to computers...

 

[kchayka]

http://www.samanthaseth.com/index.html
Recently I added the "butterflies" to the pointer (cos I was asked to)

That script you are using for the butterfly cursor trails is ancient. It
was designed to work in IE and Netscape 4 and won't work in most modern
browsers. You would do best to get rid of it altogether.

In cases where it "works" as intended, it is likely a major annoyance
rather than a cute trick. In cases where scripting is enabled but it
doesn't "work", it generates hundreds, if not thousands, of JavaScript
errors which bogs down the browser. Worst case, the user's system will
slow to a crawl.

Dump it.

 

[Neredbojias]

To further the education of mankind, "Freebie"

I have a problem which is intermittent, but a pain none the less. I
built this website http://www.samanthaseth.com/index.html using very
basic html, as that's all I know. Recently I added the "butterflies"
to the pointer (cos I was asked to), but many people are emailing me
to say that they can't click on the links at the bottom of the page as
the butterflies cause the pointer to be unable to click the links. The
little "hand" symbol sometimes doesn't show when the pointer hovers
over the links and the links become unclickable. This doesn't happen
"every" time, but I've seen it happen for myself and can't figure out
what could be casusing it or how to fix it. Can anyone suggest
anything? (I am a total rookie btw, so simple suggestions please
Any help appreciated.

I would seriously remove that and also the traveling marquee. Both are
nothing but annoyances to visitors. Then, if you really wish the site to
be functionally dependable, validate the markup and learn how to fix any
errors. And get rid of any javascript unless you absolutely know how it
works and it actually contributes to the page.

As it stands now, that's a good example of a bad site.

 

[Martin Clark]

Neredbojias wrote...

To further the education of mankind, "Freebie"


I would seriously remove that and also the traveling marquee. Both are
nothing but annoyances to visitors.

I would prefer not to see scrolling text in the status bar, either. That
and the butterflies are only visible to me in IE, thankfully.

I thought the scrolling message "I hope you hung around long enough for
this to load" speaks for itself. Some users won't.

 

[Freebie]

To further the education of mankind, "Freebie"


I would seriously remove that and also the traveling marquee. Both are
nothing but annoyances to visitors. Then, if you really wish the site to
be functionally dependable, validate the markup and learn how to fix any
errors. And get rid of any javascript unless you absolutely know how it
works and it actually contributes to the page.

As it stands now, that's a good example of a bad site.

Yeah, you're right, it IS a bad site. Even I know that, but I'm not an html
programmer at all. I just undertook the task of putting this site on a
server after being asked to do so by the girl singer since her previous web
designer dumped her and left her in the lurch. I was only asked to put up a
page saying "under construction", but decided to have a go at something a
bit more substantial. Ever wish you hadn't started something?! lol. It's
weird, coz even though I know nowt about html, and the site is crap, I am
actually enjoying it all! Maybe I'll get better at it....'in about 10 years!
;-)

Cheers.
G.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

I would seriously remove that and also the traveling marquee. Both are
nothing but annoyances to visitors. Then, if you really wish the site to

How 'bout the embedded music?

 

[Neredbojias]

To further the education of mankind, "Freebie"

Yeah, you're right, it IS a bad site. Even I know that, but I'm not an
html programmer at all. I just undertook the task of putting this site
on a server after being asked to do so by the girl singer since her
previous web designer dumped her and left her in the lurch. I was only
asked to put up a page saying "under construction", but decided to
have a go at something a bit more substantial. Ever wish you hadn't
started something?! lol. It's weird, coz even though I know nowt about
html, and the site is crap, I am actually enjoying it all! Maybe I'll
get better at it....'in about 10 years! ;-)

If you enjoy it, you have 90% of the battle won. I didn't become
proficient overnight, either, and I _have_ been doing markup for over 10
years. I learned mostly by trial-and-error, experimenting, furiously
looking up specs when something didn't go my way, checking other pages I
liked, and anything but plodding thru tutorials. You still have to do
_some_ homework, though.

Good luck!

 

[Neredbojias]

To further the education of mankind, Blinky the Shark

How 'bout the embedded music?

I never browse with sound on. And since I started that policy, which was
about 7-8 years ago, I never get aggravated by other people's ideas of what
I should hear.

 

[Neredbojias]

Neredbojias wrote...

I would prefer not to see scrolling text in the status bar, either. That
and the butterflies are only visible to me in IE, thankfully.

I missed that 'cause I have the statusbar-manipulation thingy disabled.
But I do like javascript.

I thought the scrolling message "I hope you hung around long enough for
this to load" speaks for itself. Some users won't.

Nope. In normal browsing, when I see a site with a lot of crap coming up,
I usually leave immediately.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

To further the education of mankind, Blinky the Shark


I never browse with sound on. And since I started that policy, which was
about 7-8 years ago, I never get aggravated by other people's ideas of
what I should hear.

Same here. I saw it in his code.

 

[Freebie]

Same here. I saw it in his code.


--
Blinky RLU 297263
Killing all posts from Google Groups
The Usenet Improvement Project: http://blinkynet.net/comp/uip5.html
Coming Soon: Filtering rules specific to various real news clients

Jeez, you gave me a fright just then! I did have a midi playing in the
background but not anymore. I thought you meant you could still actually
hear it! I guess I didn't edit the code "properly". I removed the midi file
though...'I hope!
I am learning so much just from being in this NG. You guys can see things in
an instant that I'd take ages with. I have a problem with the butterflies as
the girl who is on the website is the one who specifically asked for them to
be there. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how I might put a
butterfly-related "theme", or where I can get more up to date code for a
butterfly "effect"? (I know....'women! Well, girls!). I see what you all
mean, about the banner and the scroller at the bottom. They do have to go.
And I had thought it was cool too! lol! I am going to learn this html stuff
yet! Thanks!

G.

 

[Martin Clark]

Freebie wrote...

I see what you all
mean, about the banner and the scroller at the bottom. They do have to go.
And I had thought it was cool too!

Things following the pointer around, marquee text, scrolling messages,
embedded music, animated gifs, transitions from one page to the next,
etc. all seem cool the first time you ever see them. After a few times
you get rather tired of them, especially when they slow the site down.

 

[Blinky the Shark]

Jeez, you gave me a fright just then! I did have a midi playing in the
background but not anymore. I thought you meant you could still actually
hear it! I guess I didn't edit the code "properly". I removed the midi
file though...'I hope!

<BGSOUND src="esoteric.mid" loop=infinite>