Friday, May 12, 2006

Can I sue?

I think that I've just come across my first case of blog prejudice. Well no, it's not the first but I decided to ignore the first one because I couldn't be bothered. This time I can.

So, it seems that some (two) people have an aversion to the colour of my blog!! I'll repeat that shall I? ...THE COLOUR OF MY BLOG.

Cheeky twonk!

The email suggested that I might change my colour to suit some people who are having difficulty reading black backgrounds. It was also suggested that Blogger should think about offering this colour as newpapers and whiteboards are, well, obviously white and easier to read for ancient eyes!!

I chose my blog and I happen to like black, it's my favourite non-colour. If Blogger made a white one I would fill it with garish flowers, flashing gizmo's, luminous type and anything else that I could cram into a small space.
This is me, and like it or not this is the closest thing you're going to get to the Minx's inner most soul and it's black and black all over!!

It was suggested (by email) that I may be losing valuable readers!!!

Yikes!!

...and then I scrambled to my site metre and.....

Yah-Boo-Sucks to you..... Black Gold baby!!

(and just for you I'm going to post this in the worst colour that Blogger has to offer)

11 comments:

Maxine Clarke said...

Go it, Minx. Block those cheeky beggars!
Or, as your word verification for this comment has it: aokbvfut

Unknown said...

Nice one!

Nearly didn't publish this post because I've got the worst cold in the world, I've just done a dreary day on a bereavement course and I'm starving!!
Hey-ho, someone had got to pay!!

Anonymous said...

Black is better for the eyes anyhow. Despite windows tending to format itself so it looks like we are reading paper, black on white, that method is the equivalent of looking at a bulb for hours (if you use it for that time) and can do actual physical damage to the eye, black, being a non colour, does not strain the eye in the same way and is much better for those people who use computers for any length of time.

Nice baby poo colour btw.

Unknown said...

Thanks Cheesy,
I work with kids who have numerous disbilities, research has found that a dark screen is much kinder to eyes.People with dyspraxia and dyslexia cope much better with reading on a black background and we provide shuttered screens for them. Latest research has shown that using any format computer for a long time can cause damage to the retina.
So apart from being the sexiest blogs in blogdom we 'blackies' must stick together!!

Anonymous said...

Twonk!! Luv it!!

Anonymous said...

At the risk of suffering a vicious minx attack, the white text on black does my head in after a while.

The orange is better (my monitor doesn't show gold).

You'll be sorry you started this, screen readability is a hot topic - here's somewhere you can start:
How should text be presented within a website?

Unknown said...

Very interesting Skint, thanks for this.
The site showed various findings on backgrounds. I too dislike white text on black background and mostly use a variety of favoured colours, although this particular one is one that I'll avoid in future.
There were for's and against's...
Dark coloured backgrounds cut down on flicker but white ones allow for less mistakes when scanning or searching. In summation it suggests that readability is at its best when there is a good contrast - so does it just come down to personal preference in the end. By the way, 8% of males have some sort of eye disorder apparently). The MD has a mild colour blindness, (hence the arguments about plum and brown shirts)and he says he finds my blog really easy to read compared with say a blue background.
Having said all this I don't think that I could write a whole novel with a black background. Perhaps it's something that I should try if I'm putting my money where my loud and vicious gob is!!!!
What I really can't read lately are the damn word verifications - are the spammerbots getting more literate?

Anonymous said...

Readability aside - looking at a light bulb for hours (which is what a white screen is in effect) is worse for the eyes than looking at a light source emitting significantly less light, as a black screen does.

Beau Blue said...

From the 5 basic rules of web page design and layout:

Rule 1. Your web site should be easy to read

The most important rule in web design is that your web site should be easy to read. What does this mean? You should choose your text and background colors very carefully. You don't want to use backgrounds that obscure your text or use colors that are hard to read. Dark-colored text on a light-colored background is easier to read than light-colored text on a dark-colored background.

You also don't want to set your text size too small (hard to read) or too large (it will appear to shout at your visitors). All capitalized letters give the appearance of shouting at your visitors.

Keep the alignment of your main text to the left, not centered. Center-aligned text is best used in headlines. You want your visitors to be comfortable with what they are reading, and most text (in the West) is left aligned.

-blue

Readability aside? What exactly are we doing here?

Unknown said...

Hello Mr Blue
thanks for coming in.
Yes, what am I doing here?
I suppose I am defending my personal choice - whatever we choose in this life we never seem to please everyone and couldn't hope to.
I am also defending myself against an email that I initially found irritating to the point of rudeness.The writer of this email runs a site, that because of its fragmented background would be impossible for anyone with nystagmus (eye flicker) to read.

I started this blog 2 months ago as part of a personal journey, a healing and a way forward. I have met and talked to some wonderful like-minded people, some like Skint who although they may not like the colour I have chosen, still viist every day and add more colour to my blogging life!
I am not competing for visitors (as suggested) but have found some people that I am proud to know, people who have taken my colour at face value and looked to the content of my blog. Which, at the end of the day, is probably what all this boils down to!

Rachel said...

Good lord - what a dull place the blogging community would be if EVERYONE used the same colours. Sure, readability is better with black text on a white background, but God how fucking dull would that be? (And Chees'm is utterly correct, black backgrounds are better for the eyes than white).
Rules exist whether you're writing blogs, books, plays or poetry. But then rules are also there to be broken. As talented writers like Samuel Beckett showed. Ultimately it's all about personal expression - that is what blogs are for. To put a bit of ourselves online and see who comes to play. And if we can't choose what damned colours we want on our own personal little space, then what's the bloody point?

That's what I think anyway.