RoR: Forum

Andrew Bissell wrote:

My first task whenever I start editing an article is always to ... move quotes out of gray boxes [and] delete indentations ...

I find this puzzling. When I took composition in college, our professor instructed us to indent extended quotations to set them apart visually from the rest of the text. Perhaps here you simply mean the indentation of the first line of a paragraph. In any case, I would expect an article with an extended quotation to employ the gray box tool to set that quote apart visually from the rest of the text. I can understand placing short quotes into the body of the text, though.

Please clarify.

Post 1

Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - 9:48am

Text on a gray background is difficult to read, so the policy is well-intended. But the reader does expect narrower paragraphs for blocked quotations. The correct solution is to use double blockquote tags, so that the block quote is on a white background but narrowed. For example:

This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text. This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text. This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text. This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text. This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text. This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text. This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text. This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text. This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text. This illustrates a correctly presented block of quoted text.

I just noticed that even correctly doubled blockquote tags are removed by the preview script. This is a bug.
(Edited by Adam Reed
on 7/05, 9:57am)

Post 2

Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - 9:55am

I have never had a problem reading text in the gray background, but evidently this bothers a number of regulars here. Perhaps Joe and Jeff can modify the software to give the block quotes a lighter shade of gray or a white background. This might warrant a poll to gauge just how many people have trouble reading the text with gray background.

Post 3

Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - 9:03pm

Luke,

The indentations I had in mind there were indeed indented paragraphs.

With regard to quote boxes: the objection is not just one of readability. I don't like the way they look in articles, and Linz really hates them on an esthetic level as well. Just the other day I got an email from him hollering at me to "get rid of those damn nihilist pomo-wanking grey boxes!"

I think Adam's suggestion of a white background for block quotes would be the best solution. The meaning will still be plain in forum posts and such, and the readability issues some are having would be resolved.

In the meantime, if you have a block of quoted text in your article, either submit it via Word or make a note to me that you would like it indented. Hope this clears everything up.

I'll will be traveling to New York tomorrow for some vacationing and, next week, TOC's Summer Seminar. My apologies in advance if my emails or posts seem terse or infrequent during this time.

Post 4

Tuesday, July 5, 2005 - 9:35pm

The styling of the blockquote boxes is controlled by the stylesheet that is transmitted with the web page. Jeff can easily change that styling. For example, he could make the background white (or pink or green or ???) and have a box (solid or dashed lines of whatever color) around the quote or even on fewer than all four sides. There are many other possibilities.

Post 5

Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - 5:23am

Andrew wrote:

With regard to quote boxes: the objection is not just one of readability. I don't like the way they look in articles, and Linz really hates them on an esthetic level as well. Just the other day I got an email from him hollering at me to "get rid of those damn nihilist pomo-wanking grey boxes!"

Well, I guess the boss has spoken! Joe, Jeff -- any comments to this?

Post 6

Wednesday, July 6, 2005 - 6:48am

however inconvenient i guess one

could use a table

a new level of 'laissez-faire design'

romanticism taken to include the rise of individualism

It would also be possible to modify the background color of the existing blockquote

to improve it's readability

by adding a style tag within the blockquote tag.

But in an effort to avoid
esthetically displeasing anarchy

I think the easiest solution would be to change the existing style sheet

to let it include a couple of pixels padding, on, say a clear yellow back to assist the red color in contrasting the blue

Post 7

Saturday, July 9, 2005 - 9:48pm