Plurk Skins

Valentine's Day Theme 4

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:29:44 -0700

Valentine's Day is one of those times of year that seem to pull at the hearts of romantics everywhere. It is a time where you can show your love to that special someone in your life. It also signifies a time of change as the long winter begins to dissipate replaced by the thoughts of spring and change. As I started looking around for graphics for Valentine's Day I was quickly overwhelmed to the point that instead of creating a Valentine's-based theme I ended up creating four separate ones. This is the fourth theme, the first was Valentine's Day Theme 1, the second was Valentine's Day Theme 2, and the third was Valentine's Day Theme 3.

Valentine's Day Theme 3

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:21:09 -0700

Valentine's Day is one of those times of year that seem to pull at the hearts of romantics everywhere. It is a time where you can show your love to that special someone in your life. It also signifies a time of change as the long winter begins to dissipate replaced by the thoughts of spring and change. As I started looking around for graphics for Valentine's Day I was quickly overwhelmed to the point that instead of creating a Valentine's-based theme I ended up creating four separate ones. This is the third theme, the first was Valentine's Day Theme 1 and the second was Valentine's Day Theme 2.

Valentine's Day Theme 2

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 09:12:24 -0700

Valentine's Day is one of those times of year that seem to pull at the hearts of romantics everywhere. It is a time where you can show your love to that special someone in your life. It also signifies a time of change as the long winter begins to dissipate replaced by the thoughts of spring and change. As I started looking around for graphics for Valentine's Day I was quickly overwhelmed to the point that instead of creating a Valentine's-based theme I ended up creating four separate ones. This is the second theme, the first was Valentine's Day Theme 1.

Valentine's Day Theme 1

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 08:47:44 -0700

Modifying the Friends/Fans icons and User Avatar Size

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 22:55:02 -0700

Recently Plurk made changes to their User Interface by enlarging several of the graphic elements within the dashboard area. This startled several members who immediately began looking for a way to resize the image to something slightly more manageable. During the incurring scramble to find a solution many users came up with creative ways of fixing the code. Thanks goes out to Plurk Layouts and Olivia Bell for first documenting the friends/fans elements so that a solution could be created. The first change was to the user's avatar image which increased in size by nearly 3 times. The second graphical change was in the Friends and Fans section. The user icons in those sections likewise received a size boost going from 25 pixels to 40 pixels. Users again were up in arms as the larger icons took up screen real estate. This tutorial has been written to provide you with the code necessary to change both of these image sizes as well as to center the icons within the Friends and Fans section.

iPod Nano Theme

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 19:11:51 -0700

One of the most influential products to come out has been the Apple iPod. It has revolutionized the way people listen to music. The iPod has taken many shapes and sizes. One of the most popular has been the Nano which uses flash memory storage and is razor thin. Looking at my daughter's iPod Nano I thought it would make a great subject for a Plurk theme.

New Years Theme

Sat, 27 Dec 2008 18:11:55 -0700

While I was searching for a suitable background for my New Years Eve theme I came across another background image that really signified the holiday. I've therefore created a second New Years theme with this background as well. This version features a pair of champagne glasses in a toast with the words Happy New Year at the top of the timeline. Where the first theme is leading up to the clock striking midnight this one captures that magical moment just after the new year arrives.

New Years Eve Theme

Fri, 26 Dec 2008 17:58:47 -0700

New Years is an interesting holiday. It comes almost immediately after Christmas so you barely have time to catch your breath before shifting from one celebration to the next. The other thing that is really weird is that we actually commemorate the end of one calendar and the beginning of another. I guess it could be worse, we could celebrate running out of toilet paper.

Christmas theme

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 17:19:33 -0700

One of the best contemporary Christmas movies has to be A Christmas Story. There's just something about following poor Ralphie as he tries to convince his parents, teacher, and Santa Claus that a Red Ryder air rifle would be the perfect gift. When this movie makes it's annual appearance on television it signifies the beginning of the Christmas season.

Thanksgiving Theme

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 16:59:18 -0700

The holiday season kicks off in full gear with Thanksgiving. There is just something special about getting together with family and friends and reflecting on those things in your life that you are most grateful for. At I stopped to think about this I began to count all the blessings I have been given such as a healthy family, wonderful friends, and of course cascading style sheets.

Green Beret Theme

Mon, 10 Nov 2008 15:57:19 -0700

While I was searching for a suitable background for my Veteran's Day theme I came across another background image that really touched me. I've therefore created a second Veteran's Day theme with this background as well. This version features members of the Green Berets as they salute their fellow soldiers and their flag. This simple action should be a reminder to all of us how indebted we are to those who served their country.

Veteran's Day Theme

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 15:07:02 -0700

As I was thinking about all of the freedoms we enjoy I began to think that perhaps it might be appropriate to create a theme for Veteran's Day to pay tribute to those who have defended our liberties. From the comments that I have received I decided this theme would be a great candidate to share with others so that they too can show how important Veterans have been to our way of life.

Haunted Mansion Theme

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 13:48:12 -0700

As I work through the CSS code for Plurk I sometimes begin to question how things work and whether I can modify them for my own warped use. Since I try not to introduce this madness onto the unsuspecting masses I usually end up updating my own personal profile theme. Sometimes I'll have people ask if I would please share the code so that they too can us it. I'm always more than happy to provide whatever help I can so every so often I'll include a post where I will give you the code from my profile page that you are free to use.

Everything's Changing

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 20:47:54 -0700

Over the course of the last 24 hours the Plurk development team rolled out several new features to the Plurk community. Many of these were welcomed additions but a few of them had an undesirable impact. It was definitely one of those good news/bad news kind of things. The good news is that the features introduced are great additions to an already good product. The first new functionality was the inclusion of a "Block User" button to the user's profile. You now have the capability to block a user directly from their profile. This has been something that the user community has been asking about for quite some time so it's inclusion brought a lot of joy from the user base. The default graphic is a red square button so you can bet that I'll be covering how to theme that in an upcoming tutorial so it matches the style and color scheme of your profile page. The second new feature that was introduced was the ability to follow or friend someone directly from the friend/fan page. This again brings great strides in usability to the interface. Both of these show that the developers are definitely listening to the users which is one of the best reasons for using Plurk versus one of the other micro-blogging services.
Now for the bad news. I should probably preface this by saying this isn't necessarily bad news just that it had implications to a lot of users that were somewhat unexpected. In an effort to make Plurk faster and more scalable, the development team made several changes to the CSS files. These changes should make things run a little faster as the files have been optimized at least initially. As a result several areas may have broken if you have modified or customized your CSS profile.
From first glance it appears the changes have impacted the following:

Modified the Karma arrow and added an element ID for it
Added a SPAN and background image to the Find Twitter Friends box
Added a SPAN and background image to the Embed Plurk Widget box
Added a SPAN and background image to the Mobile Plurk link box
Added a SPAN and background image to the Invite or Find Your Friends box
Added an element for the Loading Image
Added an element for the left browse arrow image
Added an element for the right browse arrow image
Added an element for the Back to Today image
Added an element for the update box divider (# new plurks/# new responses)

There are probably other changes that have been added that I haven't come across yet and I will try to document them were I can. I've created a Plurk message that I am updating as I find new items. I've already updated the existing Plurk Skins tutorials to include these changes so if you read a tutorial before and read it again now don't be confused if the text seems different than you remember.
Over the course of the next several days and weeks I'll continue to try and add new tutorials to the site. I'm also toying with the idea of releasing the themes that I am creating such as the Halloween theme you might have seen. I'm currently working on a Thanksgiving theme and I am in the initial planning stages to create a Christmas theme. I'll continue to use the motorcycle theme for continuity in the tutorials as well.
As always, if you have an idea for a tutorial or a theme please don't hesitate to ask and I will see what I can do to create something to meet your needs. As always I suggest following my Plurk account or check back often to stay abreast of anything new on the site.

Theming the Private Plurks, Languages & Options Button

Mon, 27 Oct 2008 16:19:20 -0700

While I was writing the tutorials on the Dashboard Buttons I noticed that Plurk had created a new box below the main input field to select Private Plurks, define the language of the Plurk, and allow the user to set options on the message. This used to be just a text link but now has the appearance of being a button. They added an icon of a padlock to the left side. Unfortunately the orange background color they used clashes with just about every known color on the planet. It was clear that something needed to be done with that and quickly so I created this short tutorial that will make this area more aesthetically pleasing.