September 22, 2004 | View Comments (33) | Category: 9rules
Summary: Bet Fest has arrived to enlighten everyone on the sport of poker.
There are some loose ends that need to be tied up (eg. the Store section), but I think it's time to show you the latest 9rules site, Bet Fest. Now don't let the name fool you as this isn't some crazy gambling site, but a poker blog. What makes this site even more exciting is that I got Mike, Jeff, and Andrei to jump on board and write content.
The header was done by Mike and in my opinion really makes the site. I did the rest of the design (like you couldn't tell) and let the other designers just have their fun and write about the sport they love.
I would like to think the homepage should again show people that you don't have to restrict yourself to 2 columns when working with a blog site. Initially the homepage was setup very similar to 9rules with the three columns, but that layout didn't give me the feel I was looking for. Instead I wanted readers to get a rundown of the latest articles, ala Whitespace.
The end result is what you see now. I am certain some things will change as I haven't really run this design by the rest of the team (all much better designers than myself) so I will hold a private party later where they can offer their critiques and fixes.
Hopefully I can find the time to do a better writeup behind the design decisions I made or didn't make (sorry, it's 4am and I am a bit tired :-), but for now I just wanted to let you know about the site. This should be the last 9rules site of the year...emphasis on should.
Trackback URL: http://9rules.com/cgi-bin/mt/mt-tb.cgi/341
Pretty nice Paul. I am a texas holdem fan myself, so I may find myself visiting this site quite often.
Obviously you are into your sites for money, but how do you plan on making money with this one (and I assume Mike, Andrei, etc... will be involved :))
This gets me thinking, I wonder if there is any room on the web for a site about gambling debt, I own the domain www.gamblingdebt.com. hmmm
Bryan (http://www.juicedthoughts.com)
Bryan - he said should be the last site...So it'll probably end up like this:
WHITE SPACE 2015:
Brought to you by 9rules Network
1 Man, 342 Sites and counting...
But this site looks great Scrivs! Mike's header gives it the umph and your 'Middle-Stick-Out' collumns support it gracefully. I really like it.
AkaXakA (http://akaxaka.gameover.com)
Bryan, can't we just make a site for fun sometimes? Anyways, the money issue will be discussed over at Big Money Tips. I don't need another bashing about how I only do this for the money here.
The 9 rules were really just 9 rules. Check out the about page on 9rules and you will see them. I never intended to make 9 sites, but it is ironic that is where the number stopped at.
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
Scrivs,
On the money thing, I only asked because I was curious, but I won't mention that anymore, I sometimes forget you have 9 whole sites and often times, content will be shared among 1 or 2 of those with this site. I apologize and yes, Sites can be made for fun :)
I forgot you actually had the real "rules" issue. I don't think its out of the question for you to eventually have like 15-20 sites in your network, i mean, it IS a network.
Bryan (http://www.juicedthoughts.com)
No worries Bryan, just letting everyone know. I sometimes forget I have 9 whole sites as well :-)
This site actually started because I had an interest in Poker and while going around looking at Poker sites I never really found any that tickled my fancy. So like an Open Source programmer I had an itch that needed to be scratched. BAM, site created.
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
Matthew, what browser does that occur in?
IE6/Win - the page loads with a sizeable gap between the bottom of the first article and the grey box with the PartyPoker link in, but mousing over the PartyPoker area makes the whole area beneath the first article bump up around 30px.
On a usability tip, I also just discovered I can't highlight text to C+P on whitespace - makes it kind of difficult to gain exposure if people find it difficult to quote you!
Matthew Pennell (http://www.thewatchmakerproject.com/)
Can't cut&paste? I can do it just fine. I don't see what is preventing anyone from cutting and pasting all the text besides the headers.
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
By the way, an easily searchable Glossary would be an excellent addition to the BetFest site - I just read through a couple of the articles; all this "calling the big blind", "the river down drops a ten", "the turn card came off a rag" might as well be in Russian for all the sense it's making!
Come to think of it, some abbreviation/acronym tags (used incorrectly, but never mind) would also be a good way to explain those sorts of phrases within the articles.
Matthew Pennell (http://www.thewatchmakerproject.com/)
Can't cut&paste? I can do it just fine.
Nope - trying to highlight any text causes the whole page up to the point where the cursor is to be highlighted. I think I read somewhere that using a certain combination of CSS positioning causes this annoyance for certain browsers?
Matthew Pennell (http://www.thewatchmakerproject.com/)
I agree Matthew. I will have to get on those lazy bastards cases for that one!!! Seriously though, funny how one can overlook something like that when they are already involved in the topic.
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
Re: the text c & p issue on IE6 / Win --
This issue was brought up numerous times in your sIFR post. Just go back and read the comments from #54 - #60.
The browser text is next to impossible to select, copy or paste.
Mark (http://www.lightpierce.com/ltshdw)
it's nothing to do with sIFR... it's just the positioning stuff. You can't copy and paste from wired very easily, either. Best you can manage is triple-clicking a paragraph to select the whole thing.
I second the need for some descriptions or a glossary or something. When you showed me the site the other day I didn't have the faintest idea what half of the articles were about.
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
Yeah IE doesn't like the absolute positioning too well, switching the layout back to floats right now as I speak.
Glossary is being worked on as well.
So is content for Business Logs (*cough*Whitepaper*cough*), Forever Geek Content, Big Money Tips Content, more Bet Fest Content, new Vault Submissions, Lame Ass Job redesign...other than that I am just chillin ;-)
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
It looks like the IE highlighting problem is fixed on Bet Fest (At least I can copy and paste everything I like on that Site), but here on whitespace I've got my difficulties. No way to highlight a few words or a sentence.
Axel (http://www.meprojekt.dk)
Highlighting issue is fixed now. Just gotta clean up the layout in IE now.
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
So is content for Business Logs (*cough*Whitepaper*cough*), Forever Geek Content, Big Money Tips Content, more Bet Fest Content, new Vault Submissions, Lame Ass Job redesign...other than that I am just chillin ;-)
While you're chillin, how about doing the rest of the "The Great Blog Review"? You promised us twenty reviews within a week - so far there's only been two! I even went back to check that more than just those two had put their names forward.
Lazy so and so...
Matthew Pennell (http://www.thewatchmakerproject.com/)
I think when you see the result of what I have been working on with regards to the Great Blog Review you will be silenced in awe!!!
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
Nice work.
I love the desgin and I'm excited about the content. I've been reading both Andrei and Jeff's posts on poker, and as someone who is learning to play, and doing pretty well for a total amateur, I'm excited for all the tips!
One thing I'm not to crazy about, but I imagine your options were limited is the name and URL of the site. Betfest? Dunno about that one....
Keith (http://www.7nights.com/asterisk/)
I think the name will work out in the end, although I am sure a lot of corporate firewalls will block it so you might want to avoid it at work :-)
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
"the sport of poker"
Puh-leeze. Despite inexplicably being televised on ESPN, poker is *not* a sport: it's a *card game*.
(Nice looking site as always, BTW...)
KJC
hmm. So what maks a sport, KJC? Physical exertion? no... golf's a sport... Chance of injury? Nope... fox hunting's a sport... Being outdoors? Hmm... bowling... Being competitive isn't even a requirement if you consider stuff like mountain climbing to be a sport.
I don't particularly consider poker a sport, but I don't see anything that disqualifies it from being one.
As for inexplicable... it's easily explained. People like it. It gets good ratings. It makes ESPN (and the travel channel and several others) lots of money. It's much more interesting than watching people wrestle pigs, eat live worms, or perform contrived jokes for canned laughter... or any of the other things our esteemed politicians are doing to get elected. ::grin::
JC (http://thelionsweb.com/weblog)
fox hunting's a sport
Chasing after foxes and getting your hounds to rip them apart is not a sport, no matter what the ol' beans say. In fact Christian Slater was mocked in several printed zines for saying such a thing when he came over here :P
However, i'm Irish, so drinking is a sport to me.
As for the web site: It seems quite interesting and clean, though I can't interpret a lot of the jargon :P
Robert Lofthouse (http://www.ghxdesign.com)
JC: I (with help from m-w.com) would define a 'sport' as a physical activity engaged in for pleasure, and a 'game' as an activity engaged in for diversion or amusement. The only real difference is 'physical.'
All of those activities you mentioned -- even golf -- have a lot more physical activity than just sitting in a chair. So for me, poker is as game, not a sport.
KJC
Regular chess? No.
Chess where the pieces are actual people being told where to move by King Louis XVI, and they mock fight when moving into each other's square? Maybe...
(Also, I apologize to everyone for starting this sport/not-a-sport discussion.)
KJC
So you fixed the highlighting issue, but it would be cool to tell us what the heck caused the trouble and to share the way you fixed it.
Axel (http://www.meprojekt.dk)
As I mentioned previously, it had to do with the use of absolute positioning. IE doesn't like it and I didn't feel like researching a hack around for it so I just switched the layout back to floats.
Scrivs (http://9rules.com/)
I really enjoy the design: the header graphic, little suits next to the nav items, and the h2 styling. I even like the all-caps h1s, even though all-caps normally kinda jars me. And the visual experience of the site really just says "poker" to me: nice work!
Two minor suggestions: I'd really rather see the author's name up top, and I wonder if the h3 and beyond could retain the h2 color (#bd2d20) instead of going back to black...although I guess it helps distinguish from h2; font-size alone might not cut it.
Anyhow, it's really nice, and since I love the subject matter, I'll be a regular visitor. Thanks for another great site! :)
Chris
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#1
Looks really nice and clean.
The content below the latest entry bounces up and down when you mouseover the "Read Entry" and "Comments" links and then go down to the PartyPoker link - looks like margins/padding on the :hover state.
Matthew Pennell (http://www.thewatchmakerproject.com/)