I'm getting a weird "bare bones" sort of page here. I don't know if I have a problem or...

Thanks if you can help. Let me know if this looks normal to you.
J

Sometimes the style sheets get messed up somehow.
 
Since this seems to happen with unacceptable frequency, I made a copy of them and my browser uses my copy so it looks normal to me when this happens.

The "stylesheet" is a basically text file with a bunch of computer code that makes all the text and other content of the website appear where it should. So you have one file that has all the content on a webpage that by itself just shows up in a top to bottom format then the stylesheets takes that page, manipulates where and how that content is displayed (like font size and style, background colors, aligning things left/right/center or varying degrees of those qualities, etc). It used to be all that stuff would be written right into a webpage but they started using stylesheets a while back so web designers wouldn't have to type the code up over and over again. If the stylesheet screws up or is missing you get what we saw yesterday, just all the elements of the page with no styling or formatting display from top to bottom. I had to learn all this crap recently for my own little adventures otherwise I would not ahve known that.
 
I agree that this site drops the stylesheet far too often. It doesn't even really make sense unless someone or something is yanking it out of the appropriate folder on the web server. I'm not sure about the new design but when this has happened in the past it has prevented me from logging in.
 
Drew... I am curious how you go about saving the CSS file and pointing your browser to it to make the site load properly when this happens. Could you provide an explanation when you get a chance? It would be very helpful. Thanks.
 
And totally off topic... I hope ya'll are enjoying your Christmas or whatever you are doing. I'm just sitting here writing (website stuff actually) but I did call my mumsy earlier. All fine by me though. I'm appreciating the fact my apt building is free of screaming people, howling dogs and general chaos today. IT'S A X-MAS MIRACLE!! lulz...

Cripes... I just took a look at the source code for this page. It sure references a whole buttload of stylesheets adn apparently scripts in the head. Ugh... no wonder it breaks all the time. Someone isn't using the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid!).
 
This is why I'm coding my own crap instead of using a template. It ain't as pretty but at least I know it will (well SHOULD) work. Yeesh.

Beepster 
Drew... I am curious how you go about saving the CSS file and pointing your browser to it to make the site load properly when this happens. Could you provide an explanation when you get a chance? It would be very helpful. Thanks.
 

It depends on your browser. Some browsers support "user style sheets" while others have extensions available that provide similar functionality. Basically they let you add your own code on a site specific basis to augment or override a website's formatting. 
 
To override something you just add "!important" to the end of a line:
 
a { 
font-size: 18px !important;
font-weight: bold !important;
}
 
 
I use them to, for instance, override the existing styles here and make all of body text BIG and BOLD while leaving everything else alone (i.e. it's not the same as zooming because only some things get bigger).

hmm... I'm gonna take a guess that you are using Opera (only because I know that is supposedly the smart dude's browser). I'm currently using Firefox. The only thing I'm seeing is in the Developer console under style editor. It shows a list of stylesheets and other style manipulating gave which seems to allow you to edit it and then beside each entry an option to "Save to File". Without trying this I'm envisioning that saving to file it would overide whatever stylesheets (or lack thereof) that are coming from cakewalk.com and using the locally stored ones.
 
I'm still a wicked n00b at all this so if anyone knows I'm curious. Really though I'd just want a local copy of a working version of the site CSS so when things go borky I can still view the site properly.
 
Then again I wouldn't mind stripping out any dumb, unnecessary scripts and whatnot because that shiz annoys me. Ever since they made it so you HAVE to allow googleapis to log in and/or post I haven't been participating as much. As soon as I allow it here it loads google crap in any other browser tab I have open to a site that uses it.... and I don't like that.
 
Freakin' creepy arse google.

https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=%22site+specific%22&as_epq=user+style+sheets
 
 
The current style sheets, etc. for this site:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/js/prettifier/prettify.css

http://forum.cakewalk.com/App_Themes/Progressive/lesscss/combinedCss.axd?key=-98602697

http://forum.cakewalk.com/App_Themes/Progressive/jqUI/combinedCss.axd?key=1064129967

http://forum.cakewalk.com...%3a92753c09%3a91f742eb

http://fonts.googleapis.c...bset=latin,latin,latin

http://forum.cakewalk.com/NewEditor/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/skins/default/ui.css

http://forum.cakewalk.com/NewEditor/tiny_mce/plugins/inlinepopups/skins/clearlooks2/window.css
 

I can't start a new thread at the moment 

drewfx1
https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&as_q=%22site+specific%22&as_epq=user+style+sheets
 
 
The current style sheets, etc. for this site:
 
http://forum.cakewalk.com/js/prettifier/prettify.css

http://forum.cakewalk.com/App_Themes/Progressive/lesscss/combinedCss.axd?key=-98602697

http://forum.cakewalk.com/App_Themes/Progressive/jqUI/combinedCss.axd?key=1064129967

http://forum.cakewalk.com...%3a92753c09%3a91f742eb

http://fonts.googleapis.c...bset=latin,latin,latin

http://forum.cakewalk.com/NewEditor/tiny_mce/themes/advanced/skins/default/ui.css

http://forum.cakewalk.com/NewEditor/tiny_mce/plugins/inlinepopups/skins/clearlooks2/window.css
 

So, uh... exactly what do you do with them when the forum breaks? I can easily save those, copy/paste/save but then what, the next time the forum looks like usenet (or worse)? Thanks, really. I may just learn something here.
J

jbow
So, uh... exactly what do you do with them when the forum breaks? I can easily save those, copy/paste/save but then what, the next time the forum looks like usenet (or worse)? Thanks, really. I may just learn something here. 
J

I have a "user style sheet" for forum.cakewalk .com that contains the contents of those style sheets. So after the site loads, then my browser loads my user style sheet and apples the formatting therein.
 
You need to figure out how to use site specific user style sheets for whatever browser you are using (it may require a browser extension providing this functionality be installed). I think most modern browsers allow for global (applies to all sites) user style sheets, but I'm not sure about site specific (i.e. it only applies formatting to forum.cakewalk.com) sheets for different browsers. That's what the first Google link I gave was there as a starting point for. Unfortunately I can't walk anyone how to do this for browsers I don't work with.
 
It's unfortunately not common knowledge that browsers can even do this because it's very powerful stuff for anyone capable of writing basic HTML/.css formatting. And it could still be useful for others just to cut and paste someone else's formatting code.

Beepster
@Drew...
 
Taking "LMGTFY" to a whole new level... lulz.
 
Thanks. I'll check it out but mostly just to see how to force FF to obey out of curiosity. I hadn't even really considered being able to store style sheets locally until you mentioned it and the site usually starts barfing up proper code before I get too antsy. Still cool and definitely stuff I should know by now.
 
Cheers.

I use it because it's useful if you visit a particular site like this regularly - because among other things it's way easier on my eyes to make people's posts show up big and bold instead of just 12 point or whatever. 
 
So after the second or third time this Stupid Forum Software messed up like last night I decided I might as well just make a copy of the style sheets and paste the formatting into my existing user style sheet for forum.cakewalk.com.