Q: Do you know that some of this looks bad in Internet Explorer?

A: You bet we do. (You think we eat all those antacids for fun?) There's a reason why people call IE the "Internet Exploder." The problem is that IE, like all of the other lousy software put out by Microsoft (gotta love monopoly software), isn't fully standards compliant. Shocking, I know. This includes style sheets, even for the simpler CSS-1. So some features just don't work. Yes, IE is 90% of the browser market, but we at CitizenArcane like to think we attract a more informed reader, one that uses Mozilla or Firefox.

Q: Does this mean you ain't fixing it anytime soon?

A: Not necessarily. There sometimes are workarounds that aren't too cumbersome or tedious to implement, but when it starts to make a mess out of the layout I say enough, already, get a browser that works and that isn't riddled with security holes.

Q: Cool layout! Can I steal, I mean borrow, I mean use, your layout for my blog? Can you send me the files?

A: Thanks for the compliments. While immitation is the sincerest form of flattery, CitizenArcane took a lot amount of work to create and we did what we did to make it unique. Why not exercise some creativity with your blog and make it like you and your ideas, instead of borrowing from us?

Q: Uh, you didn't answer the question.

A: Yes, we did. Sigh. The answer is that stealing is wrong. At some point we will put up the CSS, PHP, and other bits and pieces so you can use them as a base. This is more a function of finding the time to clean everything up so that it makes sense and is usable by others, than it is keeping our look and feel "secret". Yes, you could just steal it. But that isn't nice.

Q: The stock market plugin is awesome! Can I get that for my blog?

A: Absolutely. It's being cleaned up and error-proofed so it will drop right into your blog. Once again, this is a matter of finding the time. (We do have a day job.) Do send us an email about it, though, and we'll see if we can get it polished up and available. Otherwise, you might have to live with some badly documented code that might fail under some circumstances.

Q: Isn't this just a hacked-up Kubrick layout?

A: No, CitizenArcane's layout was developed from scratch. Kubrick is Michael Heilemann's noble effort to put a decent layout template into the hands of the masses. It's a good choice for many beginning Wordpress bloggers who don't have the time or expertise to build a custom layout from scratch, but who can customize, which is likely why Kubrick shows up all over the place. We, however, wanted a different look, feel, and organization, and so CitizenArcane was built from scratch.