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Post by Christopher - (CM) ² on Aug 31, 2008 1:52:05 GMT
New Website is up and running. Hope you all like it.
Leave any comments / suggestions here, PM or leave something in the comments/suggestions section.
I know it was delayed by like 6 months, but I was waiting for a friend to do it.... she never got off her a** so I did it myself!
Hope you like it. ;D
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Post by Terrier Andy on Aug 31, 2008 6:23:08 GMT
Website looks good Chris. I'll let you off for not including Anthea and myself... as you were doing this at four in the morning. Just don't do it again, or you get a virtual clout.
Having the menu across the top is definitely the best way to go, easy to see where you are all the time. Could you get each tab to highlight in some way, when you're on that particular page? Helps browsers to remember where they are when navigating the site.
Home page works fine, but the other three active pages seem to have an infinite down scroll. I'm using Safari 3.1.2 on Mac OSX Tiger 10.4.11. When I use the down scroll key in the browser window, the page just infinitely scrolls downwards into a blue background. Like falling down a virtual bottomless pit...
I'd be willing to donate (you'll have to wait until after my holiday and next payday though. Sorry, us writer's are skint most of the time!)
The idea of a blog is good, perhaps use that for the Book of the Week, or Bedside Table columns perhaps? Needs to be updated at least once a week though, otherwise it looks tacky and uncared for if left for too long.
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Post by Eggy on Aug 31, 2008 9:35:01 GMT
well done chris! Looks really nice. Andy's right though, it'll need attentionat least once a week to kepp it fresh, but I'm sure we could manage that, perhaps take it in turns? (if you trust any of us nuttters with your pretty website of course...)
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Post by Christopher - (CM) ² on Aug 31, 2008 10:58:56 GMT
The way i've created it means that its mega easy to update and add new pages (meaning easy weekly update) I'm going to build a separate section for "On the Bedside table" although I was also wondering if perhaps we should make the "OTBT" more in depth and interesting, and then publish it in the "magazine" that has been suggested.... but more on that later No idea where the "infinate scroll down" is coming from. It works fine in IE and the new Mozilla... As for the highlighting, thats all apart of the "rollover" and button thing. Easily done!
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Post by Chris B Chikin <Chris_Thor> on Aug 31, 2008 17:12:35 GMT
When I first read the URL, I thought it said "literary dentist" It all looks good. I didn't know you could do stuff like this with Freewebs. The layout especially is an improvement, although I'd maybe suggest trying to find an excuse for a navibar on the side as well as the top. Having a side navibar breaks up the page a little more and makes the reader feel less like their viewing screeds and screeds of text at one (regardless of whether or not they really are). Perhaps it could contain subtopics of each section, i.e. the moderators section could have a link to each moderator's page in the navibar, and the member's work database (once it appears) could be listed on pages A to Z by title or Author and have the A to Z link in the navibar. I know it would be a bit superfluous, but I reckon the extra few links would make the page appear more interesting without being cluttered. Also I'd suggest perhaps trying to merge the borders with the background a bit. Right now the edges look a bit sharp and ugly. If they were to fade into each other a bit it might look better. That or simply tinker with the colour scheme a bit. I like the idea of the Blog as well. Although in the interests of keeping it regularly updated you might want to think about making it updatable by all of the moderators if that's possible? And the Site title still reads "Untitled Document" And I'll send a decent photo to you for the Moderator's list as soon as I get around to finding one. I'm thinking either the one of me with the Dome of the Vatican city in the background or me standing in Red Square with St Basil's, Lenin's tomb and the Kremlin in the background. Trouble is one makes me look religious and the other makes me look like a Communist. Decisions decisions...
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Post by Anthea West on Aug 31, 2008 18:24:07 GMT
How come there's no pic of me in the Moderators section?
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Post by Anthea West on Aug 31, 2008 18:26:53 GMT
Never mind... I found it.
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Post by Chris B Chikin <Chris_Thor> on Aug 31, 2008 20:33:45 GMT
Just a thought, but if it's not too late to put the old site back up, you might want to put some sort of message up saying what's happened and a link to the new site. Otherwise people won't know unless they've already read this or they Google "Literary Den" or have a straight link to the forums in their favourites.
[EDIT]: And is there a way to get one of those mini icons that appears next to the address in the address bar or on the tab headings in Firefox and Internet Explorer? We could perhaps have some sort of open book icon with LD in the pages. Again it's not a big thing, but it's the little details that make a site look professional.
And can you make the forum open in a separate tab? Again it's a small detail but it's better if it's possible for users (especially new ones) to easily browse the forums and main site at once.
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Post by Christopher - (CM) ² on Aug 31, 2008 21:52:44 GMT
[EDIT]: And is there a way to get one of those mini icons that appears next to the address in the address bar or on the tab headings in Firefox and Internet Explorer? We could perhaps have some sort of open book icon with LD in the pages. Again it's not a big thing, but it's the little details that make a site look professional. And can you make the forum open in a separate tab? Again it's a small detail but it's better if it's possible for users (especially new ones) to easily browse the forums and main site at once. Both good ideas that I'm currently investigating. Also investigating getting rid of "untitled document" and adding metatags. Also working on borders already and weird ability to delete blogs! Also investigating more search optimization.
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Post by makes-me-wonder (Rachel) on Sept 1, 2008 9:04:00 GMT
Looks great!
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Post by Chris B Chikin <Chris_Thor> on Sept 1, 2008 10:36:54 GMT
Well, I know that you're not going to let anyone near this precious project of yours, Christopher (especially one with axe to grind with the admin) but I could actually solve the page title and linking to new tabs problems straight away if you gave me the passwords for half an hour.
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Post by Christopher - (CM) ² on Sept 1, 2008 12:27:04 GMT
There are no passwords. Or at least, not passwords I could give you. And even if I did give you them, you couldn't access it, as the website is linked and locked to my computer, and the website folder in my documents. Its an ease-of-use thing, meaning I can drag and drop files. Furthremore, as i'm hosting with office live, its linked directly to my bank account, and I don't feel comfortable with anyone other than me being able to access it.
The pagetitle problem is sorted.
You try building a website in 17 hours without a break.
As for the linking issue, i'll have that solved today.
There is also a problem with users who have widescreen computers (more often than not those troublesome Mac users). It means I need to centre the page, I'll get that done today too.
I also messed up the CSS... so that will have to be sorted at some point. Luckily it doesn't affect the running of the website, just how long it takes me to make changes during updates.
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Post by Paul Carroll on Sept 1, 2008 15:45:05 GMT
Might I suggest moving our pictures into the places of Anthea's and Andy's ones. They stick out more, and we're the founders, so it makes a little more sense. Not trying to overshadow them or anything, but you know... they're out there by themselves
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Post by Paul Carroll on Oct 30, 2008 12:47:23 GMT
For those of you wondering why there haven't been changes on the website as of late.. like since September ninth... it's because Christopher accidentally lost Windows, and therefore access to the website.
He has fixed the problem however, and just needs to get his dreamweaver back online and he'll be sorted. It would be done by now, except he has a lecture to attend this morning and was therefore occupied.
I'd like to apologise on his behalf for that. It shouldn't happen again, I should think.
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Post by Terrier Andy on Oct 31, 2008 19:37:15 GMT
If he's using Windows, it could happen again at any moment...
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