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Suggestions and Technical Problems
Started by tiefflieger at 02-16-2006 10:39 AM. Topic has 25 replies.
  
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 02-16-2006, 10:39 AM
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tiefflieger
 
Joined on 01-20-2006
CRW
Posts 65
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New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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Our gracious Admin allowed me to put up an alternate webpage design. We're just messing around trying to bounce off different design ideas from each other.
This is not about who's webpage you like better, it's about finding a design that everyone is happy with!
We would love to get some feedback on what parts of the pages you like/dislike or would see changed.
Specifically:
- tell us how the pages look in your browser, with your screen resolution
- let us know if any of the pages take too long to load
- what's missing - or is there too much redundant info
We're not easily offended. Be honest and critical.
My webpages can be found at wvsporttouring.com/alex/index.htm
Ride nekkid.
wvsporttouring rocks!
How I feel trying to figure out the forum settings ====> 
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02-16-2006, 11:26 AM
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Jamie
Joined on 01-20-2006
Beckley, WV
Posts 298
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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Looks great Alex!
Maybe a little larger text? It's hard for me to tell on this laptop though.....I think instead of making just the text on the main page nav bar clickable, what about making the entire area a clickable hotspot---the lazy factor kickin in.
I was toying with the idea of using on the Tshirts (the bright green/yellow one) from the cafepress page as the link to the apparel page.
I'm glad to see the simplicity of it, I don't want to get into a bunch of Java type stuff or frames and so forth.....the simpler the better! Updating the page needs to be kept as simple as possible so it doesn't become a chore to do.
I'll throw that program up on the server tonight so you can grab it if you want.....or shoot me your address and I'll send a couple of CD's with some "stuff" on them.
Come on people, speak up and let us know how to make YOUR experience better!
Jamie
04 GSXR 750
06 Pontiac GTO
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02-16-2006, 10:35 PM
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tiefflieger
Joined on 01-20-2006
CRW
Posts 65
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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 Jamie wrote: | Looks great Alex!
Maybe a little larger text? It's hard for me to tell on this laptop though.....I think instead of making just the text on the main page nav bar clickable, what about making the entire area a clickable hotspot---the lazy factor kickin in.
I was toying with the idea of using on the Tshirts (the bright green/yellow one) from the cafepress page as the link to the apparel page.
I'm glad to see the simplicity of it, I don't want to get into a bunch of Java type stuff or frames and so forth.....the simpler the better! Updating the page needs to be kept as simple as possible so it doesn't become a chore to do.
I'll throw that program up on the server tonight so you can grab it if you want.....or shoot me your address and I'll send a couple of CD's with some "stuff" on them.
Come on people, speak up and let us know how to make YOUR experience better!
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Yes, it's a pretty basic design - I'm quite rusty with HTML. I've been reading that everything is going towards CSS, but I have no experience with that. It's supposed to be easier to update...
Most of my design is just a ripoff of your original design, so I'm not sure why my text would be smaller than yours. I also forgot about the nav bar, but that's an easy fix. Actually, I think we should start using frames. We're using the same nav bars on each page, so we might as well just load it once! I will toy around with that.
A couple of thoughts:
I'm not crazy about a "Links" page. Everybody does it. After a while you have a huge list of links and half of them are dead because nobody keeps the links up-to-date. How about a box on the homepage with 3-5 "Favorite Links of the Month"? Everybody can post links in the forum (like you guys already started) and then we pick a few each month and post them on the front page.
It would be neat to have a thumbnail on the homepage that is the last picture added to the photo galleries. If you find an app that will do that automatically, it would be worth adding on. We could make the photo a link to the "photos" page.
Ride nekkid.
wvsporttouring rocks!
How I feel trying to figure out the forum settings ====>
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02-17-2006, 4:08 AM
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gsxrjeffro
Joined on 01-20-2006
Shady Spring, WV
Posts 485
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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alex, the reason i want a links page is because we have a some other
web sights that have added links to our page and so we are adding them
in return..
IF YOU LOVE YOUR MOTORCYCLE SET IT FREE. IF IT COMES BACK YOU HAVE PROBABLY HIGH-SIDED
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02-17-2006, 4:34 AM
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Debra
Joined on 01-21-2006
Sylva, NC
Posts 29
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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How many different West Va Sport Touring web page designes are there in cyber-land? I have this one saved on my favorites at home, but one day on my work PC when I typed in the web address, a different WVST page design came up (the one with the blue and gold letters on the top banner). Just curious, I like the way this page is working out. Linsks would be nice, but it is a pain to click on a link and get that "this page cannot be displayed" because of the link going dead. Making sure the links work may be something that would cause a bit of extra work just to keep them active. I don't do web design or HTML or frames or anything like that, so I will leave the decisions about the way the pages look up to you guys, just about anything works for me, I'm easy to get along with!
The only thing that stays the same is change
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02-17-2006, 4:51 AM
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gsxrjeffro
Joined on 01-20-2006
Shady Spring, WV
Posts 485
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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deb, this is our web address http://wvsporttouring.com/. alex is just playing with different options without messing with the real page to see how they work. then we will take the good things from the page alex is working on and use them on the real page. so the http://wvsporttouring.com/ is the only one you need to bookmark...
IF YOU LOVE YOUR MOTORCYCLE SET IT FREE. IF IT COMES BACK YOU HAVE PROBABLY HIGH-SIDED
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02-17-2006, 5:07 AM
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Jamie
Joined on 01-20-2006
Beckley, WV
Posts 298
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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http://www.wvsporttouring.com
That's the only address that you need to worry about, the other stuff is just test and to see what everyone thinks about it.
You should never get a "this page cannot be displayed" unless the web host is down which isn't very often.
Even when the main site is being updated you should get a page.....unless you catch it exactly when a page is being updated.
Jamie
04 GSXR 750
06 Pontiac GTO
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02-17-2006, 6:30 PM
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gsxrjeffro
Joined on 01-20-2006
Shady Spring, WV
Posts 485
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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deb, i think it's an age thing.. the younger you are the more you know
about computers. i have no idea what java, html aor anything like that
is..
IF YOU LOVE YOUR MOTORCYCLE SET IT FREE. IF IT COMES BACK YOU HAVE PROBABLY HIGH-SIDED
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02-17-2006, 7:05 PM
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Jamie
Joined on 01-20-2006
Beckley, WV
Posts 298
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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| tiefflieger wrote: | Yes, it's a pretty basic design - I'm quite rusty with HTML. I've been reading that everything is going towards CSS, but I have no experience with that. It's supposed to be easier to update...
Most of my design is just a ripoff of your original design, so I'm not sure why my text would be smaller than yours. I also forgot about the nav bar, but that's an easy fix. Actually, I think we should start using frames. We're using the same nav bars on each page, so we might as well just load it once! I will toy around with that.
A couple of thoughts:
I'm not crazy about a "Links" page. Everybody does it. After a while you have a huge list of links and half of them are dead because nobody keeps the links up-to-date. How about a box on the homepage with 3-5 "Favorite Links of the Month"? Everybody can post links in the forum (like you guys already started) and then we pick a few each month and post them on the front page.
It would be neat to have a thumbnail on the homepage that is the last picture added to the photo galleries. If you find an app that will do that automatically, it would be worth adding on. We could make the photo a link to the "photos" page.
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CSS is what I've read about as well but I don't have a clue as to how to go about designing with it.....and reading about this stuff is terribly boring.
I've read that frames aren't good for search engine/web crawlers so that limits our exposure.(http://www.google.com/support/bin/answer.py?answer=474&topic=357)
The links page is kind of a must because when we ask someone to put a link to our webpage then we are expected to reciprocate. The more links that point to our website gives us more exposure plus it makes it more likely that a webcrawler will find our site for the search engines. It'll take some work to maintain but then again there's a lot of us ![Wink [;)]](/CommunityServer/emoticons/emotion-5.gif)
I've seen some apps that will do what you're talking about but I think those are server side apps and I don't know how we could make those work.....the frappr tag has the option of rotating images that worked but I think that was from their server not ours.
So far we're doing pretty good with new visitors, about 10 a day so far.....we are getting visitors from all over the country and a few places in Europe!! Our biggest help has been from other biking forums (gixxer.com, suzuki-bikes.com, gsxr.com, etc) so if anyone frequents other forums, bike related or not, put a link to the page in your signature. If you have a personal page on Yahoo360 or wherever, throw a link up to the page.
Jamie
04 GSXR 750
06 Pontiac GTO
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02-17-2006, 8:46 PM
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Jamie
Joined on 01-20-2006
Beckley, WV
Posts 298
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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Something else that we need is more content.....like stories or something, some text type things that tell about the site, the rides, the riders....that kind of stuff
Jamie
04 GSXR 750
06 Pontiac GTO
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02-17-2006, 9:11 PM
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gsxrjeffro
Joined on 01-20-2006
Shady Spring, WV
Posts 485
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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what about a guestbook?
IF YOU LOVE YOUR MOTORCYCLE SET IT FREE. IF IT COMES BACK YOU HAVE PROBABLY HIGH-SIDED
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02-18-2006, 9:27 AM
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tiefflieger
Joined on 01-20-2006
CRW
Posts 65
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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Okay, if frames are out (and I've read that they are on their way out) then I might just have to figure out this CSS thing. My HTML design program will actually change an HTML page into CSS automatically - I've just been too chicken to try it!
If you guys want links, we'll do links. I just ask to keep them somewhat exclusive and up-to-date. Other community-type motorcycle website are fine, but I wouldn't list any tom-***-and-harry-website that sells gear and would never think of putting a link to our website on theirs! We can always put those links in the forum.
Goto go eat breakfast, more ramblings later...
Ride nekkid.
wvsporttouring rocks!
How I feel trying to figure out the forum settings ====>
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02-18-2006, 10:35 AM
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tiefflieger
Joined on 01-20-2006
CRW
Posts 65
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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...okay, belly is full, I'm more better now!
I don't think we need a guestbook page, can't we do that on the forum? I thought I saw an option where you can let unregistered guests post. We could open up the "Introduce yourself" forum to anybody or make a new one?
We really have to sit down and think about the overall structure of this site (didn't heaven_bound suggest that already?). I see a lot of duplication. We need to figure out what we want to represent on the webpages and what needs to go into the forum. Then design the webpage to steer visitors to the forum on the appropriate webpages without duplicating content.
Jeff also suggested an event calendar. Brilliant! I was going to suggest putting a News/Announcement box on the front page. We could put a calendar of the current month next to it with marked dates, i.e. when our next ride is scheduled. Put "Group Ride" under the day, then link it to the "Upcoming Rides and Events" forum so people can look up the particular time and route. See, this is what I'm talking about above: the webpage must be designed to steer people to the appropriate forum to encourage them to participate!
I hate to bring up money, but we should start thinking about financing the site for the long run. How about putting up a link to a paypal account for donations? We could open up a new one just for wvst or use Jeff's or Jamie's. I would put it on the "Feedback" webpage. Donations are strictly voluntary , of course. Can we sell our DVDs on the site? I'm thinking a nominal fee - let's just say $5 and I'll donate the disks and time to burn them. (I'm dying to test out my new Lightscribe DVD burner! Who wants to design the cover?)
Ride reports. The best forum on advrider.com is the ride reports section. People post their reports with inline images. We've already figured out that inline images are somewhat of a challenge on this forum, so the question is: put them on the webpages (for example, click on the ride map and get to a page that lists ride reports by date for that route) or make do with the forum. If we put them on the webpages, then it's pretty much Jamie and me doing it. I would like everyone to be able to post their own reports, whether they were riding with us or not, in the US or abroad. The more, the better.
A members section. Do we want a webpage for each member with a short bio and some picture? Again, we're kind of doing that already with the "Introduce yourself" forum the member's picture galleries. So my vote is no (on the account of duplication).
Now that you're all bored to tears, I'll give you a break. It's time for a coffee refill!
Ride nekkid.
wvsporttouring rocks!
How I feel trying to figure out the forum settings ====>
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02-18-2006, 2:12 PM
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Jamie
Joined on 01-20-2006
Beckley, WV
Posts 298
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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Those are some good idea Alex......my only hesitation is that I don't know how to implement some of those things. And I don't think either of us has the time that a really great website needs dedicated to it.....I'd like to but I don't have the desire to learn the new stuff required for it or to make it easier. (yeah, call me lazy )
Since we don't necessarily have control over the server side there is a limit as to what we can implement easily and still have them useful.
I don't think the duplication thing is a bad idea.....I'm willing to bet that over half the people that have went to the website didn't come to the forum......just a guess but I know that's how I tend to surf.
The calendar is a great idea but to have it useful and convenient without a lot of extra work to design and maintain I just don't know what we'd do. Maybe we can cahnge the "links" section on the front page to links directly to the forum for our upcoming ride and another one for "last ride" pictures and captions.
I don't like the idea of opening up the forum for unregistered guests, that might end up in a policing nightmare. It only takes 30sec to register, if someone isn't that interested in the forum then I'm probably not interested in what they have to say.
I'm not too hip on the member bio thing either but I'm looking at it from a content perspective and getting search terms found for more exposure...and something more to keep people's attention but not just a bunch of senseless garbage that some sites use to catch search terms.
Keeping both the forum and website easy to use and navigate are my main concerns, quality over quantity.
The site is good for a while money wise but a slush fund wouldn't be a bad idea....I don't have a paypal account so we can either use Jeff's or make one specically for the site----that one sound like the better idea. Selling DVD's is fine by me, just don't expect a quick turn around on the videos---those things drive me bonkers! I've been wanting to pick up a LightScribe burner but keep putting it back on the shelf.....I think the state outline (and rider?) would make a nice DVD logo....maybe one of the pics like the one of TRoy going around the curve........
I like the ideas that are coming up.....I wish more would contribute to what they want to see, Alex and I should not be left to decide what you want to see on the page or in the forums.
Jamie
04 GSXR 750
06 Pontiac GTO
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02-18-2006, 4:40 PM
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gsxrjeffro
Joined on 01-20-2006
Shady Spring, WV
Posts 485
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Re: New website design up. Feedback wanted!
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i lost all my emails prior to jan 25 so i don't have all the thing we
mentioned. i did mention the dvd sales. i think we should charge $15
shipped ( usa $20 canada ).
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_wp-standard-overview-outside we can also design a form for mail order where they can print the form and mail it in..
i think the guest book should go on the front page. because most
people don't always go to the forum. i think we can get | | | | | |