I've been doing a bit of work today cleaning up the frontpage, and moving most of the text to a side page, in an attempt to make it a bit more representable. This because people are looking into getting a new domain name for the site, because we are starting to get content ahead of others again (I noticed another site crediting Petpet Central for a discovery, on a news item where Petpet Central credited us, but didn't really have a good alternative place to link to) and because, frankly, we needed one.
Now, there's two things I'd like to get people's opinion on.
1. The location of the site itself. Currently, the scripts are at http://nc.empireirc.net/nc/ , put there because they might be temporary, and because it would be cleaner. This would result in our eventual scripts ending up at http://newdomain/nc/ as well. Now, there are two main alternatives for this, also depending on what Kamil prefers (if it matters at all):
a) Redirect traffic coming to http://nc.empireirc.net/ to http://nc.empireirc.net/nc/ through a HTTP 302, Javascript, temporary frontpage, or other redirect.
b) Move the scripts to http://nc.empireirc.net/ itself and give me some time to update some paths.
2. Page design. As you may have noticed, although they are functional, my ability to design nice, aesthetically pleasing page layouts is limited. Does anyone happen to have enough (X)HTML and CSS knowledge to create something that is more pleasing to the eye? I'd prefer handcoded stuff because it tends to be more flexible in how I can update and generate pages.
Frontpage and all that
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Jazzy
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I can handcode xhtml/css, if people give me an idea of what they'd like it to look like- my main problem is most of the pages I've had to do (I get commissioned to do websites) have been pretty as opposed to useful, and the style wouldn't translate well to this site.
Oh- speaking of moving things, do you know if we can move the forum to /forum/ instead? /neocolours/ was only chosen because of the original url, and if we buy our own domain it'll be redundant. It's already kind of redundant as it is.
Oh- speaking of moving things, do you know if we can move the forum to /forum/ instead? /neocolours/ was only chosen because of the original url, and if we buy our own domain it'll be redundant. It's already kind of redundant as it is.
Moving to /forum/ would be possible. You'll need to change the URL again, as we did with the move to this domain, and once that's done I believe it should just be a case of renaming the folder. Since the database doesn't care about the location of the files at all, we should not have any issues with losing posts and all that.
As for how it'd look... I don't really have a good idea for that. It's what usually trips me up. But some stuff that I've learned about these things, when comparing it to pretty websites:
* Keep the navigational options clear. They shouldn't be in the way, but they should be visible. Further, they should be unambigious - text links over vague symbols.
* Emphasize the information. The site is intended to tell people something, make sure they can find and read it.
* Keep things easy on the eye. Many colours, flashing gifs, and so on, distract and make it harder to read. Accessibility is important in this as well.
Just some suggestions/notes
As for how it'd look... I don't really have a good idea for that. It's what usually trips me up. But some stuff that I've learned about these things, when comparing it to pretty websites:
* Keep the navigational options clear. They shouldn't be in the way, but they should be visible. Further, they should be unambigious - text links over vague symbols.
* Emphasize the information. The site is intended to tell people something, make sure they can find and read it.
* Keep things easy on the eye. Many colours, flashing gifs, and so on, distract and make it harder to read. Accessibility is important in this as well.
Just some suggestions/notes
Re: Frontpage and all that
I'd vote for that one myself, it just looks a lot cleaner and it's easier for other people to link to. I wasn't too sure whether to link to the unfinished colours page or the forum itself, if anyone has a preference for in the meantime then I'll know where to link to ^__^Joeno wrote: b) Move the scripts to http://nc.empireirc.net/ itself and give me some time to update some paths.
I agree with Trick. The organizational strategy of the original site made sense - plenty of people come to the site just for the colors so let's make that easy. Then if you want the forums, have there be a link, easy to find but not overshadowing the main content.
We could have another contest to design the front page...
We could have another contest to design the front page...
I really like that idea, we have /a lot/ of amazing CSS brains here and would personally love to see some options.oogabooga wrote:We could have another contest to design the front page...
I also loved the setup of the old site, and I'm really pleased, as an onlooker, that things are falling into place and setting up nicely.
At least it's easier than switching sites entirely, find/replace should be quick.Ahh, I wondered why I wasn't seeing slashcity in the URL display any more!
I think we need a little spiel on the front page, like we used to have "Welcome to Neocolours, the original and still the best site dedicated to bringing you the newest Neopet colours first..." or somesuch. We need to sell ourselves again, we have some ground to make up here.
It's fantastic to see Joeno's scripts helping Neocolours find things first again
I think we need a little spiel on the front page, like we used to have "Welcome to Neocolours, the original and still the best site dedicated to bringing you the newest Neopet colours first..." or somesuch. We need to sell ourselves again, we have some ground to make up here.
It's fantastic to see Joeno's scripts helping Neocolours find things first again
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sterlinglyons
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I can only agree. I think it's great that Joeno's scripts are forging ahead of the other sites that have sprung up lately. I love the idea of keeping a very clean simple and streamlined interface for our main page, while giving it just enough css/html styling to make it appealing to look at. If we can do this, while keeping the formating and graphics simple enough to load relatively quickly for dial-up users, I think we've made our goal.
My suggestion: I rather like the idea of a (slightly textured or plain) coloured background (we could even have a script that allows users to select the colour they want), with white content boxes or squares. Add to this a banner-ish graphic at the top that isn't a nightmare to load, a bit of a slogan, and perhaps small graphical buttons to replace some of the mainstay links..
Other things that would be handy (to create the unique and easily idenifiable "brand image" which we need to make an effective comeback): It would be great if we chose a "site specific" font, a banner (larger on the front page) but incorporated on everypage (perhaps smaller so as not to be distracting) and etc. so that all of our pages are instantly recognizable.
One other idea (which goes to scripting). I'd like the option to compare a pet handy, however, the way the script is set up, if you set a cookie to use a compare box, you have to compare in order for the script to run. Could we set it up so that one could choose not to compare and still have the option available?
Hmm what am i trying to say? Well perhaps in the compare box drop down menu, instead of starting with "acara" and "blue" it could say "none" and "none". So that you could use the compare option when you wanted and if you didn't you could go right to viewing the one colour/species combo that you want.
My suggestion: I rather like the idea of a (slightly textured or plain) coloured background (we could even have a script that allows users to select the colour they want), with white content boxes or squares. Add to this a banner-ish graphic at the top that isn't a nightmare to load, a bit of a slogan, and perhaps small graphical buttons to replace some of the mainstay links..
Other things that would be handy (to create the unique and easily idenifiable "brand image" which we need to make an effective comeback): It would be great if we chose a "site specific" font, a banner (larger on the front page) but incorporated on everypage (perhaps smaller so as not to be distracting) and etc. so that all of our pages are instantly recognizable.
One other idea (which goes to scripting). I'd like the option to compare a pet handy, however, the way the script is set up, if you set a cookie to use a compare box, you have to compare in order for the script to run. Could we set it up so that one could choose not to compare and still have the option available?
Hmm what am i trying to say? Well perhaps in the compare box drop down menu, instead of starting with "acara" and "blue" it could say "none" and "none". So that you could use the compare option when you wanted and if you didn't you could go right to viewing the one colour/species combo that you want.
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Silverevilchao
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Been meaning to fix that; I set up the stuff to handle this, but apparently forgot to actually put it in at the dropdown box bit. It's there now and I'm updating the support to handle it.sterlinglyons wrote:One other idea (which goes to scripting). I'd like the option to compare a pet handy, however, the way the script is set up, if you set a cookie to use a compare box, you have to compare in order for the script to run. Could we set it up so that one could choose not to compare and still have the option available?
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