[robsweet]

Ok, guys, here's the latest beta of the revised web site for ARC. This design is greatly simplified and not as adventurous as the last screenshot but I really like it. Please have a look and pass along your thoughts.

NOTE: There are still some things I want to tweak as far as content. I'm mostly asking for comments on the design, color scheme, etc. Visual stuff.

http://arc.ldg.net

 

[MyReef]

I like it...I especially like the fact my banner stayed at the top the entire time. LOL I like the colors and over all design....I think it loaded quickly and I have dial up right now at home....that is a must.

 

[MsReeReee]

Rob u did a wonderful job...............it looks really good........

 

[wildemon]

website

Indeed it looks and operates very nice. Wonderful.

Now my only negative is the menu at the top and the dropdowns are not very large. While hiding the bylaws and BOD members is fine, I would prefer that arcopedia stuff be more obvious. The educational programs from our meetings is simply hidden too well for the casual visitor to know it is on the site. The sponsor sites are clearly shown but the members tanks and lecture forums are a couple of steps down. On a minor issue the hyperlinks only work for the word and not for the rectangle they appear in. Someone could easily click on a drop down panel and not be forwarded if they touched the right side of the menu.

However, the big picture, the home page and the graphics look very much like the BOD wanted. You did a wonderful job. I especially like the Bournemann photos that enlarge if touched.

 

[ckreef]

Well I had a really nice post (a little long) with a few suggestions but nothing major.

While it was posting I was doing two things at once and accidently clicked the post bye-bye. Oh well I tried.

Rob will send you my main idea via e-mail sometime latter today. I think you'll like and it's not in conflict w/ anything else on the website or anybody elses ideas for that matter. Just a small easy enhancement for our members website links.

 

[robsweet]

Small, easy enhancements? Sounds good to me.

 

[robsweet]

So it sounds like people are positive on the design so far. Rick, you're the third member on our little web committee - what do you think?

 

[robsweet]

Hey, Rick! Are you still alive and kickin'? I'm waiting to hear from you before I post the new version of the site to see if you have any comments.

 

[Rick O]

It looks good Rob. Nice job.

 

[robsweet]

Thanks, Rick!

Now that I've got your rubber stamp on it, I'll try to get the site posted this week.

 

[Lifestudent]

Very nice job Rob!

I do like the feel of the site.

Is there any way to prevent needing to scroll to the right even when I have my 17" monitor maximized?

I apologize if I missed a discusson about this, but are you going to use the ARC graphic or what's on the http://arc.ldg.net/ site (perc with Atlanta Reef Club encircled)?

Thanks Rob!

Bob

 

[robsweet]

Hi Bob.

Glad you like it.

Just as an update, I got busy with a few things this weekend and didn't get the new site uploaded. I'll be working on that in a few minutes.

Regarding your scrolling issue, you shouldn't really have one. The pages are designed for 800 pixels wide and most computers these days come with a default screen resolution of 1024 pixels. Do me a favor and see what screen resolution you're running at and let me know. If you don't know how to do that, tell me what version of Windows you're running and I'll try to come up with instructions. Also, it might help if you could email me a screenshot of your browser window so I can see what's happening on your end. Again, instructions for that depend on you version of windows.

For anybody that doesn't already know, my normal email address of rob_AT_ldg.net is working again so please send any future emails to that address.

Thanks!

 

[robsweet]

Ok, guys, the new design is up and running. I've also added the June minutes (thought I'd already done that - sorry for the delay) and the two recent presentations that I was sent.

 

[robsweet]

One more thing: Bob, you asked about the graphic at the top of the site design. The 'logo' on the old site is really a banner, not a logo. Somebody mentioned in the recent past that we might want to use the logo that was put on the shirts last year. I was playing around with that and hit upon the current graphic scheme. I really liked how the circle worked with the fish and nobody seemed to object so....

 

[JennM]

My screen resolution is 800 pixels by 600 pixels and I still have to scroll to the right. Also I'm using IE 6.0 and on my home computer, all the tabs are all smushed together, so I can't read them. The mouse-over works with the drop downs, but the tabs are unreadable as they appear here. At the shop they appeared fine.

Also, the Webalizer stats program is gone once again. This is a very useful tool to find out where our visitors are coming from, where they are going and it's a good selling tool for sponsors to show how many people get to their site from ours, and how many visit our site. I've had Esosoft restore it once before, and they did, but after the most recent web update, it's gone again. I have asked Esosoft to fix it again (I will not interfere with the website workings), but PLEASE do not get rid of it again.

The logo - will it appear anywhere on the site? This was something that we had a contest for, submissions were made and the logo was chosen by the members. IMO it should be used somewhere on the site.

Do the rest of the sponsor members get a banner?

Otherwise, I think the site looks very nice, and I can't wait to see some content

Jenn

 

[JennM]

I went rummaging through the archives at Reef Central - and I found the original two submissions for the logo that were created by Mark Barnett and voted on by the members.

The original banner style one is the one that was on the old website, (I have it saved on my computer) and the logo style image is here... the one that Rob used on the current website is very similar....

 

[JennM]

Original banner

 

[ckreef]

All the sponsors are supposed to get a banner. That was part of the selling point for them giving our members 10% off. We told some we would scan in their business card and use that since they didn't have an official web bassed banner. Either way we need to do something and get them a banner rotating up w/ MyReef. This is for sponsor members only -- not comercial or honorary members.

As far as a logo is concerned --- I think what Rob did was close enough and looks good but thats JMNSHO.

Either way we need to come up w/ a decision on the official banner and logo. Once we have the logo in a file I can upload I will get the ball rolling on CafePress so we can sell some club merchandise through our website. Doesn't cost the club anything and we make a little money off of every purchase. Shirts, hats, coffee mugs ect....

I personally would like to have an ARC baseball cap.

 

[robsweet]

Jenn, are you intentionally irritating or is it just your 'special gift'?

Yes, the other sponsors get banners. Andy's was the only one that I had. I'd be happy to put our other sponsors' banners into the rotation but they need to be the same size - scanning their business card won't work. If they don't have a banner or don't have the skills to make one, I can check with Andy (the guy who did the web site graphics) about doing some very simple banners.

The logo on the site is very similar (yes, similar, not the same as) the logo that you dug up. After playing with the graphics for a while, I decided that a modified version would work best for the site. That doesn't mean that we can't use the 'official' logo for other things, it just didn't lend itself to the site layout.

Regarding the Webalizer stats - please don't tell Esosoft to do *anything* with the site. I didn't realize we were even running Webalizer and had you emailed me about it, I could have easily put the Webalizer stuff back.

As for your menu problem, have you tried that sometime today? I tweaked something in the page code last night that was causing some weirdness in the menu links in IE. If not, please try it again. The site was tested with Netscape/Mozilla/Phoenix on four different computers, IE 6 on three different computers, and IE 5 on two computers and the site seems to work properly on all of them. If you're still having issues with the menu, I'm inclined to say it's something specific to your machine. Incidentally, this is exactly the kind of issue I was trying to avoid by waiting almost two weeks after I'd posted this thread before making the design live.

Also, at 800 pixels wide with your browser window maximized the scrollbar will show but you should still be able to see all of the content on the page without scrolling - it'll just chop off a little bit of the N and C in 'Join ARC'.

 

[ckreef]

I'm not sure what the solution for the banner issue is.

I do know all of our sponsors need a banner and we need to do whatever to accomondate the greatest number of sponsors. Most our sponsors do not have a website or a banner.

Maybe we need to change our banner size to something that would accomodate a scanned business card. That would probably cover the most number of sponsor stores. Sponsors who are computer savey (Like Andy) could easily get us a business card sized banner where all the others probably can't get us a banner at all.

Like I said --- I don't know what the solution is but we do need to come up w/ a solution that is "free of charge" for our sponsors.