Beta site up

  • Thread starter Thread starter Treeline
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Treeline

Treeline

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I've got a page up, mostly a music link kind of thing. I'd appreciate any ideas, learn about broken links and so forth. Special thanks to drstawl, without whose help I'd still be putting whiteout on the monitor.

Treeline's page
 
Hey Treeline,

That is now in my favorites list. GREAT site my friend.

It may be prudent to remove the link to Stephen's forum over at RO, as he has closed it for the present:( . (Well, at least he had, then it was back and then gone again).

Another interesting site that could deserve a link, (if I missed seeing it there already, I apologise), is the Musical Instrument Makers Forum..........www.mimf.com


Regards,

ChrisO

:cool:
 
Thanks; I'll check out the SP thing. Hope he's OK.

MIMF - Yep, that's there. I'm an old MIMF fan from way back, although I haven't posted for a while. I was on their archiving team a while back, but it took way too much time for me to do well. I gotta hand it to them - that's a boatload of good work.
 
Treeline, let me apologize in advance for any negative comments, these are purely in the interest of improving your site and I'm really not trying to be nasty or unreasonably critical.

The site is a little bit of a mess... here's why I say that:

  • The graphics are all haphazard in relation to the accompanying text. Kind of makes it look messy and amateurish, which is a shame because the overall color scheme and font choice is really very nice.
  • There's just a giant dump of stuff that one has to scroll through. There is simply too much, like the label of a Dr. Bronner's soap bottle.
  • You made this by using Microsoft Word, it appears. It is actually an large XML file instead of a small HTML file, which would have the same appearance but load much faster. One of the other things is thatit has a default value for the <title> tag, which reads "Main Heading Goes Here." This causes the user's browser to display this phrase in the title bar of the browser window. This makes it look amateurish.

Hope I haven't offended you...
 
Hope I haven't offended you...

Not at all!

This is exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for (OK, the back pats are cool, too).

I noticed that about the header as well, and you're right about being a Microglitch production, and about it being a long cyberlist. The next iteration of the page should address at least some of those issues, as it will probably use frames (as soon as I figure out what the hell they are - I've seen 'em, but I can't drive 'em yet) and I hope to split the page into perhaps a dozen linked pages, probably organized by subject matter. At the same time, I'll begin developing some content unique to the page itself so it's not just a bunch of links.

I think for the time being that I'll stick with Word, if for no other reason than I'm a bit familiar with it and already paid for the blinking thing.

What's your feeling about content - the site starts at one place as to content, and ends up at another. One of the things I want to accomplish with this page is to create a local resource for a variety of people with a common interest in music. Lots of legal and government links coming that need to be in their own section. Self help and wellness links will follow. You get the idea...

Thanks for your input - it is helpful.
 
If you want to keep using Microswift Turd -- er, Word -- there is an alternative to saving the file to those excessive XML files thatare created when you "Save As Web Page." Download this tool from Microsoft:

http://office.microsoft.com/Downloads/2000/Msohtmf2.aspx

My feeling about content is to make the first page something of an intro and overview, like the cover or the table of contents page of a magazine. Then put related stuff together in a number of separate pages, and link to them (and from them, back to the top and across to the other pages). Try to keep the stucture as simple as possible and try not to subdivide too much. Most people will give up if they have to click more than three or four links to burrow in to what they are looking for. Three levels of heirarchy will probably house and organize everything you would ever want in a small-scale website.

I would recommend against using frames -- they are hard to grasp for beginners and very easy to make errors in, even for experts.
 
Home page way too big, long to load.
Disorganized content.

Put main focus of what the site is about on the home page and link to everything else. The home page should load as quick as possible, keep graphics to a bare minimum.

Font size might be too big as well. I'm in 800x600 and if the font size was smaller I could read more content without having to scroll around as much.

Do not use frames, period. Snuff said. )

Peace....
 
Hey TreeZie!! Just got around to checkng out your site. Good Stuff My Friend!!!!!!! Thanx for getting my site in there as a link (I will return the flavor as soon as I remember how to edit my site. I'm not sure what you have for space/setup capabilities at your domain, but along the lines of some of the previous comments, It'd be a little easier to navigate the site if, maybe, you put certain links and info on different pages so there wasn't so much stuff on one page to scroll through. Again, nice stuff, and if you need any pointers on FrontPage, let me know... ...I have a sorta-seat-of-the-pants handle on that program....lol..




Tom.
 
May I suggest editing your html in editplus?
you can get a free demo at www.editplus.com .. It lights up your html/php/javascript tags and helps you keep the code nice and organized.

Another suggestion would be to work on a navigation tree dividing up different catagories of links so that its not just one long page of craziness.. That way it would be much easier for the user to navigate through.

Some Catagories could be...
Bulletin Boards/Forums
Technical Information
Howto/HowdoI
etc..

This takes a lot of extra work on your part, but I guarentee you that when you look at it at the end of the day you will be far more pleased with what you have accomplished.. and so will your users..

www.webmonkey.com is a GREAT place to find information on webdesign.. and its mostly geared toward beginners.
 
Very good

I think your site is very good Treeline. I'm not a savvy webdesigner but I would go with what the others say about not having all the links on the front page and same page. It is a lot to scroll through.
Good picture choices too, especially the first one.
I use word too...glad to have found some company. I think I'll link put a link to your site if you don't mind.


Tucci
www.locuststreettaxi.com
Horns, Harmony, & Humor
 
Thanks all...

And link away! I've redesigned this thing twice, did the frames, blew away the frames, and am settling into a simple link-to-page0stuff type format, as you all have suggested. Cool stuff, but it's a black hole for time for this webpagenewbie. Never fear, though... a new page will show up... real soon now...I think...:D
 
That's 'cause you're still looking at the old page. I'll do some fireworks when the new one is up...
 
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