Graeme wrote: I was wondering if anybody had any thoughts on a redesign of the site... Layout? Content on main page?

It depends on what the purpose is for the main page. Is it for current members to quickly navigate to where they already know they wish to go, or is it for first time visitors to the site to learn what the club is all about? Probably a little of each I suspect.

First of all, if we're going to have the monthly meeting write-up appear on the home page, it needs to be updated promptly right after every meeting. It's now one day away from January and my ugly mug is still on the front page from November's write-up.  That should've been pulled almost three weeks ago and December's write-up put in its place. Prior to that we had the same monthly write-up on the home page for what... six months?

It just looks bad for a first time visitor to any webpage to see old, outdated stuff still posted. Okay, 'nuf said about that.

As has already been brought up, I'd like to see the entire topic heading shown under Recent posts to our forum, not just the first three or four words of the heading. If space is an issue, we probably don't need the category mentioned that each thread is listed in. It would also be great if we could possibly have up to a dozen recent threads listed, as opposed to the half dozen or so we currently have. What often happens now is that there'll be a surge of posts and recent threads will fall off the bottom of the list. With so many categories in the forum, once a thread falls off that list it requires a lot of effort to track down threads that have been added to since last being viewed. Perhaps a future discussion could be the number of categories we have in the forum and how we might be able to lessen the number of them.

I'd also like to see a link separate from the forum categories for any downloadable stuff like text files (repair manuals, etc), images and/or videos. Dave has quite a stockpile of quality Fiero resource material and I think by and large it's unknown to most people, members and visitors alike.

Regarding videos, it's a shame that more members don't make use of the ability to upload Fiero related videos directly to the club's server. These videos can then either be played back directly from the server and viewed online, or they can be downloaded. I think I'm the only one who's bothered to upload videos in this manner since Graeme went through the trouble of setting it up.* It's so superior to uploading to YouTube for videos that are of interest to club members. Perhaps a link to a page dedicated to explaining how it's done would encourage other members to try it out. It's a simple process once it's been attempted, we just need to get the word out. Heck, I'll do the write-up if that would help, but there needs to be a easily found link to it, hopefully on the home page.

And just in case there's been an update to the forum software which would make it possible, I'll quickly mention (as I have previously) that it would be real nice if people signing up for the forum had a "box" to fill out that would display where they're located (other than country). I understand that this "box" hasn't existed in the software up to this point but I'm ever hopeful.

Anyway, my thanks to Graeme and Dave for taking care of the club's website.

 * Here's an example of a video I uploaded to the club's server for one of the autocross threads...

Cheese wrote: I'd recommend integrating http://www.longtailvideo.com/players/ - JW Player

Wow, what a great demo video!

You are most welcome, Kevin.

Still getting my bearings, but thus far the changes have addressed everyone's concerns, Graeme.

First thing I noticed is that my ugly mug is still on the home page.   Please, before anymore children are scarred for life, let's get the November write-up off of there and put the December one in its place!

I also notice that on my girlfriend's 1920x1080 monitor (running IE8), to view the entire front page requires it to be scrolled back and forth from side to side about half an inch. (The other pages are fine.) What's up with that?

Car-2-Lo wrote: Also the lettering is way too large for the front page, it takes up all of the page and over powers everything, but good for the seniors.

Too large???

Johnny, what browser are you using and what resolution are you running? On Anne's computer (reported above) I can hardly read the printing on the home page because it's so tiny!

Car-2-Lo wrote: It's time you and Anne to get updated larger screens and glasses ! The lettering on PFF is the right size without over powering everything else !

Anne's 22" monitor is about six months old.

In regards to the size of the fonts on the club's home page compared to PFF, they're the same size on each site (on Anne's monitor).

Another thought - for all forum pages other than the home page, make the Fiero logo 1/2 as big and cut down all the wasted space at the top of the page.  (this also helps with larger font screens)
cheers

Ok I have replaced the Nov wrap up on the home page with the December Wrap Up.  So Patty your mug is now gone.

Capt Fiero wrote: Ok I have replaced the Nov wrap up on the home page with the December Wrap Up.  So Patty your mug is now gone.

Thanks Dave, I couldn't stand looking at myself anymore.

I'm not sure if it appropriate for me to make any suggestions yet seeing as how I just got here so if it out of line then put me in my place!!! 

On a couple of other sites I belong to, they have a car of the month posted in the top corner. It is a car that is finnished, used, abused, in various stages of build...what ever. It helps to recognise some of the work people do to their cars. They generally have a little wright up of the person who owns the car, what they've done to it or plan to do to it followed by a series of pictures. there is usually a quick link to the build thread, or theads.

At the end of the year there is a pole set up for forum members to choose the car of the year!!

It is all in good fun!!!!

Again this is just an idea to mull over and if I have over stepped my boundries on my 3rd post I appologise

here is a link to Hitman's Trans Am page and AllGenTransams if you want to look at the layout over there.

http://www.78ta.com - http://www.78ta.com

http://allgentransams.com - http://allgentransams.com

hope this helps some

Graeme, I like the design.

I know you're still "refining the details", so I'm hoping the top image will be leveled out. Otherwise, all the water in Burrard Inlet is going to slosh to the right.

Both Kevin and Austin took multiple panoramic shots at this location (which is real nice) in case another one of their shots might even work out better. They've both probably got higher resolution versions as well.

Graeme wrote: Funny enough though, none of the pictures here are level, I thought I had found the best one: http://www.westcoastfieros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=2028&PN=1 - http://www.westcoastfieros.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=202 8&PN=1

One option we have is to "rotate" the best image (uncompressed version hopefully) a bit to level it out if need be. 

Graeme wrote: ...and it's Howe Sound that you're at there. Burrard inlet is on the other side of North Van

Oops, you got me there!  

Graeme, that bottom picture looks good. Now all you have to do is pull Dave's GT out of the hole (on the passenger side) he backed into!

Heh heh, maybe you could put your Fiero in there. Wouldn't Dave be ticked!

Looks great, Graeme!

Now it probably makes a difference what monitor size/resolution is being used, but this is the way the home page looks running 1024x768. You'll notice there's an unused gap at the bottom of the right hand column. Does that same gap appear at other resolutions as well? If so, I'd suggest adding a couple more thread listings if possible.

We had mused about making a video, but that seemed like an awful lot of work, which is why we got lazy and do the write-ups instead.

Romeo wrote: We had mused about making a video, but that seemed like an awful lot of work....

Exactly. It would be a helluva lot of work that a couple of people might watch for about three minutes.

ARTIC-1 wrote: just a thought! here,what about a web cast of the meetings for members that want to be there,but just live to far away to make the trek,just a thought.

I had put that idea to the table, my idea was just set up a cheap digital camera in the center of the room, shoot it towards the person speaking and then post the video basically "As Is"

        Several of our media guys, stood up and said that it would look horrible and make the club look horrible.  So the idea was trash canned.  If it were to be done right, it would take several people editing and mic's and a camera man, and it was just deemed to over the top for a car club to do it every month.