tmreg wrote:
Here are a couple of examples of themes that (I have been told) do not look like boxy XOOPS sites: (all of these are modifications to available XOOPS themes.

Recent Band News

13 Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer 2007/4/18 16:20 mortuk Not too shy to talk Posts: 122 Since: 2005/12/13 ie didnt likke pngs somtimes. 14 Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer 2007/4/18 16:35 Cuidiu Quite a regular Posts: 358 Since: 2006/4/23 While his design might have been created with Dreamweaver, professional web design software, it is not a professional web design. If his example was to impress, it sorely misses the mark. Does this person know anything about developing a XOOPS theme? If not, you would be the one struggling to convert if you were to keep the CMS and switch the design. Either way, you would have to deal with the mess. I agree with the others "if it ain't broke, don't fix it." Stick with what you've got, tweak it a bit but don't go with this other fellow's work. [size=x-small]Working sites: XOOPS 2.0.16 PHP 5.2.2, MySQL 5.0.24a-standard-log, Apache/2.0.54 (Unix) XOOPS 2.2.4, PHP 4.3.10, MySQL 3.23.58, Apache/1.3.33 (Unix)[/size] 15 Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer 2007/4/18 16:39 danand725 Just popping in Posts: 16 Since: 2004/12/3 Quote: Quest wrote: The red X from the blank.png is only displaying in my IE7 and does not show in FireFox. Fixed it. Just goes to show, I should check IE user experience too! The file was missing and should have been there. Whoops. Thanks for the feedback. 16 Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer 2007/4/18 16:50 Anonymous Posts: 0 Since: Quote: danand725 wrote: Recently - within the last few months, a web designer has joined the band and has been constantly demanding to take over the site - move away from XOOPS and use his design services. The guy sounds like a prize prick to me Quote: danand725 wrote: The band committee have been rebuffing these advances, and have kept their faith in my XOOPS based site. I am finding it frustrating dealing with the constant and substantial criticism from his sources. Perhaps the committee could make their decision a little more forcefully? Of the two sites, the XOOPS site is the better one for your band's needs on the content front and, being xoops, you can open it it up for others to submit content as you wish. That's kind of the point, isn't it? I'm sure that the committee won't want to have to start again as your site's content is more than pretty good. The others are (IMHO and no offence intended, of course) right to suggest a theme-change as it can refresh the site without too much hard work on your part. If you like the block-type styles (and I do, fwiw!) might I suggest you have a look at JMorris' "bluehue" theme (search on here and you'll find it!) and, also, get yourself over to richardsdomain.com and have a look at his "ocean" theme. Both of these might suit your existing header image, too. Good luck! 17 Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer 2007/4/18 17:13 danand725 Just popping in Posts: 16 Since: 2004/12/3 Quote: JAVesey wrote: The guy sounds like a prize prick to me I'm trying to stay above this. There have been quite a few e-mails today that the committee have dealt with, but it's getting out of hand for such a simple website. I'm not trying to change the world, I'm happy to do what the band wants. They seem to like the site I made for them, and an education for me. It's useful to hear how I can improve things, but this guy isn't suggesting any improvements to my mind. My idea was to have a site that everybody could be a part of - not that they often take advantage of it. But I'm aware my user base are not computer people. With the theme, I was going for a brass look, but I will have a good play with new ideas, ocean sounds good. The tree in the logo is actually not from Epping Forest, but a tree in Hatfield Forest (trivia). I like my logo 18 Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer 2007/4/18 18:45 BlueStocking Home away from home Posts: 1191 Since: 2007/2/16 Google doesn't give points for pretty... or eye candy. NUMBER ONE REASON for staying where they are. Time and meat is googles search criteria. [size=xx-small]They are looking at a potential downgrade position to 89,000+ with the change they are anticipating.[/size] Now they are number 1 - 2 and 6 and 7. on page one. Every site owners dream. __________ Another search... Taking text directly from their page... A Brass Band based in Epping, Essex < Your site is on page one position 5 and the site the text was taken from is not on the first page at all. If the band wants to play to a bigger audience, Xoops is the better choice, without a question. BlueStocking http://upnrunnin.hypermart.net/xoops01/ http://google.com hhttps://xoops.org/modules/repository .. It is time to get involved - XOOPS.ORG 19 Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer 2007/4/18 20:46 danand725 Just popping in Posts: 16 Since: 2004/12/3 BlueStocking... Thank you for your research. I think I should put a Wikipedia entry in too. That would add an extra result! This chap seems to think we should appear on Google at number 1 when you enter the search phrase "Essex Brass Bands". He said that I should enter the words "Essex Brass Band" lots of times on the title page. I have a resonable grasp of how search engines rank sites - hense the results you see. I think our band should try to be the best band is Essex before we can expect Google to rank our site at number 1 on such a general search. Minor point! 20 Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer 2007/4/18 21:13 AndyM Quite a regular Posts: 296 Since: 2003/8/31 Quote: danand725 wrote: BlueStocking... This chap seems to think we should appear on Google at number 1 when you enter the search phrase "Essex Brass Bands". He said that I should enter the words "Essex Brass Band" lots of times on the title page. I have a resonable grasp of how search engines rank sites - hense the results you see. Aimlessly repeating a phrase such as "Essex Brass Band" over and over will actually harm your ranking, and not improve it. [size=x-small]Articles, AM Events and my other modules. The Muggles Guide PC From Scratch[/size] Reply Register Add Poll « 1 (2) 3 » Login Username Password Remember me Reset Register now!  |  Lost Password? 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