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11
danand725
Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer

  • 2007/4/18 14:49

  • danand725

  • Just popping in

  • Posts: 16

  • Since: 2004/12/3


Quote:

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.


Many thanks for those examples. It seems a lot of you are identifying the theme and layout as the main culprits. Something I can easily work on.

Right, now I have a much clearer idea of the areas that need attention - thank you one and all
12
Quest
Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer

  • 2007/4/18 16:17

  • Quest

  • Friend of XOOPS

  • Posts: 1034

  • Since: 2005/11/19


The red X from the blank.png is only displaying in my IE7 and does not show in FireFox. I am not exactly sure why but here is it's location on your front page:

Quote:
<table cellspacing="1" cellpadding="5"> <tr> <td class="blockTitle">&nbsp;Recent Band News</td> </tr> <tr> <td class="blockContent"> <table>
<tr>
<td><table>
<tr>
<td colspan='2'>
<table border='0'>
<tr><td><img src='http://www.eppingforestband.co.uk/modules/news/images/topics/blank.png' border='0' alt=''></td><td align='left'></td></tr>
</table>
<font color="#FF6600"><b>SCABA Spring Contest in Hove 2007</b></font> Posted by Daniel Andrews
(04/04/07)
</td>
</tr>
13
mortuk
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
Cuidiu
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
danand725
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
Anonymous
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
danand725
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
BlueStocking
Re: Criticism of my Xoops site by a web designer

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.


Resized Image

__________
Another search...
Taking text directly from their page...

A Brass Band based in Epping, Essex <<google link criteria.

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
https://xoops.org/modules/repository .. It is time to get involved - XOOPS.ORG
19
danand725
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
AndyM
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.
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