More major upgrades ahead

[shavethewhales]

Alright, here's the template I'll be modifying - http://www.opensourcetemplates.org/templates/preview.php?template_id=1101946163

I'll be changing the colors, the logo, and a few small things, but that's pretty much it.

It's not exactly what I wanted, but I think it will work out fine. The only thing I'm really disappointed with is myself for never getting around to designing something myself. Sigh...

Oh well, we need to move on. I'll be getting the new template up today and tomorrow, and it should be pretty much done by tomorrow night.

Next up, I'll be looking at ways to revolutionize the site to allow for easier maintainence and much more user interaction.

[Joy]

So, for the logo, do I just go by the dimensions of the banner header in that sample template?

~ "Becky" Joy ~

[shavethewhales]

Well, actually that banner will be an interchanging image. The logo needs to be around 244-300 pixels wide and about 52 pixels tall. You can make some banner images too, if you want, in fact anyone that wants to can. I might be somewhat picky though, the banner really is a focal point of the whole color scheme.

Did you start on it already? I'll feel bad if you did, because now the background color is pure #000 black, though it can change if you've already progressed pretty far. Hopefully you're using a transparent image, as that would work best, but as I said before, I can work with anything.

[shavethewhales]

Check out the new home page - that's the new template in completed form.

I'll be spending the rest of the night getting the rest of the site transfered onto it. Man I wish I had this thing hooked up on a CMS; that may be my next step.

As I go through the pages, I'll be looking them over and editing them again. If there's anything you think should be modified, now would be a good time to tell me.

Also, now that the site is looking fresh enough for my current likings, I'll be moving on to doing some of the things I've been saying I would for months now. First I'll start off by making a new system for comments on the main site that requires registration. This may seem annoying, but as the site grows spam will become a problem, so it's needed. Besides, the comments are really messy-looking right now as they are.
After that, well, I don't know. There are a lot of things I could do. All I know is that I'll have a lot of free time over the holidays, and now would be the perfect time to whip up something big for the site.

[Joy]

Don't worry; I haven't started yet. I've been busy getting ready for my trip to SDC this coming weekend and then Christmas after that. I've not had much time to sit down and really think about the design. Now that I have dimensions and exact colors to work with, that'll help a lot.

I like the new layout. Very clean and easy to read.

~ "Becky" Joy ~

[shavethewhales]

I've decided that my next step for the site will be a complex, custom CMS (Content Management System) that will not only make running the site much, much easier, but allow for more features. It's getting kinda hard to update the site when each page is a separate entity, especially seeing as we are amassing a good collection of articles. The CMS will also allow me and everyone else to contribute more to the site on a more regular basis.

CMS's are somewhat complex though, especially this one, but I have a good idea of what I'm doing, more or less. Once I get this done, I have a bunch of other ideas that will really make the site cool.

[shavethewhales]

Update:

It sure has taken me forever to get the rest of the site switched over, unfortunately. I've got a couple of off days next week though, and I'll probably be able to finish it off then. I've just been so busy over the holidays.

The CMS is coming along though, and boy will it make things easier.

Over the past month or two I've learned an incredible amount of PHP and SQL, among other things, so I'm really feeling like it's time I really picked up the pace with this site and started adding the features I've been dreaming about for so long. Once the entire site is database driven (hence, once I finish the CMS) you can expect a slew of new features.

Oh yeah, I'm still fiddling with the store. It's tough to find a respectable internet t-shirt provider that doesn't require shirts to be bought in bulk.