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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 26th, 2011, 3:41 pm 
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Home Hobbit Books Films Gallery Media
Forum Elvish Fan Fun Misc Chat Site

^This is my suggestion?
I put the Forum under Home (as I figured it would be more visible in order or reading)
I replaced Links with Site (because Site info isn't really a part of the LotR universe/content)
I put Chat next to Site (again to kee the LotR content together)

PS. Can we make the entire header on every sub page a link back to the main site? (like the forum header links back to the forum index). That would be so convenient. :)


As for Misc. If the crossword puzzles and the stuff under Misc. will go (or is it something I dreamed?), or some of it will be put under Humour/Fun then we're down to Tutorials under Misc.. so we could call it Tutorials maybe...? But yeah... I do see how handy it is to have a Misc. if there's something you don't know where to put in the future. So it's not a darling o'mine.. Just wanted to throw it out there. :P

As for who's doing it.. Nurr is away for the next... er.. looong time. Perhaps we should ask Haldy (she's posting in the A-U Facebook group).. or does Eru have access?

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 26th, 2011, 3:52 pm 
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Well although that order looks good on paper it all depends on what it looks like. Also the way Arwen has it at the moment, it's a nice mixture on both the bottom and the top lines of much-viewed and less-viewed which is a nice balance.

The reason why Fun has been renamed from Humour is so we can have a much wider range of activities and stuff to do, whilst keeping Misc open for stuff we may want to add there in the future. AU is not a tutorial site, so I wouldn't think Tutorials as a link is a good idea, but having it under misc means it's open to a lot of things. :-)

I personally, (in case you hadn't noticed) really like the header as it is now. I also think we are completely learning from this experience of creating the header and everything, which is also a very good thing. I believe next time we do this, it will flow much more smoothly as only the dedicated layout maker will have any say about anything. :tongue:

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 26th, 2011, 4:08 pm 
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^:P I'm happy I'm not the dedicated layout maker.

Johnny's Fan wrote:

The reason why Fun has been renamed from Humour is so we can have a much wider range of activities and stuff to do, whilst keeping Misc open for stuff we may want to add there in the future. AU is not a tutorial site, so I wouldn't think Tutorials as a link is a good idea, but having it under misc means it's open to a lot of things. :-)

Umm what? :confused2: "AU is not a tutorial site"... True.. but AU isn't a Misc. site either.. or a Hobbit site, or a Chat site either.. but these things are still a part of the navbar! ;) Not trying to start a long debate with you there, it just sounds.. odd. and you usually have way better arguments. :P
But like I said.. I have no objections to keeping it Misc.

So.. well, the header business really isn't something I will pull out the grand weaponry to defend my views for. I will live happily and comfortably with whatever is decided upon but obliging as I am I did want to offer up an opinion when it was being asked for. :teehee:

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 26th, 2011, 5:01 pm 
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Things were so much simpler when I was just an evil dictator in charge! Sheesh! :teehee:

I agree that it's a little odd retaining the Misc section if all that remains there is the Tutorials section. Besides, I'm fairly sure the years of A-U being a tutorials resource are gone. People usually ask their questions in the forum now, and the only reason I wrote tutorials to begin with was because I received so many e-mails asking the same questions over and over. So while I'm not sure if we should keep Misc on the navbar, I don't think Tutorials are an...important enough part of A-U to go up there, which is maybe what JF was trying to say. "Tutorials" is also a fairly long word compared to the rest! I guess for me it would be akin to putting "Biographies" on the navbar - yes, they're a part of A-U, but they're not a particularly crucial part of A-U, so it makes more sense to keep them as sub-pages under Books/Films. Does that make sense?

So right now almost everyone agrees that Chat should go back on the navigation, replacing Links - correct? What would you say to splitting Media into two categories, Graphics (Avatars, Banners, Wallpapers...and we could include any graphics-related tutorials) and a new Media section, more related to sound/video/etc.? And then we could scrap the Misc section completely.

Right now the A-U.com text on the header is hotlinked back to the index page. Is that sufficient, or do we want the whole graphic (besides the navigation) linked to the index?

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 26th, 2011, 5:14 pm 
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^ Thank you. :-) That's pretty much what I was trying to say. They are not so important thay they deserve their own link *sorry guys*, and I was going to explain about the long word thing but I didn't. It's too hot here and my brain is frazzling. We could of course cut it down to Tuts... but that might cause some confusion. ;)

I think the thing for me about having the tutorials in the first place is a) as much as we love the forum, it shouldn't be that for everything people have to join. As I said, AU has some amazing graphics on offer for people to use and maybe they might want to see how to make them themselves without feeling forced to join a community to do so. Also b) I'm sure a lot of us started with Arwen's tutorials, and I for one, would feel like a part of AU went *POOF* if we removed them. And then there are the site tutorials which have no doubt saved many a person throwing their computer out of the window.

As for the misc section generally.... I'm sure if we *really* thought about it, we could add to that.

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 26th, 2011, 6:26 pm 
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Well, while still waiting for anyone else to weigh in about the final order/contents of the navigation, I've experimented with moving stuff around on the index page: http://arwen-undomiel.com/sample1.html . Of course some of the stuff still has to be de-blueified, but I do think it looks cleaner. Up for debate, though.

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 26th, 2011, 7:02 pm 
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I like Ea's navigation suggestion. :) I like that big shiny picture with the Forum link you have up there, Arwen, but maybe the Sign Guestbook picture could be updated? And just as a side note, the guestbook colours are all fixed now. :)

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 27th, 2011, 4:58 am 
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@Arwebs: I don't have a problem with you stepping up and making an evil dictatorish move - just for old times sake. Some things don't necessarily need to go up for debate as we all (and the gods know I'm particularly guilty of that) tend to end up talking tedious details. :teehee:

@Gimli: Sorry, I understand what you were saying now. And I agree.. :) The main thing on A-U is still LotR (and now the Hobbit) fandom which is the stuff that is directly related to this (books, movies, biographies, Fan stuff etc. and that should reflect on the navbar.

Oooh the index page just keeps getting better and better. :P
Lovely Forum button.
I would still like to keep the welcome text and if the welcome graphic should stay I was wondering if the colours should be less.. shiny.. to match the more modest green perhaps.
The Donation button should be bigger (I suppose it's a job for Eru if she's willing)
And when the Sign Guestbook button is re-designed.. perhaps we should just call it "Guestbook" as people can both read and sign. :P
Personally, I'd like the entire header graphic to be a link, but obviously it isn't a big thing. :)

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 27th, 2011, 6:51 am 
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I don't really like the font on the "welcome" text :/ While it matches the navbar font, it really doesn't work all that well with the "arwen-undomiel.com" in the header image.

I think we should keep the misc section, but add other stuff than tutorials. As for where things are placed on the navbar, I don't really have an opinion. There is such a thing as too neat and organized, but too random isn't good either. I like the way it looks now though :)

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 27th, 2011, 11:12 am 
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@ Ea - It's OK. You're right I usually do have better arguments or really bad ones that I can communicate better. :P

A few little things and then I'm done. :-)

- I think the guestbook should maybe just say Guestbook, and perhaps be a solid button rather than an edged one, I think it just has cleaner lines and looks neater, I know AU has had that kind of button for a while now, so perhaps time for a change?
- I'm not sure yet if I like the idea of having a big button advertising something that is already on the navbar. I know it was mentioned that the forum needed a bigger shout out, but now that the navbar is completed and is so clear, I think it looks a bit odd. As I suggested, we could add a button to the main site to advertise an event we are having on the forum and then take it down when that event is finished.
- I think the cursive text for the "welcome to A-U" graphic that we had,may be something we should look for this time as it will suit the text on the header. I love the colours, although it is tough because the green suits the header, but when you view the welcome graphic you also see the news at the same time, and the two types of green jar. The starbursts are a gorgeous touch though. :yes:
- Maybe we could lose the "news" bit of text. It looks a bit too big at the moment and somewhat out of place, we probably don't really need it, as every news item mentions the word. :teehee:

^ That was incredibly picky and I'm going now. :whistle:

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: June 29th, 2011, 7:34 pm 
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Okay guys, so I've updated the header to take out the Links section and replace it with Chat ( http://arwen-undomiel.com/sample1.html ). I didn't really see the need to modify the navigation any further, to be honest, so that's all I changed :erm:

I'm not sure I'm a huge fan of the "welcome to A-U" graphic either...it does compete too much with the header. I just wanted to create something that matched the new colors so people could get a better idea of what it will look like. Honestly, though, as I said before, I'm not sure we even need that graphic. Or a welcome paragraph. Or, as JF said, the headline saying "NEWS."

But at this point, not that I have plans to flee the country and abandon you forevermore, I'd like to leave this in your hands. There are a bunch of very talented coders and digital artists here, and I have full faith that you can handle it from here on out. With the revival going on, honestly it doesn't feel right for me to be the one making all the changes and calling the shots, and a lot of the things everyone's been suggesting that aren't header-related can be accomplished by many people here, certainly not just me. So unless there's some dire need to change something on the header or the layout blows up, this is me bowing out for now.

kthxbai.

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: July 3rd, 2011, 7:32 am 
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>>>THE CODING SITUATION<<<

Umm.. I think we can talk about a situation here. In the begining when the Revival started rolling a team of 4-5 people stepped up and offered their time and skill in coding. But I don't know how many of these people are still participating in the Revival?
This seems to be where the Revival is stalling at the moment so perhaps now is the time to open up to new team members? I don't know about codes and access and passwords... but what we want to avoid is that too many people get access and oopsy, accidentally someone deletes A-U, right? :teehee:

So how do we deal with this?

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: July 3rd, 2011, 10:53 am 
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This has been bothering me, too. Admittedly I stumbled across the "Every time Arwen ignores this site..." thread yesterday and was recalling how long I didn't go on A-U, so maybe I don't have a leg to stand on with pressuring people to get to work :-P But it's no fun sitting around wondering if anyone who signed up for the Coding Team just a few months ago will show up again. I'm not completely opposed to having other people on the coding team...if anyone currently on the coding team needs to officially bow out. Seriously, if you're on the team and you're just not going to be able to code after all, LET US KNOW. No one's going to kill you. It's summer and everyone's busy with holidays, I know, but at least check in with your status, as in "Yes, I'll be able to help out soon," or "No, I won't be able to help out for a few weeks more," or "No, I won't be able to help out, ever."

I didn't mean to sound as snippy as I think I came across in my last post, nor did I mean it as a total "...I'm out" for either the layout or the Revival. I understand and am completely okay with input and criticism for how A-U should look, but when it comes down to changes that anyone with graphics software and FTP access could accomplish, it's no fun feeling like everyone's looking to me to make those changes. If I have time today, I may just go ahead and update the header and CSS on the main site because I'm not sure it's going to happen any other way, but I would really like to get the Coding Team situation sorted out so this doesn't happen again.

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: July 3rd, 2011, 12:15 pm 
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Well I'm still here, and I've always been here, but I made it clear from the beginning that a) I don't think I have the skills to do major coding (although to be honest, some of the stuff I have had to figure out regarding my little sections I'm quite proud that I achieved) and b) I'm happy to do anything within my skill level or the boring stuff that the better coders don't have the time to do.

I'm already looking at working on a "Featured Art" button for the main site and also a "Guestbook" button, so although I don't intend doing anything with the layout (as I also made clear, other than helping to design the header), I can do the smaller things like the button. But at the same time, I am working on the fanart and then afterwrads it will either be the bios or the gallery. So I need to find the time to fit everything in, and admittedly Wimbledon has been on these past few weeks, so stuff has been a bit slow, although the fanart section is almost complete.

There are however, some things which I could do with some help with, but I think regarding the current situation, I just need to try my best to figure it out myself.

So... I'm not sure what to say about all this really. I've just been trying to ignore the situation and do the stuff I know I can (with sometimes a little help :teehee:) as there are plenty of things out there that need doing. Unfortunately, I know the main impact of this revival will be the layout, so although stuff is being done by myself and Nurr, I guess unless you look for the change you won't see it. I wish I could pluck up the courage to implement the header and do the layout, but I wouldn't trust myself with doing something so big. :confused:

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: July 3rd, 2011, 1:07 pm 
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Don't worry, JF, I appreciate all the work you've put into the Revival! And I knew from the beginning that you hadn't signed up to be a hardcore coder :) It's just that we were supposed to have a team of five people, and several of them have been MIA for a while now. Everyone has different areas of comfort and expertise, and that's fine as long as it's made clear who can and will be doing what. Unfortunately this hasn't happened, so I'm really going to try to get the layout up today and then throw it back to you lot. Everyone will get to see that there's Stuff happening and A-U is active again, and as for the nitty-gritty stuff of what goes where on the home page and such...there's no need to have it completely sorted in advance. We'll change things as we can. And as for overhauling the coding: meh. If anyone finds time for it, super. If not, we'll get by as we always have.

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 Post subject: Re: A-U Revival: layout & coding
PostPosted: July 3rd, 2011, 1:13 pm 
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Good afternoon everyone.

Sorry I disappeared from the Revival for so long. One of the reasons I have been really hesitant to message anything was because of a small feud in the coding group. Some thought that I was trying to command everything, which I wasn't at all trying to do. I am hesitant to raise my hand when it comes to coding something here. However, since there are few who are comfortable with the job, I suppose there is no choice. What exactly needs to happen? Is it coding just the front page, or is it getting up all pages?

The only issue I will have is that my computer is going to get fixed on Tuesday, so my main mode of coding will be gone. I have been working on getting an alternative way up, but I'm sure it will slow my process. If that is okay, than I am sure I can help. Let me know.

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