Silly clocks indeed. It's 7:46pm Central right now, so I guess that means you're 6 hrs later than Central. I'm sorry you have to stay up!

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

Hope your powwow went / is going well, guys! Keep me updated on what you need from me. On the forum skinning topic, I've set Eru up for working with the forum skins, so if you have any suggestions for colors or different graphics from the ones we have now, etc., I'm sure you can pass them along to her Progress: we has it.

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Right, I'm now able to access the forum skinning part of the Admin control panel so that's all good to go.

However, like I just told Arweb in a PM, I'm leaving today and will be gone for a week. I'm helping my Grandma move things and such so I will be without a computer until next Saturday/Sunday. So yeah, I won't be able to start working on the actual skin until then. Feel free to post suggestions in the meantime though. I will be able to check in on A-U on my phone (just gotta hope there's enough coverage where my Grandma lives) during the week.

Just thought I'd let everyone know.

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.*+I'VE MET ANTIGONE, MONTANABOHEMIAN, RAIVYNN PHOENIX, BERIADANWEN & PIRATEOFTHERINGS+*.

(¯`•¸·´¯`·._.·[TRUE VAMPIRES DON'T SPARKLE]·._.·´¯`·¸•´¯)

Did you coding peeps manage to meet up? And did you figure out clever things?

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>>Be the change you wish to see in the world<<



Banner credit: Shadowcat & Nurrantiel Mashiara

I'd like to know too... been waiting for it but I'm seeing absolutely nothing about the meeting.

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Hello everyone -

Yes. We were able to meet to discuss some ideas for the coding of the website. One of the things we thought was really important was to think about the future - who will be updating the website in the future. We have decided that we would need to have a system that is easily updated and, more-so, easy for the common person.

With that being said, Elb and myself thought that it might be best to use the Wordpress content management system as to how we organize the website. We haven't completely decided that this is the best decision. I think the most important thing as of now is to see how the website is structured and to create a plan of action with that in mind.

So, first things first.

1) We need to create an action plan for the website -> more-so, a hierarchy of the pages. In other words, we need to create a site map and to prioritize, merge, simplify, etc. the many different sections and system files on the site.

2) Once we have condensed the pages, I think that is the time when a real "design" meeting takes place. I don't know if many of you are familiar with concept designing, but it is using Photoshop or another image processor to create a good rendition of what you want a site to look like. Even if they are "rough" sketches, those help the community create the website.

- one of the things mentioned (by maybe Larael?) was that we want to keep the integrity of the site intact. The site design hasn't been "redesigned" for quite some time and I think we should set up a thread, when step one is finished, to figure out what we (as a community) would like the site to ultimately look like.

3) Once that process is done, the coding frenzy will begin. We will probably need all hands on deck for this project, as it will be probably a big one. We will probably need volunteers to design the "infrastructure" of the site (that being the HTML & CSS) of the site. Then we will move onto expanding it further (JQuery/Javascript/PHP Scripts/ etc.). Then, if we do decide on Wordpress as our CMS, we will need those that know how to design in Wordpress to transfer things. I am well learned in all three of these areas (save for JQuery and Javascript) so I can help if any problems occur and can oversee progress, along with other colleagues if you would like to help as well.

We will want to make sure everything is validated - we want to follow standards as best we can. We will also want to make talks as to whether we use the current HTML standard or switch over to HTML5. We will also ensure that this is also a learning experience for all of us. If you have a question about a particular code, feel free to email the developer of that area (we might split different sections up to different coders - maybe, not sure).

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A lot of this is somewhat unknown. I do think, however, the first step is to catalogue the entire website and sort things out (what we want to keep, what we want to throw, and what we want to condense). I know there has been talk of moving the images to Coppermine or something like that - interesting, and we can talk about it in further detail later. Let me know what you think about this. Sorry for the long post

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Annoying-Amount-of-Smileys Nazgul
Co-Force of Evil Posting

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

I actually haven't done a community build layout before. One of the things I want to make sure is that we all feel part of the process. However that might happen, I want to assure that it doesn't become a single-person's project. I think the process should definitely stay the same: the overall gathering of data, the photoshop designs, and then code. Once we get to that code section, I think we can figure out how to go about doing so - whether we have waves of people work on it (like I mentioned) or what. I would think we have people comfortable with HTML and CSS do the first step, then people comfortable with dynamic coding do the second phase, and then the wordpress people finish the rest off. Obvious, then, would be tweaking. I would think, however, commenting on all elements of the code will be necessary. So, for example:



I think this will be essential.

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Annoying-Amount-of-Smileys Nazgul
Co-Force of Evil Posting

Thanks for the summary, Telpe, it was interesting to read (even the techie parts I didn't understand ) and it looks like you guys had a very productive meeting.

I just wanted to say that I trust the job to you guys any day and you pretty much have carte blanche to do whatever you think is needed. But I'd love to get short summaries on the planning and progress just to.. you know pretend I'm keeping up when in reality I have no clue!

Oh, and I loved the way you want it to be a learning process for everyone.. I'm sure I'm learning some just by listening! But it would be great if you guys felt that you actually got something out of all the hard work too.

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>>Be the change you wish to see in the world<<



Banner credit: Shadowcat & Nurrantiel Mashiara

My post is going to be all-over-the-place because I read through this entire thread, too. -_- I made comments as I read all the posts so...

Ah, so the htaccess is the reason why A-U is in PHP.
I have never used tables in my layouts, although I have used them for inline reasons (not much of a fan). I use CSS div ids and classes which, in the way I code, make the source code very clean and uncluttered. I think it would be WAY too much work to convert all of A-U's content into a CMS such as Wordpress, and anyway, I find it easier to manage sites through quick uploading through FTP and not systems. But it is doable and reading the last couple of posts by Telpeath following the coders' meeting is very motivating.

Elbereth's suggestion of using Coppermine is an excellent idea, although again, it would take some work to upload the galleries. Not to mention, Coppermine galleries look nice with custom layouts so there would have to be another coding/graphics team who can make the gallery look pretty. ^^ I do not know if uploading images is a public function, though, I always thought there was management behind every Coppermine gallery. People can register as members, however.

I have an image map tutorial on my site. I could code that easily though, so whenever the header is completed and we are ready to go live with revival layout, I can do it in a jiffy. Also (to something JF said) I would rather have actual stills from the films be used, than some complicated manipulation that may not even end up looking right.
I do like Arwen's idea of changing other dresses' colors to greenish tints, as an alternative to sticking with the coronation gown.

Ooh, I like Eru's idea of having Frodo reading his book against the tree from FotR as the hobbit inclusion!

I am really liking the look of the header, but I say nay to the addition of the pendant. Unless it looks like it was there to begin with (which will be very tedious manipping)...which I see Arwen has done quite well now. ^^
I also like the smaller hobbits version.

I like that you guys are simplifying the main navigation. There were too many links. Is there any way to nix the Misc link, and merge it with another section? As for renaming, how about 'Extras'?

I like Jellyka Vampire Street for the main font and this version: http://img151.imageshack.us/img151/7572/banner04e.jpg

And as a last note, I would like to wave my hand to volunteer to help with the coding process.

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Graphics by me, Daenerys banner by Moist von Lipwig!

Coders: How's it going? Are you getting anything done? Is there any chance the new layout will be up soon? Since the forum skin is changed, we should really get the main site changed as well.
In my opinion, anything basic that can be changed now, should be changed. Colors, header, get the new tagboard up etc. The rest we can deal with in time.

Just a quick update on your progress would be much appreciated

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by Lembas

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^ By me and my SS *squiggle hugs*

I know Tel is in the middle of final exams, so he's scarce.

I am also of JF's opinion that we can get basic updating done - after all, not *too* much will be different when we switch it to new coding. We'd have to switch the code anyway, so a different header link and colors shouldn't matter.

At any rate, we should put the tag up. New layout, old layout, whatever. It should go up.

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going on a journey through my old claims

Well, who'll be doing it?
It's all well and good that we agree it needs to be done, but we need someone to do it, and I was somewhat under the impression that this was something for the coders to do.

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by Lembas

Is the layout for the main site done then? Last I checked, we were still missing the title text and navigation bar.

I'm going to bow out of any discussion of whether we should overhaul the coding before the new layout or vice versa, but if you choose to update the layout now, it should be just a matter of changing the php include file and tweaking the stylesheet. Maybe a couple other graphics here and there to match, but actually far less complicated than what was involved for Eru to get the new forum skin up.

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