At the last meeting of The Southern California Third Generation ( ) club, some members expresed concerns about our website not being ready. Although I do understand Bret is probably very busy, I think we can still at least place a message board over there (not that anything is wrong with this place) or something. When Bret has finalized the logo, we can then start to apply it where we'd like. Did we have a "designated" webmaster, I don't recall? Maybe that person can do a bit of research on what is needed to get the basics of our site going.

Why a sudden interest in moving forward you may ask? Well, I kind of feel we have "dropped the ball" on the site creation/clib initiation. I think a step ... say ... every month on the site development would be a good start at officially getting the club "off the ground". I am willing to help out, mind you I have very limited html writing experience (look at my website for the poor example ), but I would be willing to do (for example) the profiles or what not.

Alright, let's hear the feedback ...

 

George,
I agree. Let's just get something up and running and we can tweak the design later.

If Randy or Chris (or someone else) can get a message board together it would be a good start. I'm waaaaaay busy these days and don't have time. I can provide whoever with the ftp info. :hail:

 

I agree with you George.

If anyone has any ideas or preferences on a message board setup, lets hear it. Maybe someone knows of a setup thats not going to cost us an arm and a leg (or anything at all) and is more stable than, say, UBB6... or that thing that we used to have which was nothing but problems. I know someone who got a new setup recently, only thing I dont like about it is the thread view setup, lots of refresh just to see the replies. Not really friendly for those dialup people with slow computers (read:me ).

So what kinda pages should we have up there? I think a calendar is a good idea, would make it easier to see what events are happening. Maybe call it Calendar/Events (Calendar of Events? Thinking out loud here, dont mind me... its 2AM). Everyone seems to like member profiles, so I guess thats a must. Those of you that have a website with stuff about your car, that would be a good thing to have on your profile ya know. Maybe a little blurb about the club on some page, monthly meetings, some of the events we go to (like racing, alot LOL) and stuff like that. Kind of an introduction. Tech articles section? Might not be a bad idea...

Frames/No Frames? In a way I like frames, in a way I dont. Its good for pages where you want an index or directory stucture visible that doesnt scroll with the screen, thats about all its good for IMO. If the page lengths are fairly short you dont really need one.

Also, lets see what sorta opinions the members have on this. I'm on dialup, so for me graphics intensive stuff and long pages are not my friend. I do have my resolution set pretty high though, so I can go to any website without scrolling right-left. Thats kinda annoying if you have to do that. So, whats everyone using for connection to the net, puter speed, screen size and browser? That will influence my decision on how much stuff will be up graphics wise, I really hate slow loading pages. Ill start...
56K dialup, 150mhz, 1024x768, Netcrash or Internet Exploder depending on mood.

If you dont know your screen size, Start, Settings, Control Panel, double click Display, click the Settings tab (at least thats how my puters are... you Mac people are on your own ). Hit Cancel when youre done to be safe, unless you wanna change something in there.

 

I am willing to help out with whatever I can as well. I have done some work in graphic design/web design so I am willing to make some parts of the site as well

 

I think we've been on this board long enough.

We are our own club. Many of us may have found us from this site but let's move on to our own place.

As far as formating the site or anything like that I say make it simple for the lower speed puters and don't get too fancy.

I do like this sites message board.

 

Ideally, I'd love to have a Flash driven site but that won't be too condusive to those with slower machines.

Here are the key elements I feel we need:
1) An eye catching Intro. Page (maybe here is where we can have a Flash intro. with a low bandwith option for slower connection speeds)
2) A Message Board
3) Events Calendar
4) Member Profiles

Later on we can add a Tech section and so forth. We also want to try to keep the sight simple and not slam Nick's server. I don't want to abuse our priviledges.

 

Ok, this is good. Here is (IMHO) what we want, based on the responses.

Main page (Intro, About)

How to be a Member (Meeting, Criteria)

Calendar (Weekly/Monthly Events, Special Events)
Weekly/Monthly Events I would say are like Carlsbad/LACR/Cruiser's (or what have you).
Special Events are Auto-X/Road Racing/Cruises and the like.

Free (very inexpensive) Message Board

The message board we had with the old club was fine, I wouldn't have a problem with that. If there is something better fine by me. What do message board programs cost (range)?

I feel the profiles we can work on eventually, but I think a list of the member and their cars would do for the moment. Maybe just include: Name, Vehicle, Email, Location ... for the time being.

Randy, would you be willing to do that layout (and work with ... for Bret)? If so, I think if we can all send in our info to you, or post it in a new thread (easier for you to keep track of?)

 

I had a feeling Flash was going to come up. If its just the intro page I could deal with that, but I avoid Flash and Java like the plague. Seems like theres alot of websites that I go to that wont load at all, just get a blank but colored screen, no matter what browser I use. I tend to prefer HTML based stuff, mostly because just about anyone can access it, doesnt need extra programs to drive it, doesnt take forever to load, and you can still make it look pretty if thats your thing.

Well, thats my .02

I guess I should make a new post with a poll, find out what people are using for computers and stuff. Not getting any info here....

 

I agree with you Chris, I prefer html stuff over flash. I too have a very slow connection (dang 56K modem connects at 28.8 at home ), but here at work we have a so called T3 (sometime you would think so). I would prefer the fast loading approach.

 

Well, I can do the member profiles and pages and stuff like that, I've done a few of my own web pages and can handle most things. Havent messed with flash before but I doubt its anything difficult.

I'd need the information, and then a few days to enter it and upload it to Nick's server.

 

Chris,
I don't have extensive experience with Flash, but I have used it and it can be a PITA at times. I still think a simple Flash intro. page would be nice. The rest of the site can (and probably should) be HTML.

The reason you may be having trouble loading Flash pages is becuse you don't have the current Flash plug-in for your PC.