Web Developers?

[szwab]

what in particular are we looking for? layout, graphics menus, all of the above.

[seandanekind]

Originally posted by sickman
hey guys, I would be glad to help out.

a big help would be if you guys went out and found some sites with boards you really liked the design of, both reef related and not. It would quicken the process and give me a good head start.

Nice and simple
http://www.cincyreef.com/phpBB2/index.php

A lot more non-forum content
http://www.gcas.org/stl-web/bulletin/bb/index.php

The header banner is too big, but nice layout
http://www.nano-reef.com/forums/

[sickman]

would this site have anything more than forums? I mean I could design a blog section and people could write articles for it or something?

[seandanekind]

I'll do a mockup and skin for phpBB
Sickman can do one for IPW

The the members will have something to compare and decide what they like...

or are we being too democratic? Just make something and run with it...

[szwab]

let me ask this one? how hard/time consuming is all this? should we wait until the next meeting and try and create a layout. Would it be enough to give you guys a content list a list of things we'd like in it. Some we probably can't decide until we really get things going. I'd hate to see you guys do a unch of work only to find out it won't work for what we need. at this point you tell us what will be best keeping in mind the ultimate goal is to create something cool (with a big *** shark ) but functional as well. One thing I like in a website is not to have to scroll to see it all (i know sometimes that's unavoidable) is that possible? I do see yus needing more thatn just a forum, some ideas off the top of my head :
a members section: tanks, borrowable books list/recource center.
a club news/meetings, upcoming events (maybe a calender)
a membership page
bylaw/constitution section
sponsor section
other forum links RC, Reefs.org, zoosrus etc.
is it possible to have a section that is by username and login (a for members only part?)
I've looked at several other sites they all seem to have good/bad to them I gues a lot is personal preference.

[sickman]

here's a template part I whipped up between stuff today:
http://davidsicherman.com/cora/index.html

it will be a bit time consuming to begin with, but if it's created with low maintenance in mind, it would be easy to maintain as long as someone simply entered in articles and events and stuff.

I'd estimate to set it up right with dynamic templates that could updated on the fly, a banner system, board with good hacks installed and a blog system, tops 40 hours, and I would have no problem putting in the effort if I were to get help with my tank since I am newbie!

[sickman]

oh, and I would take it an extra mile by getting a custom deluxe board skin, Search Engine optimization so we get good google placement and some traffic to begin with.

here's the type of template I like (has the board function buttons integrated in the graphics)

for example: http://www.showercrafts.com/ipb_demo/?skinid=39 I think a customized version of that skin with some bubbles in the BG graphics in the grey area would be neato.

Would cost a couple hundred bucks, but if someone donated some frags to my new struggling tank I would eat any costs involved including hosting

[seandanekind]

Originally posted by sickman
here's a template part I whipped up between stuff today:
http://davidsicherman.com/cora/index.html

it will be a bit time consuming to begin with, but if it's created with low maintenance in mind, it would be easy to maintain as long as someone simply entered in articles and events and stuff.

I'd estimate to set it up right with dynamic templates that could updated on the fly, a banner system, board with good hacks installed and a blog system, tops 40 hours, and I would have no problem putting in the effort if I were to get help with my tank since I am newbie!

Nice banner! Is that your own image, or does someone else have a copyright on it?

Templates: good!

You sound very excited, that's awsome, but don't put that much time into it yet. I've done a few local aquarium club websites, and participated in even more, and it almost always comes down to the forum - everything else is gravy. I tried a full blown CMS (postnuke) and the only part that got any use was the forum. The local clubs just never use all the functionality that the larger national community sites (like RC and nano-reef) use... Don't let me get you down, and please realize that your enthusiasm and participation is highly appreciated - I'm just saying what has and hasn't worked in the past for me. The club may decide differently.

For a relatively small club that meets once a month, a list of events is more than enough compared to a calendar. Cincyreef has a calendar that no-one uses. GCAS has a list of upcoming events on the index page, and almost no-one bothers to click to the full list on the calendar page.

Unless we get some serious sponsors (I mean big money), ad banners are annoying IMO. Especially since we have no costs associated with the website. I would think a sponsors page and possibly a forum for each sponsor should be more than enough.

Hacks make upgrading harder to do (compared to the automated upgrade scripts). They are cool, but honestly don't get that much use.

Blogs... Do we really need a blogger if we have a forum??

Originally posted by sickman
oh, and I would take it an extra mile by getting a custom deluxe board skin, Search Engine optimization so we get good google placement and some traffic to begin with.

here's the type of template I like (has the board function buttons integrated in the graphics)

for example: http://www.showercrafts.com/ipb_demo/?skinid=39 I think a customized version of that skin with some bubbles in the BG graphics in the grey area would be neato.

Would cost a couple hundred bucks, but if someone donated some frags to my new struggling tank I would eat any costs involved including hosting

I think in the beginning we'll be looking for more function and can get flashy after we see what parts of the site people actually use.

I'm sure you'll get help with your tank, but bartering web work (for a barely organized non-profit club) for livestock from potential members is not the way to go. Honestly, that kinda scares me that it sets a precedent that we'd have to fork over some frags whenever we want a major website update... (not that those were your intensions, just that it can appear that way).

Hosting is already free. I'm not opposed to moving it to another server, but that's not really a negotiating point.

Originally posted by szwab
let me ask this one? how hard/time consuming is all this? should we wait until the next meeting and try and create a layout. Would it be enough to give you guys a content list a list of things we'd like in it. Some we probably can't decide until we really get things going. I'd hate to see you guys do a unch of work only to find out it won't work for what we need. at this point you tell us what will be best keeping in mind the ultimate goal is to create something cool (with a big *** shark ) but functional as well. One thing I like in a website is not to have to scroll to see it all (i know sometimes that's unavoidable) is that possible? I do see yus needing more thatn just a forum, some ideas off the top of my head :
a members section: tanks, borrowable books list/recource center.
a club news/meetings, upcoming events (maybe a calender)
a membership page
bylaw/constitution section
sponsor section
other forum links RC, Reefs.org, zoosrus etc.
is it possible to have a section that is by username and login (a for members only part?)
I've looked at several other sites they all seem to have good/bad to them I gues a lot is personal preference.

I think a bulletin board could be all we need, however a few standard pages make the site a little more normal (homepage, contact us, how to join, calendar, sponsors, etc...). Even so, all of that can be handled within the forum if we like...

The special section can be handled by the forum permissions. We just need to get the treasurer/membership person to update users so they can access that part of the forum.

Honestly, I like the way www.CincyReef.com is now. A forum with integrated gallery. We've tried a lot of other functionality, and it really doesn't get used. We currently have a calendar mod in place that no-one looks at. Even the links and gallery aren't that popular.

FWIW: I'm perfectly willing to hand over the webmaster duties to anyone who wants it, but as szwab said, we may want to wait until the next meeting to decide what teh membership wants. I picked it up to get the ball rolling so we'd have something before the frag fest and a place to demo different website software. I'm just trying to add my past experience with aquarium club websites into the mix, not stake out any turf...

[sickman]

sure, just didn't know how full blown you want the site. The images are from a clipart site I subscribe to, the rest of the graphics I made myself.

I understand about the trading stock for work, I was just saying I would go the extra mile for table scraps

[RocknRoll]

Sickman

I like

http://davidsicherman.com/cora/index.html

Larry

[seandanekind]

Originally posted by sickman
sure, just didn't know how full blown you want the site. The images are from a clipart site I subscribe to, the rest of the graphics I made myself.

I must say - great work on the graphics. What image editing tools do you use? I did the swap banner in a program called net-studio - which is very good for quick banners and buttons, but not really robust compared to real imaging tools.

Originally posted by sickman
I understand about the trading stock for work, I was just saying I would go the extra mile for table scraps

No problemo - I'm sure the club will help you in more ways than you've considered - especially with your enthusiasm and desire to be involved. Every aquarium club I've been in, has rewarded me in countless ways well beyond cheap livestock (although that's nice too).

[sickman]

I use Adobe Photoshop, and imageready to make graphics usually, for high end jobs I have to bust out the vector tool like freehand and stuff. Although 90% of the things I do I can just get done in Adobe Imageready, I find the more simplified I make things, the less frustrating stuff gets

[AquaNight]

Hi guys.

Kind of late on this post but it would be very hard to generate any traffic with RC being what it is.

Maybe you should concentrate on a simple site just for upcoming info, events, meetings etc.. with a simple message board.

Just a thought. and I'm very much looking forward to this weekends frag swap.

Jeff

[seandanekind]

Well, the goal is not really to compete with RC as a community, but to put more club specific discussions that we may not want in the public eyes of RC.

...Like threads discussing club organization, early details of the next frag swap, etc...

Actually, look at CincyReef.com Most of the members there rarely post on RC anymore because they like that forum so much...

[Mike_McBrien]

Although I am not a CORA a member nor I have I ever been part of a club, I have done alot of websites dealing with community type issues. I find that sites with a great and active bulliten board are fantastic but when sites get to a certain point, like RC it becomes very very difficult to find simple answers to simple questions, or even in depth questions.

Alot of people will either get frustrated and give up looking for what they came for or get side tracked and forget. Or what happens alot more is people will ot use the lovely search feature and just post a new topic that everyone replies sarcastically or with some response directing toward the search button/link. Neither are very good way to make people excited about a community.

One way to solve this when having active boards is to have members take the information and or debates that or posted on boards and certain subjects and collect and present the information in a simple easy to understnad static area of the site. By doing this you willhave to use less room on the boards and members or non members will be able to get that information more readily.

Also over time your static content on the site will grow very quickly and could be quite impressive which would naturally draw more people to the site for the information alone.

I am 95% after this weekend I will wanting to join cora and I will of course be excited to help on the site as much as I can, and I am very pumped about it.