New Website Finally Finished - Need Help

[mark.f]

I'm currently wayyyy too buzzed on caffeine and a little nicotine to sleep right now, so I figured I'd post this tonight instead of tomorrow morning.

I have finally finished my personal spugun website, at least revision 100. It took me nearly a week to get up and running right, but I finally looked up at the computer screen to see it uploading successfully!

Anyways, it's a personal spudgun website that I made for my cannons, ideas, tutorials, etc., but I need some help with more content generation.

First, let me say that this site is NOT TO COMPETE with Spudfiles in any way. There are no forums, there are no user accounts, it's simply a personal web site that I need a little help on.

First things first, I'd like to know who here has any web development experience. Obviously PCGUY, I know BC_Pneumatics does, and pimpmann22 I know has some experience with things like flash sites and the like. If you have any developmental experience in this subject (mainly dynamic design), skim over the site, please, and tell me what you think. I tried to keep the layout as simple as possible. Everything is generated using server-side scripting, so things like hit counters, last update log, etc. were easy to build in. Also got an elementary comment page up and running. So, again, if you have any experience with server-side scripting and dynamic web design, I'd love your opinions.

Secondly, I like viewing other people's web sites. Other spudgunner's web sites are particularly fascinating to me, and it's a pity I've forgotten most of the ones I knew from the Spudtech days (or those sites got deleted). Oh, sure I know AdvancedSpuds, NeoSpud, etc., I'm talking about the small personal sites that your average everyday poster makes to showcase his creations, ideas, etc. It doesn't matter how big or small, I almost always find myself spending wayyy more time than I should viewing every single page of these sites. I ALSO know that most other people share the same opinions.

So, I'm asking everybody that has their own personal web site, no matter how small or large, to step forward and tell me about it! I'm working on the links page right now, but it'll be up whenever I have enough entries. I also won't include your site without final permission either! Even if you don't want it linked on my site, I like reading them anyways, so step on up!

Lastly, I'm asking you guys to just skim the site real quick, see what you like and don't like, and tell me about it! Or maybe you have something you'd like to add? You can tell me about it in this thread, or in email (or even on the comment page if you dare).

That's about it for now. Every single bit of help I can get I will most likely use, because I made the site extremely easy to update and add new content to. I've also spent a lot of time on the site, so I'd rather not see it fizzle away into nothingness... a site that I don't ever update and eventually just let go (like our old paintball team's website).

Thanks for your help, Spudfiles!

EDIT - you thought I wasn't going to give a link.

http://www.markfh11q.net/

EDIT - new question below.

[Davidvaini]

Hey, I'm a Freelance Web Designer. Currently im doing some free work for people. I specialize in graphics but I also program in server side scripting such as ASP, VB, etc. I also program in actionscript (flash).

Here is my site so far for my Airsoft business.

www.shoppingfury.com

The enter button is disabled but as you can see from the logo, I'm pretty good with graphics.

I also always have a bunch of different projects that im always working on.

Feel free to post any of my designs, just make sure to credit me.

http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/rc-p240 ... 12907.html
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/finishe ... 15021.html
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/panzers ... 15851.html
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/preload ... 14802.html
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/davidva ... 14559.html
http://www.spudfiles.com/forums/bdc-axe ... 14898.html

etc.. im sure there is a bunch more but there is a few.

So yeah if you need any graphic designing done just let me know. I will be in the chat for a while, but if im not there or not responding please PM me or reply to this thread.

I was bored and I needed something to do for about 5 min so I thought id create a logo for you.. Its not that nice but better than your current "my spudgun website" text.


And here is what it would look like:

[mark.f]

Davidvaini, thanks! If I post any of those designs, I'll be sure to credit you and link to their threads here as well.

Also, thanks for the logo. I'll probably use it right now, but I was also working on one as well (albeit working with only PaintShop Pro 4.12... no PhotoShop).

I also think I'm going to get the link section up and running. Even though I don't have more of my target link-type (the small personal web sites), I have enough to at least populate a list.

Thanks again.

[Ragnarok]

Nice, but can I suggest you remove oxygen from the list of industrial gases on your gas page?

Absolute no-no for a pneumatic, because it can cause the chamber walls themselves to react - as shown here with an unfortunate PCP air rifle:

[ALIHISGREAT]

nice site.... unfortunatly i can't help you with it though

and Rag, thats not yours is it?

[Sticky_Tape]

No it isn't I have seen it before on another thread. The website looks cool how do you make a website other than a piczo one?

[mark.f]

Nice, but can I suggest you remove oxygen from the list of industrial gases on your gas page?

I thought that was with seals or greases, or pretty much anything organic.

The only reason it's on that list is because it's an industrial gas, not that you should use it for a pneumatic. I'll remove it, though.

Sticky_Tape, you can start off by going here. Then, whenever you've learned enough to create a basic web site, you can buy a hosting plan from an ISP, create your own web server and buy a domain for it, or you can go here. This web site is on an "economy" hosting plan by GoDaddy. It's basically on a gigantic, headless web server, with several other people's sites as well. It's only 50 bucks a year, about, and you get either:

LAMP architecture
-or-
Windows, IIS, ASP, ASP.NET, MSSQL

If you decide to get a Ceocities account, just take my advice and put ALL of your images in a photobucket and link from there. Geocity sites have a bad reputation for having low bandwidth, but of course they will with over 9000 "personal" images and flashing GIF's on them.

[TurboSuper]

Cool site! I don't know much about web design apart from some HTML code and how to use Dreamweaver (which is HTML)...and I see you're using PHP...but it looks cool

[Ragnarok]

I thought that was with seals or greases, or pretty much anything organic.

Even if it only is things on that list, almost all cannons include such a thing somewhere.

[mark.f]

Well, it's gone now.

[DYI]

DYI Was the first to piss on the barricades with his 20x hybrid, followed shortly after by Larda with his 170x hybrid. It is theoretically possible to go with a mix of around 201x.

Woohoo!!! Recognition.

Shame it's for something that killed itself eventually, but I suppose such things don't often start with perfection...

Great job on the website Mark, looks like all that hard work paid off.

[ghostman01]

Hey man yeah ive just about finished with my site.http://aaron.com.net.sc
Yours looks very simple, basic and neat. Could posibly use a bit more colour though. Other than that are you using some sort of cms ?

[mark.f]

DYI, thanks for the compliment. I like to give credit where credit is due. Even if it did kill itself, it's a pretty damn good accomplishment.

ajdevi92, thanks for the info. I'm not using a Content Management System (I assume that's what you meant), I'm just using a technique to generate files bases on a cryptographic hash of their filename, and include some basic styles and headers. It makes it easier to know that others are accessing the files only through the main directory, which will assure proper formatting and operation. As to the color, I kind of never got into that sort of thing in designing web sites. I like simple layouts, but I guess I could add some rounded-corners and gradients to make it look more "modern" (somebody could hurt themselves on the tables I have now!). What forum software are you using on your website? It almost looks like vBulletin. But yeah, whenever you finish with it I'd be glad to link to it, just let me know.

EDIT - one last quick thing. I just recently (as in yesterday) started conforming all my web documents to the W3C XHTML 1.0 STRICT standard. My site currently is written with no XHTML standard, but all I would have to do would be to un-capitalize a few attributes and add quotes to some values and it would pass flawlessly as XHTML 1.0 TRANSITIONAL. Is it really worth conforming to XHTML? I'm a huge fan of the standard, now that I've made a few sites with it, but is it worth it?

[mark.f]

Well, thanks for that suggestion.

I just finished converting the entire site to XHTML 1.0. This means a few things:

• 1.) A lot of things that were centered now aren't, at least until I find a simple and effective way to do it within the constraints of XHTML 1.0.
  
  2.) The TARGET attribute for hyperlinks has been removed on all links, because they aren't included in XHTML 1.0. Therefore, you actually have to use the back button when viewing pictures. Something I'll get around to fixing whenever I look up how.
  
  3.) The layout is now done in DIV tags instead of tables. This makes loading faster.

Other than that, some other things I changed were the "table" headers, which I converted to gradients, and I added David's logo he made for the site. Thanks a ton David!

It was still a pain in the ass, though. TAKE MY ADVICE: if you ever make a web site, just write it in XHTML from the get-go, that way you're not spending hours diddling with a search and replace function and converting tables to CSS layers. Just do it from the beginning, and you'll have no troubles.

EDIT - and in case you still didn't see the link above...

[ghostman01]

hey guys check out what i made in two days for my dad on dreamweaver !! http://amdjs.com.au and by the way mark your site looks heaps better than before !