SlimSlyk Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 [a href=\"http://www.newsfortress.com\" target=\"_blank\"]http://www.newsfortress.com[/a]No, it will never get a fancy layout. Here's why:NewsFortress is designed to be the ultimate homepage for anybody; a single page with links to all of the latest news articles, most of which are in the top fold. The page automatically refreshes every 120 seconds to check for new articles that have been submitted and approved. The idea behind the site is to keep it painfully simple, everything to a bare minimum so that we can serve the content as fast as possible. Even the 240x400 advertisement on the right side of the page loads separately from the content to prevent any long waiting periods for "the good stuff".Basically, the links migrate from left to right as they get older. The five red links at the top are, yep, you guessed it, the top 5 most clicked links today. They are reset at 12:00 Central Time every night, soon to be changed to Eastern Time.What I have left to do isn't very much, but enough to hold it up for maybe a day or two.1) Get a logo done for the site that's fast loading and blends in nicely.2) Get C&C on how it's set up, and suggestions.3) Fix that center column... I need to get it unaligned from the <hr> tags next to them, meaning that I need to put something else at the top of the column. I need ideas on this!4) See the lonely <hr> tag on the bottom of the center column? Something needs to go under there5) Need to sell advertising on the right side of the page. Right now prices are set at $5 until July 31st, as I feel that it will grow rather quickly and anyone who buys will get a good deal. First person to buy will be free (Nobody has taken me up on this yet! [img src=\"style_emoticons/[#EMO_DIR#]/huh.gif\" style=\"vertical-align:middle\" emoid=\":huh:\" border=\"0\" alt=\"huh.gif\" /] )6) After launch, statistics are going under the banner. Basically when I feel that they are good enough to show off.7) Final stage before launch will be to clear all the crap articles out of the database and put in some real ones that are actually interesting.8) Promote like mad! I would actually appreciate if some of you set it as your homepage now, but I don't want to ask too muchAnyways, I need some C&C on what I have and what my plans are. Please give it, and don't be afraid to be ruthless. Just don't go "It's DEFAULT page colors of all things! Change it!" because I won't. It's easy on the eyes and quite frankly I like simple sites. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jcombs_31 Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 There's honesly nothing to critique there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviewdr Posted June 25, 2006 Share Posted June 25, 2006 Would you consider grouping news items?I think that in todays day and age of broadband etc. that people would much prefer to see an icon/ graphic rather than reading a *ton* of text.To save me reading your whole news page of text - an image would draw my eye to that story. Get the idea. OK - I know what you are trying to do, but its NOT VERY USER FRIENDLY. Like if you were making it viewable for a PDA or WAP -, Id say something.You should use external javascript references - they cache on the client and dont have to be downloaded every time.-steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlimSlyk Posted June 25, 2006 Author Share Posted June 25, 2006 [!--quoteo(post=387853:date=Jun 25 2006, 04:36 PM:name=steviewdr)--][div class=\'quotetop\']QUOTE(steviewdr @ Jun 25 2006, 04:36 PM) [snapback]387853[/snapback][/div][div class=\'quotemain\'][!--quotec--]Would you consider grouping news items?I think that in todays day and age of broadband etc. that people would much prefer to see an icon/ graphic rather than reading a *ton* of text.To save me reading your whole news page of text - an image would draw my eye to that story. Get the idea. OK - I know what you are trying to do, but its NOT VERY USER FRIENDLY. Like if you were making it viewable for a PDA or WAP -, Id say something.You should use external javascript references - they cache on the client and dont have to be downloaded every time.-steve[/quote]What if I added in a spot to show a small thumbnail that deals with the news item, but would not do it for every article. Example, if one of the administrators approving the articles finds one with a cool picture relating to it, they paste the image url into a field in the admin interface and it scales it down and displays it above the image.News articles could be grouped, but it depends on how you are suggesting that they be grouped.Do you have an example of one of these external javascript references? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlimSlyk Posted June 26, 2006 Author Share Posted June 26, 2006 Alright. Now I have implemented the ability to add in thumbnails upon article addition, but I am not sure where to implement them. The entire page, just the top 5 articles? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steviewdr Posted June 26, 2006 Share Posted June 26, 2006 The colour coded divs are a big improvement.As for images - I thought the process was automatic? Anyways, if your doing it manually - a thumbnail anywhere would be nice. Trial and error will get it right.Keep going.-steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SlimSlyk Posted June 30, 2006 Author Share Posted June 30, 2006 :) Wow, it's been quite a while since this was last updated.The site is pretty much "done" now, and ready to be promoted. I have a couple big things in the works. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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