The Forum of Benfleet Running Club

Karl C · Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 1690 Location: Rayleigh

Hiya, the Merry Christmas webpage has now been deleted, and should go straight into the main home page on

www.benfleetrunningclub.com

If you still see the Merry Christmas homepage, press F5 when you see it to force-refersh this page once,.

Cheers

I am working on homepage.v15 now, so look out for the new-improved version soon.
Any suggestions please...?!

Karl.

jacklarge · Joined: 11 Aug 2006 Posts: 239 Location: Rayleigh, Essex

Like a red flag to a bull...

I just know you were waiting for me to reply to your plea! And as I don't like to disappoint...

Current homepage is, on balance, better than your previous versions.
It is a lot 'cleaner'; reducing the navigation to 10 options on the page header makes it less confusing and gives the text some room to breathe. Cool

I also like the design itself - the horizontal lines are aesthetically pleasing and I'm glad you kept the 'Triple-Whammy' race photographs grid (I like it alot).

icon_biggrin.gif" alt="Very Happy" border="0" />

Like "Rocky" the 'Refresh' buttons have not been retired just yet - shame - I think they are unnecessary (for anyone but the Webmaster) but having two on the same page makes it look like bullying! Confused

Another reason I haven't given it a ringing endorsement is due to your use of 'Frames'. I'll admit it allows you to have a 'proper' header on every page with least effort and the site benefits from a more 'whole' design approach but it comes at some cost. 'Frames' have quite a few 'usability' problems:

* How do people 'bookmark' a page in the site?
* Anyone tried printing a page?
* Links within the same page can fail to work.
* Links to pages outside the site can end up stuck in a small frame on our site (not usually what the user, or external website, was expecting to happen).
* The multiple scroll bars can be confusing (and look ugly).

As you asked for suggestions (rather than a review) I'll gladly add some Wink

:

* Think about migrating to a Content Management System, believe me for sites such as ours this is the way to go.

* Don't forget the boring but necessary information. For instance having the club's constitution available on the site is a benefit to both potential and current members.

* Keep doing what you're doing - I may have been a bit disparaging but I do believe you are a fine Webmaster and you are improving the site.

Cheers,

John.

Mike Mason · Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 953 Location: Hockley

John I think this is a masterly and professional critique and I would like you to accept my Benfleet 15 running place in return.......no strings attached...

rgds

Mike
_________________
'sometimes I am running so fast it appears that rocks and trees are standing still......' 'I may be slow, but you are ugly and I can train harder.' '90% is mental, the other half is physical'it's going to get a lot worse, before it gets worse'.

Karl C · Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 1690 Location: Rayleigh

Jack - I tend to agree with most of your review. I like most of the new home page, but there are still bits I don't like.

The frames option was more to get the calendar in it's own frame on the rh side for easy access. Bookmarking pages is not a real issue (I don't feel) as navigation from the main page is quite easy. Printing is a problem from some pages, but hopefully I have give pdf options for printing important stuff.

Refresh buttons are basically because I do a lot of small tweeking throughout the day, and most peeps forget to F5 or ctrl+alt+refresh so miss the best bits.

Anyway, it'll do for the next few weeks.

MM - two tins of biscuits ?

Mike Mason · Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 953 Location: Hockley

Whilst eating my biscuits I have noticed that in past when I was in forum and wanted to come back to home page I couldn't. I had to open a new session. Now I can close forum and a window with the home page open is there - does this mean I have 2 sessions now open simultaneously? As a result are we now all using more electricity?

rgds

Mike
_________________
'sometimes I am running so fast it appears that rocks and trees are standing still......' 'I may be slow, but you are ugly and I can train harder.' '90% is mental, the other half is physical'it's going to get a lot worse, before it gets worse'.

admin · Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2007 10:48 pm Post subject:

Mike, don't panic. I know living in Hockley has these problems to overcome. Listen very carefully, the electricity won't run out (there's no point closing the door) This new supa-dupa home page (with frames) has been set-up so the forum link opens in a new window. Mike, look at me, stopping looking through your window at the garden and focus. This new "window" on the com-pu-ter is another screen. Once you have finished posting tat on the forum just close this window and you are back looking at the supa-dupa new home page (with frames).
No Mike, not door frames, window frames. oh god help !

Oh, and the world is not flat.

Terry T · Joined: 11 May 2006 Posts: 33 Location: Hockley

I thought about migrating to a Content Management System,but the M25 was really busy,so I went to Tesco's instead.
PS And I fink Red and white looks really nice!!!!!!!!!1

Mike Mason · Joined: 02 Jun 2006 Posts: 953 Location: Hockley

Terry, happy new year. Did I mention that if you want to run the Benfleet 15 this year I have a place up for grabs?

ps Up the Spammers......

rgds

Mike
_________________
'sometimes I am running so fast it appears that rocks and trees are standing still......' 'I may be slow, but you are ugly and I can train harder.' '90% is mental, the other half is physical'it's going to get a lot worse, before it gets worse'.

jacklarge · Joined: 11 Aug 2006 Posts: 239 Location: Rayleigh, Essex

MM: Thanks, I'd love to accept your place for the B15 but unfortunately not only would the other Mike start sticking pins in a Jack-like doll but I would probably end up like 'Dr Foster' of Glouster. And I've got a cold too.

Karl: See told you 'frames' where evil, now you've made MM unenvironmentally friendly. He'll be driving a 4x4 next you just see.

TT: I think Tescos' is probably the best bet (they use red and white too) unless you want to get to Chessington World of Adventures.