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Website Opinions

Postby Ventus » Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:19 pm

Hello all,

Just wanted to make a post asking for some feedback on a website that I've built for our realm. The reason I'm asking the Bel community at large is because well, it's hard to get honest feedback when your doing free work in my opinion. I built the website using Frontpage (horrid I know) however my logic is that our copy of FP can stay with the RSO president, who will then be able to make changes easily without having to know much HTML, PHP, ya know, the slightly more difficult stuff.

I am still trying to polish the website a lil more, add more information, fix some of Frontpages super fun coding things, I'm also debating adding some flash to the site for a tiny bit of style.

Anyway, I digress, Just let me know what you think about it!

www.disciplesofameth.com

Thanks in advance!

-Ventus

***Edited because I'm a total doof and forgot to put the link in...go ME!***
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Postby Thorondor » Wed Mar 05, 2008 1:52 pm

Looks good so far. Nothing really negative about it, it looks pretty.
A few comments/suggestions/etc for you can be found below. I hope it helps some.

~Stash~

About us page:
Click here to view our current rules and tips for practices and fighting, or click here to see what makes the Disciples, THE Disciples.

Drop that down to separate lines:
View our current rules and tips for practices and fighting here
See what makes the Disciples, THE Disciples.
=links

Forums:
Add a "general chat" or something so everyone can post.
Make a link on the forums to go back to the page OR make the forum link open a new browser page.

Media gallery:
Not bad, would be hard on a dial-up though.
Maybe put links to "Fighting at Home" "Red Harvest Invitational" etc so it pulls up thumbnails there instead of ALL of the thumbs for everything on one page.

Current Roster:
Elebrim Mistblood & Ventus Aetherius
Can only click the name & not the picture as well: see the bio options for Cloral Orcanis and Animus Calesco

Creed:
Helping each other is a huge part of who we are. Kindness, sincerity, patience, and eagerness are the key qualities that we would like see in our fellow fighters.

I THINK that part isn't in bold and the rest is.
It's personal preference, but I don't care for how the first line is in-dented one space. I'd do it the other way (every line except the first would be in-dented).

Practices:
Maybe put "Belegarth Book of War" and "Dagorhir Manual of Arms" since you do mention you are a cross-sport realm.
#3) specifics see below.
#4) "If you have any prior violent crime convictions, you will not be allowed at practice." How do you know and how do you watch this? It can be considered discrimination, if that's good or bad, I'm not sure. Maybe take that line out and leave the rest. Abuse can be physical or mental or emotional...but deciding where to draw the line can be hard, especially in this type of game where mental games are part of it and physical contact is allowed, weapon contact is required, and shield contact will happen.

Field rules:
#1) "Be in garb" - specify minimums. Even if it is: "refer to the BoW & MoA for garb rules"
#2) "others sick but also you" You have a double spaces between "sick" and "but" it actually looks like you missed a comma and stuck in an additional space.
#4) "when in doubt err on" add a comma: "when in doubt, err on"

General tips:
#1) "and avoid Charlie horses later on." change "Charlie horses" to cramps..since it can be any muscle.
#2) "some of us have no room to talk...me)" again...double space between "us" and "have"
#3) for period knee protection, suggest black or earth toned pads instead of neon green. Safety gear is one thing that doesn't HAVE to be period. You could suggest that the knee pads be worn under pants, skirts, etc.

Allies:
Dunland...Where is it? I don't want to search though their site to figure out where.

General:
I would move the forums option down to the 2nd from the bottom.
I would also move the "contact us" option down the the bottom.
This would put your allies option 3rd from the bottom.

Edited for formatting to make it easier to read.
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Daemarth: <On the topic of some people just can't get along> it's like sticking me and Kegg in a room... and I keep punching him in the f'n face, and someone looking into the room just keeps telling him that he just needs to get along with me...
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Postby Cib » Wed Mar 05, 2008 4:15 pm

Wow nice, I would suggest that in the media section, that when you click on a picture you have open in a new window, other than that I couldn't find anywhere that explained who "Ameth" was/is...

I had to use NVU for our site, no fun at all. http://airdriebelegarth.googlepages.com ... garth.html
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Postby Elohssa Y'trid » Wed Mar 05, 2008 9:37 pm

It looks fine, but in your "About Us" section, do you really want to identify yourselves as a group of guys that had a problem with another group so you made your own? Think about people stumbling upon your site, and that being their first introduction to you. I don't know how positive of an opinion they'd have. I know I'd think you guys sounded like a bunch of *. (Don't really know any of you, so I'm not meaning to say or imply that you are, I just get that impression from the wording on your page.)
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Postby Cib » Wed Mar 05, 2008 10:01 pm

Elohssa makes a good point, it gives of a negative vibe. Unless you expect all of your new recruits to be those dissatisfied with the other realm, which I suspect you already have most of them...
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Postby Ventus » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:09 pm

great points, all of them, I'll be making those changes that you guys recommended right now :)

Keep them coming, I love constructive criticism!
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Postby Thorondor » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:19 pm

For your about page:
Formed on April 21st, 2007, the Disciples of Ameth is composed of individuals from other realms who wished to take on the challenge of running their own realm, as well as those who were just joining the sport.

Also, just noticed, the sword graphic makes some of the about page tough to read: "is an" "drama," and "fighting," are the specific words.

Maybe formatting as below could work.
Code: Select all
Formed on April 21st, 2007, the Disciples of Ameth is composed of individuals from other realms who wished to take on the challenge of running their own realm, as well as those who were just joining the sport.

Our realm is an amalgam of Veterans and Greenhorns, Old and New, that believe in minimal politicking, drama, and other various "issues" 

View our current rules and tips for practices and fighting here
See what makes the Disciples, THE Disciples.
Uruk-Hai Serpent Breed and proud
Victory though intensity, tactics and glorious death!

Daemarth: <On the topic of some people just can't get along> it's like sticking me and Kegg in a room... and I keep punching him in the f'n face, and someone looking into the room just keeps telling him that he just needs to get along with me...
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Postby Ventus » Wed Mar 05, 2008 11:33 pm

Beautiful!

I like that text Thorondor, I'm changing it now.
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Postby Ventus » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:37 am

#4) "If you have any prior violent crime convictions, you will not be allowed at practice." How do you know and how do you watch this? It can be considered discrimination, if that's good or bad, I'm not sure. Maybe take that line out and leave the rest. Abuse can be physical or mental or emotional...but deciding where to draw the line can be hard, especially in this type of game where mental games are part of it and physical contact is allowed, weapon contact is required, and shield contact will happen.


The reason that we have this clause is because we fight on university property, and we are a recognized RSO, we have a responsibility now to ensure that we protect the students. Your absolutely right that it's hard to really know that, there are some ways to do it, but we put it there so we have the precedent to remove people, yay for campus police who have really been a big help with some things.[/quote]
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Postby Thorondor » Thu Mar 06, 2008 12:56 am

your site wrote:If you have any prior violent crime convictions, you will not be allowed at practice. If we see you abuse anyone, you will also be asked to leave and/or reported to the correct authorities. Ameth is not the place for you to get off on beating others.


Try this wording instead since it's more or less required by the university.
Code: Select all
Due to university policy, we must restrict our realm practices to people with no prior violent crime convictions.  Furthermore, if you are seen abusing anyone, you will be asked to leave and it will be reported to the correct authorities.


I completely removed the "Ameth is not..." that's just venting stuff that doesn't need to be vented. Also, asking to leave & reporting is not an "and/or" situation. Due to the university relationship, it needs to be a both. You have to leave and authorities (at least campus police) must be notified so the proper paperwork can be completed to help protect both the RSO as well as the university itself.

Stating that it's university policy shifts the "blame" from you not wanting them there to an establishment's policy not allowing them there.

Hope that rewording works. It's late, I'll check in tomorrow to make sure it still makes sense to me.

~Stash~
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Victory though intensity, tactics and glorious death!

Daemarth: <On the topic of some people just can't get along> it's like sticking me and Kegg in a room... and I keep punching him in the f'n face, and someone looking into the room just keeps telling him that he just needs to get along with me...
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Postby Mekoot Rowan » Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:37 am

Front Page:
Aside from the slightly cheesy fighty guy (he's a bit big), I think it looks pretty good. You may want to think about using a Serif font for the body text and not make it bold red. What you have in the other pages with the red heading and black serif font would look better.

About us:
I'm assuming you fixed what Ehlossa was talking about, but your wording may be slightly folksy. Unless you're playing a game of Oregon Trail, I don't think that "Greenhorn" is the way you want to describe your newbies. What about "novice" instead? While you're at it, are you sure you want to capitalize veteran, greenhorn, old and new? Also THE Disciples

Practices:
I suppose it's a political decision, but I'm not so sure about point number four.
4. If you have any prior violent crime convictions, you will not be allowed at practice. If we see you abuse anyone, you will also be asked to leave and/or reported to the correct authorities. Ameth is not the place for you to get off on beating others


I would think that belegarth is exactly the place for a person to "get off on beating others' in some sense. Or was there a particular instance or person that made this necesarry?


Generally I think your alignment and consistency is good. You might want to consider spacing out your navigation links on the left and possibly making them into buttons instead of just text. Also, your color scheme is good, but you might want to have greater variation between a clicked link and an unclicked link.

Good job overall. Are you creating pages individually or using CSS?
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Postby Thorondor » Thu Mar 06, 2008 9:45 am

Rowan wrote:I would think that belegarth is exactly the place for a person to "get off on beating others' in some sense. Or was there a particular instance or person that made this necesarry?


I would assume that the university policy for RSO requires a no abuse policy somewhere to help protect students (like Ventus said).

I felt the same way about how he stated it, so I dropped it.

Good catch with the "greenhorn" titles and such. :)
Uruk-Hai Serpent Breed and proud
Victory though intensity, tactics and glorious death!

Daemarth: <On the topic of some people just can't get along> it's like sticking me and Kegg in a room... and I keep punching him in the f'n face, and someone looking into the room just keeps telling him that he just needs to get along with me...
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