Website Up!

12 Jul 05 - 03:32 PM (#1520717)
Subject: Website Up!
From: Vixen

Dear Mudcats--

For those of you who have been asking...

Here It Is!

It's my first attempt with Dreamweaver, so any criticism, advice, suggestions, comments (and compliments too) are gratefully appreciated!

To those Mudcats who helped me sort out getting the sound clips up: MANY MANY THANKS!

V

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12 Jul 05 - 03:37 PM (#1520722)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Clinton Hammond

This is totally subjective, but that colour scheme is UG-LEEE!

Other than that, it a very decent, standard framed web site...

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12 Jul 05 - 03:58 PM (#1520739)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

Nicely done - personally - I DO LIKE the color scheme - different, refreshingly different than the stand red/whit/blue or the blacks and browns.

However, your photos are much, much too large and load slowly.

The opening photo is 614KB it should be 61K (or even less) an inside photo is 333KB it should be 33KB (or even 15KB since it is about 2inchx3inch)

You will NOT loose webpage quality since pixels are "grain-y" anyway.

With smaller KB your page will "SNAP" open like a reel...rather than "SCROLL" like a dirge.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

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12 Jul 05 - 04:11 PM (#1520753)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: PoohBear

Vixen,
I have to agree with Gargoyle - I like the colors (kind of like a lot of 'Southwestern' pallettes(sp?). But the photos are a bit slow to load.
Just out of curiosity - who brought a totally modern Montgolfier to a Renaissance Faire? Even the original flight of Pilote de Rosier and the Duc d'Almagne (don't know if I spelled those right, either) was well after the Renaissance period!!
BTW - love the costuming. And any chance of you getting down to the SW in early November? We could probably use more musical acts at our Renn Faire. (daarts.org) The website is out of date, but the contact numbers are correct as is the basic info about application to perform.
Cheers
PB

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12 Jul 05 - 04:22 PM (#1520762)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: GUEST,Jon

I agree with Gargoyle. The photos are too big but otherwise nice.

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12 Jul 05 - 04:40 PM (#1520777)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: TheBigPinkLad

Hi Vixen

Some good advice above. Did you get Dreamweaver as part of the Fireworks suite? If so, there's a ton of nifty stuff you can do with graphics in there.

I loved your rendition of "Come you not from Newcastle?"

And if it's not PIncorrect, you have an appropriate mudcat name ;o)

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12 Jul 05 - 04:43 PM (#1520779)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

Using WebFX - your photo 614KB photo is reduced to 31.5KB with no visible (webpage) lose of detail.

Of course, keep the huge one filed away for reprints if someone asks.

While digging this stuff out -I enjoyed listening to your Ash Grove (aka Mayor of Bayswater Daughter in my circles)- nice hammered dulcimer playing.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

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12 Jul 05 - 04:46 PM (#1520782)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: AllisonA(Animaterra)

Looks great, Vicki! I look forward to hearing more about it soon (BG)!
Allison

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12 Jul 05 - 04:48 PM (#1520785)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Bill D

interesting...in both Firefox & Opera, it loaded (displayed) as a small pic...but when I right clicked and selected 'open image', it went ahead and displayed a 1191 X 966 pixel image. (since I have broadband, they loaded very quickly anyway)


make smaller 'lead in' photos, with links to larger versions an option.

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12 Jul 05 - 04:49 PM (#1520787)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: GUEST,.gargole

BTW - Vixen - Because you already have the page loaded into your cache - you are probably NOT SEEING the slowness when you go to the page.

Exit the browser - dump your cache - return to your page for a "first-timer's experience."

I need to go back and listen to NewCastle with that great review above.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

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12 Jul 05 - 04:50 PM (#1520789)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: GUEST,pattyClink

Nice clean site, loads plenty fast but I'm on a T1 line.

Good job!

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12 Jul 05 - 05:04 PM (#1520802)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Clinton Hammond

"Vixen - Because you already have the page loaded into your cache"

Or you can hold down the Shift or the CTRL key while you select "Reload/RefresH"... this forces a reaload from the server, overwriting what's in the cache...

At least it USED to!

:-)

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12 Jul 05 - 05:12 PM (#1520806)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Áine

Hi Vixen,

I think your site is very well done. Since I have broadband, the pictures didn't take any time to load, so I don't have any complaints.   The sound files were excellent - very fine playing!! I like the color scheme, too.

All the best, Áine

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12 Jul 05 - 05:13 PM (#1520809)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

I gave you an awkward link to WEBFX try :

http://nbswebfx.com/

Just plug in the address of the photo and go.

This is a great deal of fun - it is done right on the net - try it folks. All sort of special effects to play with.

Unfortunately, (actually good for YOU!) I could not capture the file from the page source on Revels/PomFret and play with the 333KB (but my guess is 15KB will be about what webfx will give you.)

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

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12 Jul 05 - 06:19 PM (#1520884)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Vixen

WOW!! Thank you for the advice about the pictures. I'll redo them first thing in the morning and re-publish. I'm on broadband, so I thought they were ok. If I'd have thought to ask y'all about graphics back when I was wrestling with the music files, I'd have saved myself another heap of time!

Thank you also for the compliments on the music...we're heading back to the studio in August, so I'll post a couple more files then.

The Hot-Air Balloon wasn't really part of the Faire--it just decided to land there that day. The "Barbarians" stormed out of the Faire to attack it when it landed!

Thank you all again!

The "Foxners"

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12 Jul 05 - 06:21 PM (#1520886)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: karen k

Vicki,
Very nice job. I'm not totally sure I like the colors but they are not awful. The tunes played great with no problems. I, too, have broadband so the pictures were no problem. I, in reading this thread, have especially liked all the positive feedback from gargoyle. Thanks gargoyle, you really have a lot to offer.

Hope to see you and Tim soon. Again, nice job. Look forward to more pictures and more tunes.

karen

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13 Jul 05 - 01:00 AM (#1520987)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Stephen L. Rich

It looks good and the links are clearly marked.
Well done.

Stephen Lee

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13 Jul 05 - 01:01 PM (#1521170)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Vixen

Webfx *is* cool. I ended up, however, using Photoshop's optimize feature, because I'm familiar with it. The file sizes were substantially reduced, so I'm hoping they don't take as long to load. Gargoyle, your suggestions have been terrific. I didn't take any of these shots, and none of them are digital; they are all prints that I scanned into files. I'm running an educational version of Dreamweaver, so I don't have Fireworks.

Thank you all again for the advice and support!

V

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13 Jul 05 - 10:53 PM (#1521533)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

Well done Vixen - the PHOTO page loads within seconds now.

However, the opening photo is still slow at over 600KB - you might want to shrink it down - since it is the "first impression" and its such a lively one too.

Continue having fun.


Sincerely,

Gargoyle

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14 Jul 05 - 12:25 PM (#1521892)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Big Al Whittle

well done. I enjoyed reading about you , best of luck with your duo!

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14 Jul 05 - 08:44 PM (#1521956)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Alice

Vicki, your photo should be 72 dpi for the web, not 600 dpi. Change the dimension (larger in inches or pixels) and THEN change the resolution to 72 dpi. Also, it would look more visually consistent if you chose colors from the photograph for the colors of the background of your page and the text colors instead of Miami Vice art deco colors. Use colors that match your sash, your hats, the brown/tan in the costumes.

Your photo is good, but it needs to be cropped more to eliminate the white line at the bottom edge and the back of someone else standing on the left side of the photo.

Make a jpeg image with type for your heading instead of typing it in text form. Upload that image to your page the way you uploaded the photo, but be sure your dpi is 72!!!

Took the liberty of illustrating what I mean. Here is an example of what I'm describing. The photo I used is yours cropped and changed to 72 dpi and 4 inches wide.

http://my.montana.net/aliceflynn/timvick.html

Have fun building.

Alice

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14 Jul 05 - 10:54 PM (#1522049)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: PennyBlack

Yep that main Front page piccy needs compressing and reducing

Current Download times (approx):-

2min 44secs @ 56k
1min 12secs @ 128k
24secs @ 380k
13secs @ 720k

with a reduced picture size and some compression the picture will appear the same on screen and would download at less than 20secs even on a 56k modem.


other than that we like it

PB

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15 Jul 05 - 10:24 AM (#1522150)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Vixen

Alice--Thank you so much for the ideas!

I don't have the software at home yet, so I'll have to redo the opening picture on Monday. Don't know why I didn't think of doing it when I did the photo page...

V

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15 Jul 05 - 06:33 PM (#1522341)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: PennyBlack

Vixen - why not use the one Alice did ;0)

PB

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16 Jul 05 - 12:35 PM (#1522557)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Cruiser

Vixen,

I like your website. Your tunes are very good. Add more and definitely have Tim do some fiddle tunes.

I know nothing about web design, but Alice's photo with the brown colors sure matches the photo colors of the costumes you and Tim are wearing. Good idea Alice. However, whatever the colors may be you have at good start on your site.

Gargoyle,

Your ideas and constructive criticisms are a refreshing change for you, thanks for showing that side of you.

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16 Jul 05 - 01:35 PM (#1522604)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: treewind

Quoth Alice:
Make a jpeg image with type for your heading instead of typing it in text form

With respect, that's bad advice, especially if you want Google (or any other search engine for that matter) to index your site. Making a graphic of a headline is the only way if you absolutely *must* have it in a fancy font, but frankly you never really need that.

BTW, Google rates text in headings as high priority, which means that a search that uses those words will list your page before others that contain the same words in ordinary text.

There's also the minor issue of another graphic talking extra load time, though a two colour graphic can be made pretty small.

Anahata

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16 Jul 05 - 04:15 PM (#1522692)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: Alice

You can type the title of the page in the html and the search engine will find it, even if there is an image with your title on the page. A small bit of text at the bottom that includes the title is another way to add the name of the page in text. For example, the Mudcat page has an image of the Mudcat logo gif and if you look at the source code, you will also see the title: TITLE inside> The Mudcat Discussion Forum < /TITLE >

Alice

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16 Jul 05 - 04:53 PM (#1522712)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: treewind

Yes, but there's a difference between "will find" and "will display at or near the top of the search list", especially if your search terms generate a lot of hits.
Certainly including relevant text in the <TITLE> tag is a very good idea too, and if the text in the page heading (that you want to render as a graphic) is present somewhere on the page it will be indexed. I was really thinking of Google's page ranking system, which decides the order in which Google displays its hits. For that, text appearing in a <H1> or <H2> tag counts very highly if it matches a search term, but is invisible to any search engine if it's a graphic.

Yes, the Mudcat Café home page does have a graphic logo, and that is useless to a search engine. It's mitigated by the page title (as you point out) and also by the fact he the words "Mudcat" and "Café" appear several times on the page, sometimes together, as plain text.

Anyway, your suggestion is not as bad a having the entire text of a page done as a graphic, which is far worse but I've seen it done!

Anahata

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16 Jul 05 - 05:14 PM (#1522720)
Subject: RE: Website Up!
From: GUEST,.gargoyle

All a matter of preference on the colors - Vix - I like it as it is.

Your opening page stands OUT - because the colors are so different ... than the butternut-brown of trad folks.

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

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