New Portal set up

[Dani]

New portal set up! This is a replacement for Tekmaven's post about the topic, which unfortunately got lost when we had a scare and I had to restore an older version of the database.

[aeinstein]

so i take it this is the jump-off post for comments regarding the newest new look? if it is i'd have to say decidedly undecided..... so far i not in love with it, but i'm more than willing to give it time to grow on me.

[Dani]

Hmm ... are me and Tekmaven the only two who are in love with it? (Well, actually I can't speak for him, although he did say he really liked it - but I actually like the portal style.) The colors definitely need to be played around with a bit though.

So far aeinstein and inscissor both - well - would prefer the old style, to say the least. What to do, what to do ... for now I think I really want to keep the portal style - if not for anything else other than I want to add other sections to the site and make a homepage with easy access to all of them. For example, it still needs some tweaking, but there's now a downloads section ;) (where you can download some old C++ code I've written for school, Java coming soon! In any case - all the code is academia-based)

In addition, there was always a calendar where people could post events and link them to threads in the forum, but no one seemed to se it. With the new monthly calendar block ovre to the left, perhaps more people will start taking advantage.

Another thing I like about the portal style is that from every page you can see recently updated topics and who's currently online. (I used to always rush back to the Info Center on the index page for that information.)

My next short-term goal is moving the Info Center from the Board Index page to the new homepage. This way, when one visits the homepage, they are presented with a list of recently updated threads and topics, who's here now, a list of events and members' birthdays for today, and a few other links. (Sorta like a central portal to everything else). In addition, all the current news that's on the portal homepage now, all linking to different threads.

Once that is taken care of, I'm going to work with inscissor on improving the whole style and design of it all. (Right now I happen to think it's ugly looking, but I'm still moving everything around so hopefully once I get things where I like them, I'll work on beautifying it up a bit).

[Dani]

One more reason I just thought of ... the board index was wayyyy toooo long and I hated having to scroll down to get to the Info Center - from all I've read about web design (and I may be wrong) the Index page is supposed to be short and sweet, and "portal out" (if that makes sense) to all the other pages and sections of the site.

BTW, this *IS* my humble attempt at recruiting you guys over to my side. 'Cuz if I can't, I just might have to go back to the old way of doing things! (It would be horrible if two of the main supporters of this board hated the layout)

[Tekmaven]

Hmm ... are me and Tekmaven the only two who are in love with it? (Well, actually I can't speak for him, although he did say he really liked it - but I actually like the portal style.)

I'm in love with it! Now it seems more... umm.... better looking!

PS... Everyone go to the world map and check out where AlPhA lives!