Design and Layout Suggestions

[zourtney]

We're trying to organize the site in a way that makes sense. The old way was ok, but there were frankly too many categories with too little information. Instead of the old randomland.net/whatever approach, we'll be using vaguer subdomains.

Here are the proposed subdomains. Shoot 'em down or raise 'em up. The day of reckoning is near! It's time to unite! Stand as ONE fellow Randomlandians!
...err, um. Just give your input.

• 
  Main Site: will contain site news and links to subdomains via the sidebars and a sitemap. Also, useless little promo-type things we can't find a better place for.
  
  
• 
  Dev: the programming and computer development section. It will contain everyday tips and tricks for programming. It will probably also contain larger how-to style programming projects (ie: "Creating a Simple Flash-Based Side-Scroller")
  
  
• 
  Forum(s): here! Each subdomain would be obliged to have its own forum...or forum section. That's my thinking anyway. Can we set it up like: forum.randomland.net/photo?
  
  
• 
  Gallery: redirect to photo.randomland.net
  
  
• 
  How-To: it's a good name but breaks the categorization. Maybe make this a launching-pad for searching specific sub-domains. This needs some thinking through.
  
  
• 
  Motors: the home of everything that goes vroom! Car how-tos, the classic tale of the tempo, and land of the future SuperRiceBoyKart.
  
  
• 
  Media: I like music. Lots. I suck at playing it, but maybe I could put those stupid techno songs here and others could do similar things. Maybe music and movie reviews too. I am going to say that this eats the previously suggested "games" subdomain as well.
  
  
• 
  Opinion: remember all those old stupid things I wrote which were offensive and/or brainlessly stupid? Yep, that's what will go here.
  
  
• 
  Photo: we all like taking pictures. We will probably have a gallery and links to camera reviews and stuff.
  
  
• 
  Rec(reation): what's even better than taking pictures is taking pictures OUTDOORS! The woods and the goods. We'll post camping stories, suggestions, outdoorsy things, geocaches, and artsy things that don't belong anywhere better (like the good 'ol lightsabers page)
  
  

Ok, stab away. We need to hammer this out!

[Nick]

Might have a media subdomain to encompass music and movies?

[zourtney]

Yeah, I think "media" is better also. It's good and vague.

What else?

[zourtney]

Post in here what color schemes you think we should have. If possible, post samples of the colors. Also post and non-logo graphics you would like to suggest.

[zourtney]

Ok, I'm not sure how to pull this off, put having one of these images span the header and sidebar might look cool with the right amount of non-distracting photo-chopping done to it.





Ok, granted they weren't framed all that well, but the LCD pixel lines look pretty cool. See the full(er) size images in the gallery -- http://gallery.randomland.net/main.php?g2_itemId=150

[Cody]

I haven't a clue if anyone even looks at these forums...but I shall give my opinion anyways. For the Logo thingydoo I am rather partial to the Pabermnabe Scribble thing. A bit fancy perhaps but it has a nice look to it. That's what i say.

[zourtney]

I was pretty sure I already linked this on the forums, but whatever. I'm probably losing my mind.


(This is what happens when you "find and replace" all "a"s with "i"s in an code file)

This is just one of those screen shots above with a couple of greenish masks. I was thinking it'd make a good sidebar type thing. You'd need some trickery to blend it into a solid color on the bottom, which could then be repeated to the end of the document. Or you could try and make it into a header.

Or neither. It is probably still a bit intrusive to put text on top of.

[zourtney]

Ok, Brad. I'm re-creating some of the old articles and I remember that I was starting to make certain CSS "blocks" for certain types of text. I've added them back in on motors.randomland.net, but nowhere else yet.

The ones that I remember I need are (and the names can change, that's fine)

• A note block and note block's text. This is used for "hey, look at me"
• A warning block and the block's text. This is used for "Warning: deer aren't as squishy as they appear
• A navigation block. Just something simple but unique-enough looking for hard-coded page links (like Francine Part 1 linking to Part 2). We could use some pagination thing for this, but I'd like to keep them separated, I think.
• An image block
• An image caption block (in practice, should probably embed in the image block)

I think there is one or two more, but I can't remember right now.

[zourtney]

And another.... this could make a good banner if you zoom in on the blue part.

[Nick]

I like the motors sub. header. Its a nice.    :-)

[Nick]

That looks pretty good I think.. Now we need some way to have more than two articles in each subsection.....Hmmmm content..

[zourtney]

yeah, I'm trying to get the old stuff back up, but it takes some time, especially with rebuilding the picture gallery. It's fun look through the old pictures, but it's time consuming. If anyone wants to help.... feel free!

[Nick]

I changed the header on the forums again (see it?) and made the 'logo' image a png so we can have transparency (so the image is not tied to a specific background. That setting is in the style.css of the theme if anyone cares) The header is now blurry-leaf green. I thought it had a nice gradient, but still it is meant to be temporary.

What header image do you think would represent the forums? Green w/ trees? Just simplicity (like it is now. what color?)

What logo embodies the spirit of the forums? Ideas?

[zourtney]

I could certainly go with a nice panoramic tree shot for the header graphic. It'd be cool.

I made a very ugly, and very mis-placed link back to the main site. I didn't really take the time to understand how their whole theme worked, so yeah, it looks like it does. Something more professional for that would be good. Maybe tie that in with the graphic or something, too?

[Nick]

Yeah, something. I noticed that when the page is too wide the header gets all blue on the side. I don't think I mind the look of the nice little link back guy up  top. Simple and unobtrusive.