Busy — Mon, 12 Nov 2001 00:12:19 +0000

and I thought my posts were long
You mentioned you've only being doing this for 6 months, if your talking web design in general them you can give yourself a pat on the back.

Quote: Will the SEO suffer if I changed the page titles to H3 or H4 instead of H1? I cannot find the Javascript error. Can you tell me what page it's on? I don't know what's causing the underline on those navlinks, but I'll find it.

h1 is biggest, then h2, h3, h4 etc, so yes it will affect it, will make it smaller. CSS is good to use, but also a lot of headaches come with it, because it doesnt work backwards it can infact mess up html coding, if your concerned about this, just use html, if not you could leave it as is as I think I was the only one who saw it on my browser version. Sorry I didnt catch the error, the status bar showed it up, if it was in netscape i could just type javascript: and it would tell me, but didnt happen there. (so I guess this was useless imformation lol)

if your using class's in your links check you havent got a typo on the two links underlined, if your not then check you have all the quotes etc where they belong.

You also mention your site is apersonal site, I think its a professional site, maybe done as a hobby, non profit etc but still profesional, look at sites like rotten.com and amihotornot.com they arent serious but still not "personal" sites, I think a personal site would be about my cat fluffy ...

aqzsvwx12345 — Sun, 11 Nov 2001 13:15:03 +0000

oh yes one other thing, your blue links sometimes are hard to read.

z28cam — Sun, 11 Nov 2001 01:58:45 +0000

I think u just won the award for longest post :)

the13thMajestic — Sat, 10 Nov 2001 23:34:02 +0000

Well, I just lost like a 5000 word post 'cause my !@#$% modem disconnected and I am angry. And I just noticed that this thread has gone to two pages and missed some of your comments, so I have edited this post.

So, suffice it to say that AweQuest.Net is actually a collection of, at this time, 15 different sites under an umbrella name. The different colors on each page are to help in navigation. If you are on the green page, it's Earth and Environmental, violet is Space, dark red is Geo and so on. There will be hundreds of pages indexed on this site. All the green ones will be Earth and all the olive pages will have something to do with Paleontology and so on. If I am about to put a page about Hitler to the net, I know that I need to edit a light-grey page for the History section, rather than a tan one (archaeology). I see it as a functionality issue, both for me as editor and for ease of use for the visitor.

Quote: at the very top, you have "This site is self-rated: Rated ...." this doesnt show up in netscape, font is black, the icon does thou.

This was an afterthought. I want parents to feel secure letting kids hang-out. I am looking for another way to do it prominently. I think I will just optimize it for NS and leave it there for awhile.

Quote: the "Science, Adventure and History " part in netscape looks like its a heading 1 tag (h1) covering 2 lines, on IE it looks more like h3 or h4.
I get a javascript error in IE but not in Netscape. The links on the left, the words news and forums have the underline (on both browsers) but the others don't.

It is a tag. I use Dreamweaver and haven't gotten used to what it does to the code. In IE, it's masked by CSS, that's why it looks like H3 or H4. Will the SEO suffer if I changed the page titles to H3 or H4 instead of H1? I cannot find the Javascript error. Can you tell me what page it's on? I don't know what's causing the underline on those navlinks, but I'll find it.

Quote: I personaly think you have to much info on the first page, I dont know where to start, its at a point where its to confusing to go on, even thou its a very interesting subject/s.
I'm sure the messge you want to put across is a serious one, but things like "We need channel operators, bad!", "and has nuthin' better to do! What the h...aaayyyyy! Leggo-a my earlobe you stupid dog!" seeing things like that makes me think its more of a fun site.

You see too much info, I see reason's to explore further. What's the balance? As far as putting across a message of seriousness, no, that is not my intention. If you knew me personally, you would know that I am serious about nuthin' . But really, there are plenty of serious sites covering the same stuff. I want the site to be fun for everyone, useful, educational, inspirational, snappy and comedic, while at the same time providing an underlying archive of useful information.

And in keeping with your comments about earlobe snatching Chihuahuas, I will just say this. I have only been doing this for 6 months. Everything, it seems, that I have read, seen posted, or been told verbally is that to have a successful repeat visitor base, a site must have three things: Usability, "original" content, and it should have personality. Is it safe for me to say that I have achieved this at AweQuest.Net, with less points for "original" content, since there is not much content yet, but there will be. Boy! There WILL be!?

And, as for the dog...it worked for that taco joint! No, but really, here is thing about that. In the course of building this "learn as you go" website, the topic of originality kept resurfacing for me. One of the aspects of that became, for me personally, the need for some kind of "mascot". I am a newbie and I know that, in this respect, I may be naive. But one thing I do know is that I can't think of a single marketing strategy that failed which used a mascot. Who doesn't know Joe Camel. Heck! he was so popular that people put their health at risk just to have him in their pocket. What about that Taco Bell chihuahua? How crazy was that? And the Coca-Cola polar bears? and Morris the Cat (for some of you older folks)? and Tony the Tiger...and though he's not a mascot, Taz...need I go on? So why not have some kind of identifying mascot? I wanted a cartoon Polar Bear and Penguin (why? Well...because they're cool!) duo until someone told me it had already been done at freeze.com. (going there will give you an idea of what I would rather have in the way of mascots) Since I don't have a cartoon mascot like I would prefer...and until I do...All I have at my disposal for creating a "mascot" is my webcam and the coolest and most hilarious dog I have ever owned, TweetieBugs. So, move over Taco Bell! There's a new Chihuahua in town! And if she's popular, she'll stay and if not, she'll be replaced with a cartoon character.

But I have read and heard time and time again that a personal website should be just that, PERSONAL. And that requires a reflection of personality, in this case mine...or the one I create for AweQuest. I know I can't compete with those big sites. So I don't try. Instead, I link to those sites and negotiate incentives such as being allowed reproduction rights for articles or images, or getting them to place a reciprocal link or whatever or, in some cases, I link to an external site with the hopes that later on, I can go to them and say "Hey! Look at all the eyeballs I am sending you. How about that link?" You see what I am saying? So, in it's basic form, it's just another portal. But I hope to build it into a 'destination' instead of a gate.

Busy, you are great at finding the little details and I appreciate it! Google...I completely get what you are saying and as I stated earlier in this thread, I will keep it as an option for people who are looking for specific information as a service because, at this stage, I have nothing for them. However, I am not totally dismissing your advice as I will install a local search option very soon. Anyways, the way I figure, if they aren't finding what they are looking for on my site, they are going to leave anyway. So why not provide the gateway with the hopes they will remember the convenience of not having to leave before conducting the search, leaving the possibility they will return via the back button.

Gavin, your Ripley's analogy is a good one...I can only dream of AweQuest becoming as popular. Other analogies can be made, but the bottom line is that I just want AweQuest.Net to be fun, informative, provocative and entertaining and most important of all, I want it to invoke "awe"...to be "awe-inspiring", hence the name AweQuest.Net -- the MIND and BEYOND.... I believe that's what will keep people coming back.

Once again, thanks to all of you! and keep your suggestions and comments coming.

Busy — Sat, 10 Nov 2001 22:47:25 +0000

Totally new look, looks good at first glance
a few Netscape vs IE things thou

at the very top, you have "This site is self-rated: Rated ...." this doesnt show up in netscape, font is black, the icon does thou.
the "Science, Adventure and History " part in netscape looks like its a heading 1 tag (h1) covering 2 lines, on IE it looks more like h3 or h4.
I get a javascript error in IE but not in Netscape.
The links on the left, the words news and forums have the underline (on both browsers) but the others don't.
have you thought about putting the colored squares befor the links?
I personaly think you have to much info on the first page, I dont know where to start, its at a point where its to confusing to go on, even thou its a very interesting subject/s.
I'm sure the messge you want to put across is a serious one, but things like "We need channel operators, bad!", "and has nuthin' better to do! What the h...aaayyyyy! Leggo-a my earlobe you stupid dog!" seeing things like that makes me think its more of a fun site.

instead of having the search google link on your site, i think you should have a search your own site. example, I'm looking for info on crazyhorse, I learnt a little about him while in USA, I know if I search google I'd find something but am at your site but dont know where to look. I just noticed most of the links go off your site anyway.

looking good, keep up the good work.

gavin681 — Sat, 10 Nov 2001 21:12:34 +0000

I like the design.

The colors seem to be a little too bright - not good for the eyes.

Looks like a great portal to visit if you are into awe-inspiring things. I guess your site is kind of like an online version of "Ripley’s believe it or not".

Gavin

SWD — Sat, 10 Nov 2001 20:03:01 +0000

well, use like 2 main colors! make it simple! It has 2 many different colors! It looks like a kid page!

z28cam — Sat, 10 Nov 2001 17:30:41 +0000

Thats alot better.

The colors clash in way, but i know that u want to seperate the different areas. so if thats what u want keep it.

Ok, guys! Have another look

the13thMajestic — Sat, 10 Nov 2001 08:01:23 +0000

I have redesigned AweQuest.Net taking into account the suggestions all of you made.

Mind giving it another look, please Thank you guys for the help. Keep it coming!

The Webmistress — Mon, 05 Nov 2001 08:39:52 +0000

Look forward to your new look. Remember to post again here to continue this thread so that people get a chance to reread these posting to refresh their memories when the time comes.

Good luck with it