Design and Layout Suggestions

[Nick]

I think it would require installing another module. I don't like static text on front pages... that should be on a mission statement or about page. Its so geocities to have a static block of text at the top of the page. What I DO like, is custom "your not logged in text" telling the user "Welcome, please register or login. This. Is. RANDOMLAND." or something. Just don't push them down a well if they refuse to register. (go watch 300 if you don't get it.)  But that would be a place to put a short little about the site.

Perhaps something along the lines:
"Randomland: Crazy group of apathetic computer fools with a love for green things and automobiles, sharing their lack of insight with the web at large"

[zourtney]

Nice.

Yeah, I suppose you're right about that being "so Geocities." We do have our About page, which serves its purpose and is well placed (standard, at least). Though it is a bit boring and could benefit from a few more pictures of explosions.

I'd prefer having the login thing up in the banner section, like the forum has. It's not terrible where it is, but I prefer the other. We could have a little "Why register?" link, or something in there.

[Nick]

Yeah. I agree about the placement of the login thing. I just haven't gotten around to moving it yet.

[zourtney]

Yeah, it takes a lot of time. If we move the login and make the sidebar actually useful, we'd be in good shape. The only problem is that I don't really know what should be on the sidebar...Maybe a select set of very high-level links. An "archive" link sounds like a good idea; maybe it could throw you on to a page which lists stuff out by month/year it was written? I don't know...

Also, I really dislike the layout of the admin links on the sidebar. I once downloaded a "admin toolbar" module but never actually tried it out. I'll click on "Administer" and then use the on-page links from there. Maybe it's just me that finds those links next to useless. But even then, the admin pages are nothing close to intuitive. I was looking at (suprise!) a module which replaced the admin page with something more user friendly. However, I never got around to trying that one out either.

Ok plah.

[Nick]

I think the admin stuff is allot better in the next version of drupal. That's not yet out. And is incomparable with the druapl/smf bridge.
I would like to see the betterified admin stuff. A menu bar at the very top of the page would be nice, with drop downs and little text-popups that tell you what things do.
Feel free to install the module if you like... FTP might not be up yet.... I need to get you a VPN to connect to so you can samba your way into the www directory. Its so much nicer that way.

[zourtney]

That indeed sounds quite shizzle-ous. Let me know if you get that set up and I'll give it a shot.

About the sidebars: I don't like the current setup because it misleadingly shows too little content. There are missing sections, yes (like 'Opinion'). But it also makes it look like there are only 4 articles under 'Motors.' It links to the biggies, but there is no effective way to access a section's front page from the sidebar -- for instance clicking on the block heading.

Collapsable might be nice, too. I don't know. Maybe I'll browse around and peek at others' sidebars. They seem to be disappearing, actually.

[Nick]

We can ditch the sidebar and just use the top menu for nav. Give each section its own landing page (a view) that lists articles in a compact manner (so you can fit lots of them on the page, think 'The Register.') Then all the content would be more obviously available (no distracting sidebar so people will go straight for the top nav,) the front page will be cleaner and the world will finally know peace. Or so one can hope.

Let us know if you see any interesting site designs we might want to emulate.

[Nick]

Ok. You should be able to VPN into the server. Message me for details.

[zourtney]

I'd certainly go for El Reg style frontpages. The only thing that I dislike about their layout is the lack of teaser text. Perhaps if we did a 2 column layout (instead of 3) with a little longer teaser text? Of course, The Register uses headline-writing wit in place of descriptive teaser text. It works well for them, but I don't think we should try that.

[Nick]

What! You doubt out mad witting abilities! Man they used to call me J.C. Witty, due to my razor sharp whit and retort. Never did know what the J.C. stood for.

Ok, ok. No one ever called me that. I will experiment with the layout of thing eventually though. I would like to get more things on the front page/ landing pages for the sections.

[zourtney]

[zourtney]

I started playing with the layout a little bit, then jumped into editing a view (on test). Needless to say, I got very confused. But it looks like you can create a custom template file for a view, if you so desire. One that overwrites the page-template.tpl (or whatever it's called).

If that's the case, that could be a good way to go for section landing pages. It's also possible that I don't know what I'm talking about, because really, I only looked at it for about 5 minutes then decided I had best get some (paid) work done.

[Nick]

It's true you can do that. I think I made one for something in the gallery, but I don't remember what exactly.  Also, if I remember correctly there are a few little tricks you must pull to get that stuff to all work right. One of which is flushing the drupal cache so it finds your new template file.

[Nick]

Should we have a wiki?

[zourtney]

Wiki Devil poster! 666 posts = EVIL!