Classic-Pirates.com - finalising the design

[Scouty]

Awsome Mister Phes! I have an online friend who asked if I joined this website, so this shows that it certainly is attracting other people! Especially since this person isn't a pirates fan!

[Mister Phes]

And who is your friend Mr Imperial Scouts?

[Scouty]

An AFOL :capn: . The person is a customizer with lot's of decals. Goes by Princess_Ariana in some places.

[Capn Frank]

that's awesome that it's working *y*

nice updates Mr. P.

It's turning into a more usable site ;-)

P

Edit:

anyone else notice the new bar of C-P on top under the banner?

[Norro]

I'll add a late congrats! And I look forward to some massive MOC link database goodness...

God Bless,

Nathan

[Mister Phes]

Ben Ellermann a Classic Castle Administrator was kind enough to leave us some feedback.

Even more thoughts on the current website:

The rock background is too busy and distracts from the rest of the site. A light blue sea background would look better. The menu system takes up too much space on the page. Making this smaller would be beneficial to the user experience. I am also not in favor of the advertising. There are companies which probably would host CP for free ( http://www.northcomp.com/ )

Classic-Pirates desperately needs independance from EuroBricks. Really there is no point to starting a site which is just an extension of EB. EB will still be fine if all of the Pirate discussion moves. In reality, EB is the younger, hipper European version of Lugnet, not a theme specific site. Trying to have it both ways will likely fail. All one would have to do is gather their own pirate admin team and start a site with great content and complete forum independance.

I would suggest forming an 6-8 person administration team. Each admin would be dedicated to one part of the site: forums, sets archive, mocs, events/contests, building techniques/tutorials, etc. CP will likely grow to be a huge and well established community site in the future. I am looking forward to that day.

Kind Regards,

Ben Ellermann

CC Admin

I'm wondering what you think on his thoughts on the rock background and menu system taking up too much space? These things can be finetuned if they detract too much from the content.

[Bonaparte]

Even more thoughts on the current website:

The rock background is too busy and distracts from the rest of the site. A light blue sea background would look better. The menu system takes up too much space on the page. Making this smaller would be beneficial to the user experience. I am also not in favor of the advertising. There are companies which probably would host CP for free ( http://www.northcomp.com/ )

I agree with the part regarding the background, menu and advertising.

I'm no fan of the rock background. It's to heavy/dominant. Something like he suggests would be better. The menu would indeed be better when smaller and I don't like advertisements. I have my own forum and website (you know: www.nijlengaatuit.be) and I'm just paying for all the cost myself to avoid advertisements. The costs are very minimal anyway.

Don't get me wrong. I like the current portal, but there is still room for improvement.

[Mister Phes]

One of the disadvantages of having a nice 1680 x 1050 resolution is the website looks to be a quite reasonable size and the issues mentioned aren't as noticeable. The rock background will definitely be looked into but not necessarily removed and I think the navigation should be smaller.

As for the costs... At the moment the bandwidth is negligible and if we can get free hosting even better, I just don't want to be out of pocket every 1 or 2 years renewing the domain.

Participating in Google's sponsoring programs also improves our ranking for less specific search requests

For example "classic pirates" and "pirate lego forum" yields classic-pirates.com within the first 5 results, however "pirate lego" doesn't even give us a mention.

And yes, there's always room for improvement with EVERY website...

[Starwars4J]

Well Mister Phes, it's a hard call on whether or not to agree with that statement! It gives CP a very unique feel, but it does sort of distract...I wonder if a sandy background wouldn't serve better? Something that doesn't contrast as harshly?

And I do wonder, what you quoted from Ben Ellermann was from a PM I assume? You'd have to wonder why you were contacted that way unless he didn't want the entire thing expressed on the forum?

[Mister Phes]

Ben Ellermann didn't contact me. Norrington contacted him in regards to the Vignette Contest he's hosting to ask permission if he could advertise it on Classic Castle. So what I quoted was an Email he sent to Norrington, which Norrington posted in another thread.

The feedback he provided isn't confidential because he's previously posted most of it in other threads at Eurobricks and Classic Castle.

[Starwars4J]

Ben Ellermann didn't contact me. Norrington contacted him in regards to the Vignette Contest he's hosting to ask permission if he could advertise it on Classic Castle. So what I quoted was an Email he sent to Norrington, which Norrington posted in another thread.

The feedback he provided isn't confidential because he's previously posted most of it in other threads at Eurobricks and Classic Castle.

Ah, and what about the sandy background? You're much better at website design than I am, how do you feel that would look?

[Mister Phes]

It wouldn't contrast enough against the parchment I assume, but it takes too much time to make a seamlessly tiling background texture so if I can't adjust the rocks I'll just remove them entirely.

I'll experiment on the weekend.

[Norro]

I like the rock, but I'm also viewing it with large resolution. I was pleased to see the site listed on TBB. The only change I would make would be to make the links section narrower and the news section wider (very minor). Great work all round!

God Bless,

Nathan

[Captain Roger]

sorry i am late...congrats phes...the website rules!

[Mister Phes]

I like the rock, but I'm also viewing it with large resolution.

As large as mine?

I was pleased to see the site listed on TBB.

Does that stand for The Brothers Brick?

The only change I would make would be to make the links section narrower and the news section wider (very minor). Great work all round!

That seems to be a popular suggestion so it w'll be the first taken into account.

[Norro]

As large as mine?

Yep.

Does that stand for The Brothers Brick?

Right again!

God Bless,

Nathan

[Mister Phes]

And now the website is down for some unknown reason...

[Bonaparte]

And now the website is down for some unknown reason...

Strange message:This Account Has Been Suspended - Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.

They didn't inform you in advance they were gonna suspend the account? That would be rather unprofessional!

[Mister Phes]

No, they didn't inform me or give me any warnings so I have no idea why its been suspended.

[Axle]

That is a real shame it's been suspended.I've just gotten into pirates in lego. :(

[Bonaparte]

No, they didn't inform me or give me any warnings so I have no idea why its been suspended.

That's really unacceptable! Don't you have a contract (probably via email).

Unless the come with a really good explanation, I would stop my business with those people and find a serious provider.

[ellerb]

Ben Ellermann didn't contact me. Norrington contacted him in regards to the Vignette Contest he's hosting to ask permission if he could advertise it on Classic Castle. So what I quoted was an Email he sent to Norrington, which Norrington posted in another thread.

The feedback he provided isn't confidential because he's previously posted most of it in other threads at Eurobricks and Classic Castle.

While I don't mind that my feedback here was posted on the forums, it would have been nice to be asked first. A response email would also have been appropriate. Admins on various fan forums often contact each other. Feedback from other site admins is valuable because they often have the same challenges that you do.

I would like Classic-Pirates to be as good as it can be. It is starting fairly well but much in the way of content still needs to be accomplished.

Ben Ellermann

Classic-Castle Admin

I want to add a comment about trust. Interactions between individual fans, fan sites, and LEGO are built on trust and mutual respect. If that trust is violated, it severely hurts personal relationships and the community as a whole. I request that any further correspondence be kept private. If you think an idea would start a good discussion on EB, please ask first before quoting me. Thank you.

[Mister Phes]

While I don't mind that my feedback here was posted on the forums, it would have been nice to be asked first.

Yes I agree. When I posted the information here I assumed consent was already given to Norrington (partly because much of the feedback had already been posted), however I should have double checked with you personally.

A response email would also have been appropriate. Admins on various fan forums often contact each other. Feedback from other site admins is valuable because they often have the same challenges that you do.

A response Email has been sent to you. As I have other committments I was waiting until the weekend to finalise my response.

I want to add a comment about trust. Interactions between individual fans, fan sites, and LEGO are built on trust and mutual respect. If that trust is violated, it severely hurts personal relationships and the community as a whole. I request that any further correspondence be kept private. If you think an idea would start a good discussion on EB, please ask first before quoting me. Thank you.

Your request shall be honoured and respected. Trust and healthy relationships are of the utmost importance.

[Bonaparte]

The menu is much better now when it is smaller.

The new background... I don't know what would be best. The wood is not really better than the rock. I'll give this some thought and do some surfing to find some ideas for a good background. Until we have something better, I would just keep the wood.

[Mister Phes]

The reason tried the wood background is beacuse its the same wood texture used for the forum skin, so I thought it would bring some cohesion to the forum and the website. But I don't think that's been achieved and asthetically the wood doesn't look as good as the rock but its just as distracting.

But it'll stay until next weekend...