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Website Discussion Thread
http://ukastle.co.uk/discussion/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=4		 Page 25 of 28
Author:  sotonsteve [ Sun Apr 19, 2015 7:22 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
Well, given that you're paying for Flickr and that your website is heavily picture based with notes by each picture, I would say the web pages of your website could be incorporated into Flickr more easily than some other websites. It would take time and effort to transfer information over and create new galleries, but it's technically possible.
Author:  Beta 5 [ Wed May 13, 2015 7:55 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
Claire wrote:
I don't want to sound dramatic, but the subscription of the domain name on the MCSL website is up for renewal, and at nearly £60 subs renewal I'm considering calling it a day. I haven't been able to update it since 2010, but your thoughts would be appreciated.



Please keep it if you can, I like the MCSL site, it is very helpful for identifying lanterns and it would be a shame if you had to get rid of it.
Author:  Alex [ Thu May 14, 2015 9:07 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
Claire wrote:
I don't want to sound dramatic, but the subscription of the domain name on the MCSL website is up for renewal, and at nearly £60 subs renewal I'm considering calling it a day. I haven't been able to update it since 2010, but your thoughts would be appreciated.


Claire, I agree with the comments so far - it would be such a great shame to lose your site. That said, I agree with Steve with regards to focusing more on your Flickr.
Author:  mazeteam [ Thu May 14, 2015 10:43 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
I can see both sides of this case... with a personal website it can often be much easier for somebody to find a certain page that it would be on Flickr and certainly than on the endless scrolling page that is Facebook, however with that comes the costs and ongoing maintenance to keep the site going - a general rule of thumb is that a website should have a redesign somewhere between every 5-7 years in order to keep it fresh, and with trends to use HTML5/AJAX type scripting to make page transitions look more flashy or simply to load more data without actually having to load an entire page (of which Ukastle itself does some of that) there is always the thought that eventually sites which don't keep up with this can feel tired and outdated. But with having a personal site, it means the design itself can be more personal: photos can go where you want them to go, colours and fonts are personalised (including a relatively new feature of 'embedding' fonts so that a font will display even if the computer of the person viewing the site doesn't have that font installed on their machine (again, Ukastle uses this method), and you can have as many pages as you like.

I dropped my own domain early this year after it came up for renewal and I had a full consideration as to whether I could merit the cost; this also including the fact the website hosts seemed a bit of a mickey mouse operation with the finance department not actually keeping up with the payments I'd made and with technical support seeming to take about a week to get back to me and not seeming to have the same level of knoweledge about certain issues (which had meant certain scripts wouldn't work on my site due to either a low threshold for server memory useage or due to a block on certain PHP script actions being used, of which they didn't know how to resolve). The other issue had been site maintenance: I had been trying out a complete rebrand of the site, which included introducing more dynamic page scripts and even a revolutionary tabbed page so that up to 5 pages from my site could all be looked at without having to load them in seperate browser windows/tabs, but the flipside meant rewriting the HTML code of EVERY page within the site to accept the new code, and it just became such a bore that the job never got completed.

A move to faceook or being exclusively on Flickr means you no longer have to manage code for your own pages, or making sure image links don't break, and somebody else is providing the storage space which in both cases is unlimited; the problem is you're then at their mercy if they decide to change the layout of the website or, in the case of Flickr, introduce more unnecessary fancy scripting which just makes pages take longer to load than before only for them to go blank just when you think the page is about to finish loading, and in the case of facebook the risk is of all the content simply being put in the 'timeline' which then makes it almost impossible to find older content.
Author:  Urbis Saturn Land [ Thu May 14, 2015 10:51 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
Just a thought but would it be worth it to archive the photo's of Claire's site on here? As that way nothing is lost and anything new could be uploaded onto here.
Author:  Alex [ Sat May 16, 2015 10:11 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
mazeteam wrote:
... a general rule of thumb is that a website should have a redesign somewhere between every 5-7 years in order to keep it fresh, and with trends to use HTML5/AJAX type scripting to make page transitions look more flashy or simply to load more data without actually having to load an entire page (of which Ukastle itself does some of that) there is always the thought that eventually sites which don't keep up with this can feel tired and outdated..


UKASTLE needs another style overhaul as soon as possible. The target is by the end of the year, but I'm calling for it sooner rather than later.
Author:  Urbis Saturn Land [ Sat May 16, 2015 5:41 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
Stumbled across this website earlier. Looks fairly new.
http://lamp-fan.com/
Author:  Beta 5 [ Sat May 16, 2015 6:32 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
Claire: is there not a way to just have adverts on the site, so it is free?
Author:  mazeteam [ Sun May 17, 2015 2:40 am ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
Alex wrote:
mazeteam wrote:
... a general rule of thumb is that a website should have a redesign somewhere between every 5-7 years in order to keep it fresh, and with trends to use HTML5/AJAX type scripting to make page transitions look more flashy or simply to load more data without actually having to load an entire page (of which Ukastle itself does some of that) there is always the thought that eventually sites which don't keep up with this can feel tired and outdated..


UKASTLE needs another style overhaul as soon as possible. The target is by the end of the year, but I'm calling for it sooner rather than later.

Has it been 5 years since this current style was implemented though? The so-called art of creating a brand is a very fine line... to not refresh the brand often enough leaves it feeling tired and then new 'customers' are less attracted to the brand; to refresh the brand too often makes it feel too transitional, and then 'customers' can then be distracted away from the organisation and more focused on how often the website or some other aspect of the brand seems to change almost as often as the seasons.

Anyways, I'm currently looking at mobile templates and seeing how the current pages could be adapted to fit into a suitable template.
Author:  Alex [ Sun May 17, 2015 5:11 pm ]
Post subject:  Re: Website Discussion Thread
mazeteam wrote:
Anyways, I'm currently looking at mobile templates and seeing how the current pages could be adapted to fit into a suitable template.


Thanks for looking into this.

The issue is less about the style/colours (although this will need to be looked at eventually) and more about the functionality. I think many members would agree that the website improvements should focus on the browser/mobile interface (which you mention above) and the layout of the homepage/info/links pages as well as the way in which images are pulled to the homepage and displayed etc. The background images can also be problematic for some users, depending on browser etc.

I also think members would benefit from a tweet feed  :mrgreen:
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