I've done things like that before.... the menu system is currently pretty minimal... just text with hot-spots over top of them... I just wanted to give everyone an idea of the general concepts I was going for... given the issues with that bottom bar I'm thinking about sticking a more sophisticated menuing system at the bottom of every page... maybe something that has [or can have] sub-menus... So, you would mouse over the "About Us" item and a sub-menu could appear with "History" and "Members" items... for instance.

I'll have to cut up the front page image at that point... its all one piece now... again this was for demo purposes... so I was thinking about maybe making the dash lights blink or something tasteful just to add a little buzz.

I must say I really appreciate every one's ideas, comments and help... I wasn't sure how this would be received... this type of dialog is what makes a great club site... not a Terry site... it's not about me... it's about the club... just think of me as a means to an end... tell me what to do and I'll try very hard to get us there...

Who can fill up the "About US" page?? We need a history lesson!

Thanks,
Terry

 

NAM is a for-profit site, so it doesn't surprise me that they got Foxed and asked to not use copywritten logos. MoM is a non-profit, enthusiast club, so I HOPE that they'll leave us alone. that's no guarantee (especially so long as we have an active link back HERE to these forums), but we can hope. Worst case they'll ask us to Cease and Desist, and we need to go top Plan B (whatever that is).

As for the site itself - I LOVE it. I do wish that there were an option to display either the old OR new cabins on the home page, but that's trivial - the important thing is that we have the About Us, Gallery and Calendar pages - I really don't think we need much more than that, and as it it, it's WORLDS better than the vety minimal page we have now. No offence, Aaron - that page does its job, but I think we'll all agree that this is better.

All I'd add is a map to Outmotoring (there's one on the MidOhioMotoring.com site) because we'll keep meeting there for the foreseeable future.

QUESTION FOR AARON: Since you currently own and have registered www.midohiomotoring.com, and the DNS servers are all pointed at your server, can we possible transfer Terry's web page code to your web server, just until we figure out a better solution? How do you want that to shake out in the long run? Can we admin the MoM page without accessing any Outmotoring code? I know you don't want any accidents to occur on your ecommerce site...

QUESTION FOR TERRY - would this be OK with you, or did you have a different/better idea of how we can get this live to the web and properly searchable?

I'm also not sure how places like NAM here link back to the official club sites - anyone know?

Going forward... I'm not sure where to go, actually. While I really appreciate Terry's initiative in making this for us (thank you!!), we currently have no structure or process to decide what to add to the calendar, nor do we have a person that's responsible for writing the "official" club documentation ("About Us", etc.). I'd be glad to take a stab at writing that if people like - I just need a history lesson from Aaron about what the club was like before I joined.

We'll certainly need SOMEONE to lead the effort in taking things form the open thread I put up for club event suggestions and finalizing them to the point that we can add them to the calendar - any ideas?

Thanks again, Terry for all the hard work!!

 

So, is this going to be a club for "new" MINIs only, or, will it also include the Classic ones, too? Many "new" MINI owners here still own Classics, and that's why I am asking. Why can't a composite [like a collage] of all 3 dashboards be used instead of just the current one [then we could truly be "all for one and one for all"]? Why not use the "old" Mini logo alongside the new one, too? Would THAT upset the applecart even more, or could the corporate attorneys possibly be appeased? Just asking....

 

I think that's a great idea about the classic and new Minis... Note that there is a Classic Mini club that meets near campus on the third Tuesday of each month - I'm actually going ut there tonight. We can tell them all about this as well, if we decide to make this an "All Minis, all years" club. They only have about 6-8 people show up for meetings, and I'd love itof the two groups could come together. I know there's a bit of rivalry between some of the "old guard" against the "German faux Mini" though...

 

It should NEVER become an "us vs. them" thing. We are all Mini/MINI. Classic owners embrace the Inocennti [sp] Mini, so why not embrace the BMW MINI, too? They are being discriminating and childish. I CAN say that, because I AM a former Classic owner, as well as a current "new" MINI owner.
If clubs like that continue to bash one another, it will bring us ALL down in the end. So, why not unite, and make for the BEST club?

 

Oh, I completely agree with you. I'm just stating what I've observed as both a classic and new Mini owner as well.

Obviously, those that disagree with the premise of the club will simply chose to not participate, and that's fine by me - I'd like to extend the invitation, though, in the hopes that at least SOME of them will chose to participate. Seeing as how Eric and one or two other people from the classic club were at our MAG event on Saturday, I wonder if that was just a coincidence, or if they read threads in here - I forgot to ask (shrug).

 

That interior is just a picture I selected because it was big, clean and a MINI... we can put anything you folks want in that space... or I can make it rotate through a number of pictures... no problem!

 

very nice start. A few suggestions

PLEASE! get rid of the type writer sound effects on the events page. Also normally the rule of thumb with flash words like that, they should never take longer to appear than it takes to read it.

the links at the bottom would be nicer if they had a rollover effect on them. I know it's one big image so doing that could be a pain, not a big deal, just thought it might be nice.

Please make the link to the message board a new window link. That way people stay on the site.

make the Mid-Ohio... at the top, also a link to the homepage

Rename the page Mid-Ohio Motoring Club from Home page.

Can we ton down the white double outline on the tables to more of a grey? (that's just a personal though because I think it might look nice)

The Kerning is a little tight on the "copyright" text and it is different in the flash banner than it is on the rest of the site. The Events page text in the flash part, the word "join" needs to be moved over a bit so it's not up against the beginning of the graphic.

That's all for now, take um or leave um

Dan

 

I think it needs more cow bell The problem with the interior is that it is sooo customizable that we could change one thing per day and still have a year worth of different dashs to work with. So that said can we not ever show the alloy patina dash, nobody likes it anyway No disrespect to any alloy patina owners out there I am kidding (not really).

 

I'm not sure if Aaron would be comfortable having me or anyone else poking around in his business site... if that's where the current page resides... but if not, all I need is the FTP info and I could put this site anywhere, if everyone agrees that's what we should do. Obviously a lot of members have lots of ideas so I think in its formative months I would like to have access to the site so I can maintain and change it.... Thank you for your kind words and all you good thoughts!

 

Thanks Dan.... You sir are a pro! We need you on our QA Team here at work! I can do all these things and I will... I'm working on a better menu bar that will take care of several of these issues... I'll admit it, I was kind of showing off with the typing banner thing... it's annoying isn't it ... but it demonstrates the possibilities and that's really what I was trying to do... I think most of those links to the Msg Board do open up a new window... but they're all different, so some might be wrong... I want a menu system down there that I can plug into all the pages, that will add some consistency to the site... and I'll only have to change features in one place going forward... Again, Thank you!

 

As far as different versions of the dash graphic, I am sure we could come up with either a user selectable option or a random/slide show version. We just need to come up with clean versions of the pictures we want to use. Volunteers?

IMHO whether it is a Classic, Gen1 or Gen2 Mini should not matter for our club. So the website should reflect that whenever possible.

 

FYI - you have this in the gallery:

"Pictures by Chuch A."

 

If you get into Aaron's site please mark down all carbon peices to .01

Mark and I will thank you

 

::: stands poised with credit card in-hand :::

 

Yes, I saw that this morning, all my development tools are home, so I couldn't fix it... it was late when I did that, I was a little tired and in a hurry to get it up and I messed up the good man's name... Sorry Chuck!! He was good enough to send me those shots last night and I wanted to see what a couple slid shows would look like running at the same time... I'll fix that tonight... Also, I'm not sure how everyone wants to be identified I guess since I see this as someone's real art work... I want to give them full credit but perhaps some folks want to remain incognito?? Additionally, these slides are 400 pixs wide... I think that's a nice size but I'm not sure what others think... my pictures didn't really adjust out too well and I have some black around my shots... but here again I didn't take the time to re-size or crop them... I will when we are live.

 

Well that would be one way to keep them in town... making sure they don't have enough gas money to go south!

 

If there's a standard size and resolution you need for proper translation just let people know - I don't think it's too much to ask to have people do their own re-sizing prior to submitting to the gallery. I resize everything before I put it on Photobucket anyway...

Sounds like we may need a submissions form for the gallery - can such a thing be added? that way, we don't have to rely on you to post everything for us. Moderators will have to scan the site for misuse, but I don't suspect we'll have any trouble, provided we limit posting ability to registered members. So that's something ELSE that will be different than the current site, provided you want to provide that level of posting ability.

 

Chuck was nice enough to make them 500 wide before sending them, per my request... then I started thinking about it and since the table that holds the page is 900 wide I re-thought that request and made the shows 400 wide each... I kind of like this look and can see them in my minds eye, stacked on the page, most current first... perhaps it would be best if they're not running when they first appear.. that way people could click on the control of the show they want to view... it would be maybe too wild to have a page with a dozen slid shows going all at the same time... maybe it would be best to keep it down to four or six a page and have a little numbering system at the bottom to archive everyone's pictures... thinking out loud here!

 

Yeah, having them all running at the same time could be "busy". Maybe have a preview image, that would open a pop-up window with the slide-show inside?

 

CSS is your best friend for that.

 

Agreed - wish I had the first clue how to make a CSS - I've seen some amazing pages that were all controlled by them (sigh)...

 

Yep! I just wanted to work a few things out first, get some buy-in, suggestions etc... then I'll set up a Dreamweaver Template with everything we need and we'll be good to go... You and I need to talk, are you a developer?

 

If either of you want practice designing a gallery, I'm in need of a web site (hint hint).

 

I was going to do that... then the thought occurred to me that if I put a nice image at the top of each show and had them stopped on execution, I would get the same results without having to develop another page to include in the pop-up etc.... also with all the pop-up blockers out there I'm thinking that that method would probably work out better in the long run. I'll try it tonight!

I hope you all know... I'm having a ton of fun here... it's great getting all this feedback!!!