I took the liberty of starting a new Thread to discuss this... a possible new site for the club.

A little background... Over the last few days I've been playing around with some web site ideas and this is what I came up with, so far... please know that this can either be just the beginning of this site or its immediate end... it's entirely up to you the club members... Understand that there isn't really any content on here just yet... this is a proof-of-concept so I'm looking for a lot of feedback on its look & feel, to see if the navigation is sound and to see if my Flash stuff works.... Things went very well this afternoon... and this baby went up quick thanks to GoDaddy.com... a site just like this would cost the club $56 a year.

Some Future Thoughts... I can see in my minds eye an "About Us" page with a history of the club, pictures of our founders and their current shop, perhaps a members list... The "Gallery" could have several event thumbnail pictures with their descriptions and when clicked a window pops open to display a slideshow something like the one currently playing on that page... A "Home Page" with more Club related pictures and content... A Calendar on the "Events Page" where members can add events... perhaps a private message board and/or blog... the sky is the limit really!

Finally... Don't be afraid that your criticism will hurt my feelings... my ideas of a club site might not be yours... yours may be a lot better.... I've had fun doing this, that alone was enough reward for the effort already executed here... so if you hate it... no problem... it was fun while it lasted... I'll use these ideas somewhere else down the line....

Check it out and let me know what you think: http://www.terry-shaw.com/MINIWebSite/Index.html

Thanks,
Terry

 

Wow Terry, I have to say that is very nice. I really like that when you click on message board it opens to this forum here. Just great!!! Nice galley too.

Feel free to use any of the pictures from any of the galleries I've posted here. My Nikon & I are there for you.

For the calender I'm thinking that at least through May the MINI Mornin breakfast should get listed. I'll let you know when the firm date for my drive event is finalized.

 

Looks great. I like the layout, simple yet elegant. Keep it up....

Note: the mini logo in the lower right has a transparency issue.

 

I was wondering if there is an issue using the MINI logo at all. I know NAM is called NAM because of MINI's lawyers.

 

Well my pictures aren't that great... particularly the first one that comes up... but I wanted to give everyone an idea of what I was trying to do.... if I had like 10 great shots each of four recent events... I cold really do something nice... you know anyone that might have 40 shots like that that could maybe email me something like that ?

I'll add the Saturday Events to the calendar... BTW there's some pretty nice freeware out there that has some nice web based event calendars... but I don't want to go down that path till this site has a real home... if that happens... I was also thinking that maybe another streaming banner might be nice there too... I can do all kinds of things with them... put backgrounds on them different colored text... make the letters do anything anyone can think of... add sound to them.

 

I really like the look you have now. I'm not a fan of flashing neon lights, bells or whistles.

I'll PM you about pictures.

 

Are you talking about the Big MINI Logo on the About Us page? That's the logo from the MAG showroom... if you look at it close you can see the reflections of their windows in it.... if you're talking about the little one on the bottom right of every page... its the same image as the one at the the top right?? That's interesting??

 

That looks very nice Terry Cooper's thread about putting NAM names to real names to cars made me think that maybe a members section would be kind of nice as well. I also like the link back to NAM for the message board. This would not only introduce people to us but to NAM as well.

 

I realized that was a photo. No I mean the MINI logos on the front page of the site. I like them, but was wondering out loud if that is a potential problem.

 

I just added fireworks while you were writing this.... sorry

 

Terry,

Great start! I like the way it looks. However, there will be issues with it using many of the graphic style of MINI (the orange boxes, etc) they will probably get us for copyright. They have shown themselves to send lawyers before asking for cease and desist!

Love it!

Paul

 

There's a ton of Club sites out there that have lots of MINI logos on them... I would think they would be all for it.... I'll add hot-spots to them all that will take everyone to MINIusa.com... that way they'll be free ads for MINI... think that will work?

 

Oh heck yes they will. Besides you just bought a new MINI. Now that has to be worth something.

 

I tried to emulate their look and feel but it's really a lot different... their sites are all flash and change styles from area to area... this is just a few pretty standard html pages... content at the top... navigation at the bottom... I guess we'll see what happens... I added hot-spots to the logos on the front-page... even the horn... you would think that would make them happy... I'd hate to think they were that hard to get along with... I mean where do you draw the line... would they make us remove the logos from every car picture... for instance... I guess I could write them and ask them... maybe that would be the most appropriate approach?

 

If you ask they can tell you no. I feel what you've done & why you've done it makes perfect sense. However I'm not a Lawyer & don't play one on TV. Just an old fart in real life.

You have mail.

 

Better to ask for forgiveness then to ask for permission as they say in business!! Did you happen to stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night?

 

Mini logo in the lower right and the upper right (same graphic anyway). It appears to have the same black level of the lower right art of mini cockpit graphic. A dark red-brown color not black (the outside border is definitely black). You can see the vague square outline below, which is much more pronounced when not a screen shot. Displays the same in IE or Firefox. I should note I am l viewing it on an LCD, so my viewing angle may be exacerbating the flaw.

 

First lesson in copyright infringement --- play dumb.

Looks great, but I'm also partial to the R50 interior...

(I have the cruise control option on steering wheel and of course 5-speed, which is not pictured)

 

OH NO a CVT!!! Sorry automagic fans.

 

You're good, you know that... it is a little tan down there isn't it... I'll pull that back into fireworks and blacken that up a bit... right now that's all one big image, I was going to cut it off so we can swap out front page images, going forward, anyway... so that will inspire be to get on that sooner rather than later... Thank you!

 

It was the only sample I could find

I keep forgetting I have one of the oldest new minis in the group.

BTW - 71,000 miles will be hit tomorrow.

 

I can do that... that's real easy for me!!

 

I hit 80!!! 80,000 miles that is...not 80 years old

 

Maybe if we keep the km/h on the speedo, they will think we're either from Canada or overseas and never find us. Just an observation...I first thought the R56 was registered for 240 MPH...I almost ran out and bought one

 

We need custom gauge faces using popular terms for speed (fast, faster, warp speed etc.) I never look at the huge gauge anyway.

Ohh web site looks great, it would be cool if you could turn the wheel to get to the different pages, but I am sure that would be a pain in the but to do.