Forum Design

[Darren]

Whilst waiting for the girlfriend to wake up for the ceremonial opening of presents I thought the forum could do with a bit of life!

I don't know about you lot but I think the skin is rather boring and doesn't define us as The Courteeners fans forum.

I starting messing about in photoshop and came up with a more fitting design

Theres one massive drawback!

I'm no good at coding/programming
I've had a look around and the best way would be to 'do a skin request' on proboards designers forums. Many designers/coders/programmers are willing to help and make the skin for you.

So I'll post a nice request and hopefully get a wonderful person to further help me ;D

[Darren]

Spot the mistake... no time to wait ;D

I put the 'Snorting' & 'Cavorting' headings in the wrong way round

[cal]

i dont think it would be too hard. use marcromedia dreamweaver and i think its easy enough.

looks good though

[Darren]

Thanks, Cal .

I've never really had a look a dreamweaver, is it just a case of copying the forum code and pasting it in dreamweaver to change the design?

Have you used it before?

I'll download the trial and try it as soon as

[cal]

i did it for a level IT. i think its pretty simple although im shite on it.

i think you can just copy and paste code into it though and edit from there

[Darren]

Been busy converting The Courteeners videos to mp3's over the last few days and then I get sidetracked listening to 'em ;D

Anyway back on topic.
I've not had time to look into the skin design, so this hasn't been looked at.
I have so many things to do that isn't forum related but want to make this forum better

Maybe its time for some other mods

I'll plod along and see how I get on, if I don't get anywhere I will have to get someone's help.

[Darren]

I forgot I had already started a thread for the design, so I moved this from the new one (which had now been deleted

With the increasing numbers on the forum and fast approaching 300 I have been thinking more seriously about the forum design.

I did a few little changes within the admin tool to spice it up a bit but I just don't have the time to be able to do us justice as I have mentioned times before.

I've began by posting on proboards support forums to see if I can get someone to work with me to code the redesign. I can do all the design work myself, I'll have a look to see where else I could try and get a coding expert for a cheap fee.

I'm hoping to create a skin for each release the band has done (my early design of the Acrylic skin is shown in here) then every member can decide which skin they want to use when in the forum

Wait though, please don't get too excited as this will be a long process

[Andy]

Yeah we can wait


the design that you have done looks really nice though


should be ace when it all comes together eh

[kocainekim]

Its looking really good at the moment mate. It is very plain but thats what i like about it. How many times have you went on boards and they are all clogged up with shite.

I like the idea of all the sub forums, that keeps everything in its place and i notice you keep on top of it i.e moving things to correct sub forum.

Your doing a grand job, the forum will increase in size as the band does and it will then be harder to control everything. One of the best forums i am on decided that at a certain amount of members they would disable membership for a while and let everyone that was on board get to know each other. It worked really well and everyone has a good laugh on it.

This has the makings of a excelent forum but it will take time.

Kepp up the good work.

[Darren]

Apr 24, 2008 18:00:20 GMT kocainekim said:

Its looking really good at the moment mate. It is very plain but thats what i like about it. How many times have you went on boards and they are all clogged up with shite.

I like the idea of all the sub forums, that keeps everything in its place and i notice you keep on top of it i.e moving things to correct sub forum.
.

Thanks for the comments kk

Does anyone else have other opinions?

Do you like it simple? Or does it need character?

When I do find the right kind of package to host the forum content I think we could get a 'rite snazzy forum!
Without going over-the-top with pictures/banners/ads etc but with simple placement of backgrounds, the right borders and a database to hold the text.
Just those things with a few special additions can create a nice simple layout with added character and also keeping it all the same style.

Defining the S&C community.
Each Category could be defined it is own way too, so you know your 'Cavorting', 'Snorting', 'Deviating' or whatever, I think it could be a nice added touch.
This would work with the different skins (each skin would be in the style of the bands sleeves) to change the look of the forum to suit your mood, all of the forum content would be the same.

Typography!
All the text information could be a lot better displayed, for example the discography and gigography would be a lot more pleasing to read if in hidden tables or something and with proper images of the sleeves front and back.
I need to think more about the layout before working any further with the designs.

Do you like the current layout?

Is the forum easy to navigate?

As always, I would appreciate your comments...

...and I'll update more soon...

[Darren]

Our Domain
With the new design of the forum in development it only seems right that we will need our own personal URL away from proboards.

Today I proceeded to register the domain snortingandcavorting.com

It's only 'space' at the moment so there nothing to see but in the future it will be used when the new forum design is unveiled

All the forum content would then hosted on their servers (I think) and this would mean a lot smoother navigation through the forum.
We could then also introduce the live chat feature I have resisted for so long

Anyone want a job?
I have started to list the project requirements and will post the final 'job' on a freelance website I have found.

The site has many freelancers looking for work and can bid on your project. Then I can assess the bids and choose the freelancer I think would be ideal to do the work.


I reckon by doing it this way I will be able to use my time more effectively and update the content a lot easily, as well as giving you something more pleasing to look at.

More soon

[cal]

darren your a legend. this all sounds great.
so the forum will still be a proboards forum and all that, but hosted properly, ie. Snortingandcavorting.com?

all sounds grand, keep up the good work pal

[Darren]

Oh yes, the URL will be different but the proboards can be still used, it'll just be redirected or something

Everyone: This won't be for a while so please don't worry about anything yet

[Darren]

So with all my basic work on the catalogue done I'll try and freshen up the forum myself.

I've started adding a few more headers to define the categories a bit.

Errr...just the gig and marketplace are done but I think the gig one needs lightening up a touch.

I'm working on a theme for the headers, I'll try to keep them as just everyday normal stuff! A bit like what The Courteeners covers do really.

Let me know if you have any images that will fit in, or you could try doing some of your own Cheers.

[Darren]

With the (ahem) Catalogue headers working ok, I designed a few in various boards....

...(having a look at which one's I've done)...


...here's the headers I've changed from just having the normal forum header:

Cavorting / Gigs
Cavorting / Marketplace
Snorting / Audio

Only 3 but I'm working on more.


I have added a graphical page in:

Chronicles / Unofficial - Bootlegs / Badges

It's in the link in the S&C FLX002 "Glastonbury" thread and will display any one who registers their badge number from the limited postcard edition of S&C's Glasto flyer!

Let me know if you like the style or give me your ideas on how the board headers should be designed