I wouldn't say this is premature, but it's still going to be some time, but i'm genuinely pretty excited over it. The last few years I've been working in the news paper industry and I've really learned a lot when it comes to media, and of course, specifically online content.
I've finished designing a new site template. This will take some great advantages to SEO and usability. It'll also allow the site to expand into future functionality. The template is still in photoshop, so more tweaks will come out still, but they're minor at this point.
Where I'm at currently... First I should explain how this site was started. This was honestly my first large scale web project... With that said, I have redesigned the database, which is really the ground work for the site. I'm honestly impressed with the functionality I was able to put into this site back in the day, but the new changes I have in mind should really blow it all away. This should also to a very large degree enable future updates as well beyond what I currently foresee.
Usability and SEO are two very very large focuses here as well. The site will conform to more standardized layouts. It'll be able to fit more content, and it should be easier to get to what you want. I'm also making the site more ad-friendly, but in a structured method. The reason I'm doing this is so that I can potentially have this site generate a profit. This will all be recycled into the site for hosting and any other expenses. lol the one banner ad I have above generated an entire $0.04 last month.
I'm also planning some cool features like easy to use image hosting, facebook integration, and a few other things.
I'm also of course going to port all the info over to new site, I don't plan to lose anything.
So with all of that said, I wanted to check, are there any large features that anyones wanted to see on here? I've started building everything, and i'm in the very early stages of that, so this is the time to put in requests!!!
Aside from that, I'll keep you guys posted! I love having transparency, lol wikileaks won't ever be a threat to us here! If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
Sounds like you are pretty much ready to go. I could send you a brush for free. You still on Hannan Rd? It would be nothing fancy. A Paasche VL with a #3 tip. This is a double action gun. Double action as you press down to start the air and pull back to let the paint flow. I have many many extras of these. I used them in my T-Shirt business. This is a great starter airbrush and is what I learned on. I love them for outdoor mural work. The #3 tip will give you great control. You can paint small surfaces, or paint an entire door off of a car.
I have primarily switched over to the Iwata HP-C micron series for all of my small intricate work, but at almost $300 a pop, I would not recommend this as a starter.
Let me know, I can get it sent out to ya!
yeah, that'd be awesome. I'll shoot you a PM with my new address. you need any computer stuff as a trade? I can keep my eye out for anything new coming my way as well.
haha I've got a couple other questions on the brushes. Do they require a special connection? or is it pretty universal? Any special type of paint I should look for (should i keep them laytex based?)? lol and I'm just guessing, but i can get them at most hobby shops right? And lastly, any special advice for cleaning them out?
btw, have you done any cool paint jobs lately? haha I still show people your setup and that awesome TOOL jacket you posted on here forever ago.
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
Cool, got your PM. I will get it out to you.
No worries, just keep rockin' the site.
Ok, as far as paint, it depends on what surface you are painting.
Latex will work for some surfaces, but needs to be cleared with at least rattle can clear acrylic. You can get that from Home Depot. If you need to paint metal, I would seek out a different product. Auto Air by Createx. THIS NEEDS TO BE CLEARED WITH URETHANE! No exceptions, so you might look up a local body shop and they should charge you a flat rate to clear coat something.
As far as cleaning, you need to familiarize yourself will all of the parts of the brush. You will need to become confident with taking it apart and putting it back together. Once you get it, you need to start a paint thread and we can work through all of the details.
I'm always painting, either for someone or myself. Here is a link to a canvas I just finished. Sort of a time elapse of my Jack Russel 'Poli'. CLICK HERE
I'm been a bit off the grid over the weekend. Site development is still coming along nicely. I've got the case vote section about 75% finished, and the forums are coming nicely. I'm just adding the last of the functionality to the forums right now so that it has the functionality that all other forums have, haha.
One of the big things i still have in place is deciding how I want to handle a lot of the custom BBCode I'm planning to use. I'm also looking at some optimization to always help the load times. The forum you'll see on the new site looks identical (well, it's a lot nicer looking, lol but for practical purposes it'll look like the same old forum), but the structure it's sitting on is extremely different than that i've got in place here.
I'm still going through and cleaning up the site and starting to apply the nice aesthetic touches, lol rounded corners and what not.
I'm also still building some of the smaller chunks of functionality, and it's really just because i haven't gotten around to them... google map boxes, polls, ratings, like/dislikes, and i think thats all that's left on site objects.
I think once i get the ratings, and maybe i'll wait for polls, I'm going to make a large push for making the new site live. I think it's safe to say, we're in the final stretch.
I also wanted to ask, what do you think is a good division for the types of news/articles we've done on the site so far? About the only thing that I'm going to have to do for the move that's tedious is separating all the news into categories instead of simply having a "general news" category.
Currently I'm looking at something like this...
- Site News
- Reviews (with more division below that)
- Industry News
- Press Releases
- Affiliate News
So far, i think that covers all the things we currently have, but I also want to ask if there's any areas that you'd like to see added for the future?
If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
