Aleroinc wrote:
Thanks for your suggestions. I still have the same issue as stated above with regards to relating the articles to one another. For the photo and video galleries, I need the forum to be up and running (to draw the users photos and videos from the database), and then need to find a solution there. Blogs are entirely do-able, I only left them out because no one had used them here.
There are plenty of ways to do the related articles. I would think about the future of the website before doing anything with a photo gallery. vb 4 only has user albums. There is photopost but outdated. VB5 looks like it did a good job integrating a photo gallery.
I'm sorry you feel the site is like an advertisement. I have reduced the number of flashy banners to just one, and there is no advertising but in the two 100px tall sections at the top and bottom of the site. The directories were built from the information I was provided. Please let me know how you feel they could be improved.
I'm not really talking about banners though I think you could come up with better ways to handle them. The site is a resource center. Looking at the home page I wouldn't have the slightest clue what this site is about. The main menu doesn't help one bit. I would look how some bigger information site break everything down to guide the user the best way possible. ign.com is a big site with lots of info with everything I'm talking about. The directories aren't directories. They're long list in no sort of order. Do a search and the whole long list shows up.
I have a vB5 Beta, and it does have a not-too-terrible CMS. I haven't had time to play with it a lot because of what I have been doing with vB4 and this site, but once things are running smoothly I will play with it.
That's a little mean no? LOL! vb5 doesn't have a cms so of course it's not too horrible.
This is the largest site I have completely rewritten by hand. I truly appreciate your input, and would like to try to incorporate your suggestions. I cannot do this without your (the users) help. I am not experienced enough in the field of farriery to decide which articles relate to others. If someone wants to volunteer their knowledge, please message me and I will 100% make the changes that I can make.
With the options currently available and options on there way, I can't imagine you rewriting everything by hand was the best choice. I still suggest launching the new forum and work on the rest of the site over the next year.