Ealain

When you have a big site, organization is one of the most crucial aspects.

Xuan told me that, despite all of the revamping I’ve done, SF has pretty much remained the same in its core. I’ve changed the outsides, but not the structure.

So I’m challenging myself (and geeky little me is excited by this). And, for some help, I’m challenging you.

You are a web designer. And you have a pile of 700 poems, stories, articles, art, photography, blends, colorizations, cg art, vectors, web layouts, and tutorials all piled haphazardly. It is your job to organize them in a new and original way.

How would you organize and present them?

I’ve already done the following in the past: each have own category, creative arts - web design, traditional art - digital art - web design, writing - traditional art - digital art - web design. So, if at all possible, those are off limits. However, feel free to mix and match.

Please help!

Let me first off state that I am obsessed with my website Skyefairy.net. If I have spare time, I am most likely using it towards improving, growing, and expanding the site. It may seem weird but I am always trying to find ways to make it better. Ask any of my IM buddies. At least once a month they hear “what can I do to make SF better” or “what don’t you like about the site.”

For a few months now my mind has been leading up to adding some sort of interactivity into it. I first started thinking of it around the time that Amanda interviewed me for Obsidian Rhapsody but she doesn’t have them up anymore so I’m not quite sure when that was. *checks her gmail* October 2006.

Where, in web terms, do you envision yourself in ten years time?
I have no clue, to be honest. Currently I’m working on revamping my site, bringing the coding up to date and changing the style. I’m in the process of adding tutorials to the site because, along with creative arts, I want to have a “web design” section though not in the typical “web design site” interpretation. I want to learn PHP and MySQL. So, possibly after I learn those I will add a feature where I can set keywords to submissions so that visitors can search. Perhaps add accounts so that people can login and gain access to added features: submit through there, commenting on pieces, discussion on tutorials for helping new designers learn, etc. When it comes to the site, I am a control freak so even if people could submit through the site, it would have to be approved. Though I hope for the site to grow and become more interactive, I don’t want it to become like DeviantART. I like being a part of it and I never see myself stopping and not continuing to improve upon it and keep it growing.

I want web design to become my career, so I also plan on starting a site for that, though I believe that SF will always be my main focus. So, I guess all I can say for now is that I do plan on still being in the web designing world in 10 years, continuing to learn and grow.

As I said there, I want to expand and make it more interactive. I want to make it where visitors can sign up for accounts (must be approved first; I’m an anti-spam paranoid freak) and then be able to comment on submissions. I want each tutorial to be able to have a mini-forum so that people learning can get specialized help. Also, so that each tutorial will also be able to have other visitors (with accounts) that can help explain it furthur if the author of the tutorial wasn’t detailed enough.

There would be four levels of accounts:

1. Me. Owner / Person who controls everything. Recieves anything sent to moderation, pending accounts, adds submissions, etc.
2. Language Staff. They would control their own submissions and any questions that come in in their language. If it works out and we expand, they could/would moderate the comments on pieces in their language as well as accounts in that language, etc.
3. Artists. They would be able to submit work, respond to comments on their pieces, edit their profiles, edit their works, etc. Again, though, everything would have to be moderated before being added and, if edited, would have to be approved.
4. Members. They could comment and interact in forum discussions.

Everything (submissions, comments, forum) would be visible to the public so people wouldn’t need an account to view things but anything interactive would require an account. Update comments would remain open to the public as well.

As a side not, I DO NOT want to make it into a mini-DeviantArt. I want it to stay personalized and to remain a large part of it. Some people have told me before that SF is like a personal version of DA, which is how I want it to stay. Personal.

This would be a huge project for me so, before I start, I want to get people’s opinions on if they think it would work and be successful. If you have any comments, suggestions, thoughts, changes, expansions, whatever, PLEASE comment. I’m gonna need feedback.

And, people on my buddy list, beware. XP

The phone I had recently broke somehow. Something about the SIM chip being fried by the phone; supposedly its happened to many people with that particular phone. Anyways, I had to get a new one and my boyfriend (who happens to be a phone salesman) convinced me to get a Blackjack, which is one of those phones combined with a mini-computer. It even comes with an OS (Windows) and I can get online (Internet Explorer).

However, I noticed that my site doesn’t really work well with it. Both SF and Ealain. (I can check my email wonderfully, though!!! Go GMAIL!) This leads me to believe that I need to make a mobile phone version. Who cares if only some microscopic amount of visitors visit with their handheld? They are visitors, too.

I believe this is done by adding one of those media types to the CSS. Which also reminds me that I’ve been meaning to make a print-friendly version as well. Hmm.

So, I have another LI on my unordered list of to-dos. *sigh*

I’ve been working on SF’s revamp which is, for the most part, focussed on setup, presentation, and navigation. My biggest goal when it comes to web design is to grow with each new design and to always work on improving SF. I’ve covered many issues with the revamp and many improvements will be made. It will take less clicks to get to a submission. It will be easier to find things. You will be able to view by category. It will be easier to submit things. Image submissions will be able to be larger. And, for a more iffy thing I’m working on, you might be able to submit / view submissions in different languages. If that happens, you will be able to view by language.

However, one thing that has always been a pet peeve of mine is setup. I like to be innovative. I like to come up with a new setup, a new way of presenting the same old thing, even if it isn’t too terribly different. I’ve done that for some of the things around the site. However, on the image submission pages, I’m drawing a blank. I’m trying a new thing (for me) by making it full-page view without the layout around it, however I keep setting it up in the same old way. Small topbanner that goes all the way across. Image. Image details. Nothing special. Hmph. Just to find the perfect way to place everything…