I have mad a few more minor changes to the main page, what does everyone think? Does it gove the proper "hook" for new readers? Is there enough information? Too much? What other things would you guys like to see here? More graphics? Less propaganda from Kawasaki about the bike? What other things would you like to see on the page? Spelling mistakes? Grammatical corrections? Any input is greatly appreciated.

Spence

I think it looks great, Spence. Can't think of a thing to change right now. As a neophyte in web design, I appreciate all the work ur puttin' in this!

MokiMan

Think you are doing a great job.
Chilly

It looks GREAT. I am excited about the coming store too. I noticed target dates in the right hand columns for a lot of cool stuff, but no target date for pictures yet :-( I think the pictures will add tons more reasons to keep coming to this site.

RB

I like it, but it's a just a little antiseptic. Needs more pics and color.

Personally, I think it's tacky hawking the patches on the opening page. But maybe that's just me.

I do wonder, though .... what will become of the proceeds from this store?

grambo

Hey Spence—

I am really impressed with what you have done so far.

The site is looking good, and moving in the right direction.

Here are some things that come to mind as I look at / use the site:

The initial impression as you see the first screen is – looks nice. Period. It does not have any “punch.” (Someone had made a similar comment in an earlier post, and I am reinforcing that thought.) Make the badge bigger, header text smaller, add a big action photo either on the side of the screen or as a background – do something to make the first page reach out and grab you. Move most of the text to page 2 or to drop-downs. Right now the page reminds me of a Mercedes-Benz; excellent engineering and quality (I’m talking about how M-B used to be!) but not very exciting. You need to lean a little bit more towards the Ferrari end of the scale!

One other thing (and this may be a result of my not having the savvy to set things up properly) is that it shows only a few current threads when the forum is brought up. I want to be able to A) see more threads (either by number or time period covered), and/or B) have a button that lets one view “Next Five” (10?) This helps those who check in every few days rather than on a daily basis.

Ok so I have , good, excellent, tacky and needs more splash. Ok I think I can do all that! As far as the donations part is concerend, yea on second thought it looks a little tacky. I'll move that to a seprate page. FYI. I used every drop of the donation money (as well as some of my own) to pay for the forum and install. This is not designed to be a money making site. As far as the store is concerned, I'll linkback to a service that VROC uses to get logo t-shirts, mugs, bumper stickers etc. I don't see a dime from any of it.

As far as any additional donations go, I'm going to put them towards purchasing any additional software/design templates or graphics that might be needed to make the site look great.

Keep the suggestions coming and I'll keep updating!

Thanks

Spence

Personally, I think it's tacky hawking the patches on the opening page. But maybe that's just me.

I do wonder, though .... what will become of the proceeds from this store?

grambo

Well Grambo, I would have to agree asking for donations on the front page is little tacky. I'll try to incorporate something that will link you to a donations page, something unabtrusive.

As far as the store is concerned, It was just an idea. I wanted to linkback to a service that the VROC page uses to supply T-shirts, mugs, stuff with the Vulcan 700/750 logo on it. FYI I don't see a penny of that money, the service does. This is not a "money making" site, If I wanted to do that I would have done that long ago.

You seem to be on a negative wave kick dude. Sorry I can't make everything perfect.

Spence

It looks GREAT. I am excited about the coming store too. I noticed target dates in the right hand columns for a lot of cool stuff, but no target date for pictures yet :-( I think the pictures will add tons more reasons to keep coming to this site.

RB

I'm still struggling with Coppermine, thinking of scrapping it entirely and go to something else. Luckily I have a co-worker who has helped me out a TON! and with his help, maybe I can get this darn thing up and running.

Spence

I think the new site is developing nicely. No one should assume it can immediately come together as a perfect entity without going through some growing pains.

I love the VN750 Yahoo forum, too, and I think the folks on both sites are absolutely the best. Having the Yahoo site and the experience of all the owner/riders has been terrific. I had been away from riding for years and had researched the VN750 extensively before purchasing my 2003 (the HellBat). I wanted the nearest thing I could find to my last bike, an '86 700cc Honda Shadow, amazingly similar to our VN750's. Needless to say, I have not been disappointed, and it is due in no small part to the Yahoo VN750 site and all the nice folks who contribute.

It boggles my mind to contemplate starting a site like this; I had enough trouble just getting an avatar uploaded (thanks for the help, Dianna), and I think that all who have contributed so much to both sites should be proud of what they have done.

Still, I must add, that I do find the newer format more user friendly. As I mentioned earlier it may be due to the smaller volume of participation, but I can follow threads much more easily, and I love not having to click my way past ads.

I hope both sites do well; after all, how can we complain about having another option?

Thanks to you all.

Ratty

Spence, ask a 100 people and you will get 100 different opinions, and there is no way you can please everyone, nor should you bust your ass trying.

I think it is fine the way it is, 1000% better than the way it was, and sooo much better looking than the main yahoo group page. It draws the readers attention nicely to the Forum, the Tech tip section and even the picture section. For people not familiar with the VN750 and looking around trying to decide what bike to buy, like I did a year ago, it gives a subtle but effective pitch for the vn750. And that is what we all want, for more people to buy it and join the group.

I don't think the donation is tacky on the front page, in fact I think it is a very good way to show new members or even thoughs that wander through, that they can get a cool patch for the VN750.

My advice for what ever it is worth and opinion #101, is to leave the page as is now, and concentrate on the other more important things to help the fourm grow.

RB

Thanks Chris, I just got caught up in the negative aspects. Yea I would agree, the gallery should be next.

Spence

Don't take it personally, Vince. As an Engineer, I've been poking IS in the eye for twenty years <g>

It's just that we'ver strayed so far from the original premise: additional storage for files and photos. And the group with equal access to the nuts and bolts has dwindled to a single person (the "what if Vince gets hit by a truck" question I posed a few months ago).

I assure you I am well intentioned. Perhaps I am misguided.

grambo

Don't take it personally, Vince. As an Engineer, I've been poking IS in the eye for twenty years <g>

It's just that we'ver strayed so far from the original premise: additional storage for files and photos. And the group with equal access to the nuts and bolts has dwindled to a single person (the "what if Vince gets hit by a truck" question I posed a few months ago).

I assure you I am well intentioned. Perhaps I am misguided.

gramboGrambo, I honestly thought 'the original premise' here was to augment yahoo for now, eventually to replace it...w/ most if not all the current yahoo goodies/files/members etc. I must have missed that discussion...
If not to replace Y!, why would there be Forums here at all? All we would need would be some link to some photo /file/post repository...oh, wait, we already have that...The vn750Archives!! I don't know & haven't checked lately...is anything even 'archived' there anymore??
IMHO, we haven't 'strayed' anywhere, we're on the right path here...and Spence et al have done a super job. What we need is more participation...
Personally, I can't see why anyone would not want to bail Y! to post here, but again that's just IMHO....

For Chris...'WildLoon'...in your CP, you can select to see threads for the past year or more....the 'forum default' is just a few days I think. I had the same concern, but our USER CP gives us some neat controls....

My opinion of the front page – less is more. The first paragraph of “About the Kawasaki Vulcan 700/750” is enough for the front page along with a link to the rest. A “FORUM” link should be right adjusted text on the same line and a little smaller than the big VN750.com. The major attractions of this site will be (are) the forum and pictures.

Yahoo searching, bouncing, and non-numbered emails are terrible. One of the good things about Yahoo, is being able to input an absolute message number and start reading from there. Once this site gets 200 threads a day, it will be nearly impossible to read all in one sitting. The “New Posts” link should be a drop down menu with a list of the last n? times a person used the site along with a space to input the absolute date and optionally the time. This way someone can read a few messages at work during lunch and not have to miss all the rest of the new posts.

Rough New Posts drop down example:

___New Posts since…
______Last visits:
_________08/05/04 07:00 PM
_________08/05/04 12:20 PM
_________08/04/04 10:00 PM
______Enter date (time):

<snip> Once this site gets 200 threads a day, it will be nearly impossible to read all in one sitting. The “New Posts” link should be a drop down menu with a list of the last n? times a person used the site along with a space to input the absolute date and optionally the time. This way someone can read a few messages at work during lunch and not have to miss all the rest of the new posts. <snip>
Good point Loran. The other day I logged on clicked on New Post, then I did something and ended up on another site. When I came back and clicked on New Post it was blank.

But still love this site... :D

This is already available, and the tip was posted back in June in the Forum Tips and questions, viewing Posts thread here:

http://www.vn750.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69

Just click on one of the lines, you can change the value at the end to be the number of days you want. If you save this link in your browser or drag it to your link tool bar, you will have it at your fingertips...

Also of interest might be the fact that this forum has EXCELLENT search capabilities. Just go to search -> advanced search
or go here: http://www.vn750.com/forum/search.php?

play with it and discover how nice a powerful search engine can be. :-)

RB


... snip... Once this site gets 200 threads a day, it will be nearly impossible to read all in one sitting. The “New Posts” link should be a drop down menu with a list of the last n? times a person used the site along with a space to input the absolute date and optionally the time. This way someone can read a few messages at work during lunch and not have to miss all the rest of the new posts.

Rough New Posts drop down example:

___New Posts since…
______Last visits:
_________08/05/04 07:00 PM
_________08/05/04 12:20 PM
_________08/04/04 10:00 PM
______Enter date (time):

Don't take it personally, Vince. As an Engineer, I've been poking IS in the eye for twenty years <g>

It's just that we'ver strayed so far from the original premise: additional storage for files and photos. And the group with equal access to the nuts and bolts has dwindled to a single person (the "what if Vince gets hit by a truck" question I posed a few months ago).

I assure you I am well intentioned. Perhaps I am misguided.

grambo

You mean what if ROB gets hit by a truck. Chris E and Dianna have passwords for everything, so If I do get hit by a bus tomorrow (more likely a bear since I'm going camping) They can take over and not miss a beat.

Rob

This is already available, and the tip was posted back in June in the Forum Tips and questions, viewing Posts thread here:

http://www.vn750.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69

Just click on one of the lines, you can change the value at the end to be the number of days you want. If you save this link in your browser or drag it to your link tool bar, you will have it at your fingertips...

Also of interest might be the fact that this forum has EXCELLENT search capabilities. Just go to search -> advanced search
or go here: http://www.vn750.com/forum/search.php?

play with it and discover how nice a powerful search engine can be. :-)

RB

Thanks RB,

That Tip was posted about a week before I joined. It is very helpful. I know the more I "played" with the buttons etc... on here the more I learned, and still have more to go I am sure.

Spence,


My two cents: Give it a little more personality and color and not as much looking like a press release page. I'm sure that as you tweek it you'll come to a happy medium between functionality and attractiveness. Keep up the good work.

Don't take it personally, Vince. As an Engineer, I've been poking IS in the eye for twenty years <g>

It's just that we'ver strayed so far from the original premise: additional storage for files and photos. And the group with equal access to the nuts and bolts has dwindled to a single person (the "what if Vince gets hit by a truck" question I posed a few months ago).

I assure you I am well intentioned. Perhaps I am misguided.

grambo
Hey! How did I get involved in this? I've been sitting by a pool in FLA.

And in response to this and JM's response, I think there were several premises initially proposed. Several wanted to duplicate all the goodies on Y! (as JM mentioned), others didn't want to reinvent the wheel and wanted the site just for photo and file storage without limits. The way I remember it, while we were batting it around without any clear consensus, Rob stepped up to the plate and registered the domain before it got away, with the intention that we would figure out what to do with it later. Except for the occassional "Whatever happened to the VN750 site?", no real premise emerged. Once again, Spence exercised initiative and his right of eminent 'domain' ( I crack me up!) and with RB and SG developed what we have today.

Anyway, since there was no consensus premise, I guess this site is/will be whatever Spence makes it in accordance with whatever inoput he solicits and receives. Personally, I'm with grambo in that I'm comfortable with the Yahoo group as my primary interface with the 'gang' and would like to see this soite as more of a reference site, including technical posts, archived files, photos, and links to members' pages. And yes, the 750archives site is stil there and I am archiving good posts as time permits.

The link with the "getdaily" search is close to what I was talking about.

The search engine is a lot more powerful than the advanced search page can handle and I bet there are other useful search possibilities that could be created by hand (if I read the manual).


This is already available, and the tip was posted back in June in the Forum Tips and questions, viewing Posts thread here:

http://www.vn750.com/forum/showthread.php?t=69

Just click on one of the lines, you can change the value at the end to be the number of days you want. If you save this link in your browser or drag it to your link tool bar, you will have it at your fingertips...

Also of interest might be the fact that this forum has EXCELLENT search capabilities. Just go to search -> advanced search
or go here: http://www.vn750.com/forum/search.php?

play with it and discover how nice a powerful search engine can be. :-)

RB