Hello...again

 
Just wanted to take a moment to introduce my new ocPortal site:

Advocating monetary reform - FreeOurMoney
(and no, not a SPAM/sales site but rather social activism ;-) )

This bad boy has taken me a wee bit to put together (*grin*, it started with a 4 paragraph post on Facebook), but OCP did not let me down and almost all the tools I needed were built in. The site is constructed with about 95% native OCP code.

Comments and constructive criticism always welcome as it's still a work in progress.

Me -> View topic: Hello! - ocPortal

Be well, SD

That's a nice clean site you have there SoccerDad.

One thing that comes straight to mind for me is that the main navigation is a little disorientating.

A couple of examples:
* The menus keep changing, and its easy to loose track of where everything is if you're not paying attention. I count at least 3 menu bars.

* Clicking on "Money Primer" takes you to the summary page, not what I would expect.

Good one, SD!

Didn't have time to read it ALL, but managed to spend several minutes following the easy navigation.

Content, on cursory scan, looks well presented, but I will need more time to get stuck in. The topic interests me hugely, especially since I don't have much of the basic stuff you talk about!

Be Happy.

 

Greetings SoccerDad!

I've visited your site and was greatly impressed with the clean design and ease of navigation. I’ve noticed a slight mixed up using the menu as pointed out by temp1024 but was paying more attention to your good use of ocPortal’s features to keep things well organized with interesting and informative content. It's obvious that you've worked very hard on this website. It is the sort of site that makes the web such a great resource for all. I found myself captivated by your introduction and the fitting “under a common law" example. I will certainly explore your concept about monetary reforms, which I find fascinating as an important subject that I would like to better understand.

A job well done!

PS: small typo on welcome page:”Note: both sites are accessable (accessible) from each other”

Thanks for taking the time to peak guys, mucho appreciato! Thanks also for the kind words and I'm glad you liked the theme, particularly recognizing the "cleanness" as I felt the message was way more important than a jazzed up theme and I didn't want it to get lost in the look and feel.

Oh the menus, lol, how I've agonized over the layout of 'em. I have found in conversation with family, friends and joe/josephine public that it is critical that the material be presented in the manner I have it as folks will jump to conclusions early (communism was one and monetary reform couldn't be further from that ideology) because of our lack of overall understanding of our monetary systems. Additionally, I have navigation links at the bottom of each page in the primer, however, they are only really beneficial first time through. If a visitor returns and wants to get to a specific page, it would be a pain in the a$$ to click through each page until the desired page is reached hence the upper primer menu change.

So, I was left with limited options on how to set them up. I tried to draw attention to the changing menus with different colours but I don' think that worked so well lol.

I have a couple of options left as I see it and would love to get your feedback on them (or other suggestions you may have):

1) I can keep the original main site menu and add the zone menus (primer and extras) immediately underneath and give them more of a text feel instead of buttons; similar to many horizontal hover menus out there.

2) I have one "massive" menu with dropdowns linking to all the material basically in the same fashion as I have now but a singular menu across the site (I have it loaded on the site now).

The primer page has a testing menu on it now as well, immediately below the main menu (as outlined in point 1 but using the "massive" menu which I would remove in favour of the original menu if this looks like the way to go), however, I've done nothing with the look and feel of it as of yet.

@Fletch: based on your comment above (and agreed, a massive amount of material ), if you get a few free minutes mate, I'd love your feedback on the primer landing page (renamed now as per @temp1024's suggestion, thanks temp1024!). My goal there is to get a "view from 50,000 feet" of the overall problem with our current systems.

@Jean: thanks for the typo shout out, corrected.

Thanks again guys and it's this type of feedback that makes the ocPortal community an excellent one in support of an excellent web development package.

Hope ya'll are havin' a grand weekend (even better as it doesn't appear the rapture is going to happen as predicted; lol, there's a shock )

Be well, TR

SoccerDad said

@Fletch: based on your comment above (and agreed, a massive amount of material ), if you get a few free minutes mate, I'd love your feedback on the primer landing page (renamed now as per @temp1024's suggestion, thanks temp1024!). My goal there is to get a "view from 50,000 feet" of the overall problem with our current systems.

Not sure what you want from me SD, but I am always willing to throw in my 2-cents-worth, even when it isn't asked for.

I've spent far TOOOOO long on your site, so long in fact that the background clouds on this forum are actually moving from left to right (suspect it is my system, PLUS the hefty backup currently running that is causing all manner of wierd things to happen).

The visit was enlightening AND entertaining; can't always say that about sites that one doesn't deliberatley search for. The topic is fascinating, and not something I've ever been concerned about before. I guess it is time to sit back and take stock, huh?

A couple or three observations:

• You 'rubbish' IE unfairly, certainly IE9:

The site has been designed with Firefox, Google Chrome and Opera in mind. Internet Explorer is not included in this list due to Microsoft's continual tardiness in supporting current design tools.

and that is no longer true. It supports as much of CSS3 and HTML5 as the others (see the attachment later) and its 'Developer Tools' (F12) can match the others, too.

• I left a comment on one of your forums. You'll need to check the linkage to 'localdomain'. Doesn't exist.
  
• I played around with your pages whilst viewing and listening to some of the vids. Forgive me, but that's the closest I get to multi-tasking. Anyway, here's a display bit that I've been working on for a theme, but which I thought looked pretty cool on your pages, especially since, like me, you prefer to use ocPortal's core functionality!
  

 

Great shadow technique Fletch!
I know of a few places I will use it!
Thanks

Yeah, these CSS 3 properties are wonderful, and it's fantastic that they're supported in all the major browsers (well, the new versions of them). Now to get everyone to upgrade..!

Jean said

I know of a few places I will use it!

Go for it. It makes for a 'less-boxy' (à la the pissed-off penguin) display, but retains all the ocP 'box' functionality.

Robbie Goacher said

Now to get everyone to upgrade..!

Gave that some serious thought Robbie. Since the CSS3 properties apparently 'degrade gracefully' on browsers that don't support it, I guess it is a case of making the point loudly to most people that they're 'missing out' on some clever web design/display, if they don't!

 

Thanks for checking the site out Fletch, greatly appreciated as is your feedback. Love the box shadow effect, it's going into play for sure, thanks!!

What link did you click to hit the localdomain URL? I develop locally on my linux box and must have missed something I hardcoded.

As for my original post, apologies mate, I didn't include a link, duh! Here is the page that I'd love your feedback on:
Introduction - Summary Overview - FreeOurMoney
The idea with that page is to provide a quick overview with enough information to "wet the whistle" as it were, and I'm curious if I've hit the mark from your perspective,

Thanks again!

Heading off to upgrade lol

SoccerDad said

What link did you click to hit the localdomain URL? I develop locally on my linux box and must have missed something I hardcoded.

Can't remember exactly, but I left a comment against the post in your foum. I think it was the forum that deals with website comments.

SoccerDad said

… I'm curious if I've hit the mark from your perspective …

Yes, I like the 'intro'. I actually read the page last night whilst browsing through the different navigation aids, and thought it was a nice summary before overpowering the user with a deluge of 'facts' (my emphasis).

It would be churlish of me to give you a   , or conversely a , before reading, viewing and digesting the information. However, since I've never really been a fan of David Icke, it might have something to do with my 'resistance'!

SoccerDad said

Heading off to upgrade lol

The latest offerings from the 'Top Four' (somebody is going to take exception if I actually name them) are vying to outdo each other. I am still using FF4 as my primary mainly because of Firebug, but IE9 is pretty slick, and a damn sight faster! In fact, according to an independent test lab, IE has recently overtaken Chrome in the speed stakes.

I am about to post something in the 'Themeing' section. Would be interested in your feedback, too.

 

Thanks again for your feedback Fletch!

Fletch said

It would be churlish of me to give you a   , or conversely a , before reading, viewing and digesting the information. However, since I've never really been a fan of David Icke, it might have something to do with my 'resistance'!

lol, yeah, David can be quite the wild man and I'm not in agreement with 100% of what he says either. However, in regards to monetary systems and money, he's bang on. I've included a little note on that page now that make it (hopefully) a little clearer as to why the source is included on the site:

Note: please keep in mind as you are reviewing the material that while you may not agree with, or even like, the original source (and I've tried to include a wide variety), the idea here is that they are saying basically the same thing. Given that, there must be some credence to the fact that we have a really big problem that must be dealt with.

Fletch said

The latest offerings from the 'Top Four' (somebody is going to take exception if I actually name them) are vying to outdo each other. I am still using FF4 as my primary mainly because of Firebug, but IE9 is pretty slick, and a damn sight faster! In fact, according to an independent test lab, IE has recently overtaken Chrome in the speed stakes.

I've updated my about page to include IE9 as a "supported" browser.

Thanks again Fletch!