Site migration - ideas, updates and musings...

Post by **dsco** » Fri 14 Feb, 2014 4:17 pm

Here you go guys. It's only a mockup of the homepage, and all the links go to the current site. Please forgive the ropey coding on the sliding banner at the top - it's not supposed to have that weird border round the image on the left and top, and there will be more than one image in there eventually The text is only placeholder stuff at the mo, same for a lot of the images in there. be interested to hear your thoughts on layout, typeface, background, logo, menu... and anything else that occurs to you!http://www.secretleeds.com/testindex.html

Steve Jones · Post by **Steve Jones** » Fri 14 Feb, 2014 7:19 pm

So is the placeholder latin under ghost and folklore a curse upon Sheffield<LOL>? I like it though.My idea for files would include the ability to upload as well as download (I for one have a lot of stuff on Leeds here) and of course mods could delete any unsuitable stuff posted there.

liits · Post by **liits** » Fri 14 Feb, 2014 7:22 pm

dsco wrote: It's only a mockup of the homepage........... I like it but I'm not sure about the background. I do like the map we have at the moment.

Post by **chameleon** » Fri 14 Feb, 2014 7:23 pm

Certainly gives newcomers a better idea of what we are about, with a 'come and look' feel to it.

Post by **dsco** » Fri 14 Feb, 2014 7:30 pm

Good stuff, glad the feeling is generally positive. Liits I like the map too but it's quite fussy and can be a bit distracting for some folks. It's also a large image file and can slow the site down a bit.

Post by **dsco** » Fri 14 Feb, 2014 7:31 pm

Steve - meet Lorem Ipsum: http://www.lipsum.com/

Post by **mhoulden** » Fri 14 Feb, 2014 9:48 pm

There's a selection of other Lorem Ipsum generators at http://econsultancy.com/blog/63396-16-a ... iller-text, including some with loads of swearing.A couple of other features that might be nice: some sort of map where you can attach photos (possibly linked in with geotagging) so you can see how places changed over time, and something a blogging feature for longer articles.To generate a bit more cash to cover running costs, and provide an easy way to find things like specialist books, how about an Amazon Associates store? Sign up at https://affiliate-program.amazon.co.uk/, and when people buy through there, you get a percentage.

Post by **dsco** » Fri 28 Feb, 2014 4:38 pm

Exciting times - just given access to a draft version of SecretLeeds running on the new forum software, phpBB...

Post by **cnosni** » Fri 28 Feb, 2014 6:11 pm

What about my suggestion that all the Forum titles are preceeded by the word Leeds, as anyone making a google search with regards to Leeds will probably put Leeds at the beginning of their search, i.e Leeds Family History

Post by **dsco** » Fri 28 Feb, 2014 6:46 pm

Quite possibly Chris, I'm not sure what the impact would be in terms of Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). In theory we should be able to put enough mentions of Leeds in the domain name, meta data, headings, etc. in order to not need to put Leeds at the start of every forum title. On the other hand, belts n braces and all that - it certainly wouldn't hurt. Not sure if it might look a bit odd on the page though, but we won't know unless we try it. However generally speaking SEO is one of the reasons I wanted to migrate to new software, the current stuff is pretty useless as far as that sort of thing goes. And everything else too for that matter