QUOTE: Originally posted by FJ and G Forget websites! Photos, construction tips and all of the other cool things you mention should be on nearly everyone's posts in this forum as well! Even sketches of your plans or something! I'm a visual person and reading stuff without pictures makes me snore.
The Home of Articulated Ugliness
Originally posted by Capt Carrales In my Large Scale tenure, I have found that the webpage has provided me with as much fun as the construction. Here is my take on Layout website standards, I'm going to cite examples and ask that you not be offended that I not include everyone: 1) Lots of photos- We should all invest in even an inexpensive digital camera for quick updates. Pictures do say thousands of words. I get a thrill of visiting your webpages and seeing your progress. In these poor and early days of my layout, I get a warm feeling living vicariously through your websites. Specially, the Aussie and British ones (lets not forget Canada). Marty C's major contributions to my lexicon of knowledge via his website continues to be my standard for domestic (US) Large scale. 2) Duality of Purpose- Every webpage should focus on two main purposes 1) Construction and Operation. The Construction focuses on the betterment of the hobby. The passing of knowledge and methods to new and old alike. Phil does and outstanding job at this. I've seen a few British pages that do an excellent job of this. Operation includes the fictional backstory (outlandish if need be or based on a prototype line). This includes an authentic fell. You have to believe that it is real and portray that feeling to the web-sters who visit. 3) Balance- I try to balance my webpage between these points. 4) Backstory- If it takes a year to solidify your backstory, or if you get new equipment and have to modify the story...so be it. I like to think that the layout exists in the "aeternal now." You can participate in Orwellianism and rewrite history at the drop of a hat. The backstory is like a "living document." Unless you have completed your railroad, this may have to happen. 5) Regular updates- Your website might have fans. I know that I make regular trips to some of your websites and am at the edge of my seat en re updates 6) Style- This is the most personal of these indicators. It is based on knowledge of computer skills et al. There are many so-called free servers (like the tripod page I use) that allow a good amount of freedom...save for the blasted internal advertizements and popup that I will now appologize for. My page opens to a front page that is based on a real railroad page I once visited, then it branches off from there. I have made a few webpages for some on the forum, I try to keep these premises in my own page. Rene, feel free to branch an article of of this is you wish. I think some of the insights into web stuff the people at Garden Railways can provide will improve the hobby. [/quote Again, let us revisit this issue for the benefit of those who are new... Major Carrales Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Saturday, June 4, 2005 7:25 PM Interesting discussion on webpages - I use my own server space for a lot of my data, but also have two sites hosted by trainweb http://users.chariot.net.au/~nldoncas/nicspages/nicsmain.htm That one will get you to most of my web pages, but a short cut to my G scale site (don't expect too much, like the rain fall here in Adelaide - theres very little) is; http://www.trainweb.org/nicsgscalerail/ I use Claris Home Page (yes, like my MTS, I am a computer orphan running much loved, ever reliable, virus resistant Mac OS) to develop my site. Its old, simple, and can do most of what I need - it will also work on Windoze systems for those who are not fighting various trojans, worns, viruses and the Blue Screen of Death (I like my work WIndoze Machine - I spend about a quarter of my working day waiting for it to finish crashing). As I am also a consultant in Human Factors, I have tried to follow the principles of Neilsons Heuristics for the web. He admits some of his stuff is getting a little dated, but a lot of what he has said is still true, mainly because many are still not code-literate, or are still relying on Morse-Code speed dialup, or run machines that still need a top-up of steaming coal every now and then. Have a look at: http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605a.html Hope you find something of use there. My favourite Principle (for work, the web and Life) - KISS - no not keep it simple stupid, keep it stunningly simple! I always welcome feedback on whats on my web! Reply Edit Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, June 3, 2005 7:33 AM QUOTE: Originally posted by scottychaos oh! that green! I made those drawings (with the green) weeks before the webpage was built.. they were intended only to post into the MLS forum, then, when I made the webpage, I just incorporated them as they were.. it never occured to me that the green clashed! ;) maybe I will swich the green to red.. I noticed one drawing is a jpg file and the other a gif. Red (especially a large area) will be very blotchy in a jpg picture, more so when compressed. Best to have them both in gif format. Reply Edit scottychaos Member sinceJuly 2004 From: Rochester NY 335 posts Posted by scottychaos on Friday, June 3, 2005 6:51 AM [ QUOTE: Hi Scot, No, on this page (bottom), in the drawing as the high lighter. http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/MBsteam/ WOW! oh! that green! I made those drawings (with the green) weeks before the webpage was built.. they were intended only to post into the MLS forum, then, when I made the webpage, I just incorporated them as they were.. it never occured to me that the green clashed! ;) maybe I will swich the green to red.. good catch! thanks! Scot Reply RhB_HJ Member sinceDecember 2003 From: Coldstream, BC Canada 969 posts Posted by RhB_HJ on Thursday, June 2, 2005 9:14 AM QUOTE: Originally posted by scottychaos .................................................... where did you see the lime green? I think the only page Im using green is this one: http://gold.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/Ruby/RubyAngel.html is that the green you meant? thanks, scot Hi Scot, No, on this page (bottom), in the drawing as the high lighter. http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/MBsteam/ WOW! Cheers HJ http://www.rhb-grischun.ca/ http://www.easternmountainmodels.com Reply scottychaos Member sinceJuly 2004 From: Rochester NY 335 posts Posted by scottychaos on Thursday, June 2, 2005 7:19 AM HJ, yeah I know..im trying to wean myself off of those dark backgrounds! [;)] im working on it! but I still like them! [}:)] where did you see the lime green? I think the only page Im using green is this one: http://gold.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/Ruby/RubyAngel.html is that the green you meant? thanks, scot Reply RhB_HJ Member sinceDecember 2003 From: Coldstream, BC Canada 969 posts Posted by RhB_HJ on Wednesday, June 1, 2005 9:42 PM QUOTE: Originally posted by scottychaos I still use the ancient Netscape Composer to build my pages.. when I first went on-line back in 1996, Netscape 4.7 was the browser of choice, and I started using composer to make webpages.. ("composer" is the webpage builder portion of the netscape 4.7 package) I no longer use Netscape as my browser, but I still use composer! it can still be downloaded for free.. I also do some manual HTML editing to do things that composer cant do for me, but overall composer is pretty usefull.. here are my pages: http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/ and I was just taking about webpage design on MLS just this morning! background colors specifically.. http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30607&whichpage=2 Scot Hey Scotty, Sure looks like you like d-a-r-k ........ b-a-c-k-g-r-o-u-n-d-s [}:)][:D] Spiffy set-up, but a bit hard on my old eyes, thank God you used gray font-colour! BTW I find that lime-green you use in the schematic clashes with the rest of the design, at least to my eyes. Cheers HJ http://www.rhb-grischun.ca/ http://www.easternmountainmodels.com Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Wednesday, June 1, 2005 4:45 PM Here's a tip for those that don't want to venture into the world of HTML: Get yourself a digital camera (if you don't already have one) and take lot's of pictures. Take them from the start of your build and at every opportunity. Every project you do, take pictures of it, start, finish and everywhere in between. Take pictures of your failures and your achievements, of your cat asleep on the tracks and the mainline blocked with snow. Do it now (well, soon anyway). One day you will decide to make a web site. That day is when you will be glad of those pictures. www.waldovia.co.uk Reply Edit CandCRR Member sinceMarch 2005 From: Southern New Hampshire 148 posts Posted by CandCRR on Wednesday, June 1, 2005 3:49 PM Capt Carrales, I went to Tripod like you mentioned and signed up only fo find out that they can not or will not link the web name I already own to their pages. It looks like they only do it for ones you buy through them. So the search is on for another "free" location to build my web site. Thank you, Jaime Reply scottychaos Member sinceJuly 2004 From: Rochester NY 335 posts Posted by scottychaos on Wednesday, June 1, 2005 10:53 AM I still use the ancient Netscape Composer to build my pages.. when I first went on-line back in 1996, Netscape 4.7 was the browser of choice, and I started using composer to make webpages.. ("composer" is the webpage builder portion of the netscape 4.7 package) I no longer use Netscape as my browser, but I still use composer! it can still be downloaded for free.. I also do some manual HTML editing to do things that composer cant do for me, but overall composer is pretty usefull.. here are my pages: http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/ and I was just taking about webpage design on MLS just this morning! background colors specifically.. http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30607&whichpage=2 Scot Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Sunday, May 29, 2005 11:26 AM QUOTE: Originally posted by spodwo http://lizardattitude.homestead.com/ Very big w/ many photos... Your's is another of the "initial" webpages I drew my standards from. In fact, if you search the back files, you will find a post by me singing your praises. I especially like the section on "Whimsey," or rahter the commentary on the need for less of it. Capt Carrales Reply Edit hminky Member sinceJanuary 2003 From: Dover, DE 1,313 posts Posted by hminky on Sunday, May 29, 2005 10:05 AM I use Sitespinner, even an idiot like me can use it. The key to making a successful website are: Pictures, Pictures, Pictures and a few words to describe the pictures. Don't have music and animation, they only slow loading. Don't worry about it looking like it is the work of the "master webmaster'", the content is what matters. Don't worry about coding or any of that crap, just get a good WYSIWYG program. Our site is not large scale but is an example of a successful site. We had over 76,000 visitors since March 2004 to the various parts and web articles. http://www.pacificcoastairlinerr.com/ Just a thought Harold Reply spodwo Member sinceJanuary 2001 From: US 67 posts Posted by spodwo on Sunday, May 29, 2005 8:29 AM http://lizardattitude.homestead.com/ Very big w/ many photos... Stephen "Pod" Podwojski LiZarD AtTiTuDe RailRoaD http://LiZarDAtTiTuDe.homestead.com Reply Puckdropper Member sinceDecember 2002 From: US 725 posts Posted by Puckdropper on Saturday, May 28, 2005 3:17 AM Many applications can do HTML formatted files now, but be aware of problems with interchanging code and languages if you use a word processing program. Personally, I like to use ConTEXT or plain simple notepad to do all my web design stuff. I find WYSIWYG programs tend to get in my way. HTML isn't difficult to learn at all, it's just like taking a document you typed and manually adding bold and italics. For those who are masters of the bulleten board code, it's quite similar to HTML. Reply Anonymous Member sinceApril 2003 305,205 posts Posted by Anonymous on Friday, May 27, 2005 12:24 PM QUOTE: Originally posted by mhampton My railroad empire is still only a dream, but I have a website to chronicle what I have accumulated so far (http://members.iquest.net/~mhampton). I try to give it visual appeal using HTML, JavaScript, and Cascading Style Sheets instead of lots of pictures. If you want to put up a site, you really should try to learn HTML. I found out that you don't really have to know very much to look like an absolute wizard! There are some really good FREEWARE HTML editors available. Try googling for "coffee cup" or "ace html" to see what you find. Mike I like the "cut " of your railroad. I see that you like the look of former White Pass Passenger coaches. I think the color combination is perfect for my line. I am still to order an Observation car. I use a Combine (named "El Cascabel") and a coach (called "Del Sol") with a caboose. I have some Rio Grande passenger numbers...A combine and an Observation and I have toyed with making the observation into my observation. It wouldn't match...but that might just give the train character. All in all I like your webpage, it is informative and has a good story to it. I like the e-pass concept. Capt Carrales Reply Edit mhampton Member sinceJanuary 2001 From: US 23 posts Posted by mhampton on Friday, May 27, 2005 3:01 AM My railroad empire is still only a dream, but I have a website to chronicle what I have accumulated so far (http://members.iquest.net/~mhampton). I try to give it visual appeal using HTML, JavaScript, and Cascading Style Sheets instead of lots of pictures. If you want to put up a site, you really should try to learn HTML. I found out that you don't really have to know very much to look like an absolute wizard! There are some really good FREEWARE HTML editors available. Try googling for "coffee cup" or "ace html" to see what you find. Mike Michael Hampton Nashville & Southern Railroad http://www.trainweb.org/nasrr Reply kstrong Member sinceSeptember 2003 From: Centennial, CO 1,192 posts Posted by kstrong on Friday, May 27, 2005 1:22 AM Well, for what I pay for my cable modem, "free" isn't exactly the right word to describe my web space. Still, it's included in the price. You can also join sites like mylargescale.com and get storage space as part of that deal as well. That takes care of your storage space issues. As for designing and placing content, that's a different story. Netscape has a composer as part of their browser package. This is a rudimentary wysiwyg web page editor that will handle most common page design elements. If you want something more in-depth, then something like Adobe's PageMill will work well. (That's what I use.) There are higher end software packages that allow you to do pull-down menus, fancy frames, and all that neato stuff, too. I tried doing frames within PageMill, and met with less than stellar results. If you're particularly computer literate, then you can code your own HTML in any word processing program and upload it that way. I'm not that literate. When it comes to uploading your files, you'll need an FTP (file transfer protocol) program to get your files up to your storage space. Fetch is good one, and you can download 30 day trial versions for free. (And keep downloading them every 30 days, but I didn't tell you that.) I use Adobe's SiteMill. This is a website authoring program that works with PageMill to coordinate all the files and folders in your web site, and upload them all in one shot to the server. It also handles updates by examining changes made, comparing them with the files on the server, and uploading and replacing only the effected files. It's got its own FTP software built in. It's great for when you move your stuff to a new ISP. Simply tell it to upload everything to the new server, and it rebuilds all the addresses for you. Later, K Tuscarora Railroad BlogLearn about the East Broad Top Railroad Reply RhB_HJ Member sinceDecember 2003 From: Coldstream, BC Canada 969 posts Posted by RhB_HJ on Thursday, May 26, 2005 10:51 PM Hi guys, On the "free" webspace deals. I've participated in a support forum for a WYSIWYG web-software. 75% of the problems/questions were related to "Free" hosts, from "Can't Upload" to "My site disappeared" to "Zapped my site". Not to mention other fine stuff like severe restrictions on traffic volume, tech support that takes two weeks to reply etc. etc. Now, to be honest I can't say "been there, done that!", my hobby site used to run on free webspace from my dial-up ISP so I paid for it and the performance/ service was good. I changed a year ago because I wanted a better forum and the free webspace didn't come with PHP and SQL support. It's the old story, you get what you pay for! Keep that in mind when you look at web hosts! BTW my current host has good service. I've called them at 3AM when things went down and they would rectify the problem in 10 min. Running a bi-lingual specialized train forum with European and NA members and 9 hours time difference has its moments. [;)][:)] Cheers HJ http://www.rhb-grischun.ca/ http://www.easternmountainmodels.com Reply 12 Search the Community FREE EMAIL NEWSLETTER Get the Garden Railways newsletter delivered to your inbox twice a month Sign up By signing up you may also receive occasional reader surveys and special offers from Garden Railways magazine. Please view our privacy policy More great sites from Kalmbach Media Terms Of Use | Privacy Policy | Copyright Policy
QUOTE: Originally posted by scottychaos oh! that green! I made those drawings (with the green) weeks before the webpage was built.. they were intended only to post into the MLS forum, then, when I made the webpage, I just incorporated them as they were.. it never occured to me that the green clashed! ;) maybe I will swich the green to red..
QUOTE: Hi Scot, No, on this page (bottom), in the drawing as the high lighter. http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/MBsteam/ WOW!
QUOTE: Originally posted by scottychaos .................................................... where did you see the lime green? I think the only page Im using green is this one: http://gold.mylargescale.com/scottychaos/Ruby/RubyAngel.html is that the green you meant? thanks, scot
QUOTE: Originally posted by scottychaos I still use the ancient Netscape Composer to build my pages.. when I first went on-line back in 1996, Netscape 4.7 was the browser of choice, and I started using composer to make webpages.. ("composer" is the webpage builder portion of the netscape 4.7 package) I no longer use Netscape as my browser, but I still use composer! it can still be downloaded for free.. I also do some manual HTML editing to do things that composer cant do for me, but overall composer is pretty usefull.. here are my pages: http://gold.mylargescale.com/Scottychaos/ and I was just taking about webpage design on MLS just this morning! background colors specifically.. http://www.mylargescale.com/forum/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=30607&whichpage=2 Scot
QUOTE: Originally posted by spodwo http://lizardattitude.homestead.com/ Very big w/ many photos...
QUOTE: Originally posted by mhampton My railroad empire is still only a dream, but I have a website to chronicle what I have accumulated so far (http://members.iquest.net/~mhampton). I try to give it visual appeal using HTML, JavaScript, and Cascading Style Sheets instead of lots of pictures. If you want to put up a site, you really should try to learn HTML. I found out that you don't really have to know very much to look like an absolute wizard! There are some really good FREEWARE HTML editors available. Try googling for "coffee cup" or "ace html" to see what you find. Mike
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