Grand Lake Links..

Hi

I think you should rework the title, it's a bit rough. You've got a large clock in the top right, why is this one of the most important items on the page? It has to be, because you've given it a position of prominence. The other item at the top is a picture of a boat, clicking on that takes us to an identical page, except that it has a dated 'rippling water' applet. If you want the page to look more professional, then use centering a little more sparingly. RSS link gives you an error.

P.S. Please lose the spinny alarm - it's enough to drive a visitor crazy!

Peter

I would have to agree on the title. Looks like you may have gotten it looking good, but then resized it using a program that doesn't resize too well. Your Link image over on the side looks much better.

I'm one who has never seen the importance of showing the time on a website. I can just look at it on my computer, which I'm obviously already using.

The two black boxes should really be lined up with the text and images above them. They look misaligned right now.

Finally, most pages should be viewable in one screenful, especially the front page of a site.

Hope the idea for the site works out. I'm in the OKC area myself.

Hi,, Thanks..

I replaced the Title Graphic.. it was a hold over from some time ago
and most likely I resized it to fit..

I will be removing the top two corners.. clock and boat..

the RSS had a security issue and was allowing people to
see the Members EMAIL addresses so I made the link
MEMBERS ONLY..

The Latest Posts (black boxes) .. I will line the whole thing
up with the links...

Thanks !!!

Bill

The title looks much better.

Peter

Links at the bottom are too close together.
I don't like the line over effect on your links either.
Page load was a little slow.
Looking through the source code it appears that you used a lot of toys. There are cookies that I don't think are completely necessary ALWAYS USE COOKIES SPARINGLY.

you didn't like the Mouse Over... i have it all over the site.. it could
be turned off in the CSS files..

Cheap Server (sometimes slow)..

Yep... i will be removing a couple of useless things mentioned above..

The cookies are part of the member system and the Today Counter..
and the NEWS rotation from the Message & Classified Forums is displayed
using the cookie to keep track of which NEWS item has been displayed..

With all of the Active Stuff on the page it used to be real slow to load..
I wrote a content manager so the homepage is produced only every few
days.. it still has my Today Counter... counting visitors and
members only once a day..

I will be making more changes ...

I really do like your feed back...
When I ask my friends they always lie..

Thanks!!

Bill

I don't have a problem with having mouse over's on your links. I think it's actually a very good idea. But the industry standard is to either underline or "ununderline" the link with the mouse-over effect. It just looks gimmicky to me. I suggest keeping a mouse-over effect, but ditching the "line-over." Of course this is just personal taste. Other people might think it's a stroke of genius to have the line-over.

I really dont like all of the drop shadows. also the fonts are a bit small if you are running a resolution above 800 x 600

Thanks,

After reading all your thoughts,
I have decided to take into account all of your input and
totally re-designed the Homepage layout..

now, it is like the rest of the site..
It has a few details that I will work on this weekend..

Thanks and feel free to log in as
Username: BoardMod
Password: tester
(these are case sensitive)

and try out some of the member tools..
I just finished writing the blogs and it is pretty cool..
I may add a reply or comment link(s) or something..
try it out.. .

Thanks

Bill

Hi there, I am quite new to this as well, but I would have to say that it's a bit boxy and flat, and I am not too keen on the colors, but I think if you added some rounded corners, and spruced up the background a bit it would help a lot. Also the links at the top of the page are quite small and squishy, and some of the icons seem to use a different font.

On a positive note, I think it's amazing that you have all that information together on one site. It seems like anything that anyone wants to know, can be found on this one site, which I think will definately make people return to it.

Hi TotalNewbie.. ..

Thank you for your comments.. as I have always said.. "I can make square corners"...
I am going to re-work the layout this winter..

Thanks for your thoughts...

not sure I really like the maroon background. maybe you could make it lighter?

Also, you need to put some more cell spacing to move the text away from the border of your boxes.

I have to say I am impressed with the amount of content you have and I think a local portal site like you have can be very profitable (I've read about a guy who makes hundreds of thousands per year with a small portal site)

However, your design is very amateur looking. Most portal sites are...so I think with a little work, you will stand out and look good and if you get a lot of visitors with the way it is now, you may have a profitable site soon.

I really thank you for your input.
My Dream of a Graphic Artist is just that.
Being an engineer and programmer
I make Square Corners..
I am fortunate that it does make money.
Nothing like the site you mentioned. but,
If you went to any of the tracking tools, another, i wrote you
will notice a very step climb in traffic ...
This year is quite a bit better than last.
It is a fairly small area that if you count all of every one
in the swath i encompass would not be 100,000 local people.
And it is for Summer in Summer Town,,,, 6 months a year Lake Fun.

Did you notice the Search Engine, i wrote it and it does a lot.
I am implementing one on a clients large market site.
this version is totally dynamic the next in the project it is just a dictionary to
static pages ... at this point it is not done but it does make money
and more than last year.

The rotating content in the middle of the home page
has a full posting tool, that i wrote, with order, info icon & smiles.

Quite a few of the YaBB tools i wrote ..
I got a real late start on the internet and have just about caught up.

oh, and Too Tough Trivia just went OnLine with the first beta.
It is in upgrade to the internet.

I will be addressing your comments and at least my home page will
be going through a few updates real soon.

Thanks again

Bill

It's quite nice. I think it would be better if the alignment was all central.

oh, you mean that it widens out to fill the screen on some pages.
My plan is to provide additional content to screens that are set wider.

It is finally Spring in Summer Town and it will mostly have to
wait until fall.

I am in search of a "Graphic Artist" as i make "square corners".

Thanks!!

Bill

.,.