New Site, New Idea, New Design

your login box is too far to the right.
try using sans-serif fonts.
why does the rules page look totally different? it's good to make all pages look the same.

How does the rules page look different?
Sans-serif on the navbar or text?
Should the login box be left-aligned or should it be closer to the middle?
What screen resolution are you using?
Thanks

NS4.6, IE4.0, 800x600, Mac.

Well, your code doesn't validate. You don't even have a closing /html tag so I'm surprised anything works at all. One validator I ran it through indicated a number of table tag errors.

IE4.0 - I get a huge logo off to the left, log-in boxes below to the right. There's an ad banner and a couple links at the bottom. No menus are visible anywhere.

In NS I'm seeing a dynamic menu. When you mouseover you do get a dropdown (white letters on pale grey, very hard to read) and the moused-over box turns all white with no legible text. Below the menu are links to "privacy" and "what is". That's it. No logo, no ad banner, no login boxes. Probably because of those missed table tags NS doesn't like.

Can you tell me exactly the table errors?
I've pored over my site again and again and again for a few weeks now trying to figure out why it won't work in NS.

Quote: In NS I'm seeing a dynamic menu. When you mouseover you do get a dropdown (white letters on pale grey, very hard to read) and the moused-over box turns all white with no legible text. Below the menu are links to "privacy" and "what is". That's it. No logo, no ad banner, no login boxes. Probably because of those missed table tags NS doesn't like.

On the main page, there should a be a logo.
The moused-over box turns all white??
Can you see the code that makes that happen?
Thanks!

Doesnt show completely in Netscape 4.7

looking at your code it shows you made a boo boo in your table coding.

this is all your table tags without the tables contents.
note the tr is after the td and there is no /td, also you start anothertable but dont close it

there is also no /body or /html tags in your page

this layout works in IE, as IE lets you get away with nearly anything, Netscape where as wont as it does what it should, displays what it should instead of guessing.

I looked at a couple of other pages, all the text is bunched up, the headers are bold but you need to seperate them.

Here is a list of errors given by Homesite:

Line Message
68 LIGHTBLUE is not valid value for the "LINK" attribute in HTML32. Valid values for this attribute are: 16 color names, Dynamic expression, sRGB.
68 LIGHTBLUE is not valid value for the "LINK" attribute in any of the currently active versions. See the above warnings for more details.
71 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TABLE" It is only allowed within: TR.
71 In HTML 4.0, CENTER is deprecated.
71 TOP.GIF is not valid value for the "SRC" attribute in HTML20. Valid values for this attribute are: alphanum string, Dynamic expression, double quoted string.
71 TOP.GIF is not valid value for the "SRC" attribute in any of the currently active versions. See the above warnings for more details.
72 In HTML 4.0, FONT is deprecated. It may become obsolete in future versions, consider using style sheets instead.
74 The tag:"TR" is not allowed within: "TD" It is only allowed within: TABLE.
75 80% is not valid value for the "WIDTH" attribute in HTML32. Valid values for this attribute are: Dynamic expression, positive non zero integer.
75 The tag: "a" has an XML style closing syntax for an empty element even though version: "HTML20" is not an XML tag language.
75 /OWNERS is not valid value for the "HREF" attribute in HTML20. Valid values for this attribute are: alphanum string, Dynamic expression, double quoted string, alphanum string including period.
75 /OWNERS is not valid value for the "HREF" attribute in any of the currently active versions. See the above warnings for more details.
75 No starting tag found for: "A", or it was closed too many times.
75 No starting tag found for: "TD", or it was closed too many times
75 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TABLE" It is only allowed within: TR.
75 20% is not valid value for the "WIDTH" attribute in HTML32. Valid values for this attribute are: Dynamic expression, positive non zero integer.
76 HTTP://WWW.E-NGL.NET/LOGINREPORT.PHP3 is not valid value for the "ACTION" attribute in HTML20. Valid values for this attribute are: alphanum string, Dynamic expression, double quoted string.
76 HTTP://WWW.E-NGL.NET/LOGINREPORT.PHP3 is not valid value for the "ACTION" attribute in any of the currently active versions. See the above warnings for more details.
83 The tag:"TR" is not allowed within: "FORM" It is only allowed within: TABLE.
89 The tag:"TR" is not allowed within: "TD" It is only allowed within: TABLE.
89 The tag:"TR" is not allowed within: "FORM" It is only allowed within: TABLE.
90 The tag:"TABLE" is not allowed within: "TR" It is only allowed within: APPLET, CENTER, DIV, MAP.
91 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TABLE" It is only allowed within: TR.
91 50% is not valid value for the "WIDTH" attribute in HTML32. Valid values for this attribute are: Dynamic expression, positive non zero integer.
91 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TD" It is only allowed within: TR.
91 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TABLE" It is only allowed within: TR.
91 33% is not valid value for the "WIDTH" attribute in HTML32. Valid values for this attribute are: Dynamic expression, positive non zero integer.
91 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TD" It is only allowed within: TR.
91 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TABLE" It is only allowed within: TR.
91 33% is not valid value for the "WIDTH" attribute in HTML32. Valid values for this attribute are: Dynamic expression, positive non zero integer.
91 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TD" It is only allowed within: TR.
91 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TABLE" It is only allowed within: TR.
91 33% is not valid value for the "WIDTH" attribute in HTML32. Valid values for this attribute are: Dynamic expression, positive non zero integer.
70 No closing tag was found for the "TABLE" tag, which must be closed.
68 The "BODY" tag is missing an optional closing tag.
1 The "HTML" tag is missing an optional closing tag.

Some not so bad. Some prevent the page from loading at all in NS.

Some of those confuse me Mairving...

Quote: 71 TOP.GIF is not valid value for the "SRC" attribute in any of the currently active versions. See the above warnings for more details.

If thats not valid, what is?

Quote:
90 The tag:"TABLE" is not allowed within: "TR" It is only allowed within: APPLET, CENTER, DIV, MAP.
91 The tag:"TD" is not allowed within: "TABLE" It is only allowed within: TR.
91 50% is not valid value for the "WIDTH" attribute in HTML32. Valid values for this attribute are: Dynamic expression, positive non zero integer.

You cannot have another table inside of another table?
I thought that a % was valid for a width attribute?
Can you please pick out those that are keeping NS from showing the page??
Thank you all for the comments so far.
Do you like the colors I picked? The top.gif image? Navbar (despite problems)?
Thanks!

Well the first one about the TOP.GIF, your code is this: img src=top.gif. It should be quoted. Is the reason for the error.

The second one is trying to tell you that this code:

is not correct. You either need to remove the or add a .

Another is this code:
A couple of things about it. One is it needs a . The other is that it is always advisable to use when you are building tables. You leave to much to chance if you don't.

As far as the critique goes. It is quite similar to your old page except for the unneccessary addition of the DHTML cascading menu. If you had a lot of links on your menu it might be needed otherwise not. Please, please get some new graphics. That ACE is still pretty bad. I looked in Hemera but didn't see and ACE but I saw a Queen of Spades. Or do a search on Google to find another one. But that one must go. The colors you used are very unbecoming

You have img src=top.gif.
It should be img src="top.gif"

Your tables are a mess. See if this link helps.
-----> Table Help

Also, something isn't right about that menu. It is only clickable in certain parts. Shouldn't be that way. Where did you get the code for the menu from?

Coding issues aside, I'm not a huge fan of the overall look.

The text is very hard to read, make it Veranda and it'll be a lot better. Also the page is very plain, maybe find some images/clipart/photos to liven it up a bit and get a logo done which will give the whole site an identity (ie. it should be on each page).

The home page just looks thrown together and the adbanner really overpowers anything else on that page.

On long pages, such as rules, put a 'back to top' link as otherwise there's a lot of scrolling to be done.

National Gin Association. National meaning ????? When you're talking in terms of the internet the word "national" is pretty meaningless.

The layout on the front page seems very disorganized to me. Very scattered. Things need to be organized and aligned better. I'm having a hard time figuring out what i'm supposed to do now. I don't see a navigation bar or anything that looks like it will take me into the site. Maybe it's my browser??? Will check in IE... ahhh... that top menu isn't showing up at all in mozilla. You should be able to find something that works in all browsers...

You should have some information on the front page there about what this is and how it works. Lose the big graphic and create a smaller logo. Overall the layout is very poorly done on all pages. You need more structure. Think about alignment. Use the page as a canvas. Fill it.

I must say that I really do like your colour scheme

Ok...
Well I'm a bit stuck here.
My players and potential players have praised my design and text colors and typeface. But I know there is a difference between webmaster critiques and other critiques. I'll seriously consider changing it to Verdana.
The thing about critiques is everyone likes it different... Megan likes my color scheme, mairving calls them "unbecoming"
I'm working on a logo, although it probably won't turn out as I like it and I'll be back here looking for someone to create me one
I got the navbar from dynamicdrive.com
I've based my compatability on what people who play for me use. 95% use IE 4x or 5x.
As for national meaning, its simply for namesake. The National Basketball Association has teams from Canada and the USA but they are still National.
I've done other designs with other images, and my load time dragged. At one point, my other site had images, and lots of them, and my traffic dragged... card/board gamers are impatient, as I have found.
One other thing...
My log-in page and my reporting page are the same, made in PHP.
I've found that editing my navbar is rather annoying to do for every page, and i'm going to switch to SSI. How do I do this in PHP?
So, I'll be working on organization, fonts, images, and browser compatability, most of all. If there is anything else MAJOR that needs to be done, please tell me in case I missed it or just plain forgot.
Thanks!

making your nav bar in PHP would be the same layout in any language, what you want is to include it as a seperate file, or generate the same page with different content, but the different page per content way is best to include it so your only editing one file of navigation.

You mention your viewers are inpatient, thats true with everyone, no one wants to wait for page after page to load, so maybe think along the lines of, clean is simpe, simple is fast ...
clean doesnt have to mean no graphics, no fancy navigation

Maybe use your club colors (if you have some) and a easy layout, you have a banner on your site, how many of yoru members actually click on it? your site is targeted to your group only really so the banners arent needed as I doubt you'll make any money from it.

I want to use SSI to call the navbar... I know in PHP its like HTML but not the same
I do get banner click throughs, more than enough to pay for the site.
No "club colors" yet