Topic: Pharo Tek-Part 3

Well i figured it was time to restart my ever growing topics. Anyway, here is my link:
http://pharotek.xtremeconfusion.com

i just want to note that if you go to:
http://pharotek.xtremeconfusion.com/ptv3/index.php

i am trying to make my site php and also find a news program that will work with it. Also, i want to tell you i got a UBB. The owner of the license let me use it since i offered him a spot as Site admin. He aggreed so now i got that going for me.

1. do not tell me what screen res to view at
2. do not tell me which browser to use
3. do not tell me to allow cookies if I do not want too
4. and dont tell me which size monitor I need

good luck in web design

I've rid my site of that stuff. now take a look. i know it looks like that statik net but i am working on somthing to fix that

Well er the second like does not work and the like that does work the links with in does not work.

Anyway would do a full review as there is not much there.

1) Why have you made it for a 1024 by 768, it can be easily for a 800 by 600 screen.

2) why the bright orange colour for that back ground?, because that?s just hurt my eyes.

The rest of it is ok for the one page it is. I will get back to this one after you have more pages .


Chris C

PT: Nice to see you back with your third username (the other being Malice). Thoughts on your page (the second link doesn't work so I'm only doing the page from the first one):

1. It is too wide in 800x600 - there is a big margin down the left and that is pushing everything over. Your problem is that you have the main box with width set to 100% and then left and right margins (which are outside of the box) set to 12% - go for either or not both.

2. The colours contrast too strongly or not enough. The orange is very 'glarey' in large blocks (it may work as a highlight colour) and it makes it difficult to concentrate on the content boxes. The headers on the content boxes are too dark a grey for that black text esp. with that orange background.

3. You can put the styles for the Asylum code in the head.

4. The page is too long again and you need to keep only the most recent news on this page and have a link through to an archive page.

Other than that it is similar to previous versions and I think we ironed out a lot of the creases then (the code looks good, for example). Adjust the colours and sort out that width problem and you should be fine - well done.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

well i got my ubb up and the colors on it are my new colors

since i dont want to look like more of a dumbass i'll post the link:
http://pharotek.xtremeconfusion.com/forums/ubb/ultimatebb.cgi

those asre my new colors. I just got them an hour ago and i intend to fix the problems on my site. Im just wondering for the sake of lay out do you think it is ok. I am going make it more compatible with 800x600 if I can just figure out how.

I redid the site and did the fixing in 800x600 so it should work and look nice

PT: That is all much better and has sorted out the problem with the guttering too. Not much else to comment on although if you have access to PHP/MySQL then I'd think about using a UBB clone.

Well done.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

Looks pretty swell, nice colors and layout...

what do you mean UBB Clone like Phpbb? i am told UBB is now in php

PT: I don't know much about that but you appear to be running the CGI version. It may be that they have had to go with the flow and produce a PHP version - does anyone else know more about this?

Emps

eh... I dont really think the ubb is php but its counterpart is. I forgot the name of it but you can look a info pop home page. I noticed this thing got sent pretty far down. Well I am bumping it right now *BUMP*.

Emps i am thinking about what I could add to my site to make it better. I know a flash anything is nice but I am horrible at flash and rarely open the program. I know there are things out there i could add to make it better and i have a chat program uploaded but it needs fixin'. I also have the UBB. But what good does a UBB do me if i dont get trafffic and dont have any website content. My site is based on Gaming and Rock Music, two things i enjoy doing and listening to . Anyway, so if you could or someone else assist me on finding doohickies and thingamabobs for my site i would appreciate it

Something I have been looking at is making my site php. I konw if i just change my page extension to .php that is will work. However, i would have to find a new news program. For which i found at Php Resource index but newsPHP, the program I want to use, is not to be found. If someone here has a copy of the program could i get a copy?


For mow that is all i can think about to talk or ask aboot ( damn canadians ) :P


-Patrick-



<A HREF="http://
pharotek.xtremeconfusion.com/" TARGET=_blank>Pharo Tek</A>

What? no feed back yet from emps. that is odd oh well *bump* ya ya i know this is the second bum and im only two topics from the top but every one usually goes for the newest post in a forum



Pharo Tek

Well Patrick Emp has computer problems (see here), I wish I could help but I am not a coder .

*Wonders down the hall in my darkness shadow, feeling useless to the site review forum. Wonders where are all them nice graphic heavy site are, that look so nice*


Chris C

~the Emperor arrives coughing and wheezing on his one legged Imperial pony~

I'll drop this in while I can and then try and catch up on other reviews - I'm sure some graphic heavy ones will be along soon DS!!)

PT: I'm not sure you are asking the right question (or if you are I've missed the point). Here are the two you may be aiming at:

1. How can I get more traffic?

Tricky but there are things you can do:

a) Try and tweak your search engine placing.

b) Get more people to link to you.

c) Add more unique content.

I suspect we can rummage together a few ideas that should help.

2. What extra features can I add to my site that will make people come, visit and stay?

This is an interesting question (sticky sites are also tricky) and (apart from point c above) it can be tempting to add all sorts of JavaScript, PHP, CGI, etc. goodies which you think are cool but which slow the pages down and don't get used. Things that are good:

a) A 'recommend this page' script.

b) Custom error pages (if you can).

c) Allow registered users to comment on reviews and rate them.

d) Add a poll (but monitor its usage and see if people actually bother with it).

e) Pos. work on something 'unique' and DB related - your focus makes that a bit tricky but pos. relate it to point c (in this section) and have a DB of album details for the bands you like and then allow people to rate the album and/or songs and provide little mini-reviews. These kind of features are often the most interesting parts of a site - I often go to Amazon just to check out the reviews.

f) Become an Amazon affliate to allow people to buy the album/game you mention (you don't have to sell your soul and you could become an affliate with a number of stores).

g) Make your site searchable and pos. team up with Google so that you could have a little 'search for BAND on Google' box.

h) Try to make everything as database driven as you can to keep maintenace low and functionality high (you can log access to each review and then offer the most popular pages).

i) Shamelessly chase awards.

j) Ask users what they want to see.

More details if required.

Increasing traffic and developing stickiness are Black Arts and there are no easy answers. The main trick is to develop a community by offering unique content with a good level of intereaction whereever you can which is easier said than done. With your site I would focus on developing a DB of games and music which people can rate and comment on with a good board where they can discuss various other aspects and listen to their feedback.

You may also want to consider getting your own domain name and hosting (for both points 1 and 2).

One point I notice you have the GN down as an affiliate - have you asked permission?

Hope that helps direct your thoughts - I can expand on any/all points and I'm sure others will throw in their ideas (or their comments pointing out where my ideas fall down!!).

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

emps I will start working on the album stuff you suggested and i will team up with amazon and google. I was think i could place my own search box on my site and mot have to worry about ads

Guru Net. i saw the link to use thing. so i did. the only reason they are under aff. is because i have no idea why. i can always remove it. and i think i will. and i dont know why they would be bothered by me placing a link the GN on my site



Pharo Tek

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 12-31-2001).]

PT: It should be relatively simple to set up that album DB so it works well with Amazon and Google - you can set up a search engine for your own site without using Google and only use them for the full web search. You should also think about a links DB like PHPHoo. Turning your hobby into a website should be an easy thing but it still needs plenty of planning but it looks like you are on the way.

I was just mentioning the affliate business as it can often imply a relationship but I suspect it doesn't matter.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

ok im wondering emps if you mean with that album stuff what you mean by DB. Do you mean MySQL DB or just a different kind of DB. and also will this PHPHoo just do links or does it lets you make pages on different albums and such



Pharo Tek

PT: Yes it should be easy enough to do with MySQL as long as you've planned it all out - I'd be happy to discuss table structure if you like.

PHPHoo is a directory based links DB based on Yahoo (hence the name) but it should be easy to tie the links in with any album/band you wish. As I'm sure you've got hundreds of links it makes sense.

Emps


You're my wife now Dave

Looks good in MSIE 6.0, but Netscape 6.2 really dosen't do you justice at all...

Synthetic, although i want it to work all around i dont have any kind offeelings towards netscape. hey emps i would like to talk about table structure. considering i dont know anything about mysql DBs.



Pharo Tek

hey have ya'll heard of freesql.org? i have signed up but they are cleanig their DBs out. anyway It seems to me that no wants to discuss DBs with me but hey i think i could figure it out but then agin maybe i couldnt.

so BUMP



Pharo Tek

ya know, i think some hovers on those links would spruce it up a bit...

PT: Sorry I'm still catching up on old stuff but you were next on the list (promise). I would be concerned about freesql.org as hosting your DB externally adds all sorts of problems and I believe the site (and DBs) was down for a while not long ago and if you are relying on such a service it can screw everything up. If you don't have MySQL access with your current host then find another like www.f2g.net or grab yourself a domain name and go for some of the cheap hosting options (contact Pugzly about his hosting service if you want). It will save you hassle and stress in the long run.

Right database structure:

If you are initially just setting something up dealing with the music side I'd go for something like:

BAND_TABLE
band_id
band_name
ETC

ALBUM_TABLE
album_id
album_name
times_viewed
vote_1
vote_2
vote_3
vote_4
vote_5
ETC

MUSICIAN_TABLE
musican_id
musician_name
musician_bio
musician_picture
ETC

TRACK_TABLE
track_id
track_name
vote_1
vote_2
vote_3
vote_4
vote_5
ETC

TRACK_ALBUM_LINK_TABLE
album_id
track_id
track_number

ABILITIES_TABLE
ability_id
ability_name
ETC

MUSICIAN_ABILITY_LINK_TABLE
musician_id
ability_id

COMMENTS_TABLE
comment_id
comment_date
user_id
album_id
comment
ETC

This should give you the most flexibility and allow for compilations, multi-instrumental musicians, different guys appearing in different bands (even supergroups!!). You could have comments on just the albums or on individual tracks if you wish. You can rank the albums by the number of times they've been viewed and/or you can rank albums or tracks by the number of times they've been voted for.

Anyway have a think about the features that you want for your album section, upload phpMyAdmin and have a play with that structure. Its all just off the top of my head (I've been pondering how to cover the various combinations of things and that seems the best way at the moment) so there may be glaring errors so we'll need to kick this around a bit longer. Question? Ask away.

Emps


Beware of men without beards and women with beards - Basque proverb

just a note (if I missed this last time, I apologize)

something about the blinking arrows I don't enjoy. Either the arrows should be a non-blinking color (maybe reintroduce orange here, or pale blue) or a different non-blinking shape. Blink got cheezy a while ago. Besides your BB needs an accent color and this could be the way to get one.

well put Allewyn. Emps now once i get that table setup done then what?



<B>Pharo Tek

PT: It depends where your PHP coding is up to. I'd use phpMyAdmin to put in some examples and then play with PHP to draw the results out of the DB. Its pretty basic PHP stuff and I'd initially just try doing it by extracting the id from the URL and grabbing the appropriate band. So set up a band.php page and then you can test grabbing the band from band.php?band_id=2 for example. You'll need to test to see if id has been passed and not tampered with like:

if (!empty($band_id)) {

  if (is_numeric($band_id)) {

     $current_band_id = $band_id;

  }

  else {

  }

}

else {

}

you can then use $current_band_id (or whatever) to search the database and pull the goodies out.

Once you can get the details out in a form that suits you'll need to have a link through to your albums page (i.e. album.php?album_id=3) so that people can get more detail from there.

Did I mention that you could sign up with Amazon (or another firm if you want) so that you can offer the albums for sale?

More detail and resources if you want.

Emps


Beware of men without beards and women with beards - Basque proverb

oooooooo makes me so mad. some moron on who my host is hosting used up what ever of 15 gigs of bandwidth was left for the month i guess of january. no i can reach my site and work on it. for now my hoster is working on fixing that problem



<B>Pharo Tek

PT: Set up a server on your home computer (search through the server-side coding forum and look for links to foxserv or nusphere). It'll make testing simpler.

Emps

*edit*double post in a way*edit*

[This message has been edited by Patrick (edited 01-20-2002).]

oh yeah. i just want to say here is my site to do list for the year 2002:

1.Start up database
2. Begin adding bands and getting help
3.buy domain name pharotek.net
4.buy hosting or stay with present one
5.convert site to php code
6.get dsl or cable
7.start home server

for now the first five are going to happen if i get a job. the other two are up to maternal judgement.

Coming to a Computer Screen Near You

<B>Pharo Tek

i got that server and running. now i just need to get my host up and running again then i will be back in business.

Coming to a Computer Screen Near You

<B>Pharo Tek

OK thread continued here:
www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum6/HTML/000778.html