Time for a change? Seniors Network - www.seniorsnetwork.co.uk

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Dave Cooper on January 13, 2010 at 21:33

Hi John,
Congratulations on your website! It's certainly wide-ranging. I'd suggest simplifying your menu structure a bit and doing a bit of work on the accessibility. Apparently screen readers (used by visually impaired web users) like to bounce from one header tag to the next so it would be good if you used them. Using CSS you should be able to offer an option for the not-so-eagle-eyed where they can opt for a high contrast at 100% screen width. In addition, explaining how to change the text size would be positive: in 'accessibility' you say it's possible, but not how to do it!
It would be really nice if you could add a facility that allows your readers to add their own comments, pics etc. A forum might be the easiest way. (Assuming you're hosted by Compila) you can add a phpBB forum from cpanel: it's the forum I use and I think it's the best. There's a very active forum at www.phpbb.com where you can get help if you need it.
Hope this helps! I spent loads more time browsing your site than I did writing this!
Dave

Permalink Reply by John Lynch on January 14, 2010 at 11:55

Dave

Many thanks for your valuable comments. I agree with you and will take them on board.

I did have a link to larger fonts but it has disappeared over the years. I will read up on the CSS high contrast etc and I will retry and simplify the menu structure.

I agree about the Forums - I tried phpBB ( I used every trick they had) and more recently SMF but the freeloading advertisers got out of control very quickly - it took too much time to keep deleting them. I am still on the lookout for a "less popular" forum which can stop the freeloaders - particularly the ones who do not even register!!


many thanks Dave - now to restore the font changer!

John Lynch

Permalink Reply by Gerald Hornsby on January 15, 2010 at 0:31

I don't think you can stop the spammers, whatever your choice of forum software. A large forum I used to moderate (40,000+ members) always used to get spammers - at least one per day. We deleted the posts and banned the user and the IP address. It's just one of those housekeeping jobs you have to do.

Gerald

P.S. An amazing site. Well done.So much information, but by far the best way of keeping a site up to date is to create a forum. The users will keep the information up to date for you!

I personally don't like backgrounds with images. I find it distracting, and always prefer a plain background.

Also, the second tier of the menu structure gets lost under the Google ads on the right, especially for those menus to the right of the navigation bar. I'd try to move the Google adsense ads down, and maybe put a piece of static content at the top of the sidebar.

Permalink Reply by John Lynch on January 15, 2010 at 19:42

Gerald

Many thanks - I had not noticed it before!! I have added a a block of text to the Google ad as a short term measure - however the menu needs some trimming.
I am still reviewing the Forum - I do like them but dont like the constant deletions.

I tried to make the background as discrete as possible - I will have another go!!

Permalink Reply by Harvey Raybould on January 16, 2010 at 2:35

Hi John,

Congratulations on your site, it really does contain some impressive information, and I have seen it grow substantially over the years.

Have you ever thought about using a CMS system such as WordPress or Joomla? I know it would be a major job for you, but in the long run it may save you lots of time, not having to worry about FrontPage, html, css etc plus it would bring a whole new world of interactivity for your members. Allowing them to add their own content, comments, photographs etc etc. If it is something you would consider everyone at Compila can help you get started.

With regards to the spam on your forum, are these html injections or something different? Most forum systems enable you to turn off html in posts, so if this is the problem, turning html off may help.

I just wondered how many members you have at the moment, no problem if you do not want to share this information. The reason I ask, is I have a fairly big customer who I could approach for you, to see if they would be interested in sponsoring your web site.

Take care

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by John Lynch on January 16, 2010 at 11:45

Harvey

Nice to hear from you again and many thanks for your comments.

I have watched the growth of Compila and have entrusted you with my domains since before the millenium - 2000.
The Compila Exchange is a great idea and is already a success - congratulations! Long may it continue.

I am reconsidering CMS and will take a look at Wordpress shortly - I may also consider NING instead of a forum? I may take you up on the offers of help later.

I suffer from the old complaint of people who retire - I dont have a lot of time to spare!! Too many hobbies and interests.

I lost our mailing list in a hard drive crash over a year ago - it was then nearly 5000 - I am currently rescuing part of it and will restart the list again soon.





Harvey Raybould said:

Hi John,

Congratulations on your site, it really does contain some impressive information, and I have seen it grow substantially over the years.

Have you ever thought about using a CMS system such as WordPress or Joomla? I know it would be a major job for you, but in the long run it may save you lots of time, not having to worry about FrontPage, html, css etc plus it would bring a whole new world of interactivity for your members. Allowing them to add their own content, comments, photographs etc etc. If it is something you would consider everyone at Compila can help you get started.

With regards to the spam on your forum, are these html injections or something different? Most forum systems enable you to turn off html in posts, so if this is the problem, turning html off may help.

I just wondered how many members you have at the moment, no problem if you do not want to share this information. The reason I ask, is I have a fairly big customer who I could approach for you, to see if they would be interested in sponsoring your web site.

Take care

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Harvey Raybould on January 16, 2010 at 12:25

Hi John

Thank you very much for your kind words and please do not hesitate to contact us if you need some help.

Do you think 5000 is a current number regarding your visitors? If you are interested in me contacting my contact on your behalf, please have a check of your web stats for unique visitors in your Cpanel.

Take care

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by John Lynch on February 1, 2010 at 16:33

Harvey

Sorry but I am playing catchup!! My telephone and broadband was out of commission for over a week.

My current unique visitors are nearing 950 per day - it was nearly 1500 per day a year ago but the number of Seniors web sites has increased dramatically plus I was too busy to promote the site properly. I stopped using a newsletter - mailing list (lost it!!) some time ago but at that time we had over 2500 people on the list. My other web site monklands.co.uk has also been keeping me busy - it has some 500 unique visitors daily.

I like your concept of Compila exchange - I am considering using Ning or a good forum software. I am continuing my investigations.


Regards

John Lynch

Harvey Raybould said:

Hi John

Thank you very much for your kind words and please do not hesitate to contact us if you need some help.

Do you think 5000 is a current number regarding your visitors? If you are interested in me contacting my contact on your behalf, please have a check of your web stats for unique visitors in your Cpanel.

Take care

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Harvey Raybould on February 3, 2010 at 7:42

Hi John

Thank you for the update. I will let you know when I have an update for you.

Take care

Regards

Harvey

Permalink Reply by Sheila Pritchard on February 9, 2010 at 12:10

Hi John, I think the content of your site is quite impressive and obviously very time consuming for you.

As another young at heart oldie I found that the information you provide is most interesting and useful.

I have taken on board Dave Cooper, Chris, Rune and Harvey's comment re my site and as a result have re-built it with more CSS styles than I had before plus I have written a bit more HTML. For what it is worth my advice is that I found the HTML and CSS code examples on the W3 site very useful.

Kind regards
Sheila

Permalink Reply by John Lynch on February 9, 2010 at 12:28

Sheila

Many thanks Sheila. I currently use some basic CSS but at present I am swotting up and intend to use a great deal more CSS!! I will have a look at the examples. However the sun is shining today and I must take advantage of it.

Regards

John

Sheila Pritchard said:

Hi John, I think the content of your site is quite impressive and obviously very time consuming for you.

As another young at heart oldie I found that the information you provide is most interesting and useful.

I have taken on board Dave Cooper, Chris, Rune and Harvey's comment re my site and as a result have re-built it with more CSS styles than I had before plus I have written a bit more HTML. For what it is worth my advice is that I found the HTML and CSS code examples on the W3 site very useful.

Kind regards
Sheila