Sylvan site *update 10/02/09*

[Abbadon]

Well, our beloved Sylvan Heart has been needing a new site for a long time now, so here goes.

I don't know if anyone knows this, but I have been looking at making a new site for Sylvan for some time now. I know Marlenus has started one, however due to his busy schedule (and dealing with that stupid internet company), he isn't able to finish it. So I decided to take the opportunity of the shard being down to really get cracking on it.

Here's how it looks so far:



Of course it isnt even 5% done yet, however I just wanted to show you guys what its looking like right now.

Ok, basically the point of this post was to get some ideas and feedback from you - the heart of Sylvan. Remember, this isn't MY site OR Acacia's or whatever, it is yours. So say what you don't like about it (I know it isn't much yet, but you can get the general idea heh), or what you do like about it, or what you want to see from it. Staffers you should participate too!

So to start us off I'll jot down what I'm thinking so far:

-I like the green theme of it, since thats what Sylvan is all about.
-However, I do not like the background - I am currently working on this. I spent around 4 hours trying to get a background that was satisfactory, alas no luck there. So for now I just placed a very simple background.
-The banner is ok, but simple. I currently have a friend who is much more skilled than I in photoshop who is taking his time with it. HOWEVER, please, if anyone wants to have a shot at making the banner maybe we can make it into some sort of competition! Mayhap the staffers can design some sort of deco trophy for making the Sylvan Heart website's banner 

My Ideas for the future:

-I would like to place some screenshots of us in Sylvan together including some of our shinies and tamables. This would be placed in the "Community" section.
-I would also like to make a short promo clip of Sylvan Heart at it's best, placed through an embedded youtube video. I would be looking to take clips of us fighting some of the custom Sylvan bosses, using our shiny dragons, some of our events and also show a bit about our races.
-I would also place a "vote for Sylvan" in an easy to see place. Maybe this way we can get our vote count up resulting in more players.

Last notes

Thanks for taking the time to read through this friends - I want your feedback! It's been a learning curve for myself, but I had a lot of fun doing it. If anyone wishes to work on it as well, please say so. If not, your support is worth just as much. Now I'm going to go take five 

-Abaddon

[Thane ir'Wyndan]

Sir I salute your initiative and appreciate your choice to make us a website.  I have zero ability to make and design a website but I can help with various information that needs to be placed into said website.

[Cpt_Starfox]

Consider yourself double saluted!   

I'm lovin' the green! ... at least the banner and buttons and general color anyway... minus the butterflies. I'm sorry, but for me... they gotta go lol 

About the background.. I'm like you.. meh on the current. I really like faded pics for backgrounds of each section... but the over all background can be that what you have..... it is simple and that is about what ya want.

And despite that I love green... this might be over doing it on the bright neon side hehe - the button and especially the banner I love the green of... but not the whole thing hehe - btw, also love the gold Sylvan text!

Here is a site I worked on for the Fae of Sylvan:
http://www.freewebs.com/faegovernment/

I dunno that you can use it all, but I pull off a few little CSS tricks among other things ya might find handy 

I'm probly really much more of a programmer than I am a graphic designer. I fiddle with graphics some here and there and can do some neat stuff, but aint no pro    However, if ya want coding help, or are running into any scripting issues... run it by me, and I don't mind helpin' out! 

Oh and also, the border for the center has a neat "foresty" look that I like hehe.
Oh and also again... I've had a neat idea for an ad banner for Sylvan... it's been floating around in my head for a looong while... it would likely require flash or a lot of GIF work. I'd rather draw something up and hand it to one of our Sylvan flash gurus hehe - anyone? I'd also love helping with pics for anything including the youtube one - I can think of at least one hilarious lil pic I'd like to submitt hehehe!

Keep it rollin' dude!

[Abbadon]

Thanks for the feedback guys, I will take them into consideration.

Thane I will need help from you for the information part with details about Sylvan events and the like - my lack of experience here prevents me from be able to write any detailed descriptions. I will probably be requesting information soon, but I am trying to get down the template first before I start putting in information.

Heh, Link I'll see what I can do instead of the butterflies (bunny rabbits? I don't know lol). Just keep in mind that it will most likely not be the permanent one. I just placed it there as a placeholder for where the banner will go.
I've just had a good long sleep and come up with an idea for the background - faded parchment with perhaps a watermark of an oak tree.
I also agree with you that right now it is TOO green Hopefully some light brown parchment will clear that up.
As for the border... hehe thats my thanks to whoever created the current Sylvan website. I grabbed a little bit of the background it had and played around with it on photoshop.
I can't really help you out in the flash thing, since I don't know much about that (I don't know much about web design or photoshop either but hey, I try )

All righty, I'll go work on it some more now

[Myrick]

Thank you, thank you, a thousand times thank you! It is looking good for a start, and here are my ideas.

Might try a brown general background with green buttons and banner. It might make it pop a bit more.

I agree with a voting link definitely need that up there.

We have a list of events with descriptions on forums under either shard basics or announcements, you could get info from there for events listing.

We could set a time to get a GM or a vet tamer help you get some stills of Dragons and such, or even better, run a  pet wars and get you there to photgraph winners with their pets and their trophies

Personally, If you want to do an oak tree, I'd rather see one of the large white yew trees.

That's about all the suggestions I have for now.

One final note, I am one voice please give no more weight to my comments than you would any other based on my GM status. Thanks.

[Abbadon]

Of course Myrick, I treat everyone the same regardless of status

I am currently working on something that might be fantastic if it works, or could be a complete disaster hehe. Either way I'm having quite a bit of fun right now! I will take everyone's words into consideration and thank you for the feedback

[Abbadon]

After many hours here is a screenie of a second shot at it:




I still hate the background heh, but it will have to do for now. Im thinking of putting a big yew tree as Myrick stated to the far right (theres actually a decent bit of space there, I just cut it out to make the image smaller). However I need one of the staffers to take a screenshot of it since I can't get the full shot of it without the leaves and braches going transparent.

Just for you Link - no butterflys!

I also added a book type thing with a page marker showing where you are navigating (right now it's set to "Home"). The little dog earred end of the page (top right) is where I'm HOPING I can somehow make it so it flips the page over. If not all this effort has gone to waste bleh 

Bah I am exhausted now, I think I'll take another break lol.

Keep up the feedback! Its YOUR website!

[Cpt_Starfox]

maybe the Yew tree on our "oldish" site might help?

http://www.sylvandreams.co.uk/

BTW, nifty book idea.

*thinks about the page turning thingy...*

Is that suppose to turn to the next page of the site... or the next part of the home page (or w/e page you're on)? It shouldn't be much more than an image map link.... or even simpler, a regular image used as a link and stuck up there in that corner.

BTW, butterflies netted - cool hehe 

[Abbadon]

Hmm yeah, if only frontpage would let me set the layout in the picture properties lol.

The yew tree in the old site was good, but Myrick suggested a white yew tree (like the one in the druids grove) so I'm trying to put everyone's suggestions into consideration.

As for the book thing, it is quite small so I doubt I can fit all the info in there, which is why I need to be able to turn the pages heh.

I still gotta go clean up some of these images - the edges are looking rough lol.

Oh well its a new day - so work work!

[Skynar]

here is some constructive critism for you and some advice


Simple is always better.

remember that on websites  peoples Eyes naturally start on the right and move counterclockwise (this is why you see most ads placed on the right side of websites) So you want to have the most important information on the right side.

Always use a solid color background.  Graphics loading are time consuming and they are usually the sign of an amateur ( NO OFFENSE MEANT)

If you can  avoid frontpage. It makes you lazy and MS attaches a ton of its own code on the backside which causes problems later.  Try NVU   its free and alot better   You can download it from cnet  download.com etc or dreamweaver is a good authoring program for beginners but has a lot of power to it that as your knowledge increases you can start using more and more of the addons and kewl toys

if you are using frames. trash and start over  using Tables.. frames will give you headache upon headache  and they are not used anymore.

those are a few tips  with that said  I think  your doing a fine job.   I might suggest  in this case, Since they already have a Joomla site(sitting in limbo) that will make it very dynamic  that you concentrate more on a Theme and maybe some really kewl graphics, Ideas of the different areas needed.  Once those things are made or decided   Adding them to joomla takes no time at all.

[Abbadon]

Yeah I started off trying to use joomla but it just caused way too much grief. You need like 50 programs just to get it set up then you need another 50 just to make it look good lol (I got apache and PHP set up, but MySQL just decided not to work heh). I was looking for something simple and functional, but it seems I have gotten carried away heh - still working on it right now.

Ill try out NVU now.

Thanks for the feedback - I always try to keep an open mind

[Skynar]

Ahh you dont have to go thru all that headache  Just download Ravenswood    Its a program that runs Joomla  locally for you and takes care of all the backend stuff you would normally have to install.

Ive used it when building sites  that the domains are not ready for.

[Admin Acacia]

Some really pretty stuff.  I just know I am clueless on websites and I'm spread pretty thin because of real life.  I appreciate all the great work my young ones are doing for Sylvan.

[Abbadon]

*update*

I've been working on a new banner for us, since it doesnt look like my friend is going to do it (he probably will but hes just taking way too much time heh).




I figure it still isnt much, but I reckon simple is good Also think the bunny is somewhat out of place heh, gotta fix that up

But then I again I could be wrong. Who wants more eye candy? Speak up!

[Myrick]

I like that banner, but I'd rather see a more clear set of pictures or none at all. Yes, the bunny is distracting.