Author Topic: Otherpower.com could use a facelift (Read 766 times)

claude · « **on:** January 30, 2007, 09:40:43 AM »

Hello everybody.

I read this board on a daily basis and I find the content fascinating. And this is the most important quality in a board. But I find the whole site (visually speaking) a bit "simple", to be polite. Being a graphic designer I'm willing to help make this site look better.

Here's a quick sketch for a logo:

So I'm addresing our hosts with this. I also include here a poll. Maybe we all should answer to it.

MickS · « **Reply #1 on:** January 30, 2007, 03:37:44 AM »

Dont waste everybody's time downloading graphics that add no value.

Mick S

PaulJ · « **Reply #2 on:** January 30, 2007, 04:31:33 AM »

Nice sketch, but like some other people here I have a painfully slow internet connection and wouldn't want any extra graphics to make things slower.

Paul.

claude · « **Reply #3 on:** January 30, 2007, 04:33:36 AM »

Hy Mick,

I disagree. Graphics do add value. My work experience has proven this to me. I'm not talking here about making a christmas tree out of this page. But the visual identity should be better outlined. And extra time won't be needed al all if this is made properly.

I respect your opinion. You are, as most of us, more interested in content rather than its package. But this board has reached a certain level of popularity and text-mode html look is getting a little old.

Claude

Stynus · « **Reply #4 on:** January 30, 2007, 05:02:28 AM »

Maybe you could use punbb

http://www.punbb.org

It is a lightweight PHP discussion board.

The biggest improvement then will be the edit button :p.

wdyasq · « **Reply #5 on:** January 30, 2007, 05:49:29 AM »

The nice thing about the internet is you are free to start your own site.

Ron

wind4Reg · « **Reply #6 on:** January 30, 2007, 05:53:42 AM »

I think that this is an excellent idea, and who can really resist the offer of free help from a graphics designer. I think the owners of this site would be crazy not to take you up on this offer. For those who are concerned about the extra size of the graphics, you need to compare the sizes of the graphics.

The size of the current Otherpower.com graphic is: 2.34 KB

The size of the new one claude has proposed is: 25.29 KB

On a slow dialup connection which I sometimes use (26.4 kb/s) that size difference would be in fractional seconds on the first load and once cached it would make no difference.

Someone also made a comment about changing to a different type of lightweight PHP discussion board, and personally I wouldn't agree with that idea. That would be a lot of work to a site that works well functionally, plus they would most likely have to undergo a major migration of all the current and past discussions or else have them archived and watch the exact questions get posted again and again in a much higher volume than it is happening now.

I think replacing some of the images with new fresh logos would look great.

Volvo farmer · « **Reply #7 on:** January 30, 2007, 05:58:47 AM »

Hey claude... That there's a windMILL on your drawing. This site is mostly concerned with wind TURBINES... Just an observation.

veewee77 · « **Reply #8 on:** January 30, 2007, 06:00:55 AM »

Working in the field for may years and watching the Internet get higher speed connections while at the same time getting more graphical and dealing every day with Internet traffic where I work, I feel that the OP site is a very relaxing read for someone wanting a great deal of information at very little cost (bandwidth is part of the "cost"). If it gets dressed up, it will get slower, particularly for those on dialup connections, and I dare say there are a few people that visit that site thay may even be using a text-based browser (those are FAST even on dialup, just no pictures directly viewable.)

As others have stated, leave it alone and keep the speed. Keep the meat and leave the candy for those sites that have to make an impression in other ways besides having great content. They have to dress up to be appealing because they don't have much else to offer. . .

Keep Otherpower.com unique in a drowning world of eye-candy.

JMHO - YMMV

Doug

Waterlogged · « **Reply #9 on:** January 30, 2007, 06:08:21 AM »

Leave it the way it is. Claude, if you need graphics, then print them on a clear film, and place it in front of your monitor. There is already too much graphics ruining the internet for those of us that want to READ.

rOD

veewee77 · « **Reply #10 on:** January 30, 2007, 06:17:00 AM »

Actually, the discussion is about the Otherpower website, not the discussion board. The discussion board is a separate part of the Otherpower website and therefore, isn't part of this discussion.

This one is about the Otherpower website itself.

Changing the discussion board is another subject that has beemn visited many times by many people with some great ideas, however, I, and likely the majority of others that frequent here regularly agree that is is fine as it is.

It is funny that new people that have never contributed to the content of the discussion board fnally make an entry and their entry has nothing to do with telling people ways to make their own energy but about changing the site.

Whoever you are, welcome to the discussion board! Read a while and examine the content and the speed and efficiency and then decide to post about changing it.

All comments do not fall on deaf ears, I assure you. But for a site that is completely free, and run by nothing but volunteers and is done as their time allows, I am very thankful to have it as a great resource. Leave it alone and don't burden the volunteers with trivial stuff that has little to nothing to do with the purpose and content of a great renewable energy resource.

JMHO - YMMV

Doug

TomW · « **Reply #11 on:** January 30, 2007, 06:52:30 AM »

Claude;

I find it insulting that you cruise in here as a member for nearly 6 whole months [since way back in August of last year] and tell us we need a facelift! Kind of like me telling you your child looks stupid or something.

Personally, it always ticks me off when "new people" have to try to change something many of us have built over the last 4 or 5 years.

On another note, graphics have destroyed the internet, in my opinion.

Maybe we could add some flash crap and pop ups that you cannot get rid of.

No, Claude, thanks anyway. We come here to read the info and look at pretty pictures of real projects. You might not realize that it was only relatively recently that we got the ability to add photos to posts.

However, feel free to start up a sister site and load it down with graphics, blink tags and flash animations if you wish.

By now you realize you stepped on a hornets nest.

Change is slow here so kick back, grab your glasses and a beverage and learn about making sustainable power.

If I have offended you or misunderstood your intention / meaning here, well, welcome to the internet!

Cheers.

TomW

whatsnext · « **Reply #12 on:** January 30, 2007, 06:55:48 AM »

While we're at it why don't we all agree to get rid of bandwidth wasting graphics in our signatures?

just asking, john

whatsnext · « **Reply #13 on:** January 30, 2007, 06:58:11 AM »

But you have no issues putting a 17k sign off on every post?

/pot calling kettle black?

whatsnext · « **Reply #14 on:** January 30, 2007, 07:01:15 AM »

And I just noticed Ron's is 40k. Nice use of the Dan's resources.

wpowokal · « **Reply #15 on:** January 30, 2007, 07:02:32 AM »

" All good things in life are free"

Quite possibly correct but as for renewable energy, the source may be free (until governments tax it, and don't laugh the government here in Australia want to tax rain) but the means of harnesing it are not.

As too the graphics it's up to the board owners to comment/ accept or otherwise your offer.

allan down under

wdyasq · « **Reply #16 on:** January 30, 2007, 07:04:43 AM »

You can find a forum I don't post on....

Ron

wdyasq · « **Reply #17 on:** January 30, 2007, 07:08:58 AM »

Be careful Tom - it seems the truth DOES offend many.

Ron

whatsnext · « **Reply #18 on:** January 30, 2007, 07:36:13 AM »

much easier to point out wastefulness when I see it.

DougT · « **Reply #19 on:** January 30, 2007, 08:19:06 AM »

K.I.S.S.

As a member of many other boards, I find this board the easiest to use, the best laid out, the fastest,and the simplest to navigate. I come to this board to read posts not to be overwhelmed with needless graphics. Also an astute observation about the windmill vs wind turbine.

richhagen · « **Reply #20 on:** January 30, 2007, 08:32:19 AM »

Also, wind power really isn't a free lunch, you have to invest in the turbine, the tower, transmission and power conversion equipment. In general, it is more costly on a small scale than the local electric utility. It is however much more satisfying. Rich

finnsawyer · « **Reply #21 on:** January 30, 2007, 08:37:47 AM »

I'm with you on this one all the way. I would find his graphic overwhelming and unwanted. What I really find offensive is those damned animated silhouetted graphics that have shown up on Yahoo. Another annoyance is a graphic that constantly shifts colors. One vote for leaving it the way it is.

richhagen · « **Reply #22 on:** January 30, 2007, 08:39:56 AM »

I suspect that if additional bandwidth is required to download each page, it will become more costly for our hosts. I am familiar with both the site and the discussion board and like them as they are. It is the content of the pages that is of most interest to me, not the appearance. The only parts of the appearance that are particularly important to me are the photographs of the projects that frequently appear. Other than that, as long as it is organized enough for me to find what I am looking for, additional fluff just adds confusion. Rich

DaveW · « **Reply #23 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:14:01 AM »

Claude -

I'm sure your heart is in the right place, but you may have tweaked a nerve or two with your "simple" comment.

I have been working with wind generators since '74. My first efforts were abject, dismal, abysmal failures. I counted my fourth generator a success when it would produce just over 2 amps at 12 volts in a 30+ MPH wind. That was in '75.

Since finding this board in Jan of 2001, I have managed 100 times that first output with less effort. The message is in the doing, not the presentation.

Along the way I have counted many here to be a friend, sharing ideas and techniques freely even though we have never met and likely never will. This board may have in your eye a country lok to it, even a mountain music feel to it, but it works to bring the message of sustainable energy to many thousands across the world. You talk about simple as though it were bad, but that is a real part of the message. Simple. Energy. You can do it too.....

wooferhound · « **Reply #24 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:15:29 AM »

The logo you generated has a picture of a water pumping mill on it, we don't use those around here, just the towers they were on. And it doesen't appear that you have visited the otherpower website or you would see that the slogan is . . .

Having just recently getting DSL Highspeed, I do remember being on Dial-up downloading the site at 40 kbps. It was slow enough then, especially when many users would upload 3 meg pictures. Plus I know that many users on here are living remotely and will never have the chance to get Cable or DSL internet. These Dial-up users are the people that need the OtherPower site the most, and they have connections that are slower than my original 40k speeds.

And I totally agree about the file size of the big animated graphics in some users signatures. I know that I have a graphic in my signature, but I sized and compressed that photo to less than 4k designed for Dialup. I did my sig graphics before I got HighSpeed internet and I know that it's download time is fairly insignificant.

Lastly, If you are graphic designer for internet pages then you know that the .GIF picture format saves Line Art files in ¼ the size of the .JPG file that you posted and is much clearer.

The site is not broken, it has been designed to be the way it is for good reasons. Plus if it is decided to freshen up the place, I would want someone that has more experience with digital graphics and designing WebSites for slow internet connections.

DaveW · « **Reply #25 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:18:15 AM »

And only after posting did I notice I can't spell anymore. Sigh.

willib · « **Reply #26 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:21:12 AM »

Claude if you put that Logo on a T-shirt i would like one , mind if i copy it?

Gordy · « **Reply #27 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:29:44 AM »

To Tom, and GeoM'

Mega ditto's!!!

GeoM I'm with you on that aninated stuff being realy anoying. With me at least, no matter how hard I try to focus on reading, That animated stuff is in my periphrial and very distracting from the task at hand.

So I guess I would like to see one change to this site, Bann those animated sign off or signeture things. SORRY to those offended by this, but they are anoying and not relivent to this very good site.

Gordy

whatsnext · « **Reply #28 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:41:17 AM »

Well put. There is at least one other offender here with sign offs that waste about 100k every time they post which is an obscene waste and a testament to nothing other than self aggrandizement. Conservation is creation.

Countryboy · « **Reply #29 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:44:26 AM »

Hi claude,

Instead of trying to make the site look better, why don't you make it a better place? I looked at your files - have you even built the first wind turbine? It doesn't appear that way, yet you seem to be saying you know how to do things better.

Here, I think most people prefer substance over symbolism. Looks aren't that important - functionality is.

I agree with the others - if you don't like how this site looks, feel free to go start your own site. You can make it as pretty as you like - I'm sure you will have tons of visits from people who want to see a site that looks nice, but has little real substance to offer.

I don't know how to word this politely - if you think appearances are important, then your priorities are in the wrong place.

Just for the record, the good things in life are NOT free. They tend to require excess money, or a lot of sweat equity.

wooferhound · « **Reply #30 on:** January 30, 2007, 09:48:14 AM »

I think that a file size limit on Sigs would be a good Idea . . .

The Crazy Noob · « **Reply #31 on:** January 30, 2007, 10:13:34 AM »

It's fine the way it is, allthough an edit button would be handy.

By the way: if you would have saved your logo in .png or .gif format, you would have saved space and wouldn't have any jpeg-artifacts.

ghurd · « **Reply #32 on:** January 30, 2007, 10:34:10 AM »

"I find this board the easiest to use, the best laid out, the fastest,and the simplest to navigate"

This is the only board I can figure out how to read in any way that makes any sense.

G-

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Author Topic: Otherpower.com could use a facelift (Read 766 times)