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Here's a thing most B5 fans should find a little interesting at least.

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    Here's a thing most B5 fans should find a little interesting at least.

    I can see this and me getting drummed out of here for this. But this forum seemed a reasonable place to post this given the contributors that include.

    Ron Thornton
    Paul Bryant
    Luc Mayrand
    Adam “mojo” Lebowitz
    Larry Bowman
    Mark Kochinski
    Jeff Scheetz
    Tim Earls
    Kevin Kutchaver


    I also realise that it’s never a good idea to make your first post something like this. But given the content of the the site I thought that any fans of B5 on here might find it interesting.


    http://ftp.themadgoner.com/B5/B5Scrolls/B5Scrolls.htm

    It’s clearly not finished, and the format of the site is creaking a little under the weight of the various new content, but as I need to take a break from it for a while I decided to post it up now.

    I’m still in the middle of talking to a few people (as well as the current contributors) including a couple of those behind the Legend of the Rangers and the new Lost Tales, as well as a few more connected to B5 & Crusade in various ways. So there is quite a lot of things still to add to it.

    Mac users have no chance of viewing it (Opera & Safari). IE and Firefox should run it as should Netscape (with the IE emulator turned on for the window your running it under).

    Anyway, any thoughts? Anyone in particular that you think should be on it that’s not already there, anything that you want an answer to?

    Hell, IS it interesting?

    Am I going to get banned after just one post?
    If you're a fan of Babylon 5, visit this facebook page, you might be surprised. ; )
    http://www.facebook.com/B5Scrolls

    #2
    Errr... So I see that you didn't explain what your site is suppose to be either in this post OR on the website itself. Is it a B5 reference guide?

    Comment


      #3
      Originally posted by gopher65 View Post
      Errr... So I see that you didn't explain what your site is suppose to be either in this post OR on the website itself. Is it a B5 reference guide?
      If you read the first couple of dozen ords when you first enter the site then look at it, I'd imagine it shuld become pretty obvious pretty quick.
      If you're a fan of Babylon 5, visit this facebook page, you might be surprised. ; )
      http://www.facebook.com/B5Scrolls

      Comment


        #4
        Originally posted by Triple-F View Post
        If you read the first couple of dozen ords when you first enter the site then look at it, I'd imagine it shuld become pretty obvious pretty quick.
        In no way is it obvious. Try and look at your page not as the creator of the site, but as someone who is going there for the first time and is clueless about what you are trying to do.

        Actually all it says is "I don't know how to explain what this site is". Ok... that's a great explanation. If a site doesn't explain what it is on the first page I rarely go past that point because if they can't even do that right there's no way they are going to have a well organized site.

        Say, in big bold letters "This is a blahblahblah site", then go on with your "I must have created 50 front pages" non-explanation. That's all it takes really. People need to be able to tell what your page is at a glance, else they won't bother with it.

        Cool models though. Did you get those from somewhere else or put them together yourself?
        Last edited by gopher65; 02 February 2008, 12:11 PM.

        Comment


          #5
          With that sort of information at the start I'm really disinclined to start using any IE emulator. I want web developers to know I'm a firefox user and design sites accordingly. Barring safari and opera users through clunky software (good web apps should run on any browser) won't win you many friends either.

          At the very least, you should credit the creators of each model when it appears, that shouldn't be too difficult.
          sigpic

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            #6
            It works just fine in Firefox...
            Folding@Home|Babylon 5 Canon Guide

            Delenn: This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw,...or be destroyed.
            Earth Captain: Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship.
            Delenn: Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.
            --Babylon 5 - "Severed Dreams"

            Comment


              #7
              It ran for me, but I didn't see any images. Probably because I don't run the IE emulator.
              sigpic

              Comment


                #8
                I see the images, I'm not running an IE emulator.
                Folding@Home|Babylon 5 Canon Guide

                Delenn: This is Ambassador Delenn of the Minbari. Babylon 5 is under our protection. Withdraw,...or be destroyed.
                Earth Captain: Negative. We have authority here. Do not force us to engage your ship.
                Delenn: Why not? Only one human captain has ever survived battle with a Minbari fleet. He is behind me. You are in front of me. If you value your lives, be somewhere else.
                --Babylon 5 - "Severed Dreams"

                Comment


                  #9
                  You don’t need an IE emulator for firefox. (in Netscape it’s a little box you tick for that particular window). If you don’t see any animations then I’d guess you have the flash click to play option enabled. It’s up to you whether you disable that or not – I don’t allow you direct access to the flash animations on the site so you can’t click it. If you have a problem with Flash, then remember that it’s the most widely available platform for presenting animations. Unless of course you know a better way that doesn’t involve the downloading of video codecs, thus pissing off a hell of a lot more people than those that don’t know what the buttons on the firefox config screens are for.

                  It’s also a beta version of the site to gauge responses to the unique content (I admit I should've made that point clear). There is a bit more to it than 140 animated models. Not to the design or whether it works on Opera or not, that’s an easy fix . . . duh. The design is pretty crap as it was never originally designed to hold all the information that it now contains. I released it now because I have to take a break from it so decided it was a good time to get some intelligent feedback from those that will READ it, and before the other half of the content is added from a few other contributors.

                  As for it not being obvious what the site is about. Interesting, I always imagined anyone visiting it will do so after being pointed to it or after searching on the appropriate key words so are therefore not completely bamboozled by a site saying it’s about Babylon 5. Everyone else who has viewed it clocked on very quickly what it was all about - Found the front quite clever an intriguing actually.

                  It's about acknowledging the work of the people who actually created the VFX seen in the show. Not jms. Horses for courses I guess. I’ll be a be more obvious in the final version for those with a short attention span or limited cognitive abilities. Thanks for the heads up, I genuinely didn’t realise some would have a problem with that.

                  I made just over half the models.

                  Any sensible comments, like who you would like to see on the site or any questions that you would like answered by the guys who created the show (like what I asked at the start) or do you just want to continue slagging of the asethics.
                  Last edited by Triple-F; 04 February 2008, 04:22 PM.
                  If you're a fan of Babylon 5, visit this facebook page, you might be surprised. ; )
                  http://www.facebook.com/B5Scrolls

                  Comment


                    #10
                    Right... so lets say I search for B5 and come to that page. All has is a list of seemingly random names (I love B5 and I didn't recognize a single one of them, so those names will mean nothing to almost everyone), a blurb that says "I have no idea what this site is", and "click the big red button". Uh huh. *clicks back button, goes to a site that explains itself better*

                    Keep in mind that there is a lot of junk around, and google doesn't exactly filter it for us. We decide whether or not a site is garbage based entirely on the information on and layout of the front page. I'm not saying this to nitpick your design or anything. I've built a few pages myself and I hate it when people do that to me, especially when I've put a lot of work into a page. You have some good material there (I like the one liners). I'm just saying, you have to explain clearly and concisely what your page is, else people will assume it is random google spam and leave without giving it a fair chance.

                    Now if people are *only* going to be directed there from your site, then that is a different story, cause they will already know where they are going. But if you are expecting people to go to that page from a search engine or from links on forums or facebook or something, then that is the first thing people will see, and you want to give a good first impression.

                    Oh, and it works just fine with the default Firefox options as far as I can see. I'm not sure why it doesn't work for that other guy unless he doesn't have flash enabled.
                    Last edited by gopher65; 06 February 2008, 08:25 AM. Reason: Strictly formatting. Added a linebreak

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I do have flash enabled, so I must admit I'm a bit confused as to why it didn't work. I have occasionally had problems with flash, I'll try again when I get home from work and can reinstall it.

                      In spite of my name I'm not a guy.

                      First impressions are very important, and I don't have a particularly short attention span.

                      The points gopher raised are valid, however. Don't be cryptic if you want people to visit. There's a lot on offer online, and a lot of it is questionable. So if you want people to visit, you'd better be pretty darn obvious about what the site is for.

                      Besides, people don't know you from Adam and you started this thread with your first post, so you have no legitimate history here to give people a reason to trust you. If you had been an active member here for a while, things might have been a bit different.
                      sigpic

                      Comment


                        #12
                        Originally posted by maneth View Post
                        I do have flash enabled, so I must admit I'm a bit confused as to why it didn't work. I have occasionally had problems with flash, I'll try again when I get home from work and can reinstall it.

                        In spite of my name I'm not a guy.
                        Sorry about that.

                        You said it loads, but you don't see any models (in a previous post). Do you see the big red button to click and stuff, and can you get past that part? If you do, when the tan coloured area with the black grid on the top and the black "ships, episodes, Extras" area at the bottom loads, can you click any of those three words? It doesn't autoselect a category for you, so it will be blank until you click one of those words, and the select 2 subcategories.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          That site has too many scripts...something many will not ok or change their settings to run. Besides, that site takes too long to load, even for broadband...need to slim it down and assume there are people still using dialup...that's if you want people to come back and visit/recommend the site.

                          Speed and ease of use as well as samples on the main page of what the site has to offer and at least have a quick link(s)/menu to other parts of the website. Last thing people want is to be forced to scroll though a few pages before getting somewhere. Use a browser like Opera or Safari and if it's compatible/works with those browsers, then the site will work fine with Firefox and IE.

                          Right now, people may go to the 2nd page but won't go any further the way the site is currently setup. I didn't even bother to see what's next or to see what models you were talking about. The risk may be too high for the more security minded surfers.
                          It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            I recognized a disturbing number of those people. But then I haunted usenet for the JMS posts. And The Lurker's Guide to Babylon 5. And saw Adam "Mojo" Leibowitz at cons.

                            John Copeland (don't remember see his name) was a trip. Good ol' Pigdog13. What a great guy dealing with the fallout from Claudia's...abrupt departure.


                            I'll definitely check this out. Didn't see much in the way of graphics, but I's guess it's the computer I'm on.

                            Triple-F? You might want to tone down the snark INSULT "I’ll be a be more obvious in the final version for those with a short attention span or limited cognitive abilities" if you want honest answers and not a flame war. I realize you spent a lot of time on this, but you might need someone else to write the main page. Because it was clear as mud what the site is about.

                            I only knew because I have very fond memories associated with those names.

                            ETA: Sci-Fi said:
                            Right now, people may go to the 2nd page but won't go any further the way the site is currently setup. I didn't even bother to see what's next or to see what models you were talking about. The risk may be too high for the more security minded surfers.
                            Nicely said. I got twitchy just looking. Not sure why...

                            suse
                            Last edited by suse; 23 February 2008, 05:11 PM. Reason: Needed to be a little clearer on thread creator's posting style.
                            sigpic
                            Mourning Sanctuary.
                            Thanks for the good times!

                            Comment


                              #15
                              I agree with the others, unfortunately your welcoming page does not in anyway give the smallest clue as to what it is about. If it had come up under a general B5 search, I'd have hit the back button and never ventured near it again. However as you say if the specific people who it is aimed at had found it, it will probably be clearer to them.
                              sigpic

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