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Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

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Vic Roma

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

At the moment, the hamburger menu is too full and disorganized, so a refined menu is a good start.

A clean layout could look like this:

1984 Bronco 351 Holley Sniper EFI, 3 Speed Ford Auto.
1986 Bronco 302 EFI, AOD, Eddie Bauer, with 3G alternator.

Vic Roma

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Back to the white space and the page header, I count three search bars on each page, where there needs only to be one.

Of the two menus at the top of the page, the first is obscured by the hamburger menu which spans the width of the page:

...and the third:

These add weight to the page, reduce load speed (increase data consumption) and add unnecessary redundancy.

Can you modify the code to remove two? These small tweaks can help improve the functionality of your site without too much redesign.

1984 Bronco 351 Holley Sniper EFI, 3 Speed Ford Auto.
1986 Bronco 302 EFI, AOD, Eddie Bauer, with 3G alternator.

Gary Lewis

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

In reply to this post by Vic Roma

I see what you are saying on the clean look, and that makes sense. However, I'll have to play around with it on my test forum to see that it can even be done. Or, maybe I should say "can be done for mobile devices".

At one point the hamburger was forced when the website detected a mobile device. But that may be dependent upon the "theme" that is chosen. And Weebly doesn't provide a table that I can find which describes the bits and pieces of each theme. So I have to try them and see what they create.

But, you've given me a lot to think about. Thanks!

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Dad's: '81 F150 Ranger XLT 4x4: Down for restomod: Full-roller "stroked 351M" w/Trick Flow heads & intake, EEC-V SEFI/E4OD/3.50 gears w/Kevlar clutches
Blue: 2015 F150 Platinum 4x4 SuperCrew wearing Blue Jeans & sporting a 3.5L EB & Max Tow
Big Blue: 1985 F250HD 4x4: 460/ZF5/3.55's, D60 w/Ox locker & 10.25 Sterling/Trutrac, Blue Top & Borgeson, & EEC-V MAF/SEFI

Gary Lewis

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

In reply to this post by Vic Roma

When in the forum and not editing I think there are these search bars:

Google Custom Search: That's the one that is partially obscured in your pic. It can come out - when I figure out how I put it in.

Search Garagemahal: This one needs to stay as it searches the whole of the website, meaning forum and documentation.

Empty Search Bar: This is the one below the pic at present and above the page listings. It searches the forum only, and needs to stay. But it would be nice if there was a way to tell people what it is, like "Forum Search".

Google Custom Search: Same as the top one but at the bottom of the page. It can come out - when I figure out how I put it in.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Vic Roma

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

- "Google Custom Search: That's the one that is partially obscured in your pic. It can come out - when I figure out how I put it in."

Delete the code that controls it.

- "Empty Search Bar: This is the one below the pic at present and above the page listings. It searches the forum only, and needs to stay. But it would be nice if there was a way to tell people what it is, like "Forum Search"."

This might help: https://editortricks.weebly.com/how-to-add-a-placeholder-to-google-custom-search-box.html

If not, search Google for "add placeholder google search box".

1984 Bronco 351 Holley Sniper EFI, 3 Speed Ford Auto.
1986 Bronco 302 EFI, AOD, Eddie Bauer, with 3G alternator.

Gary Lewis

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

Vic - I just took the Google search out of the header and footer. See what you think.

However, adding text around the unlabeled search on the forum isn't as easy. That's Nabble area and things don't work quite the same. But I'll do some searching to see what I can find. And, I'll post in the Nabble Help forum.

Thanks.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Vic Roma

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

That's better but there's duplicate Facebook code hidden beneath the Google search bar you removed.

As for the search box, you said both remaining need to stay; one for the site, the other just for the forums?
Isn't the site-wide search button sufficient to pick up any keywords in the Forum section?

1984 Bronco 351 Holley Sniper EFI, 3 Speed Ford Auto.
1986 Bronco 302 EFI, AOD, Eddie Bauer, with 3G alternator.

PetesPonies

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

In reply to this post by Rembrant

I'm 100% with you. I don't do this crap on a phone :) I sit at the PC . .everything is just fine :)

Pete's Ponies
Mustang RUSToration & Performance

1982 F100 Flareside
1983 Bronco

Gary Lewis

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

In reply to this post by Vic Roma

Vic - I really thought I'd replied to this, but it doesn't appear so. Sorry.

I did find the extraneous Facebook code and took it out, but along the way I deleted the other one at the top by accident. Let's see if the one at the bottom is adequate, although I need to add some cushion below it and haven't figured out how.

As for the searches, I added "Search Documentation" to the top one and Search Forum to the other. That's because that's exactly what they do - at the moment. The Freefind search doesn't search the forum as I have it excluded, and the forum search doesn't search the rest of the site as it comes from Nabble.

However, my friend that is a Nabble guru is coaching me on the Freefind search, and is saying that I have too much excluded. So I'm going to work on that a bit and see if I can get Freefind to find the forum stuff as well. Then we can have only one search option.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Gary Lewis

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

Oh yes: You may notice that there are actually two Freefind search bars at the top of the page. One, like the previous Facebook stuff, gets hidden by the menu, and I don't know how to fix that. I've added plenty of line feeds "<P></P>" but that didn't really fix it.

Having said that, perhaps it will fix itself if/when I find the right Weebly theme that doesn't have the hamburger going away.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Gary Lewis

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

Everyone: I'm working in the background to try to implement a cleaner look for the site. As you'll have seen if you are reading along, I've removed two Facebook sections as well as a couple of search boxes. And, if I get the Freefind search to cover the forum itself then I'll eliminate the Nabble search that currently says "Search Forum" and we'll be down to one search function for everything.

Plus, I plan to move ahead with essentially the changes that Vic has suggested in the menu. BUT I WANT YOUR CONCURRANCE BEFORE I GO TO ALL THAT WORK. The intent is to have a menu instead of a hamburger, and it will have three things showing:

Forum: And beneath that will be nothing as all forum-related things should be in the forum itself.

Documentation: Clicking that will bring up the documentation menu fairly well like today, with the exceptions of Forum and About Me/Contact Me and, hopefully, some good rationalization. (Not sure what I'm going to do with the About Me/Contact Me stuff, but will figure it out.)

About or Home: This will hopefully do what we've been discussing of having some static content moved there and free up the white space on the forum pages. Seems to me it should have the picture, the prayer, and a description that tells what the website is about. Plus a "contact me" thing.

So, what do you think? Will that do what we've been discussing? I'll be creating the About page while waiting for your responses, but won't make the major changes to the menu until I get thoughts from several of you 'cause it is going to be a lot of work.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

grumpin

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Sounds good! I was all right with what you had, improvements sound good though!

Dane
1986 F250HD SC XLT Lariat 4x4 460 C6-Sold
1992 Bronco XLT 4x4 351W E4OD
1998 GMC Sierra SLE K1500 350 4L60E
Arizona

salans7

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Sounds good to me.

85lebaront2

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

Sounds ok to me, maybe we will be able to find the engine controls now?

Bill AKA "LOBO" Profile

"Getting old is inevitable, growing up is optional" Darth Vader 1986 F350 460 converted to MAF/SEFI, E4OD 12X3 1/2 rear brakes, traction loc 3:55 gear, 160 amp 3G alternator Wife's 2011 Flex Limited Daily Driver 2009 Flex Limited with factory tow package Project car 1986 Chrysler LeBaron convertible 2.2L Turbo II, modified A413

Gary Lewis

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

In reply to this post by grumpin

Thanks, Dane & Shaune.

I've gone ahead and created the Documentation page and moved all the documentation under it, lock/stock/barrel. Meaning I've not looked for a home for About/Contact Me, nor even thought about where some of the contents should go.

But at least now you can almost get a feel for what I'm up to - pretty much what Vic suggested. And, I hope, pretty well in line with what others suggested for a "home page".

The next step will be to find a theme that doesn't push the menu into the hamburger, at least for desktop users, so you can see the three choices.

After that I need to create homes in the forum for the stuff in the menu under the forum, and at the same time do some other merging of things, like the For Sale, Want To Buy, and eBay & Craigslist folders into one pinned folder called Market Place. (No one said boo about that, so I assume y'all are ok with it.)

Then I need to find homes for the extraneous stuff in the Documentation menu.

But, I really, REALLY would like y'all to give me input. For instance, what would you change on the About page? Do you like the move of the prayer and pic to the About page? Etc, etc, etc. There are lots of little changes that may get overlooked, but if you see something that doesn't look right then PLEASE let me know what the problem is and how you'd fix it.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Gary Lewis

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

In reply to this post by 85lebaront2

85lebaront2 wrote

Sounds ok to me, maybe we will be able to find the engine controls now?

Not yet, Bill. We need to rethink a bunch of the pages, placement, etc. But working together like we've been doing appears to work. We've been kicking around ideas and it is now starting to take shape.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

Ford F834

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

In reply to this post by Gary Lewis

This sounds good, Gary, and I think it will make the navigation more intuitive. Too bad it is so much work to make it happen, but hopefully worth it. I take it the forum main page will still be the default Garagemahal page?

Regarding the streamlining of pinned folders and posts, I agree that too much clutter up top is not good. Most of what is in “Resources” links back to documentation pages. I believe I was the one who suggested this folder, and I more had in mind a place for folks to drop useful external links. It isn’t being used for that, so maybe it can be eliminated? Most of the content is redundant pathways back to documentation. I think the marketplace folder to house the eBay/Craigslist, For Sale/Trade, and Wanted to Buy sections is a good idea. If admins are the only ones to use the administrative area, could it be moved to clean up the forum column? Maybe not, but if few use it, it does not need prime real estate. Would it make sense to pin “how did you find us?” In the new member folder instead of the main forum? I think that’s it...

SHORT BED 4-DOOR DIESEL: 1986 F350 4x4 under construction-- 7.3 IDIT ZF5+GVOD

STRAIGHT SIX 4X4: 1981 F150 2wd to 4x4-- 300 I6 close ratio diesel T19, hydroboost brakes, Saginaw steering

BIG F: 1995 F-Superduty under construction— converting to 6.9L IDI diesel ZF5+DNE2

Gary Lewis

Re: Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

Administrator

Jonathan - Thanks.

Yes, the main forum page will still be the default page. But you could link to the About page if you wanted and it would be an intro to the site. (I'm sure the About page needs to be revised, so let me know what you see that needs changed.)

On Resources, there are some good links in there. So I'm loathe to just delete it. Can we wait until the rest of the revisions are done and we know what things look like?

The Admins are the only ones that can see into the Admin Only folder, but we need it. And I don't know where else to put it.

How Did You Find Us has now been pinned to New Members Start Here.

And Marketplace has been created and the other three moved into it.

Gary, AKA "Gary fellow": Profile

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