Website Revision - Potential New Home Page

[Gary Lewis]

Folks - You may remember that a friend of mine, who isn't into trucks, looked the website over and suggested a number of changes. One of those was to create a new home page that would include static info that would help people understand how to use the website and the forum.

 

I've taken a stab at that, and it is currently in Bullnose Forum/New Home Page in the menu. BUT I VERY MUCH WANT YOUR INPUT!!!!

 

The theory here is that the forum page itself would lose the "pic of the month/year/decade" that currently shows Cory's truck, as that pic would move to the new home page, making the load of the forum pages that much faster. And, in order to make the forum's main page as skinny as possible, the prayer might move to the new home page as well - as I've shown.

 

And, in an effort to help people understand what is on the website I created a sort of outline that you'll see on the potential home page. But, that created a whole host of problems:

1. It is quite long as it is trying to mimic what you see in the menu, which has lots of entries. And, I used a lot of words.

    

2. It raises lots of questions about why things are where they are.

 

It raises the question of whether each item listed should be a hot link. To see what I'm on about look at Fasteners & Illustrations. I can do that on most things, but is it helpful?

 

So I badly need help and feedback on this. Does it make sense? Is it too long? Is it helpful? What else should be on the home page? Is it a bad or good idea?

 

HELP, PLEASE!

[Rembrant]

The theory here is that the forum page itself would lose the "pic of the month/year/decade" that currently shows Cory's truck, as that pic would move to the new home page, making the load of the forum pages that much faster.

I think it's time for a new Bullnose truck picture...lol. I'm sure somebody else on here has a nice Bullnose pic they'd like to share?

Gary I can't comment on the forum too much until I actually start using it after the changes. My forum usage is 99% on a PC, so any issues showing up on phones or iPads, etc are pretty much irrelevant to me. I'm all for improving everybody's experience, but I currently don't have any complaints with the format.

I read the forum on my phone sometimes, but I don't post with the phone...not very often at least.

 

[Dorsai]

Gary, I think you're on the right track with the changes. Some random thoughts:

Would it be possible to have a forum URL that could be bookmarked directly? 99% of the time when I come to the site it's to visit the forum, I'd love to be able to bookmark it directly.

I do think the photo needs to be moved away from the forum page. It's a beautifully-composed photo of a sharp truck, but it takes up a lot of screen real estate.

Speaking of photos, how many Bullnoses will be at the show? It might be fun to line them all up for a picture.

The 'potential home page' is awfully wordy, as you said. Maybe the home page just needs to have the BOTM (Bullnose of the Month) photo, the Ford Prayer, and then just a very few links (with text descriptions) to landing pages for the key features of the site - the forum, the parts catalogs, a Gary page, and whatever else there may be?

Speaking of 'whatever else', maybe it's time for a member truck photo album? That would then be a pool that could be drawn upon for the BOTM photo.

 

[salans7]

Gary, I think you're on the right track with the changes. Some random thoughts:

Would it be possible to have a forum URL that could be bookmarked directly? 99% of the time when I come to the site it's to visit the forum, I'd love to be able to bookmark it directly.

I do think the photo needs to be moved away from the forum page. It's a beautifully-composed photo of a sharp truck, but it takes up a lot of screen real estate.

Speaking of photos, how many Bullnoses will be at the show? It might be fun to line them all up for a picture.

The 'potential home page' is awfully wordy, as you said. Maybe the home page just needs to have the BOTM (Bullnose of the Month) photo, the Ford Prayer, and then just a very few links (with text descriptions) to landing pages for the key features of the site - the forum, the parts catalogs, a Gary page, and whatever else there may be?

Speaking of 'whatever else', maybe it's time for a member truck photo album? That would then be a pool that could be drawn upon for the BOTM photo.

I personally think anything regarding forum and/or site "how-to" and "where are?" should be placed in a sticky on the forum home page, rather than on the site's home page. What you are proposing is way too wordy, and I honestly would never read all of that if I was a new member. Most new members want to get right to posting and researching. A simple description of this site and a few quick links would suffice for the home page. Maybe have a quick link that leads to the forum and site "how to" sticky.

[Ray Cecil]

I personally think anything regarding forum and/or site "how-to" and "where are?" should be placed in a sticky on the forum home page, rather than on the site's home page. What you are proposing is way too wordy, and I honestly would never read all of that if I was a new member. Most new members want to get right to posting and researching. A simple description of this site and a few quick links would suffice for the home page. Maybe have a quick link that leads to the forum and site "how to" sticky.

Im taking little blue to Pine Mountain KY this fall with my sweetheart, Holly. Gary, Ill take an awesome picture for that new homepage pic Cory wants...lol.

As far as formatting goes....my android works just fine with the current format. No complaints from me.

[Gary Lewis]

Im taking little blue to Pine Mountain KY this fall with my sweetheart, Holly. Gary, Ill take an awesome picture for that new homepage pic Cory wants...lol.

As far as formatting goes....my android works just fine with the current format. No complaints from me.

Ok guys, you are telling me pretty much what I expected - the proposed home page is way too wordy. So let me try to think "out loud".

The perceived need was to move the picture and the prayer off the forum to make it load faster and clear up some real estate. And the suggested solution was to create this new "home page" and move those things to it.

But that really begs the question of how people find us. Will they ever find the new home page? And if they do find that page, once they've read the few words on it, is there a need to ever go back to it?

Matthew wants a URL that brings one to the forum directly - and http://www.garysgaragemahal.com currently does that. But if we have a new home page that won't be the case as that URL will take you to the new home page. So anyone that has already bookmarked it will have to then click another link to go from the new home page to the forum.

Shaun suggested that we have stickies to handle 'forum and/or site "how-to" and "where are?"'

So, what if we just keep the forum as the home page and instead of hiding the "how-to" info in the menu under Bullnose Forum we put up more stickies? We could have a sticky folder for those kinds of things.

But, what about the pic of the month/year/century? Do we have a sticky for that?

I'm getting confused. Perhaps it is time for bed. What we have isn't badly broken and I fear that I'm trying to make too big of a change to solve what may be a simple problem.

[Steve83]

...whether each item listed should be a hot link.

My opinion has always been that anything that CAN be a link SHOULD be a link. It's what makes the interwebz work.

...move the picture and the prayer off the forum to make it load faster and clear up some real estate.

...is there a need to ever go back to it?

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I think that's right on the mark. They're not really necessary, or necessarily interesting to someone coming to the forum for information or help.

...URL that brings one to the forum directly - and http://www.garysgaragemahal.com currently does that. But if we have a new home page that won't be the case...

It could if the new home page URL was something like http://www.garysgaragemahal.com/home . Don't break the links that have already been posted on other sites bringing users here. Give your new page a new URL - don't steal an existing URL for it.

...just keep the forum as the home page...

What's in a name? If someone can get to the site, they can find all its pages, regardless if you choose to call one of them "home", or if someone applies that name to a different page.

...put up more stickies?

My vote is AGAINST that. I'd like to see the most-recent topics closer to the top of the page.

We could have a sticky folder...

But, what about the pic of the month/year/century?

Put it on a photo page, like the gallery sticky. Maybe make it the top full-width photo above the grid of thumbnail links. Maybe have it cycle through them randomly, if you don't manually select one each month/year/century/whatever.

But the bottom line is: it's YOUR website. It only exists because of YOU & your personality, so it should always be a reflection of you & your personality. Not a reflection of the users.

[salans7]

We could have a sticky folder...

I like this idea.

[Ray Cecil]

Ok guys, you are telling me pretty much what I expected - the proposed home page is way too wordy. So let me try to think "out loud".

The perceived need was to move the picture and the prayer off the forum to make it load faster and clear up some real estate. And the suggested solution was to create this new "home page" and move those things to it.

But that really begs the question of how people find us. Will they ever find the new home page? And if they do find that page, once they've read the few words on it, is there a need to ever go back to it?

Matthew wants a URL that brings one to the forum directly - and http://www.garysgaragemahal.com currently does that. But if we have a new home page that won't be the case as that URL will take you to the new home page. So anyone that has already bookmarked it will have to then click another link to go from the new home page to the forum.

Shaun suggested that we have stickies to handle 'forum and/or site "how-to" and "where are?"'

So, what if we just keep the forum as the home page and instead of hiding the "how-to" info in the menu under Bullnose Forum we put up more stickies? We could have a sticky folder for those kinds of things.

But, what about the pic of the month/year/century? Do we have a sticky for that?

I'm getting confused. Perhaps it is time for bed. What we have isn't badly broken and I fear that I'm trying to make too big of a change to solve what may be a simple problem.

I still dont understand why any change is needed. It works just fine for me. I post links to garys website anytime I run across bullnose guys on the internet. I think a couple guys have registered upon my invite. Honestly, if you want to drive traffic, maybe the name of the URL is not specific enough. No one knows to search for "garysgaragemahal". Maybe www.thebullnosebible.com would be more searchable?

[Gary Lewis]

I still dont understand why any change is needed. It works just fine for me. I post links to garys website anytime I run across bullnose guys on the internet. I think a couple guys have registered upon my invite. Honestly, if you want to drive traffic, maybe the name of the URL is not specific enough. No one knows to search for "garysgaragemahal". Maybe www.thebullnosebible.com would be more searchable?

The suggestion for change came from someone from the outside that is more knowledgeable on websites than I. And the main impetus for the change was to get the very big picture off the page for two reasons - real estate and bits downloaded.

On the real estate front, I almost always come to the site via a link from an email I've gotten from "the system" that tells me there's a new post. And that link takes me to the post and I skip right over seeing the "big picture". And if I hit Refresh while on the main page of the forum it has the Bullnose Enthusiasts label at the top of the page - and I don't see the picture nor the prayer.

So, bottom line: I never see the picture unless I scroll up. Do y'all?

On the bits downloaded, even though I normally don't see the picture, it surely gets downloaded. And it is a large file as it is on the "website" and not the "forum", and I can put big pics on the website. So perhaps a compromise would be to put a picture with less bits in it on there?

As for the folder(s) for the stickies, I'll see what I can come up with. It does make some sense to put things dedicated to the forum on the forum itself instead of in the menu of the website. But, do y'all understand the difference? Am I the only one that thinks about that?