Hello, I just started a website for my troop
(http://www.troop356lowell.org), and I am looking for your opinion on
what it needs, and how it could get better. I want it to load fast (for
our 56k friends) and I want it to be brief, and get to the point. I
thought about doing a photo gallery, but since our troop is relatively
new, we don't have very many pictures of campouts. I thought about a
troop history, but also, the troop is new. Please help me with your
ideas. I am fairly skilled in HTML, but I am not very good with CSS
Styles....


Any help with ideas for the site would be very helpful.

<tvaughn05@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
news:1135293526.157476.277490@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...
> Hello, I just started a website for my troop
> (http://www.troop356lowell.org), and I am looking for your opinion
> on
> what it needs, and how it could get better. I want it to load fast
> (for
> our 56k friends) and I want it to be brief, and get to the point. I
> thought about doing a photo gallery, but since our troop is
> relatively
> new, we don't have very many pictures of campouts. I thought about a
> troop history, but also, the troop is new. Please help me with your
> ideas. I am fairly skilled in HTML, but I am not very good with CSS
> Styles....
>
>
> Any help with ideas for the site would be very helpful.
>
Good start!
They'll like lots of photos. Do up to 24 per page but do thumbnails
linking to the larger photo. You already know how to optimize for fast
loading.

Tom J

Yeah---But, I worry about privacy issues...do I have to have the
Scout's parents sign a form...or...how would I go about doing that...

<tvaughn05@XXXXXXXXXX> wrote in message
news:1135296887.732446.177290@g14g2000cwa.googlegroups.com...
> Yeah---But, I worry about privacy issues...do I have to have the
> Scout's parents sign a form...or...how would I go about doing that...

I would not put photos up of anyone underage even with a consent form. But
that is just personal opinion. You would definitely need a release signed to
put up pictures to avoid a lawsuit.

That is exactly what I thought, then I thought about possibly adding
pictures of our campground that we visit every summer, but you can go
to their page and see that...So far, the only thing I might do would be
the Bulletin Board...any other ideas?? Thanks Guys ;-)

tvaughn05@XXXXXXXXXX wrote in news:1135293526.157476.277490
@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com:

> Hello, I just started a website for my troop
> (http://www.troop356lowell.org), and I am looking for your opinion on
> what it needs, and how it could get better. I want it to load fast (for
> our 56k friends) and I want it to be brief, and get to the point. I
> thought about doing a photo gallery, but since our troop is relatively
> new, we don't have very many pictures of campouts. I thought about a
> troop history, but also, the troop is new. Please help me with your
> ideas. I am fairly skilled in HTML, but I am not very good with CSS
> Styles....
>
>
> Any help with ideas for the site would be very helpful.
>

You can check out the site I maintain www.troop2819.org.
I try to keep it simple and focused.  The one item that is accessed the
most is the troop calendar.   There are a lot of calendar packages out
there, the one I am using is a perl script.  The troop info is in a text
file.  Easy to update, and it displays in a number of formats.  I have a
photo album that is made using dreamweaver, it has a package that creates
the thumbnails and links them to a larger photo.  I do not put names of
anyone with the photos,  any names are first name only and only if I have
a signed consent form from the parent.  I would try to keep the site
focused and easy to maintain.  if you are ot careful it will grow large
and consume a lot of time.


Allan

"Tony Vaughn" <tvaughn05@XXXXXXXXXX> writes:

>That is exactly what I thought, then I thought about possibly adding
>pictures of our campground that we visit every summer, but you can go
>to their page and see that...So far, the only thing I might do would be
>the Bulletin Board...any other ideas?? Thanks Guys ;-)

Bulletin boards are pretty worthless on rarely visited sites like a troop
website.  I doubt anybody is going to ever look at the bulletin board
since there will be few postings.  Bulletin boards have to have lots of
postings for people to read and respond.

A calendar is the most useful thing on a troop website as long as the
calendar is kept up to date with the latest changes.

Brian Elfert