[WD&D] Digest for sitedesign@googlegroups.com - 25 Messages in 1 Topic

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• new website [25 Updates]

 new website

Ernest Okojie <nestkojex@gmail.com> Nov 16 10:07AM +0100  

good morning guys,
please check my new site out.
Do u think my method of using url, GET and include for page navigation
is ok? Everypage u see is calling up about 3 other pages using the
include to get the id eg www.gegu.com.ng?id=petrol
dont know if this is seo friendly?
thanks
 
--
Best Regards
www.kojexconsult.com


 

Ernest Okojie <nestkojex@gmail.com> Nov 16 10:48AM +0100  

the site is http://www.gegu.com.ng
thanks
 
 
--
Best Regards
www.kojexconsult.com


 

chris walker <customsitepro@gmail.com> Nov 16 09:38PM +0800  

Great work except for the fact it is 100% someone else's work (except for
the logo and the copyright in the bottom where you say it is yours). That
is not appropriate. You can put "development by" but you should never
claim something that is not your own as your own
 
Here is the actual designer of the template:
 
http://www.globbersthemes.com/demo/hyuster/
 
However, it is something you can look at to see what a decent design
actually is. If you decide you really want to become a template designer,
download a barebones framework and do something with it and make it your
own.
 
If I use someone else's template whether free or purchased, I just debrand
it altogether. If I use a template framework such as T3, I will leave a
link to the framework.
 
 
 
 
--
Chris


 

chris walker <customsitepro@gmail.com> Nov 16 09:49PM +0800  

To answewr your original question, no that is not a sef url. If you are
going to use joomla to make a site, rename the htaccess.txt file to
.htaccess and change the configuration of the site accordingly.
 
 
--
Chris


 

Deb * Digital Mouse Designs <listmember@digitalmousedesigns.com> Nov 16 09:03AM -0600  

On 11/16/2011 3:07 AM, Ernest Okojie wrote:
> include to get the id eg www.gegu.com.ng?id=petrol
> dont know if this is seo friendly?
> thanks
 
Very nice looking site :) It's not SEO friendly because you're not using
friendly url's. The home page should be:
 
http://www.gegu.com.ng
 
Other pages such as charity should look like this:
 
http://www.gegu.com.ng/charity
 
http://www.gegu.com.ng/award
 
--
Deb * Digital Mouse Designs


 

Deb * Digital Mouse Designs <listmember@digitalmousedesigns.com> Nov 16 09:13AM -0600  

On 11/16/2011 3:07 AM, Ernest Okojie wrote:
> include to get the id eg www.gegu.com.ng?id=petrol
> dont know if this is seo friendly?
> thanks
 
I also have to ask, why the capital letters in your titles? I doubt that
has any bearing on SEO but it sure doesn't make the site user friendly.
In internet/email etc caps are considered as shouting at someone and
some people still take this very seriously so you could offend those
that do.
 
Your browser titles also all say the same thing at least on the pages I
viewed. That is not SEO friendly. Your meta description and meta tags
all seem to say the same thing, too. My suggestion is if you don't know
how to do SEO you either learn or your sub-contract it out to someone
who knows how to do it correctly.
 
--
Deb * Digital Mouse Designs


 

chris walker <customsitepro@gmail.com> Nov 16 11:18PM +0800  

Deb,
 
All he did was get a joomla quick install, change the logo and the
copyright to make it his and add some text. The headings are all caps
because theCSS tells them to be. If you look at the link i posted where he
ripped the template from, you can see it is not his work.
 
Of course, that is not what he asked, what he asked was if the urls SEF and
you answered that question for him. The problem is that he probably does
not know how to configure Joomla to create SEF urls.
 
Chris


 

Y Muh <smilin301@gmail.com> Nov 16 10:09AM -0600  

Hey Chris-
 
Your observations were really spot on even right down to the images
(except the large one doesn't scroll like the original does). My
question for you is how did you know? As quickly as you did. Do you
know the original designer? Was their a code you used?
 
The bases for my question, (coming from a student; soon to be
graduate) is there a way/ or code that designers/developers type into
the search to see if there templates are being used?
 
Just curious
 


 

Ernest Okojie <nestkojex@gmail.com> Nov 16 06:09PM +0115  

Chris, first of all, thank you for viewing the site. But do u realise
that lots of site out there are developed from templates? Besides, why
do u think they are called templates? This is different from copying
someelses site. In this group several people have admitted getting
js,css codes from other peoples site and you can't say u are innocent
either. Now u insulted me by saying that I don't know how to edit the
site's css to change the caps to small letters. When I put up web apps
I created from scratch with php and mysql u could not critique the
fuctionality and now Am surprised that u can run your mouth this much.
Wen I comes to writing codes and developing web apps I ll beat you to
it. Learn to critique without insulting people. I ll try to remove the
design by and put the original link back there but remember its a
template and template are meant to be developed and lots of
developers out there use templates. Thanks anyway
 
 
--
Best Regards
www.kojexconsult.com


 

Deb * Digital Mouse Designs <listmember@digitalmousedesigns.com> Nov 16 11:31AM -0600  

On 11/16/2011 10:54 AM, Ernest Okojie wrote:
> design by and put the original link back there but remember its a
> template and template are meant to be developed and lots of
> developers out there use templates. Thanks anyway
 
Yes, lots of designers use templates but responsible ones don't claim
the design as their own. It's one thing of you modify it enough so that
it's not looking like the original, and as long as the licensing allows
for this. It's a whole 'nudder ballgame to take a template and put your
name in place of the original designer. Many templates come in at least
two ways, you can use the free one leaving all copyrights and credits to
whom they belong to, some will sell them to you and allow you then to
remove all that stuff and some I suppose might let you claim it as yours
but my guess is these templates aren't going to come cheap. Either way I
personally would never claim someone else's exact design as mine which
is what he was referring to.
 
He didn't insult you about the caps, I'm the one that mentioned that and
if you took it as an insult that is your prerogative however, not the
way it was intended. You asked if things were SEO friendly, they're not
and SEO includes many things besides the url's friendly or not.
 
You can take this as an insult if you like but again it's not intended
to be ... if you are going to do professional work you might want to
first learn to write a bit more professionally. You have a number of
typos and the "u" is a text message thing, not a list thing. I would
also suggest that you get some thicker skin and not take offense to
people who are trying to give you constructive criticism and/or
information. Adult professionals do not take this kind of thing so
personally no matter how it's said. They take what they like and leave
the rest or they understand that others are trying to help. They also
understand that email can be very deceiving when it comes to
interpretations of the written word.
 
If you do not like the replies you get, that again is on your end but if
everything people say is going to offend you then you might want to skip
this list and a whole bunch of other lists because this is what we do on
these kinds of lists to help one another. It all boils down to don't ask
if you aren't prepared for the answers.
 
 
--
Deb * Digital Mouse Designs


 

chris walker <customsitepro@gmail.com> Nov 17 02:02AM +0800  

Y Muh,
 
I had a couple of clues that it was not his own work.
 
First, last week he asked for some critiques on his work and this was too
good for his current skill level.
 
Second, a look at the code actually gave me the identity of the designer.
By "right clicking" on the site, I was able to view the source code. This
told me a couple of things; it was a joomla site, and it was someone else's
template
 
Here is part of the source:
 
<link rel="stylesheet" href="images/tdefaut.css" type="text/css"
media="all">
 
I clicked on the link to the css file and it told me what I needed to know
 
Most template designers put their contact / copyright info in the css and
the xml file. In this template it looks like this:
 
/****************************************************
#####################################################
##-------------------------------------------------##
## Hyuster- Version 1.7.0 ##
##-------------------------------------------------##
## Copyright = globbersthemes.com- 2011 ##
## Date = Octobre 2011 ##
## Author = globbers ##
## Websites = http://www.globbersthemes.com ##
## ##
#####################################################
****************************************************/
 
Now we know where the theme came from. I went to
http://www.globbersthemes.com and looked at the October 2011 theme and to
my surprise, it looked the same except for the logo was different and the
copyright at the bottom.
 
Some template designers insert code in the template that "phones home" when
the page is loaded. The designer then looks at his or her logs and finds
out where that hit came from and they can trace it back.
 
I am not saying templates should not be used as I have used other people's
templates myself. However, I make it my own by modifying the template. In a
few instances, even the template designer would not recognize it by the way
it looks
 
This might include:
 
 
- Changing the background images or color
- Changing font styles and colors
- Changing the actual size of elements
- Adding module positions that I need such as another row or an inset
 
I may take their "designed by" off *if it is part of the license*, but I
NEVER replace it with "designed by ME".
 
 
 
 
 
 
--
Chris


 

Deb * Digital Mouse Designs <listmember@digitalmousedesigns.com> Nov 16 12:25PM -0600  

On 11/16/2011 12:02 PM, chris walker wrote:
> I may take their "designed by" off *if it is part of the license*, but
> I NEVER replace it with "designed by ME".
 
Similar here, I've done things like "original design by: them" and then
added something like "modified by: me" or whatever works. People deserve
to have credit given where it's due is my opinion. If the licensing
allows for removal of credits that works, too but then I would still not
claim the design as mine. I would find a way around that. I'd feel like
a sneaky thief doing it any other way.
 
--
Deb * Digital Mouse Designs


 

chris walker <customsitepro@gmail.com> Nov 17 02:34AM +0800  

Ernest,
 
You asked for a critique and that is what you got. If you don't want to be
called a thief, then don't steal someone else's work and call it your own.
 
As far as templates go, they are great for fast-tracking your site. Let
say that you have an idea for a site and you know you want an image rotator
at the top. This template fills that need, but as a designer, you should
strive to make your site unique. So the first thing you do is you make sure
you have firebug installed in your browser and you play with the site by
adjusting the css on the fly. As you make changes, you edit the css file
and watch your site evolve into something more pleasing to look at.
 
For instance, I would edit line 140 in the css file and remove the
background from the header and replace it with a solid color. The line
would now look like this:
 
background: #003366;
 
I would then add a 5px solid border the same color as the text in the menu
 
border-bottom: 5px solid #908C8A;
 
finally, I would change the header size to 200px
 
Now line 140 looks like:
 
#wrapper-top {
background: url("head") repeat-x scroll 0 0 #003366;
border-bottom: 5px solid #908C8A;
float: left;
height: 200px;
width: 100%;
}
 
But now our menu is too low, so we need to change that. We will change
line 169 and reduce the margin-top to 10px Line 169 now looks like:
 
#topmenu {
background: none repeat scroll 0 0 transparent;
float: left;
height: 60px;
margin-top: 10px;
width: 900px;
 
Finally, I do not like the way that the menu looks when you roll over it.
Instead of having a block appear behind the text when you rollover, I want
a color change instead. First, I would change the color of the menu text
to the same color as the text in your logo and then have a contrasting but
complimentary rolIover and active-state color. I would also adjust the css
in the dropdowns and take out the diampnd pattern because it is hard to see
the text in the pattern.
 
Now the template is starting to take on a different look. By changing the
background of the body below the header to a gradient, you can further
customize the look of this template.
 
See what I am getting at?
 
 
 
 
--
Chris


 

Ernest Okojie <nestkojex@gmail.com> Nov 16 08:11PM +0115  

I think the essence of being in a group like this is too learn from
the wealth of knowledge from one another. And as far as that is
concerned I have not learnt much from you except insults instead of
proper corrections. Thank God u admitted you have used other peoples
templates too. That fact that u re disguise the whole site or template
in an theft ingenuity does not make u any less a thief as u are trying
to paint me. Besides, I will never uses someelses site like say urs or
cnn or any at all, I only used this cos its a template. Don't u get
it? U are really pissing me off cos u have ended up not commenting on
my original questions, instead u are there yapping how its Joomla.
Checkout lots of sites code and you will see Joomla. Paid templates
codes even carry the info of the sellers. I am a php guru in app,
database and portal devopment cos that wat sells in my country. They
are more interested in fuctionalty here, maybe d trend will change
later. Check most of our national sites then u will understand the
kind of audience I have. I already made it clear that I traded php
mysql off for design and that is why I am here to learn design and its
ethics and to contribute my quota too. In my Yahoo php/mysql group we
don't insult people, we correct. Learnt that Chris. I changed links to
url dependent ones, I used php to call up pages in the index page, I
created a feedback that links up a database using php mail function to
alert the site owner of the feedback and as bad as the pic he provider
were I trid to optimise them to look good and you talk like I didn't
have any proficiency. The design by is there cos I really did do a
design and didn't care much about disguising it like you do
unethically. Whoever that now decides to see if its mine originally
can then go and look up d code to know its origin just like u have
done. That is y I left the code signatures there. Its just a pity u
talk like this. I may never present anything here again.
 
 
--
Best Regards
www.kojexconsult.com


 

Y Muh <smilin301@gmail.com> Nov 16 12:57PM -0600  

Wow! I learn so much just from being in this group.
 
Thanks,
Yvonne
 


 

chris walker <customsitepro@gmail.com> Nov 17 03:29AM +0800  

Ernest,
 
I did not say anything derogatory about you using joomla, I just stated a
fact that it was joomla. Yvonne wanted to know how I figured out that the
template was NOT YOURS and I explained it. I also have not said that people
should not use templates, I said that they should not take a template and
simply change a logo and the copyright info and call it theirs. What part
of that statement do you not understand?
 
In an effort to try to help you in spite of your arrogance, I proceeded to
give you a lesson in template modification including what tools are used
and sample mods.
 
I have have looked at your flagship site and your portfolio.. How can you
be proud of http://kojex.byethost4.com/kc/ ? That site is an atrocity
from the word go. From the flash header, the images in your content that
are out of perspective, to the annoying music.
 
I have looked at the sites of your country. We all know your country is
most famous for 419 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advance-fee_fraud. That
is not all your country is famous for, your esteemed countrymen also turn
people from other countries into drug mules
http://www.africanoutlookonline.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1717%3Aphilippine-police-arrests-nigerian-linked-to-drug-mule-executed-in-china&Itemid=53
 
Based on this, I do not expect you to understand what I am saying because I
do not believe that your culture puts a value on doing what is right.
Furthermore, you don't actually read what people a writing, you just get
offended. Last week, Doug pointed out your arrogance and your inability to
take advice.
 
I have responded to quite a few people here and I have tried my best to be
civil. Unfortunately, civility gets thrown to the side in some cases and
this is one of those.
 
 
--
Chris


 

chris walker <customsitepro@gmail.com> Nov 17 03:33AM +0800  

Yvonne,
 
Where do you live and what is your major? How close are you to
graduation? you can learn a lot here, but as Deb said, you need to have a
thick skin and take what you feel is valuable and discount the rest
 
Chris
 
 
 
 
--
Chris


 

Deb * Digital Mouse Designs <listmember@digitalmousedesigns.com> Nov 16 01:40PM -0600  

On 11/16/2011 12:56 PM, Ernest Okojie wrote:
> Its just a pity u
> talk like this. I may never present anything here again.
 
Since you seem more interested in discussing a person(s) critiques,
comments or whatever you want to call them instead of listening to
people who want to help then there is no point in presenting anything
here again anyway. You claim to want to learn, but all I see is you
defending yourself and throwing daggers at others instead of using the
ideas presented to you *on your request.* If I don't like someone's
comments I find the best way to deal with that is to ignore what I don't
like and discuss further with those I do like.
 
I also have to much trouble reading your posts because of the
abbreviations "u" use. I'm done reading and responding to your posts, I
don't need this kind of discussion. I prefer hang out with the
professional minded adults on this list who take the time to spell out
their words and reread their posts to correct any typos. Much easier to
read that way. I also find it more friendly and a better learning
environment when the discussions are civil.
 
Good luck to you, and I'm sorry you didn't learn anything because there
were some good ideas discussed and plenty to learn, if you choose to
listen.
 
--
Deb * Digital Mouse Designs


 

Deb * Digital Mouse Designs <listmember@digitalmousedesigns.com> Nov 16 01:40PM -0600  

On 11/16/2011 12:57 PM, Y Muh wrote:
> Wow! I learn so much just from being in this group.
 
> Thanks,
> Yvonne
 
Now that's a great attitude!
 
--
Deb * Digital Mouse Designs


 

chris walker <customsitepro@gmail.com> Nov 17 03:48AM +0800  

And I will fall all over myself to help her and answer any questions I can
to the best of my ability.
 
Thanks for the voice of reason, Deb! As an aside, text slang drives me
crazy. I don't even use it when texting on the phone. I guess I am just old.
 
Chris
 
On Thu, Nov 17, 2011 at 3:40 AM, Deb * Digital Mouse Designs <
 
--
Chris


 

Y Muh <smilin301@gmail.com> Nov 16 02:05PM -0600  

I'm in Chicago. I will complete my degree in Web Development &
Interactive Media this coming December. December 8th is my official
date of completion. And, oh boy do I know about the thick skin - I've
posted here for a critique. I definitely value the input. My approach
is like this, I'd rather get an honest critique here and listen to
ways to improve my work than for me to put up a site that looks crazy.
 
I'm all about improvement especially in ways that will help me professionally.
 
 


 

Deb * Digital Mouse Designs <listmember@digitalmousedesigns.com> Nov 16 02:07PM -0600  

On 11/16/2011 1:48 PM, chris walker wrote:
> Thanks for the voice of reason, Deb! As an aside, text slang drives me
> crazy. I don't even use it when texting on the phone. I guess I am just old.
 
You're welcome, I really don't like being so direct but sometimes it
gets the better of me. Nah, you're not old, I had to get used to using
it myself but only because you're only allowed such few
letters/characters to say what ya gotta say and as you can see, I'm a
windy person, LOL!
 
--
Deb * Digital Mouse Designs


 

Deb * Digital Mouse Designs <listmember@digitalmousedesigns.com> Nov 16 02:08PM -0600  

On 11/16/2011 2:05 PM, Y Muh wrote:
> I definitely value the input. My approach
> is like this, I'd rather get an honest critique here and listen to
> ways to improve my work than for me to put up a site that looks crazy.
 
 
Good for you! You have learned well :)
 
--
Deb * Digital Mouse Designs


 

chris walker <customsitepro@gmail.com> Nov 17 04:12AM +0800  

Yvonnes,
 
Do you feel that your college is up to date on the curriculum or do you
supplement what you are learning by teaching yourself? The blleding edge is
like the old "carrot on a stick". I spend about 25% of my work time
learning new technologies and I feel like I know less every day.
 
Good luck in your career goals. Web design can be exciting on some level -
at least when you are not bored to death. I appreciate those little bursts
of creativity that let the juices flow and something nice comes out of it.
 
Chris
 
 
 
--
Chris


 

Joni Mueller <joni@jonimueller.com> Nov 16 02:13PM -0600  

I agree about chat-speak. There's a time and a place for it, as with everything else. :)
 
Joni Mueller
Pixelita Designs
joni@pixelita.com
Sent from my iPhone
 
 


 

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