Thread: ***** http://www.dreamviews.com/new_site ***** OUR NEW SITE

Tomorrow I will be beginning to look seriously for a 'real' job (might as well, seeing as I have a degree..heh...) so I don't know how much more time I'll have to work on this, but...I've been quietly redesigning our site; not the forum, but the actual site that leads into the forum. I'm sure you've all seen the current one (http://www.dreamviews.com) which I threw together over 3 years ago as a project for my Internet class. Anyway, I've completely redone the site and tried to get it to match the forum's new design, to create a sense of consistency. The 'art' (and I use that term loosely, because I don't know what I'm doing) is all done, along with the design and layout. The current text is the old text and needs to be completely rewritten--it seems plagued with grammar mistakes and I know I can make it sound better than it currently does. I just have to find some time now to rewrite it, and I don't know how much time I'll have because of the whole looking-for-a-new-job thing.

You'll notice a "Tutorials" section--the new site will poll our forum's database and retrieve all the tutorials and display them on the site. Thus every time we add a tutorial to the forum, it will automatically appear in the list of tutorials on the new site. (This has not been implemented yet, but will be very easy...I wanted to get the text out of the way first.)

I've also been considering an "Articles" section. I think it would be great if we could offer new content every now and then on the site (besides tutorials). Of course, I'd need volunteers to write articles. I'd imagine I'd set it up just like the tutorials, and store them on the forum but have the new site list them.

Finally, we need a new logo for the new site! I really like the one Lomebririon designed for the forum, but I thought we could try something different for the new site. If anyone is interested in making one, please let me know. I don't really have any insight to provide other than the obvious: the colour scheme is rather clear, and it should say "Dream Views" and "Lucid Dreaming."

Anyway, comments/suggestions about the new site would be great. Keep in mind I probably won't have a whole lot of time to change anything though.

NEW SITE: http://www.dreamviews.com/new_site/index.php (yes, it's now completely done in PHP. this URL is temporary: once the text is rewritten the new site will replace the current site.)

:bravo: Very nice! :bravo:

PS. The "Message Board" link at the bottom doesn't work while the site is in the temporary location. DS

Oh no, and I thought I had escaped the evil BmanBlue theme!

Nah, really it looks good.

[edit: It looks fine in Konqueror too, by the way. No messes up].

It looks good.

I'll try and make a logo!

Wow, that looks awesome! Super good job IceDawg!

Very nice, I see you're sort of focusing on the forums and stuff, nice.

Great job! Excellent colorization of images.

That is one hell of a sweet setup.Congrats Ice.

Nice setup you've got there. I wanna make a new logo!

utter awe.

it's.. .. indescribable.

New site looks so much better! I like it!

Hey, I like that! Way to go!

u know icedawg how u said u would make a bit were ppl could post in articles and write them....it sorta sounds like our mini newspaper...i think its an awsome idea man!!! so many other ideas could span off it..weekls polls....lotto things n stuff

Thanks for the compliments everyone. The new site is almost ready to replace the existing site. The following pages have been rewritten/are done thus far:

- introduction
- what is lucid dreaming?
- why have lucid dreams?
- is it learnable?
- stages of sleep
- dream recall (with the help of adidas)
- tutorials

I've also included a large paragraph on lucid dreaming misconceptions on the what is lucid dreaming? page, and increased the content on just about all of the other pages mentioned. i'll hopefully get the rest of the pages finished within the next couple days.

as for a new logo...no submissions yet. (sniff, sniff) i also still like the idea of an articles section, but haven't gotten any volunteers there. the site has been done in PHP and all the data is stored in the database, so it's easy to add pages at later dates.

anyway, thanks again for the positive feedback!

As I said before I love the new site, and I think you did a great job Icedawg. You may want to consider making the font a bit more reader friendly. This may not make much sense, but my first impression is that the other one seemed easier to read than this one. First impressions are very important to the newbs that get here and want to learn about the site. The way that it is written now makes it seem longer and one must make more effort to read it.

This is just a bit of contructive critisism I thought might be of use. I study psychology and have learned that that sort of thing might have a negative effect on the reader. It will just seem like too much and a burden to have to finish it to some....

Just my input...


P.S. But to hell with them anyway if they can't endure that and finish the reading the site....