website info

[Redrobes]

Yeah writing HTML is really not as bad as it looks - all those <'s and >'s are in the way but take some simple pages and have a look at the source. On this months mapping challenge I have a link to a quick page I threw together to display the thumbnails of the entrants so look over that source as its not that bad. All done with notepad I might add. Theres no *requirement* to have a big app do it. But if that floats your boat then go with it. I cant remember which are good not using them myself. Dreamweaver and MS Frontpage both ring bells and warning klaxon's...

To get it there you use FTP. Thats File Transfer Protocol. And there is a daddy of a program FileZilla which is one of the Mozilla-esque open source free things. It also happens to be extremely good at what its supposed to do. By far the best IMO.

So your ISP or web space host gives you your FTP address and a password and you can put files there. If you put some HTML pages up and you put the address of them in the browser then it shows them. You will have a special starter place for your site and then most of your files will be in subdirectories from there. On the root place you usually have an index.htm file and the browser knows that if you go to the root dir then it looks for index.htm automatically. So your domain web space name shows the root page. You link everything from there. It varies a little from host to host.

If your brave then you can use dynamic pages and almost everyone uses somebody else's scripts. The most popular are a bulletin board like this - PhpBB or PhpNuke are popular I believe or they might run a wiki - like wikimedia or TWiki or TiddlyWiki etc. You might have to pay extra to get dynamic pages. Its known as CGI or PHP support. You can write your own scripts but that gets more complicated by that point. Dynamic pages are nicer tho as your less restricted and can push out pages that fit with what the user is asking about. Most people don't and run static fixed pages showing info that they create offline and upload.

In that march challenge link, right now thats static so I have to FTP new pics up every time I want to keep it current. I would like to have it dynamic where some post on these boards controls the page. Thats the kind of difference that were talking about.

[Midgardsormr]

Dreamweaver and MS Frontpage both ring bells and warning klaxon's...

Dreamweaver's not so bad, although I really think it's only useful if you already know what you're doing. Frontpage makes a mess, but it's got some features that are useful for getting functionality fast, so long as you don't care about efficiency.

I have both at home, along with a couple of other miscellaneous helper apps, but I write my code in Notepad, as well.

The wiki suggestion is a very good idea. I thought about mentioning it myself, but I've never used one, so I don't know how difficult it is to get set up.

[pyrandon]

I know nothing about setting up a wiki, but adding to/maintaining one is awesomely easy and perfect for gaming. Been doing it for 1.5 years now and cannot imagine going back (see my sig)

[Robbie]

I'm considering setting up member galleries/portfolios/blogs as an expanded feature of the site. This renews my desire to do this...I'll get back on that process and see what I can do...other than that I'd just recommend the Wiki thing on your own hosting...preferrably godaddy...they're the best (and our host here at the guild)

[alucard339]

Thank you all,

I knew I could count on my little guild , for info and all.

I think I'll try wiki.

I'll be sure to let you know about the progress.

The only 2 think I want to put on my site will be a publicity link to here and to elfwood.com (a great picture site). Can I do that

Arcana, you idea of the member galleries/portfolios/blogs should really be good cause we are getting more and more active members this years and most of them got a good background for that.

Sea U Hall A-round,

Alu.

[alucard339]

News from the grave.


I just finish uploading my little web RPG world.

Sorry that it still only in French but before this summer the English version should be up too.

Just go take a look and let me know what u think.


www.l-hazard.com

Note: I still need to create a forum or a blog section to take visitors comment and answers questions. Anyone know how I should do it


Thanks to all of you who help me with the web setup,
Alu.

[Midgardsormr]

Pretty sophisticated for your first go. You'll probably want to turn the scrolling on in the left frame. I'm viewing it at a screen resolution of 1024 X 768 in Internet Explorer, and I cannot see the bottom of your navigation bar or the far right portion of your banner.

It's always a good idea to look at your web site at a resolution that matches what most of your potential readers will be using. At the moment, I'd say 1024 X 768 is the highest you should design toward. I still shoot at 800 X 600 most of the time.