Pay no attention to the men behind the curtain!
First, thanks to Mato Kuwapi for posting that great butterfly pic on the BB. I took the liberty of incorporating it in the home page graphic. It symbolizes our metamorphosis of the old site into the new.
Well, the past few weeks have been very busy for me. I am trying to wrap up some major web projects at my day job, and have put out some calls for help to improve FAOL. After all you can't have a worm drowner making decisions for a fly tosser site without going unchecked now can you?
To make this actually happen, I *REALLY* needed a graphics person. I'm more of a technical - make it work kind of guy. I know what looks good, and what may work. But stick figures and 16 colors are about it for me. Real men don't see more colors than that you know.. Unless you work with paint, or graphics for a living anyway. I keep telling my boss that at work, and so far he's bought that line, so that's my story folks, and I'm definitely sticking to it.
Immediately after putting the feelers out for needing some help in the redesign I got a couple offers. Dee was still in numb mode, and she gave me the green light to do what it takes to get things right, while she gets a plan of attack together on how to pick up the pieces and carry on. Ergo you guys got stuck with a worm drowning sysadmin type calling the shots for the mean time. As seen in my last update the look for the new site wasn't that impressive. It had the elements that were needed to make a functional resource, but it lacked style.
Enter the professionals:
I am very happy to announce that one of your own is making some first class mock ups for me to play with, and has been an absolute joy to work with so far. (He hasn't killed me and my stubborn ways yet, and believe me that is the mark of a professional!) Dave (dphotoco) and his significant other Catalina have given Dee some excellent material to consider. The look is quite a bit different than anything I would have come up with, but I have to tell you, it is in my not so humble opinion; top notch stuff. As a pedigreed IT manager type geek, I have had the pleasure of working with some phenomenal talent. Dave and Catalina rank right up there with the best of them, and that's no easy feat, I assure you. Best yet, I have led teams from distant locations and countries before, and none have gone as smoothly as this collaboration. Some elements of his suggestions will be too difficult to implement in the framework I have in mind, but most of what he has provided got a very enthusiastic thumbs up from Dee.
Currently we are toying with the size and placement of sponsor ads, and fine tuning what I need to do to make it work technically. I have to balance the look of the page with the functionality based on automation, and maintainability. I think you will be very pleased with what we end up with. To whet your whistle I provide you with a sneak peak. The page is a (VERY) rough prototype, and several images, and colors will undoubtedly change. But that's what we have to date. It is missing lots of stuff and will undoubtedly change quite a bit before the final version. I will update this with every status update I give you.
I'll be keeping you informed as to the progress as I can. The parameter list of we have to work with is fairly constrictive. The site is closing on 25000 photos, and I'm not about to go rework all those to fit a new scheme. Further we will have to link to the older stuff in it's 'caterpillar' form until I get a chance to slowly convert a lot of it.
What I still need
I put out a feeler on the BB for 3 things (in the Community-Flyanglers forum "Call for Action").
I still need these areas filled, but there is no hurry on any of them. I just want this site to be the best it can be. And promote the sport of fly fishing in a responsible way.
Until the next update,
--Ron--