I see Mr. Omatic has been hard at work making some changes to the Home Page. I like the lettering and the little Tour Dates listing at the bottom, but I do kinda miss the rotation of Webb's snappy sayings.

Webb wanted to refresh the look a little bit. It's sort of evolutionary.

We have, from time to time, updated the homepage slideshow pictures. Don't know if anybody's noted that before, but we've been doin' it. However, this particular change represents our first departure from the long-retained "World Wide / Webb Wilder" graphic text.

Heck, the slideshow itself has only been around a couple of years. Remember the blinky green light-bulb pic? When we finally abandoned that, I wanted a nice, multiple-browser-compatible cross-fade effect without using Flash, and it took me a while to identify a way to do that with Javascript only. The current homepage slideshow is the result of that effort.

I can tell you one thing though... gettin' WW's stylized name to look proper, as a .GIF with transparency, was a regular trick! I think I did OK though. Being a truly skilled graphic artist is nothing short of a full time endeavor -- and I'm a programmer, not an artist, that's for sure.

>> Webb's snappy sayings.

Because TL is an important guy... Check again.

Yay omatic!! Nicely done. I love the tour dates on the home page - they read very tiny on my screen though (a 17", if that matters). Are they bigger on others? But THANKS for the great work. Snappy!

At first I thought it might have been the Lortab I took for my shoulder yesterday when I saw the new stuff, but then I saw it was all true, the new format.
Susan

+2 pts. for Nancy!

Lookin' good!
Excellent "customer" service here.

Nice start. May I make the suggestion of revamping the message board section? Perhaps switching to myphpbb?

Not sure why I'd want to do that.

I dunno, I think this message board is not the most user friendly. If it ordered the threads by most recent reply as opposed to the date of the first post, it would be better. As it is if I wanted to talk about the last live album, i'm pretty much forced to start a new thread, instead of just adding my opinion to the old thread because no one would ever go back and read that thread and respond (not to mention the pain it would be for me to keep going back and checking that thread.

I have to agree with No Great Shakes. One of the reasons I choose not to post here much is because of the forum format. It is very user unfriendly.

I like having the site totally under the control of Mike and Webb. They are very user friendly! The new-posts-at-the-top feature would be kinda nice but it's not really needed, I don't mind starting a new thread when it's called for.

I think we get better service here than any other artist's web site I visit. Period. No need to screw it up.

That's an interesting point, but I don't think you can ever really satisfy everybody. VBulletin does what you described, and personally, it drives me nuts. The trouble is that it's too easy for ancient subjects to be revived simply because somebody replied to it. Then the dang thing pops to the top of the index pages again. It makes annoying subjects hard to let naturally get 'stale' and age away.

It's a fair suggestion though. Maybe someday I'll add a choice of how index pages are displayed (by start date, or by last reply date), based on a user preference. But I can tell you this, that change is a LOT more complicated than changing the site's homepage graphics!

As for simply switching to another package, that won't be happening for a number of reasons. I actually had phpBB 2.0.4 (IIRC) in the prototype I created when I took over the site, almost six years ago. But simplicity, guest-friendliness, and ease-of-use were selected over a huge feature count. MicroBB is the 100% custom-built result.

I'm very happy with this format. The tour dates even show up large enough for my ancient eyes on my 23 inch widescreen monitor here at work.

I too am very happy with the format - Mike has always added newer and better "stuff" to make it more user friendly. Examples would be the recent preview my reply that is offered now - and I use it about every time I post.

I like it when you open the page and go to the Webb Board - I know almost immediately where there are new posts.... it has NEW beside the numbers... and even HOT when one thread is getting lots of responses. Plus you can look at the top of the page where all the Webb Board Page numbers are and if there is a new post on an old thread it will be underlined.... simply click on that number, that page opens up and look for the NEW beside the number - of course each post has the user & post date listed so it's easy to figure out who posted and when... and there is always the Search a post option which makes it easy to find anything and everything that has been posted. I guess I'm like TL - if it ain't broke don't fix it.. could be I'm just really used to it since its the main board I visit - usually the only one.

Shakes and Fred may have other sites they go to that negotiate those things for you quicker - but for someone like me that doen't do lots of website hoping - this'en works perty good - plus it helps Tater to better read the tour dates so he can plan his motorcycle trips.

E

what Eric said

Mike,
The new homepage looks great. All of the tweakin' of size and addition of our favorite quotes has made the graphics and color all come together. I love the way the new graphics colors compliment the scrolling images of Webb. It works. Also, the addition of tour dates right there may bring in a few more to shows that don't have a habit of looking at the left hand side of the screen. For me, taking on an additional job, it saves me some time. Even though many shows are out of my travel range, it is nice to know what is available.
As for latest posts, I have added the RSS feed to my internet communications. While that doesn't address the WebbBoard, I hope that it will help streamline my input on the World of Webb. Having stuck my foot in my mouth, been taken too seriously, made ridiculous, off hand remarks and otherwise been misunderstood on the Board, I am glad that posts have a cycle of life that keeps them from being dragged up over and over again. We all love Webb and the Beatnecks, past, current and future. That is why we are here.
And what's up with the link to the Yahoo WebbGroup that you have to belong to to get in to?
Thanks to Webb, omatic and all of the forces that be including Nancy on MySpace, keeping us in touch with Webb's career. And all of you folks on the WebbBoard who keep things interesting. I loved Webb Fest, getting to meet many face to face. Best part is my girls getting introduced. They loved it! What a circle of people to be involved with! Almost makes me want to move East of the Mississippi. Almost.
Okay, I'm rambling. Take care and once again, the homepage looks great.
MotherBear/DEin KC

Thanks for mentioning the Webb Group link. That group has been officially retired for some time now, so I will remove the link. It's basically just been overlooked.

Thanks for the positive feedback, too :-)
Mike

Shakes and Mich-Man, check your user profile. You can now choose a default sort order for the Index Pages.

The order currently shown is also displayed on the "This is index page xxx" line, although, you could easily figure it out depending on which type of date (thread start, or last reply) is actually sorted properly.

I failed to mention, guests will always be sorted on "newest topics first" ... simply sign up as a member if you simply MUST have it sorted by "latest replies first."

It's just another perk or being a member.

How's THAT for service!

I also (just now) increased the size of the font on the "This is index page..." line from 7pt to 8pt. It fits just as well and is more readable. Enjoy!

I also meant to point out, the post-date/time strings are also +1pt and more readable now too. If anybody notes significant distortions, please let me know about it, but I think it all fits well and looks better. (feedback is solicited).

I personally think the increase of the post-date/time strings makes it harder to see the Subject lines. Because the post time is white, it actually stands out to my eyes more than the Subject: link.

what Hunter said

You know, that may be why it was the way it was to begin with.

(read THAT out loud five times real fast).

I'm gonna put it back.