Theos-Talk Archives (April 2004 Message tt00288)

Hallo Daniel and all,

My views are:

I now I am boring. (smile...)
I got provocated.
But being a webmaster and all, I cannot be so
sweet as others have been about your new website.

Please: I offer the following as a help.
Maybe I should mail you in private, - but let us have it all out in the
open - right ?


Pros.
1. Apart from me having certain disagreements in the written content, - I
think it is one of the best (if not the best so far) overall sources the
Internet have about Theosophy in general. (You can be happy about that and
take your shoes on and have a few --- circlings around the block. Smile.)
And this is quite important.

2.Your website has improved on navigation. And that is a vital issue.


Cons.

There is a rule within webdesign: You can't please everyone...(smile).


1. But being a webmaster I cannot just sit and watch a
shall we say 'solid' theosophist use Frames on his website.
It is (to me) a 'gray' kind of ugliness, which are not really suited to
the altruistic promotion of theosophy. And most important: It doesn't favour
Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).
Better use Iframes than Frames if you ask me. And even better no frames or
iframes at all. - Well if possible, because sometimes it is not.

2.And please do make those logo's better - they look like something wrongly
melted from Dali's painting of the Watches.
It reminds me of his "The Persistence of Memory" from 1931.

3.Your "drop-down" menu can be made better, so the mouse much easier
can hit the square - so to speak. I know because I have made some myself.
(Aaah, that reminds me of what my own website lacks in content. Yes, I
know - I am lazy about changing it.)

4. Your sort of akward use of colors through out the website by the use of
frames - could be reconsidered.
And - yet, the "akwardness" makes it perhaps very good indeed -
theosophically speaking.
I do think though it is not good as it is now.
What about color blindness - and statistics ?

5. A much much clearer - statement - if you like about what the differences
between
your "Blavatsky Archives" and "Blavatsky Study Center" is would be helpful
to the visitors.
I talk about the following page:
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/hpblinks.htm

6. A much much clearer - statement or graphical presentation if you like, on
what is your Own doing and what is others - would be a great thing.
I talk about the following page:
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/hpblinks.htm

7. The link "about Daniel Caldwell" should instead have a short profile
about who you are - and
then a link to the email or perhaps even an address. It is better.

8. A much clearer statement on what "Blavatsky Study Center" is at the
following page would be good.
http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/
The same on the Theosophical Academy
http://www.theosophicalacademy.iinet.net.au/

9. Adding a menu to on the left at http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/
would be an improvement.

10. It indeed impresses me, that you are not using Cascading Style Sheets
(CSS) as a seprate file.
It must be tough task keeping all these different typopgraphic styles in
check. But ESP is of course always helpful.
CSS is much more handy if one is doing it manually and if some manual
helpers from time to time are
posting some of your pages.

11. People on slow Internet connections - gets for some odd reason very
impatient if they have to wait too long for a page to load.
Also students of theosophy has this - quite interesting flaw in their aura.
So try to keep each page on a maximum of 30-50 kb in size; - text, photo's,
flash and perhaps javascript included.
This is just a rule of the thumb.

...I could offer much more ideas to improve your website. Just ask me and I
will give it a through investigation for free...


The website guru's and other sources of inspiration >:-):
a) Jacob Nielsen is one whom you could be inspired from when making
user-friendly websites: http://www.useit.com/
His book "Hompage Usability" is still one of the most sold on this issue.
(He has also been working together with the Macromedia Flash crew.)
------- His top teen mistakes on webdesign are wellknown:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/9605.html -------
Not all what he says is true all the time. For instance some Theosophists do
like - long scrolling pages. A think I know a few at Theos-Talk who does.
(smile...)
b) Another version is Vincent Flanders: http://www.webpagesthatsuck.com/ (A
funny fellow.)
c) A third place for inspiration is:
http://webreference.com/authoring/design/usability/
d) A western portal: http://www.tracecenter.org/world/web/
e) World Wide Web Consortium: http://www.w3.org/
f) And there are of course much more...

There is a rule within webdesign: You can't please everyone...(smile).


And Some spiritually minded do make their websites entirely different with
long scrolling pages just to annoy those with slow connections
and few money. Some of them I would even call Heretical - (smile...).


I know, that my own website could be improoved, so who am I to tell anyone
about webdesign.


Did this help ?

from
M. Sufilight with peace and love...
















----- Original Message ----- 
From: "christinaleestemaker" <christinaleestemaker@yahoo.com>
To: <theos-talk@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, April 09, 2004 12:18 PM
Subject: Theos-World Re: H.P. Blavatsky, the Mahatmas & Theosophy: Selected
Websites & Other Resources


> -Hi Daniel,
> Correct and wonderfull sightseeing at ounce.
> Easy to find lectures
> With compliments of
> Christina
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> -- In theos-talk@yahoogroups.com, "Daniel H. Caldwell"
> <danielhcaldwell@y...> wrote:
> > I have totally redone the following webpage.
> >
> > I hope that many readers will find it of some
> > use and value. Feedback appreciated.
> >
> > "Selected Websites & Other Resources
> > on H.P. Blavatsky, the Mahatmas & Theosophy"
> >
> > See:
> >
> > http://www.blavatskyarchives.com/hpblinks.htm
> >
> > or
> >
> > http://www.theosophy.info/hpblinks.htm
> >
> > Daniel
> > http://hpb.cc
> > http://theosophy.info
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
>
>
>
>
> Yahoo! Groups Links
>
>
>
>
>