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Buddy World is go?
About Truespace Archives
These pages are a copy of the official truespace forums prior to their removal somewhere around 2011.
They are retained here for archive purposes only.
Buddy World is go? // Roundtable
Post by Finis // May 2, 2008, 1:54pm
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Finis
Total Posts: 386
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It was slow to load, as would be expected, on my 57K connection. The enlarged pictures took longer than the background -- minutes. I don't think new visitors would wait that long and would leave. Customers/kids would find it frustrating.
There was no flickering. Once the rollover pictures loaded they enlarged and shrunk well in IE 7 and Firefox. I would be sure all the place names enlarge too. Nowhere does not.
Good how the shadows are appropriate for the enlarged pictures. The Limbo one on the tube really shows that.
I would not have exit links on the page. Don't encourage people to leave. Two exit links in bright red almost looks like you want them to leave. |
Post by v3rd3 // May 2, 2008, 2:25pm
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v3rd3
Total Posts: 388
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Splinters,
Following are the metatags I suggest you add to your site to get the ball rolling,
Please review the contents and make the changes you feel best fit your goals. I do
recommend leaving your name in the keywords section as you may find users searching
by author.
There are also a few changes I suggest to make your site "Google Friendly".
First, you should add regular anchor tags to the site below the background image.
Google and the other bots do not index image files or the text of image files.
You need to have the standard anchors to allow the bots to crawl your site.
Also, you will need to add code to your page for those individuals visiting your site
with javascript disabled. This section would contain standard html, and optionally css
for styling, between two tags <noscript> and </noscript>. These tags mark the area for
such browser configurations to read.
Another point would be to add some text to your main page, below the background image,
detailing the site and contents. To "qualify" as an indexable page (haha created a verb
there didn't I) the bots will compare the keywords on a page to the content. As such, each
page on your site may have distinct keyword meta tags.
This will allow someone searching for "Pepe" to be directed to the appropriate page on your site
rather than have the entire site listed.
Questions or concerns, please let me know.
<META http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META name="description" content="Buddy's World, and the children's books therein are the brainchild of Paul Woodward.">
<META name="keywords" content="Buddy's World, buddysworld, buddys world, Paul Woodward, ">
<META name="owner" content="Paul Woodward">
<META name="author" content="Paul Woodward">
<META name="created" content="05/02/08">
<META name="ROBOTS" content="ALL">
<META name="expiry" content="never">
BTW, my name is Bill. |
Post by splinters // May 2, 2008, 9:25pm
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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It was slow to load, as would be expected, on my 57K connection. The enlarged pictures took longer than the background -- minutes. I don't think new visitors would wait that long and would leave. Customers/kids would find it frustrating.
There was no flickering. Once the rollover pictures loaded they enlarged and shrunk well in IE 7 and Firefox. I would be sure all the place names enlarge too. Nowhere does not.
Good how the shadows are appropriate for the enlarged pictures. The Limbo one on the tube really shows that.
I would not have exit links on the page. Don't encourage people to leave. Two exit links in bright red almost looks like you want them to leave.
All help is greatly appreciated but there are a few points to address there Finis.
1. This site could take many months to complete, maybe up to a year, I really have to aim it at current gen/next gen users or I will have to do it all again later. Just as tP cannot run so well on dial up, neither can my site.
2. A CD will be available for those frustrated by slow speeds or who want to take the whole experience with them 'offline' for holidays, trips, weekends at granny's etc.
3. The background image loads pretty quick and with it the small images and html links. So effectively, the growing icons are a bonus; you can see all the lionks almost immediately and visit the other pages. Of course, the rest of the experience will be very slow but you need to consider Point 1 above in that case.
I do appreciate all the feedback though. It will help immensely...:D |
Post by splinters // May 3, 2008, 8:23am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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'....and deals with the sad subject of death.' CHONKY PONKY
Incompetent teachers have been much in the news here in UK lately, couldn't you direct your energies at mature audience rather than defenceless children?
Edit: After consultation with various children, i think they can take care of themselves.....they dont think it is any good, they would rather read a good book!
Of course you could strap them to your knee and force them to watch a plasma screen - clockwork orange stylie - while you read the surtitles but then thats some kind of abuse, init?
Err, that's Chonkyponk Saul...maybe a little schooling might help your reading skills..:p
I just took you off my ignore list as I realise your posts actually cheer me up. I haven't visited a home for the mentally challenged for some time so this is the only access I get to such amusing brainless comments nowadays.
Have you actually produced a book...or some artwork?
Keep 'em coming by the way but perhaps put them in your own thread...you do know how to start your own thread...right?
I think the 'init' pretty much summed it up for me...aaalriigght?
As for the incompetent teacher quote, tha was priceless. If you knew anything about me (and thank god you don't) you would know that I teach secondary age while my books are aimed at primary. Oh, did I mention that my department produces results well within the top 10% of the country? That is almost 3500 secondary schools. If your kids were there you would hardly think it incompetent.
Oh my god, I just realised your comments imply you are from the UK...I suddenly feel ashamed.... |
Post by MadMouse // May 3, 2008, 8:32am
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MadMouse
Total Posts: 1069
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LOL Bravo Paul :banana: |
Post by splinters // May 3, 2008, 8:35am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Now I have got that off my chest, apologies to the rest of you. This was a positive thread before Saul chipped in as usual.
Now, I like to put my money where my mouth is. If I make comments on people's work then I make sure I can come up with a positive suggestion or way to improve it. Hell, i make sure I could do similar or better if I am gonna lambast it.
I could send a text message to Mike Tyson calling him a useless wimp, but I wouldn't if I were not willing to do it to his face.
I also avoid the 'banal' trying to make my feedback useful and positive to actually help the person posting.
The forum is full of negative comments and I see people leaving. I would not be driven away by a 'troll' but I would not bother posting much anymore. If everyone took that approach, then it would lead to the demise of such a good forum.
A shame that people spend their time trying to be disrespectful to others.
I have the courage of my conviction to put work up and ask for feedback...I take it on the chin and try to better myself.
It is called integrity...shame there are some that have none. Words are easy to hide behind, we are accountable for the actions we choose.
And don't even get me started on how cowardly it is to PM such comments...:rolleyes:
Back to the thread as normal. |
Post by Saul // May 3, 2008, 9:31am
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Saul
Total Posts: 32
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Oh my god, I just realised your comments imply you are from the UK...I suddenly feel ashamed....
I know what you mean! |
Post by splinters // May 3, 2008, 9:32am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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I know what you mean!
No....you don't. |
Post by jamesmc // May 3, 2008, 9:54am
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jamesmc
Total Posts: 2566
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No....you don't.
Ah the British...
(doesn't know what that means either) |
Post by v3rd3 // May 3, 2008, 11:36am
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v3rd3
Total Posts: 388
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As Norm would say there are 10 kinds of people in this world......
Now let's get back to Buddy's World.... It's much nicer there. |
Post by Finis // May 3, 2008, 11:59am
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Finis
Total Posts: 386
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I agree about aiming at current/future tech. I arrived at the same conclusion for Phosphor Gallery. The content couldn't be presented effectively on a slow connection so that was eliminated as a design factor. I noted the slow modem experience just in case you thought differently and wanted to attempt to accommodate them. |
Post by splinters // May 6, 2008, 11:21pm
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Well I managed to make some of the links from the main maps, most of which then lead to that particular area then activities and books. |
Post by splinters // May 6, 2008, 11:39pm
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Here are the three Barn Buddies screens-one links to the other. The globe on each page will allow you to get straight back to the main map; save using a back button all the time and great for impatient kids...:D |
Post by Steinie // May 7, 2008, 12:47am
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Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
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Why is "Deserted Island" titled Desert Island? Two different meanings. |
Post by kena // May 7, 2008, 1:02am
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kena
Total Posts: 2321
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A desert is a landscape form or region that receives very little precipitation.
Dessert is a course that typically comes at the end of a meal, usually consisting of sweet food but sometimes of a strongly-flavored one, ...
deserted means desolate, neglected, lonely, vacant, derelict, bereft, unoccupied...
So, I THINK he has it right... But being dyslexic, I'm never sure. |
Post by Steinie // May 7, 2008, 1:26am
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Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
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A desert is a landscape form or region that receives very little precipitation.
Exactly! A tropical island receives LOTS of precipitation...
Edit: After my cup of coffee I realized my stupidity. Your right. |
Post by splinters // May 7, 2008, 1:41am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Fair point Stenie, thanks for that. At least the site is not live yet so the public will not have seen that 'error'...:D
It is one of several 'red herrings' just there to encourage children to click and explore. The play on words is a simple 'child-like' joke...what would you expect to find on a desert island? If I called it a deserted island on the map it might sound like someone just left an island behind. |
Post by Steinie // May 7, 2008, 1:43am
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Steinie
Total Posts: 3667
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NO Splinters I was wrong on this one. It just didn't LOOK right, but you are correct. |
Post by splinters // May 7, 2008, 1:49am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Not sure I am right now Steinie. I just never gave it that much thought...and presumed that if I had not, then neither would a child.
However, they have proved me wrong there on many occasions...:D |
Post by CdeB // May 7, 2008, 3:01am
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CdeB
Total Posts: 160
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I think this is one of the cases where something is now part of the language but perhaps is based on a miss-quote.
E.g. in the UK a radio program called Desert Island disc's which has been popular for several decades, has the senario where the castaway is put on a 'desert Island' and asked to choose 10 favourite songs or tunes.
Maybe it comes from deserted island orginally?
Ah ha, just delved into Wikipedia and the entry below explains all (perhaps):
"A desert island is an uninhabited or sparsely inhabited island. Such islands are commonly invoked in metaphor, literature, and the popular imagination, as a place where individuals or small groups of people find themselves marooned or castaway, cut off from civilization.
Note that an arid desert climate is not necessarily implied; one dictionary uses the phrase 'desert island' to illustrate the use of 'desert' as an adjective meaning "desolate and sparsely occupied or unoccupied".[1] However, according to another, "A desert island is a small tropical island, where nobody lives."[2]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Desert_island |
Post by splinters // May 7, 2008, 3:51am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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In that case, I will leave it as it is for now.
Did I mention that the Creepy Castle was a WIP? Here is a slight update...more to do...:D |
Post by splinters // May 8, 2008, 9:00am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Well, 'buddyworld' now shows my site as the first hit in Google which is good...:D
I just registered with one.com for a years free web hosting and also bagged the domain; buddyworldbooks.com for free too...:D
Now I can start building the actual site but I need a way of restricting the site to password enabled members as it were.
Obviously there will be a intro page and a sample version of the site for visitors but I think I am going to go with the 'one fee' for entry route.
Can anyone suggest a way of password protecting areas of the site? I guess there will be just one password which I will send to subscibers and 'hope' that they are not too cheap to pass it around..I then need a way of having them routed to Paypal when they click to order and an automated mail that send the password details.
it all 'sounds' pretty easy but I guess it is not...:o |
Post by v3rd3 // May 8, 2008, 9:15am
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v3rd3
Total Posts: 388
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There are many ways to secure sections of your site. It really depends on the kind of web server environment you are subscribing to.
If you are running on a server using ASP I cannot offer a lot of help as the environment I am most comfortable with (at present) is Unix or Linux running Apache/Tomcat.
Typically you will need server side tools to manage the security of your pages. For example, if the server environment supports PHP and a database you would acquire or code a security system that stores user details and validation info in the database. Check the open source community to save yourself some cash and, more importantly, time.
You might consider using a cookie as a tool to help you confirm that the subscriber is accessing the site from a specific computer. Store the client ip with your cookie contents and perform a consistency check as part of your initial validation.
Just about every ISP or IPP supports PHP with MySql database so you might easily find that a lot of this is easily acquired or easily learned based on the number of tuts out there. |
Post by hemulin // May 8, 2008, 9:39am
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hemulin
Total Posts: 1058
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Can anyone suggest a way of password protecting areas of the site? I guess there will be just one password which I will send to subscibers and 'hope' that they are not too cheap to pass it around..I then need a way of having them routed to Paypal when they click to order and an automated mail that send the password details.
it all 'sounds' pretty easy but I guess it is not...:o
I would have thought it would be much more secure to issue each buyer their own unique username and password. |
Post by v3rd3 // May 8, 2008, 12:49pm
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v3rd3
Total Posts: 388
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Here is a link to some tools you might wish to review....
http://www.opensourcescripts.com/dir/PHP/E,045Commerce/
Good Hunting:D |
Post by splinters // May 9, 2008, 9:21am
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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one.com have sent me a link on how to add password protection using htaccess. I believe they run apache and support PHP and mySQL too.
It asks for the directory you want to protect. Now I have always made webistes with all the .html files in the root folder and the pics in a 'image' folder.
Can I put all the site into a folder and the sample version in another folder with a few pages in the root folder for initial navigation then password protect the folder with the main site in?
I would also like some control over how the log in box looks if that is possible using this system. You guys know much more about this than I do, any ideas?
Cheers (again) in advance...:D |
Post by v3rd3 // May 9, 2008, 9:44am
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v3rd3
Total Posts: 388
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You can set up the public portion of your site in the root directory and move the protected content to one or more subfolders which you can password protect.
For example,
root/
root/images_public
root/content_secured/
root/content_secured/content_book001/
root/content_secured/content_book001/book001_images
root/content_secured/content_book001/book001_stylez
root/content_secured/content_book001/book001_scripts
root/content_secured/content_book002/
root/content_secured/content_book002/book002_images
root/content_secured/content_book002/book002_stylez
root/content_secured/content_book002/book002_scripts
root/content_secured/content_samples001/
root/content_secured/samples001_images
root/content_secured/samples001_stylez
root/content_secured/samples001_scripts
... and so on.
When you password protect one folder using htaccess you are setting up one password for all of that content and you would distribute the password to subscribers. This solution would definitely reduce the server admin work you would be undertaking.
Another option, using a content management system (CMS), would be to use htaccess to secure the content from public viewing and have a user management application control that password. In short, the user goes to your web site, logs in to the user management application and the user management application grants authority to the protected content. This would then establish a userid and pwd for each subscriber.
The user management application would ultimately use an html form to receive the user input. As such, you can customize the appearance within the html form itself using style commands or through an external style sheet. I prefer using external style sheets as I find inline styling adds "clutter" to the main document making it more difficult to maintain later. |
Post by splinters // May 9, 2008, 12:03pm
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Wow, lots to take in there...I will give it a go and see if it works for me...
Thanks for the advice.
Have this:
:banana: |
Post by v3rd3 // May 9, 2008, 12:15pm
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v3rd3
Total Posts: 388
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There are quite a few issues to keep us busy with web design. ;)
Any help I can provide is yours... |
Post by splinters // May 9, 2008, 1:25pm
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splinters
Total Posts: 4148
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Cheers Bill....:D |
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