Irish Airsoft Association website -- Some feedback and help please!

Dave!

Hey folks,

I just put together the basic layout of the site after feckin hours messing with tables trying to get them to work... grrg... don't get me started...

Here's the link to where I'm working on it...

http://jobbanter.beserah.com/irishairsoftassociation/index2.php

If you go to www.irishairsoftassociation.com it will take you to a "coming soon" page! I'll swap it once the site is actually finished.

Anyways I'm not that great with colours (don't let me decorate your house ever), so I think it'd be a good idea for ye lot to suggest a colour to go in place of the p*ss-yellow background.

There's no links at the moment but I was thinking the sections in the navigation menu would be enough. Any other suggestions or comments with respect to that? They don't have to actually have pages behind them for a while (ie. it can just go to a "coming soon" page).

The main box (where it says "The main body of the text......") will obviously be where the content will go, I dunno whether to leave that as white or not. I'd say it'll be okay once there's actually text in it. Comments? It will have some images here and there, so it should look alright.

For the banner, I still prefer it with the tricolour blended into it but I'll leave it without. I like the logo on the left of the banner, which SCOPE SPITFIRE did and I just put the text around it (I may redo that actually cos the text isn't too clear), but if ye don't then please speak up! The banner can be changed easily so if any of you want to try to do a new one then just make it 840x128 pixels and I'll put it up if people like it.

ehhh.... can't think of anything else at the moment. Except for in the future I think a great feature to add to the site would be this:
http://www.heairsoft.com/index.php?name=Attendance

It's basically you register on the site and then there's a link to each upcoming airsoft event (eg. HRTA this Saturday), which you can follow and then say whether you will be attending or not, and it'll just have a yea or nay beside your name. Much cooler than starting a new thread for each event! Check it out anyway.
I haven't a clue how to do that but I'll find out some time

So, suggestions for the site? It's not finished but that's the layout. It looks plain ATM but it won't for too long.

ps. if ye have any technical problems with it (eg. the layout is f*cked) then tell me please (and post your screen resolution and operating system!).

Cheers lads

Spitfire666

DaveMcG wrote:

I like the logo on the left of the banner, which SCOPE did .........

:eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek: :eek:

liamo333

Very nige, must have taken some time. :):):):):):)

Spitfire666

SCOPE did a nice job on that logo.....:rolleyes:

Dave!

Oh sh*t sorry mate, just remembered it was you! I'll edit it now, and you have my apologies Good -- nay, GREAT -- job on the logo!

Miscreant

Good job guys. Looking forward to seeing the finished product.

Spitfire666

LOL, its cool, dont mention it.;)


Ah, it wasnt the only idea i had and i tried another one with green sights and a green IAA in the bottem left of the cross hairs and it looked well but my computer crashed and i lost it aswell as some others that i was messing about with such as a white soldier on blackl.

NakedDex

This may or may not have already been mentioned but I thought I might bring it up now just in case. The acronym IAA has been taken by the Irish Aviation Authority. There probably wouldn't be any problems but they may not like the idea of sharing. I know it's an extreme case but look what happened with WWF wrestling and the World Wildlife Fund. I'm not saying the organisation could be sued but better to think about an alternative now while it's still easy to alter?

Irishpimpdude

Need any help with the site?

Spitfire666

Never even thought of that.
What about A.I. Airsoft Ireland?

Fiach Dubh

Spitfire666 wrote:

Never even thought of that.
What about A.I. Airsoft Ireland?

I actually like that, it's got a nice technological edge to it

Irishpimpdude

Or AIA airsoft ireland association lol...

Spitfire666

It would look good too. Big Bold Letters in white on a black square.

NakedDex

Haha, I know where we can get those already made as patches! How convenient!

Spitfire666

Might not be a good idea to use a logo from a movie. we'd need to change the font.

Dave!

Not a fan of Airsoft Ireland Association personally

And I thought we were including the word 'association' or something similar in the name to give it that official feeling and give it a sense of gravitas? I think Airsoft Ireland (AI) doesn't do that really

If we're intent on changing the name... Irish Airsoft Organisation? (IAO) Bear in mind that we're establishing a governing body, not a regional club!

NakedDex

I think either AIA (Association of Airsoft in Ireland) or AAI (Airsoft Association of Ireland) are probably the best bets as it wouldn't take much work to modify things as they stand.

That said, if you can come up with a whole new logo for the new name then all the better.

Edit: Didn't see the IAO one, that also has a certain ring to it.

Spitfire666

I was going with AI to go in line with the likes of Rugby Ireland or Swimming Ireland etc.

Rite, im off to bed. im pissed off and exhausted

Dave!

Well it takes the same amount of effort no matter which name we choose (ie. I have to start it all again).

Someone start a poll or else email the aviation authority and see if they allow us to use the acronym.

Failing that another option is to just not use the acronym in an official capacity (in the logos or in text on the site), but to keep the existing name.

kdouglas

looking good man

about the attendance thing, it wouldnt be that hard to do, just store some dates of events in a db along with a list of users and then let them click a link saying whether they will attend or not, if done something similar before for another website and i can throw together a php page to do it for you if you want?

are you gonna have user registrations on the website? also does the server you will be hosting the finished site on have a mysql db available?

Dave!

User registration is something I've been eager to use but I'm still trying to figure out how to implement it. I don't actually study web design so I'm limited to what I can learn from the interweb! From what I understand it just takes some messing with phpBB. The server hosts mySQL yeah.

If you want to do that attendance thing then cool, but we'd need to get a registration thing done first (and we might as well put up a forum if we're doing that).

Harekin

If you need any help on animations or anything I do Multimedia Design in college and Ill give you a hand.

generalmiaow

DaveMcG wrote:

User registration is something I've been eager to use but I'm still trying to figure out how to implement it. I don't actually study web design so I'm limited to what I can learn from the interweb! From what I understand it just takes some messing with phpBB. The server hosts mySQL yeah.

If you want to do that attendance thing then cool, but we'd need to get a registration thing done first (and we might as well put up a forum if we're doing that).

What you really need is a CMS, like Joomla or e107 or Drupal. I'm running a few installations of these on various sites, so I can give you a few tips or a hand if you want to go down that route.

Voodoomelon

In reference to the original post, I think the site should revolve around a nice light colour.

Please stay away from black or bright backgrounds like luminous blue, red or yellow, they immediately make a site look unprofessional. (Unless black is done well like on www.ocforums.com.

I think boards.ie is a great template for the kind of colours that we need. Just because it's airsoft doesn't mean it has to be all dark greens and browns.

A slick, professional look is essential.

Dave!

Thanks for the advice/help everyone.

I've got some text up on the main page, so check it out. There's also a photo of Fiach for your pleasure!
http://jobbanter.beserah.com/irishairsoftassociation/index2.php

Maybe somebody else could write it better or suggest some changes, but I just wanted to put it up to see what it looks like.

Spitfire666

good start

[--SC(+)PE--]

good start dave

Voodoomelon

That's a decent start.

First thing that strikes me is that the border lines are too thick and the navigation pane should meet up with the main body of the page.

Also, the text in the main body is too close to the edges, and too close to the picture. "Welcome to the Irish Airsoft Association homepage!" should be on one line or centered on two lines and in a more attractive font.

Purely contructive criticism.

You have a nice framework there.

Fiach Dubh

DaveMcG wrote:

Thanks for the advice/help everyone.

I've got some text up on the main page, so check it out. There's also a photo of Fiach for your pleasure!
http://jobbanter.beserah.com/irishairsoftassociation/index2.php

Maybe somebody else could write it better or suggest some changes, but I just wanted to put it up to see what it looks like.

WOOT, I'm famous

Dave!

Cheers for the help, I'll iron out the minor details at some stage but I'd like to just get some functional site up and running for the time being.

I'll go over the text on the main page later and improve it. There's 2 items in the 'news' section, I'll add more as.... there is news The contact page is fine, I'll flesh it out a little bit though.

The forum... I'd say we should add a phpBB forum to the site. What do ye think? The alternative is to link to boards, but that doesn't really give as much control to us. Also if we have our own forum, then we can do things like the attendance feature I was talking about earlier. That'd presumably work off the database of members in the forum. Up to ye.

For the events section I could just put up details of upcoming skirmishes, eg. HRTA, Predator, that weekend thing..... If we get the attendance thing working then that'd be added here too.

Links... links to various skirmish sites (HRTA when it's up, Predator) and sites of interest (boards, arnie's airsoft).

Media... airsoft videos on YouTube for example, I'll put the clip from the discussion on Newstalk in this section too. Paddy getting the firing squad can go here too.

Reviews... You lot can send in reviews via email and I'll just put them up as I get them. I'll set up an email for reviews@irishairsoftassociation.com probably later on today. For the time being use admin@.....

So that's it for now. Hopefully the site looks okay on most people's pooters. Anyone got problems with it? Is it deformed or anything? I tried it in a few resolutions on Windows, and I tried it on my laptop (Mac), and it seems to be grand.

edit:

I'll add an 'about' section too, for FAQ's about airsoft in general, and about the IAA.

Fiach Dubh

That all sounds good Dave. A place where everything Airsoft can go will be very handy for us

kdouglas

generalmiaow wrote:

What you really need is a CMS, like Joomla or e107 or Drupal. I'm running a few installations of these on various sites, so I can give you a few tips or a hand if you want to go down that route.

this is actually not a bad idea, joomla is very easy to skin and modify, and much easier to admin (less work for you dave). not saying you should definately change over to joomla or another cms, but it's worth looking at.

i dont agree 100% with having a forum on the website itself, the one here on boards gives much better chance for exposure to people who do not know about airsoft and gives more chance of people finding the forum via the boards.ie homepage or just browsing around, perhaps you could have the link to the forum on the website contain an embedded page of the boards.ie forum??

_but_ if you go with a forum on the website, id recommend the IAA purchase a license for vbulletin, they are not that expensive and it's much better than phpbb.

(just checked, vbulletin license is €139 for indefinite use and 1 year of updates, updates after that are $30 per year)

o1s1n

Nice work Just looked over the first paragraph and noticed a couple of things.

Recently Airsoft has been legalized in the Republic of Ireland, having been legal in most of America, Asia, and Europe for a long time. In the months since this change in legislation took place, there has been a rapid growth in interest and popularity of the sport in Ireland. A large amount of equipment

Maybe the term "guns" should be kept off it completely in favour of "equipment". Makes it sound less threatening. Although I'm sure there will be instances where the word gun is needed.

Spitfire666

i dont think using the term gun is gonna be that big a deal in genral text. sure on titles and things it should be "Airsoft Guns" but i dont think using the term equipment is all that great considering equipment would be used when talking about camo/vests/slings/gloves etc.

o1s1n

If you were to say " a large amount of airsoft equipment was just sent through customs with no problems"...I think the vast majority of people would cop that you meant the guns.

The guns ARE airsoft equipment. As well as all the other bits and pieces. I just think that on the main page outlining what the I.A.A is, it might be best to write it in the least offensive way possible.

Hivemind187

Spitfire666 wrote:

i dont think using the term gun is gonna be that big a deal in genral text. sure on titles and things it should be "Airsoft Guns" but i dont think using the term equipment is all that great considering equipment would be used when talking about camo/vests/slings/gloves etc.

The word GUN has major down sides right now. People are scared and the Helen Lovejoys of this world would love nothing more than to scream their war cry "wont someone think of the children" and achieve a victory by eliminating the threat of these "dangerous bb guns"

Equipment will conjure much less of that and allow us to draw the distinction.

Dave!

Spitfire I don't think we'll be tricking anybody by saying equipment rather than gun, they'll know that we're using guns -- but the point is that if we keep repeating 'equipment equipment equipment' rather than 'gun gun gun', then it sounds infinitely less intimidating and more sporting! We just wanna emphasise those things at the moment.

o1s1n

Once the site is up, I hope everyone includes a link to it in their sig

N.O.I.P.

o1s1n wrote:

Once the site is up, I hope everyone includes a link to it in their sig

You mean everyone who is in the IAA I assume, can't have just any riff-raff associating themselves with such an honorable society

o1s1n

N.O.I.P. wrote:

You mean everyone who is in the IAA I assume, can't have just any riff-raff associating themselves with such an honorable society

Oh no, not at all. Can't have any riff-raff. That's already a given. Now pass me some sherry old chum.

Dave!

I'll do a little banner for ye to put in the sig, once the site is finished of course

I'm in the process of transfering everything to a new server which has been loaned to me (the last server was loaned to me too, lol... I'm such a bum). Don't worry there's no time limit or anything, but I just haven't bought my own hosting yet.

So soon it'll be www.irishairsoftassociation.com/index.php, etc. rather than just having irishairsoftassociation.com in the address bar. Makes it look less cheap and nasty.

EyesOnly

Whens the Patch design starting

N.O.I.P.

Well once you are ready to move everything to your own server let me know and I'll see if the IAA can cover the costs.

Spitfire666

Heres another patch/logo design. Similir to the last one but i like this one better. the green looks better then the red and i like the white on black better then the black on white.

Dave!

Spitfire666 wrote:

Heres another patch/logo design. Similir to the last one but i like this one better. the green looks better then the red and i like the white on black better then the black on white.

hmmm I prefer the red one to be honest. What do the rest of ye think?

NOIP I'll need to buy hosting for my own personal use anyway so it's not a problem to have 1 more site on it -- cheers anyway.

Right, update.......

I moved everything to the new server, and the main site can now be accessed at www.irishairsoftassociation.com . I still don't want to start giving out the address yet, cos there's a couple of things left to do.

1. Tidy up the text on the main page
2. Decide on what we're doing with regards a forum!!! I can put a forum on the site no problem, and I think that'd be a good idea. But alot of others were talking about using boards, so we'll need to decide one way or another.
3. Maybe somebody could dive into their favourites and make a list of sites to put in the 'links' section I'll put this forum in it anyway, and ASI.
4. Reviews! I've created the email address reviews(at)iaa...com, so I'll just put some text in the section and when I start getting reviews I'll put them up.
5. I'll do up an 'About' section, with an explaination of airsoft, IAA, and an FAQ.
edit: 6. Oh I also wanna add a favicon, which I haven't been able to do with my other sites For those who don't know, a favicon is the little picture that appears beside the title of the site in some browsers, or beside the url in the address bar, or if you add the site to your favourites. They're cool :cool:

I'll have alot of it done tomorrow assuming my head isn't as sore tomorrow as it is right now! Once those things are done I'll do up a banner to put in sigs.

kdouglas

good work dave

EyesOnly

Very Nice Dave, Keep up the good work.
As for the patch i was thinking the one on the site but OD instead of a white background.?

EyesOnly

Though t id start

AIRSOFT WebSites/Forums
http://www.arniesairsoft.co.uk/forums/index.php
http://www.airsoftcommunity.co.uk/forums/index.php
http://www.airsoftretreat.com/
http://acmgames.proboards66.com/index.cgi

Review Sites
http://www.justpistols.co.uk/- he most authoritative Airsoft handgun review site on the Web

Guides ???
http://www.858airsoft.com/upgrades/shim.html - How to shim a AEG

Dave!

Thanks chaps.

I've added an 'about' page, explaining (a) airsoft, (b) its legality, and (c) the IAA.

http://www.irishairsoftassociation.com/about.php

Tell me what ye think and suggest any changes... I'll get cracking on the rest of the stuff tomorrow.

o1s1n

Nice to see you making progress!

ditpaintball

Nice work so far. My two cents.

Forum: I am not a webdeisgner, its just hobby. phpbb works great for me and for irish-paintball.net. It is very widely used and there are loads and loads of 'mods' that you can use to do things like attendance lists. You can perhaps do these with other forums, but i am not sure. Boards.ie uses vbulletin, which you have to par for as far as i know.

Links section: As soon as you have your final product, make up a small logo that you can send out to other sites to link to you. no bigger than 100x100. I will throw up a link to it from irish paintball.net then then thats done.

Media: What do you plan to put in this section? Press releases and stuff? Surley they could go in the 'about' section. If it is a place for media attentiont that airsoft has recieved i.e. paper cuts, then could they go into the news?

Other than that, i like it. Dont for get to submit it to all the search engines asap to get them crawling. Google is a fecker to try and get listed untill you are popular.